Omega Reimagined volume 2 Read online

  Copyright

  Omega Returned, copyright 2019 Tanya Chris

  Omega Replaced, copyright 2019 Tanya Chris

  Omega Redeemed, copyright 2019 Tanya Chris

  www.tanychris.com

  All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the author.

  Cover art by Chay Fox (ChayEbookCovers)

  Table of Contents

  Omega Returned

  Fortis

  Owen

  Keesh

  Fortis

  Owen

  Keesh

  Fortis

  Owen

  Keesh

  Fortis

  Owen

  Keesh

  Fortis

  Owen

  Keesh

  Fortis

  Owen

  Keesh

  Fortis

  Owen

  Keesh

  Epilogue Keesh

  Omega Replaced

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Epilogue

  Omega Redeemed

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Epilogue

  Omega Returned

  Fortis

  Being summoned to Prince Angel’s office wasn’t the same as being called into the throne room at the palace. That’d only happened to Fortis once—an incident he remembered with both shame and pride. Like most young alphas, he’d had his misbehaving moments. But he was a solid thirty-something now, too old for hijinks, and he couldn’t think of anything he’d fucked up recently. There was that package he’d delivered to Angel’s husband, Leo, which he was pretty sure had been full of sex toys, but whatever had happened with the sex toys after he’d delivered them was between Angel and Leo. No reason for him to be called on the carpet over it.

  Yet, here he was.

  Angel worked out of his house, which was a modest bungalow completely unlike the imposing white stone palace where Head Alpha Marta lived with her other son, Devin. Fortis had been to Angel and Leo’s before, of course, but as a dinner guest. Today’s summons had a different feel to it.

  He rapped on the door even though Angel probably already knew he was there. Angel kept his senses honed to a sharp edge, waiting for the day something would have to be done about Prince Devin besides endure him. Fortis could admit to being a lazier alpha. He led an easy life, making treks back and forth to human territory to pick up the mail, spending time with his best friend, Keesh, when he was in North Leland, and not minding the solitude much when he wasn’t. He was lean and fit from all that walking and carrying, but if he had to fight a challenge, he had no idea what would happen. He was a lover, not a fighter.

  He imagined telling Keesh that. Imagined the snort he’d get in return. “Not much a lover either,” Keesh would tease. And it was true, as far as Keesh knew. Without an omega to call his own, and not wanting to be the sort of alpha who took advantage of omegas expecting more than he could offer, Fortis didn’t fuck around in North Leland. Human territory was a different matter. Humans didn’t have inconvenient expectations.

  Angel answered the door dressed in sweatpants and a t-shirt—casual by human standards, but practically formalwear in wolf territory. Fortis wondered if he should’ve put on a shirt. He was wearing pants at least. Well, shorts.

  “Your Excellency.” He gave Angel a ceremonial dip of the head.

  “What the fuck does that mean?”

  “It means I don’t know why I’m here.”

  “Sorry if my note sounded imperious. I need to ask you a favor, and it’s not something I can put in writing. Come in.”

  The house smelled like omega, though Leo was hardly a typical one—more an equal to Angel than otherwise. The two of them tussled and ran and argued much like Fortis and Keesh did. Fortis envied Angel for having his best friend and his lover all wrapped up in one wolf, but that would never work for him.

  He wanted a traditional omega, not a lean fighting machine jacked enough to make an alpha think twice about crossing him. Somebody like Benjy, who’d moved into town a few months ago smelling like heaven baked into the shape of a wolf and was as small and sweet as they came. But Benjy was mated to someone else now, and Fortis hadn’t tried to pursue him anyway. As good as the sex with Benjy would probably be, as protective as Benjy made Fortis’s inner alpha feel, if he mated with Benjy, something would be missing. Someone would be missing.

  Fortis sighed as he followed Angel into his office. He knew who he’d miss if he mated with an omega. Keesh. But he also knew he wouldn’t be satisfied mating with Keesh either, because Keesh wasn’t an omega. It was a dilemma. A dilemma that had him fucking humans and sleeping alone.

  He took a place in front of Angel’s desk, remaining on his feet until Angel gestured at one of the chairs. “Sit down, already. You’re not in trouble. What would you be in trouble for?”

  “No idea.” He told his wolf to stand down. This was his friend Angel, not a challenge. “What’s up then?”

  “I told you, I need a favor. It’s a big one, but I don’t know who else to ask. It’s gotta be an alpha, but an alpha I can trust not to… impose himself.”

  “Impose himself?”

  “On an omega. Look, this needs to be kept pretty quiet. It’s a political nightmare, and there’s a reputation to consider. Devin—‍‍”

  Fortis interrupted him with a snort. “Devin’s reputation precedes him. You could hardly make it worse.”

  “Great Mother, no. I’m not worried about his reputation. It’s the omega.”

  Devin’s reputation was especially bad with respect to omegas. He’d been directly responsible for at least one death and more than one disappearance, some of which Fortis had aided in because he knew where to send an omega who wanted to start over.

  “What’s the dickweed done now?”

  “If you’ll shut up for five minutes, I’ll tell you.” Angel grinned to show he was teasing, and Fortis grinned back, past the nervousness that had made him treat Angel like royalty. Of all the things he and Angel agreed on, the most definite was his dickweed of a brother.

  “Head Alpha Harrod of the Western Pack sent Devin one of his brood to claim,” Angel explained. “Royal blood mates with royal blood.”

  “Common.”

  “Yes, and good for pack relations when it works out. This didn’t work out.”

  “Well, it’s Devin, so…”

  “So not a surprise, I know. But now I’ve got a Western Pack omega of royal blood who wants to go home. He was escorted here by a squadron of betas who’ve already left. I can’t send him back alone. If anything happens to him, we’ll have the Western Pack gunning for us.”

  “And you want me to take him?”

  “You know your way around. In fact, I understand you might have prior experience with this sort of thing.”


  Fortis shrugged. He and Keesh no longer smuggled omegas out of Northern Pack territory because the laws no longer made omega rescues necessary, but their actions had been illegal at the time and were best kept quiet.

  “Plus I can trust you not to take advantage of him sexually,” Angel added.

  “I’m not sure you can.” Fortis wasn’t a dickweed like Prince Devin, but an alpha and an omega out in the woods together for three weeks was asking for trouble. “He might go into heat.”

  “You don’t think you could resist him if he did?”

  “Do you think you could?”

  Angel blinked a few times. “Historically, my performance under those circumstances has been not great. So, okay, point taken. I can’t put you in a position where you might be alone with an omega in heat.”

  Fortis shook his head. He could be trusted not to pounce on an omega innocently passing by, heat or no heat, but combining the position of protector with a prolonged period of solitude and then adding in the fact that an omega in heat would literally beg to be taken—

  He had enough sense to know where his limits were, and they were somewhere in there. Heat was delicious, even from a distance. He could only imagine how good it would be up close. He’d never had the pleasure, but it was his thirst for omega slick that drove him to continually fuck up the most important relationship in his life. Just like his thirst for Keesh kept him from settling down with an omega.

  “What about Keesh?” Angel asked, as if he’d been reading his mind.

  “What about him what?”

  “He could go with you. If Owen went into heat while you were on the road, Keesh could run interference, keep him safe for a few days while you make yourself scarce. Alpha, beta, omega. No safer grouping than that.”

  Because betas were caretakers. They might not have the biological drive to physically protect that an alpha had, but they would never let harm come to an omega. Or an alpha either. Keesh would be as concerned about how much Fortis would hate himself for taking advantage of an omega in heat as he’d be for Owen’s safety. And Fortis would never harm Keesh, not even if Keesh was the only thing standing between him and a biological imperative.

  “That would work.” In fact, the more he thought about it, the more he liked the idea. It would be like old times. Three weeks to Western Pack territory with the omega in tow, then three even more fun weeks coming back, just the two of them. Running wild, hunting for their food, sleeping in the woods. Summer meant long days and warm nights, plenty of prey. It would be fun.

  “Can you work it out with him?” Angel asked. “The sooner, the better. I need to get Owen out of here. He’s unhappy, to say the least.”

  “He was dragged all the way across the continent to find out he’d been betrothed to a dickweed. Of course he’s unhappy.”

  “I hope it’s only that.”

  “You don’t think Devin…”

  “There’s no bottom to what I think Devin is capable of. Owen hasn’t been eating. Or talking. Or coming out of his room. I had Flo look in on him, and she thinks the best treatment is to get him home ASAP. He needs den. Pack.”

  “Poor thing.” Fortis’s protection instinct had been triggered and he hadn’t even seen Owen yet. He could picture what he would look like well enough, though.

  Owen was Western Pack royalty, which meant he’d have the characteristics common to wolves from that region with dark eyes and black hair worn in a long braid down his back. And he was an omega, so he’d be small framed and a little soft. Fortis drew a mental image of Owen so hot he reacted to it as strongly as if Owen were directly in front of him smelling like slick.

  “Yeah, bringing Keesh along is a good idea,” Angel drawled with a quirk of his right eyebrow.

  Fortis crossed his legs. Wolves didn’t usually bother to hide natural physical reactions, but he was embarrassed about demonstrating how untrustworthy he might turn out to be.

  Owen

  Owen had arrived in North Leland with an entire wardrobe. Heavy robes for ceremonial occasions, flimsy wisps of fabric for the bedroom, decorative pieces of this and that for hanging around the palace or strolling through the marketplace on his alpha’s arm—everything an omega to the prince would need. But nothing for walking three thousand miles through the woods.

  He was glad to be leaving the palace where he might be able to avoid seeing the prince but couldn’t avoid smelling him. The strong scent of alpha male was both alluring and humiliating, because Prince Devin didn’t want him. Not enough to claim him anyway. Since finding that out, Owen had refused to spend time with him, but he couldn’t help lusting after him. The prince was almost unbearably sexy, and Owen had come all this way, excited and scared, hoping North Leland would be a home and a haven.

  Prince Devin said Owen didn’t have to leave. That he could stick around and be a sort of concubine—live in the palace on what scraps of attention the prince could spare, hide in the shadows behind whoever he eventually took for a mate. He’d made the offer as if Owen ought to be flattered by it, and Owen had almost agreed because what other option did he have? Only this—going back to the Western Pack branded with shame.

  Prince Angel acted as if Owen were escaping from Prince Devin, as if he were choosing not to be claimed. He hadn’t chosen to come to North Leland, and he hadn’t chosen to be returned like an unwanted gift either. The only part of this he had chosen had been a terrible mistake. So now he was going back to Pertha. Not the way he’d come out—carried by a dozen betas in a sedan chair cloaked in silk draperies—but on foot, toting his own bag. Which meant most of this stuff needed to stay.

  Well, who wanted it anyway? He packed his favorites books, the few pieces of clothing that seemed practical for a cross-continent trek, and his betrothal ring. The heavy green stone set in old gold winked up at him like a malevolent dragon eye as he buried it in a side pocket. He couldn’t stand to wear the ring, but he refused to give it back. It was his. It was his by law, and he’d earned it too. He zipped the pocket shut before he got caught up thinking about how he’d earned it.

  When a knock sounded on his door, he gave a last look around, making sure he hadn’t left anything. But there was nothing for him in this luxurious prison so identical to the luxurious prison he’d been raised in. He’d hoped to find a mate here. Love and lust and warmth and home. But those were a child’s dreams. He was going back to Pertha a lot more grown-up than he’d left it.

  He shouldered his bag, its weight an unaccustomed burden he would have to get used to, and opened the door. It was Leo who’d come for him—the Western Pack omega who’d found everything in North Leland Owen had been looking for. If Owen had been good enough for Prince Devin, Leo would’ve been his brother-in-law. They might’ve been friends as well as family. But as it was, Owen had a hard time looking at the wolf who shared his dark braid and ink-black eyes but carried himself with a fierce confidence Owen couldn’t imagine having.

  “You about ready?”

  Owen stepped out of the room and shut the door behind him in answer.

  “Is that going to be too heavy?” Leo went to test the weight of the pack, but Owen shrugged him off. Heavy or not, he had to bear it.

  “You’re sure you want to leave?” Leo asked. “I realize having Devin as an introduction to North Leland would be seriously off-putting, but things here are pretty good for omegas. Much better than in the Western Pack.”

  “Not for me.”

  “We’d make it good for you. You don’t have to stay in the palace. We’ve got a hostel where unmated omegas can live in community, or you could get your own place. Whatever you wanted.” Leo stepped in close enough to share body warmth. Owen wasn’t wearing anything, because he was going to be shifting in a minute, and Leo only had on a short-sleeved tunic, so they made a lot of skin to skin contact. Owen shivered.

  “Little one.” Leo put a hand under his chin. “I don’t feel like we’re doing right by you.”

  “I’ll be okay.” He’d survive anyhow.
He hitched the pack higher on his back and stepped away.

  “Let’s go say goodbye to Marta then, and we’ll get you on your way. You’ll be home before you know it.”

  Home. Sure. Another bedroom in another palace. A father who’d been thrilled to get rid of him and who would be none too pleased to have him back. Especially once he found out what Owen had done. Owen didn’t want to be in Pertha, but he couldn’t stay here. So home it was.

  Leo led the way to the throne room where Prince Angel was waiting for them. Owen flinched on catching sight of him, mistaking him for Prince Devin at first. The brothers both had typical Northern Pack coloring with ice blue eyes and hair so blond it was almost white, and they both exuded a magnetic authority that could be overwhelming. Owen had been bowled over the first time he’d seen Prince Devin, but he didn’t want to see him ever again. Even looking at Prince Angel hurt.

  Prince Angel was talking to two wolves who must be Owen’s guard. One was a Northern Pack alpha with his blond hair cropped in a short shag. Not as powerful or sexy as Prince Devin, but big enough to keep Owen safe.

  The other was a good-sized beta who didn’t look like anything Owen had ever seen before. He had brown skin lighter than his own and matching light brown hair that stood out from his head in frizzy sprigs, as if he had a bad case of static electricity. A round disc of black fabric covered the spot where one of his eyes should be, but he caught Owen’s glance with the other eye and gave him a warm smile with a lot of teeth in it. This was Owen’s chaperone, meant to protect his virtue from the alpha. Not that there was anything left to protect.

  The beta nudged the alpha, and then all three wolves were looking over at him. Or rather, the two strangers were looking at him. Prince Angel was looking at Leo. His gaze held so much of both lust and affection it made Owen want to cry. Why couldn’t he have had that?

  When Leo tugged on his arm, Owen realized the wolf who’d been petitioning Head Alpha Marta about timber rights had bowed himself out of the room, which meant it was his turn to speak to her. He called on all his training in court manners to glide across the floor and make a subservient bow before the throne, but Head Alpha Marta came down off the dais to stand next to him.