Page 1 of Claiming the Omega
CHAPTER ONE
"Order up." The cook yelled, but Benjy wasn't listening. Benjy Hammond tended to daydream, losing focus and attention. Unfortunately, he was working as a waiter in a rather fast-paced restaurant that didn't look kindly on daydreamers. "Benjy!" He woke up, quickly grabbed the dishes, and headed out to the floor.
He was good with the customers and attentive to their needs but any downtime, even a few minutes caused him to drift off into his own world. He enjoyed his job at Sparrow's Landing, a mid-sized restaurant with good reviews. He also loved hiking, reading, photography, and especially his art. He supplemented his income with commissioned artwork, most from online clients now that he was in a new city.
Oops, someone was calling, and he’d drifted one more time. “If you don’t start paying attention, I’m putting you on dishwashing.” Adam, the restaurant manager, threatened, not for the first time in the two weeks Benjy had been working at the establishment. “Yes, sir.” Benjy hustled back onto the floor and managed to remain focused for the rest of his shift.
He and his younger brother, Shane, moved to Sparrow Ridge a month ago and were both still settling in. Shane was enrolled at the local Community College and working part-time at the campus library. Together they rented a small two-bedroom ranch style home about ten minutes from the city center. Sparrow Ridge wasn't large, but at a population of thirty thousand, it wasn't small either. It suited their needs for now.
He put his bike, his primary means of transportation, on the porch and came through the back door at ten thirty, finding that Shane wasn't home yet. He sent him a quick text inquiring as to when he was going to be coming home. He worked hard at the library and worked harder on his studies. They had one car, and he let Shane use it because he was often at school late and Benjy didn't want him walking or biking home late at night. He was better equipped to deal with trouble, if it arose, than his brother, even though Shane was taller and larger than Benjy.
They were products of a mixed union. Shane took after their human mother, and Benjy took after their father, who was a wolf. Shane was technically half wolf, but he could not shift, which would put him at a deadly disadvantage if confronted by a shifter.
The only drawback for Benjy was that, unlike his father, who had been a formidable Beta wolf, Benjy was born Omega. It didn't make a difference to his parents, but the Pack was less than welcoming to a mixed-race couple with an Omega son. If the Omega had been a female, it would have been just fine, since she would have made some fine pack member a good wife. Male Omegas were considered an abomination.
When a man was born Omega, they were considered just a waste of air and space and not actually considered pack members. It was a strain on them all, but Dad believed they needed the pack support, so he stayed, and the family made the best of the situation.
Things started to change for the worse after their dad died in a car accident. Normally, being a Beta wolf would have given him extraordinary healing skills, but not when you're flattened by a speeding logging truck. There is no coming back from oblivion.
After that, their mother began to give up. As a human in a wolf pack, she wasn't afforded the usual assistance given to the surviving spouse. She was being forced out of her home and isolated in the community. Benjy and Shane did all they could to help with bills and try to comfort their mother, but in the end, she faded and died and left them to deal with the Pack on their own.
…
The Alpha's son, Greg, had begun showing an interest in Benjy and had tried to get some services for his mother but Greg's concern was soon found to be hollow and self-centered. He played on Benjy's infatuation and used his feelings against him. Greg made promises that he never intended to keep, but Benjy wanted so badly to believe his lies.
Benjy soon found out that Greg had life plans that included mating the she-wolf his father had picked out for him and raising a couple of pups. Very few true mates had ever been found, apart from Benjy's parents and their Alpha, who claimed to be with his true mate, so the Pack tended to pick out suitable mates rather than wait for someone who may never arrive.
Greg's father was not aware that Greg was gay, and Greg never planned on that information seeing the light of day. With that said, Greg made it clear that he wanted to keep Benjy on the side to slake his sexual needs. Ultimately, the arrangement really didn't appeal to Benjy, who told Greg to go fuck himself. After that, life for Benjy and Shane Hammond went to hell very quickly.
It got so bad with the name-calling and outright violence that a month ago, they packed up in the dead of night and took off. They never wanted to be part of, or even recognized by, a wolf pack again. They would live their lives as humans in a human world.
Shane chose their new town and their new rental. Benjy had no preferences as long as it was far away from their pack. For the past month, they'd worked at getting their lives back to a semblance of normal but they never stopped looking over their shoulders.
Shane loved getting back into school and looked forward to a degree in Library Science. Benjy just wanted a job and a happy life; he wasn't looking for a career or working towards any obsessive goals. He liked life and living it, as he often tried toexplain to his brother. Shane believed everyone needed goals but had finally come to realize Benjy had goals; they just happen to be less grand.
It wasn't until the second week in their new home that they realized that there was a wolf pack in the area. Benjy was watching a movie on Saturday night and recognized the scent of several wolves in the theater. He quickly dropped his drink and popcorn in the trash and left the theater.
As an Omega, he could cloak his scent. Omegas were vulnerable to the more powerful members and so to offset that fact, Fate gave Omegas the ability to hide. It was something that had saved more than one Omega over the years, especially male Omegas. Even with his ability to cloak his scent, Benjy preferred to avoid all wolves.
…
Shane texted him back, finally, and let him know that he was studying with friends but would be home before midnight. They were only one year apart, Benjy at nineteen and Shane at eighteen, but he felt very protective of his younger brother, even if he was three inches taller than Benjy.
Benjy got himself a drink and some chips, sat down to watch television, and waited for his brother to get home. He never felt comfortable going to bed without knowing Shane was home and safe. The presence of the wolf pack in the area had put him on alert, even though they wouldn't scent him, andShane was basically human. The experience from their previous Pack left Benjy rightly cautious and distrustful of all wolves and packs.
…
Victor Rios was Alpha of the Sparrow Ridge Wolf Pack and took the position very seriously. He’d taken the position four years ago after his father stepped down and he and Victor’s mother moved to a pack in New Mexico. His mother’s family were members of the New Mexico Pack, and they decided to retire there.
His father had been an exemplary Alpha, so Victor had big shoes to fill. For the past four years, he'd worked tirelessly as the head of the family-owned Rios Construction Company alongside his brothers, Ari and Edgar. The business provided revenue and jobs for his Pack, and times were very good right now with all the new builds going on in the area. They had a reputation for fast, fair, and high-quality construction. The only problem he had faced recently was of a more personal nature.
The membership had gotten on board with the idea that Victor needed a mate. He was now thirty-four, not old for a single Alpha but at the age when mating became a serious consideration. But Victor was not ready to settle down and not ready to split his time and energy between the Pack and a mate. He was gay, which was not an issue in the Sparrow Ridge Pack; many of the membership were of the same sex persuasion. The issue was that Victor preferred to wait for his true mate andwould not be pushed into a coupling that was not with his true mate.
He did not date within the Pack for obvious reasons and did not date within the city of Sparrow Ridge for the same reason. He kept his relationships shallow and brief and not local. He refused to lead anyone on and refused to be pressured, so he preferred one-night stands or weekend hookups.
His life was just as he wanted it, and was not interested in providing the emotional, mental and physical needs of a mate. Fate would provide in her own good time, and Victor was more than willing to wait.
“We have the build in Westwood Subdivision on track to be finished by next week, but the job on Fenton Avenue is proving to be problematic.” Ari Rios, his younger brother and Project Manager of the sites, came into the office with a clipboard and a morning update of current jobs and problems.
