Used
Used
Omega Market Book 1
Leann Ryans
Copyright © 2020 Leann Ryans
All rights reserved
The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.
No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.
For the readers who like their heroine to go through hell before she gets her Happily Ever After.
Other books by Leann Ryans
The Legion Omegas series:
The Omega Prize
Saving the Omegas
Winning his Omega
The Legion Omegas Omnibus, Books 1-3
The Hired Series:
Hired for Heat
Hired to Protect
Hired to Breed (Coming 2020)
Alpha Barbarians:
Raider’s Treasure
Bear’s Honor
Verik’s Price
Autumn’s Rescue (Sep 2020)
Alphas’ Captive Short Story Duet:
In the Darkness
In the Light
Omega Market
Used
Flawed (Aug 9, 2020)
Stand Alone Books:
Omega, Suppressed
Maid in Time (July 2020)
Alien Incubator (Facebook Group Exclusive)
Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter Thirty-Five
Chapter Thirty-Six
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Chapter Forty
Chapter Forty-One
Chapter Forty-Two
Chapter Forty-Three
Chapter Forty-Four
Chapter Forty-Five
Chapter Forty-Six
Chapter Forty-Seven
Epilogue
Thanks
The Omega Prize
Raider’s Treasure
Warning:
This book is intended for a mature audience only. It contains adult content. There are scenes of sexual abuse involving doctors, complete power exchange, as well as moments of dubious consent that may make some readers uncomfortable. Please do not purchase if you do not enjoy dark romance with those elements.
Chapter One
To be omega is to be subjugated.
Dominated.
Enslaved.
But it's also to be wanted.
Desired.
Valued.
Other omegas tried to hide from their fate. Tried to have a say in when, and who, they mated.
It never worked.
They would be found. Caught. Dragged, crying, and fighting the whole way. The end was always the same. Their biology was used against them.
If they were lucky enough to be found before their heat, that is. They're always found once they go into heat. Nothing can hide that scent from an alpha, and the results could be… unpleasant.
It was easier just to do what the law said. Go to the collection center and avoid the stress.
Hiding away in the dark, half starving in the cold, just to put off what was going to happen anyway, seemed pointless. Showing up willingly, clean and docile, and not scrawny from lack of food, seemed like the smarter way to go.
Elise thought she would get a better price that way, and it's obvious if someone can pay more for an omega, then they should have plenty for a decent home and food to eat. One could hope they would take care of their investment. Having a young, willing omega, that didn't try to escape or cry before she was bonded, should be worth something.
According to the law, every omega was to present themselves to a collection center before their first heat, to be matched with an alpha with complementary genetics, who would then bond and mate them during their first cycle. Since omegas matured slower than the other dynamics, that usually meant somewhere around their twentieth to twenty-first year.
They were told that it was for the good of future generations. That this was the way to assure diseases and genetic disorders were eradicated, and that their children were strong.
Elise knew that in reality, omegas were a commodity like any other, to be sold to the highest bidder. Used for wealth and gain.
Some species naturally produce more omegas than others, and they became a great way to create alliances throughout the different worlds. Especially for Earth, since human alphas were even more rare than omegas were, and human females were compatible with any race.
Alphas had to pay a premium to access the Omega Market, and the more they paid, the more choices they had.
The women were filed in a galactic database where the alphas could put in their preferences and browse through the options, though they wouldn’t have long to decide. Bidding would begin as soon as the omega’s information was listed.
Being virginal was not a requirement.
Most omegas wanted their first time to be with who they chose, since they couldn't choose their mate unless they were from an extremely wealthy family who could pull strings to keep them off the Market. Elise figured it was another thing that would increase her value though, so she had waited. None of the beta males had ever interested her enough to make her think twice about it.
She brushed her blonde hair until it shone and lay about her shoulders and down her back in a straight sheet, her bangs freshly trimmed to hang just right. She was wearing a dress she made specially for this occasion. It was a deep blue that matched her eyes, and it hugged her curves enough to hint at what was underneath, without being indecent.
Elise had spent the last month making it from cloth she’d used all her savings to purchase. Every credit she had earned, found, and been given, was invested into this day.
She used a finger to smudge a bit of soot on her eyelids and stepped back from the small piece of broken mirror on the wall. This was it. This was the day she had been planning for since she knew she was an omega.
Looking around her room one last time before stepping out and shutting the door behind her, Elise sighed. It had hardly been bigger than the single bed pressed against the wall and didn't hold anything important to her.
She left a note on the bed for the girls she lived with, so they would know what happened and that they could let someone else have the room and the things she left behind. She’d done the same with her boss. Elise knew they wouldn't agree with her decision, but that was fine.
A couple of them were omegas still holding out. Elise was you
nger than them since she just turned twenty, but the others had no plans to turn themselves in.
She decided long ago that her twentieth birthday would be the day. There was no reason for her to wait since she was of legal age.
Elise stepped out of the building into the cool air with just a small bag over her shoulder. It had a couple pairs of clothes, and not much else. She didn’t have anything of value to bring with her.
It was cold enough that standing still left her a bit chilled without a jacket but walking to the center would warm her up.
She turned down the street without looking back. She had no reason to, with no sentimental attachment to where she had lived the past couple years. Elise had known she would be leaving it before she got there, and had no second thoughts now that the time had come.
This was what was best for her.
Elise stopped a block from the center. It hadn't been too long of a walk and she had taken her time so she wouldn't arrive sweaty, but she still wanted to stop and freshen up for a moment. First impressions could make a difference.
Once her breathing had slowed to a gentle rise and fall, she crossed the last bit of sidewalk leading her to her destiny.
Taking the stairs up to the front doors, her heart began to race. No one knew what was past them. No omega to enter the center had ever returned, and the people who worked there would be the last to talk about what happened within.
Fingers pressed to the handle, Elise paused, a shiver running down her spine. There was no turning back once she stepped through. Her life would no longer be her own.
Thinking of the dreary, worn down buildings she had passed, and breathing in the smog-laced air of the city, Elise straightened her shoulders and pulled. There wasn’t much that could be worse than her life. Worked to exhaustion every day of the year, she was used to the disappointments of life, and could take whatever was behind those doors.
Chapter Two
Stepping through the entrance of the collection center, the first thing Elise noticed was the cold. Where the temperature outside was chilly, the air in the building felt like she had stepped into a refrigeration unit.
The walls were a plain white, scuffed and dirty around the base, with a single abstract photo hanging in the center of the room. The white floor tiles were in even worse shape, cracked and dull with age and lack of care.
A fake tree in a green pot stood in a corner to her right, its leaves drooping with the mass of dust collected on them, and three dull-blue plastic chairs sat against the far wall.
It was… disappointing.
The desk sitting at an angle in the far-left corner was empty, and Elise hesitated, unsure what to do. As the door to the outside swung shut behind her, she looked between the desk and the partially opened door on the other side.
Elise could hear voices echoing out from the opening, so she crept closer to the desk, hoping someone would come out. By the time she stopped in front of it, there was still no sign that anyone would be coming to greet her.
Unsure what else to do, she called out a shaky, “Hello?”
The voices from the other room stopped before she heard shuffling and footsteps heading her way. Straightening, she crossed her hands over her bag, trying to slow her breathing.
A head of messy blonde hair popped through the opening, brows drawn together in confusion over plain brown eyes. When he noticed Elise, he pushed his way through the door to stand behind the desk.
“Hello, Miss. Are you lost?”
His tone and question made it obvious that not many people passed through this lobby.
Taking a deep breath, Elise spoke before she lost the nerve.
“I’m here to turn myself in.”
The look of confusion didn’t leave his face as he stared back at her.
“For collection… I’m an omega.”
His eyes widened, lips parting as his jaw dropped. Her racing heart made it seem longer than it probably was before he shook his head, throat working as he looked down at his desk.
“Yes… Of course…”
Gaze flitting over the bare surface between them, he leaned down and yanked open a drawer, the screech it released another sign of disuse and neglect. Pulling out an old tablet, he cleared his throat as he tried to get it to turn on. Elise could see color creeping up his neck to his cheeks as the screen refused to light.
Dropping it back into the drawer, his eyes landed on the outdated laptop sitting on the corner of the desk. Fumbling it open, he let out an audible sigh of relief when it cooperated.
“I have a form for you to fill out. I’ll pull it up on the computer, and you can sit at my desk to answer the questions while I go get one of our nurses.”
“Nurse?”
She blurted the word before she could stop herself, and his head jerked to face her.
“Everyone gets an exam when they arrive to be sure they are in good health. Just routine.”
Her mouth went dry, but she nodded. Her experiences with the entire medical field were less than pleasant since she had come from a poor family that couldn’t afford anything more than the charity-care clinics scattered throughout the city.
Overburdened, understaffed, and lacking in funds, she learned only to visit if there was a dire need. She always felt like just another body to get out of the way. Her mother died of pneumonia because an overworked doctor barely looked at her before claiming it was only a cold.
Her father followed not long after due to a work accident. He lost too much blood, then ended up with an infection that was resistant to the generic antibiotics he was given.
Lucky for Elise, she was already working and didn’t end up in the system, though things didn’t turn out as well for her siblings. As the oldest, she had always been too busy helping to bond with them, and she felt more like a nanny or a maid than an older sister.
Giving her a tight smile, the man stepped back and gestured to the seat behind the desk.
“Go ahead. I’ll be back in just a moment.”
Turning, he seemed to flee back through the door he had come from, shutting it firmly behind him. Elise could hear voices again on the other side, but they were too muffled to understand anything.
Placing her bag on the desk, she stepped around it and took a seat. The creaking made her breath catch in her throat as she paused and waited for the chair to collapse beneath her, but it held.
Elise filled her information into the form on the screen. Name, age, registration number… the usual questions asked on government documents.
When she reached the medical history, she felt her cheeks heat with embarrassment, and jumped in surprise when the door behind her flew open. Turning to see who it was, she recognized the man that had come out before, but with him were two others.
One was a short, older woman. Beta by the scent of her, and who Elise assumed was the nurse since she wore a set of grey scrubs. Her pinched face was decidedly uninviting.
Turning her eyes to the second man, a shiver rolled down her spine. His shoulders filled the doorway as he glared down at her, his size alone stating he was an alpha.
He was in a military uniform, and the gold bars on his collar marked him as an officer. His dusky blue skin was a surprise since there weren’t many aliens on Earth, and his ice blue eyes made her skin crawl as he stared at her.
Dropping her eyes to his chest, she didn’t miss the flare of his nostrils as he scented her.
“Well? Is she really an omega?”
The nurse crossed her arms over her chest as Elise’s eyes darted back to her. Her narrowed gaze showed she fully expected the man beside her to say no, but her brows rose as he let out a rumble.
“Yes.”
All eyes focused on him as he kept his on Elise. His expression was less foreboding than it had been but wasn’t something she would call ‘happy’.
“It’s faint, but the scent is there. She has time before her heat.”
Turning, he walked away as the other two stared after him. Their
attention snapped back to Elise once she heard a door close behind them.
The two looked at her for a moment before the nurse waved a hand at her to stand.
“Well, come on then.”
“I’m not done with…”
Elise trailed off as the nurse flicked her fingers at her protest.
“We can finish that in the back. I have to go through all the questions anyway.”
Standing, Elise grabbed her bag and pulled the strap over her head. Giving the man who had first greeted her a polite smile as she passed, she followed the nurse down a tight hallway.
There were doors on each side, the first one open to reveal a breakroom where the blonde had most likely been when she arrived, but the others were all closed. They walked quite a while before the woman led her around a corner and stopped in front of a set of elevators.
Pushing the button to go down, the nurse kept her back to Elise as they waited.
Chapter Three
“So, what’s your name, girl?”
The nurse didn’t bother to look at her as they stepped into the elevator, tapping away on her tablet.
“Elise Carson.”
“Date of birth?”
“July twenty-third, twenty-seventy.”
She rattled on with the basic questions Elise had already answered on the computer as the elevator descended. Considering she had entered on the ground floor, it was a bit strange to be going down.
When they finally came to a halt and the doors slid open, the hallway ahead of them was as different from the one they left as it could get.
Where the previous hall was the dingy, off-white of a tired office building, this one was a pristine white that brought a hospital to mind. Brightly lit, the walls seemed to glow as the fluorescents shone off them.
Leading her past more closed doorways, the nurse turned down an adjoining hall before reaching an open door at the opposite end. Inside was the usual, sterile exam room.
There was a reclined exam table, stool, a single chair where Elise placed her bag, a counter with a sink, and various containers of medical supplies. It was cold, impersonal, and unwelcoming.