The Omega Within (Alpha's Woman Book 5) Read online

  But the women were all teary eyed, which had their Alphas hugging them tightly.

  "What say we bring our omegas back to our quarters and meet again in two hours to get some work done?" Zerk suggested.

  "Sounds good," everyone agreed. Well, every man agreed.

  "Don't worry," Emmy whispered. "My mother-in-law is here, and we'll see if we can all get together for a coffee klatch."

  The other women around her looked at her as if she was speaking Klingon.

  She translated. "Hinda, Vaudt's mother, is here. She'll help us get together while they—"

  Then she got a look at her husband's face as he stared down at her, and she pouted a bit.

  "Please, can we get together?"

  "That was something you should have asked me about first, young lady."

  "But we want to!" the other women chorused, only to be given censorious looks by their mates.

  "You are to stay in our room, with the baby," Kosh ordered, being so bold as to cup his woman's bottom in warning.

  The other Alphas echoed him to their omegas, who, like Tura, obediently chorused, "Yes, Sir."

  "Damn!" Emmy cursed softly under her breath, while Vaudt shook his head as he led them—via the hidden tunnels—back to their rooms.

  "Put the children down as soon as we get back. You have a lesson to learn, apparently," he promised.

  Then it was her turn to answer meekly, "Yes, Sir." Even now, she had absolutely no interest in incurring any more of a punishment than he was already planning to give her.

  She waited a few seconds then asked, "So I guess the answer is no?"

  Her Alpha stared down at her. "The answer is a question—do you want to be paddled right here, right now?"

  Emmy gulped hard. "No, Sir."

  "Then I suggest you remain quiet and contemplate your misbehavior."

  It was a surprise to the other women, then, when an older woman knocked at their doors a day later. She introduced herself as Hinda and asked them if they would be interested in defying their Alphas and arranging some sort of get together.

  Every single one of them answered with a resounding, "Yes!"

  They were on the march again.

  They'd lost the advantage of the element of surprise, and he'd had to decide whether to retreat back home and regroup, to fight another day, or to press on.

  Garron had decided that he and the Skorge would fight on. He couldn't bear the thought that this would all have been for nothing, just because he'd allowed himself to descend into madness with her, instead of doing what he should have been doing—commanding his men.

  Moving her was tricky but not impossible, thanks to several methods he employed to keep her existence a secret. He didn't care if the men knew that he had a woman. He knew they already thought he was relatively strange because he didn't usually have one. But he didn't want them to know that he had the most precious of all women in his tent at night.

  At this point, only he and the doc knew of her existence, and he wanted to keep it that way. So, he did everything he could to hide her scent. The herb worked nicely, but he wasn't about to keep a fire lit while they were marching—that was the way to set fire to his entire army.

  Instead, he borrowed from what she had been doing all her life and cut down one of his filthiest tunics. It looked absolutely ridiculous on her at first, but he cut it to her size—lengthwise, anyway—and hacked away at the sleeves until she could see her hands. It already smelled of him, had the dried blood of he didn't know how many men from the last battle they'd been in, and for extra measure, he rubbed the dried herb all over it, hoping that would be enough.

  Then he summoned the doctor to his tent.

  "Commander," Seen acknowledged as he entered.

  There was plentiful food on the table, and his host was already seated, with a pretty little woman on his knee whom he didn't bother to introduce.

  She blushed furiously at him, though, because she was totally naked, trying to hide her face against him, but he wouldn't allow it.

  "Do I need to spank you in front of the doctor, little girl?" he asked—quite deliberately, he thought—which made her blush that much brighter.

  "No, please, Sir," she whispered.

  "Show him your bottom."

  "Please, Sir!" Ollyah begged.

  But he simply gave her that look she already hated that meant she could either obey him or she would be getting a spanking in front of him.

  She hopped down off his thigh with severe reluctance and turned around.

  "No, not there. Go stand next to him and bend over."

  Tears began to trail down her cheeks, but she did as she was told.

  The backside that she revealed to him had been well and thoroughly tended to, from the first curves of her behind to just above the backs of her knees. He could see that the mottled bruises and angry red weals were from more than one punishment; they were in layers.

  It looked like a very sore bottom indeed, and he could hear her sniffling and softly sobbing, but she remained in position.

  "The reason why I asked you here was two-fold. Can you tell me whether or not she is pregnant?"

  The doctor turned in his chair to face her more fully and reached out toward her, then he stopped. His eyes met the much bigger man's. "With your permission?"

  "Of course."

  "Please spread your legs," he asked, reaching out to adjust her, his touch kindly as he did his best to avoid any place that might hurt.

  That position exposed her embarrassingly, but she dared not move.

  The doctor's hands were a bit cool but dry, whereas she was anything but, and that was even more shameful to her. When his fingers gently parted her nether lips, she could feel how her juices spilled onto him.

  "I'm sorry," she whispered.

  "There is no need to be, child. It's a perfectly natural thing. Don't worry your pretty head about it." Seen could feel her relax a bit, as much as anyone who was put into that unnatural position in front of a stranger could, he'd imagine. "I'm going to examine you. I'll be as gentle as I can."

  "Thank you," came the sobbed whisper.

  He inserted two fingers into her, working them gently in and out, then examined her swollen lips, turning to Garron and saying, "Would you ask her to stand and face me, please?"

  "Do as the doctor says, Ollyah."

  She obeyed him, even though her every movement screamed that she didn't want to.

  "Head down," Garron said softly, and she instantly stared at her feet rather than straight ahead.

  The doctor manipulated her breasts and tweaked her nipples, then pressed on the front of her lower stomach.

  "Are your breasts sore?"

  "Yes, Sir, but—" she stopped, as if afraid to go on.

  Garron patted her bottom. "Finish your sentence, little one."

  Blushing even more so, she said, "But they have been since—"

  "Since what?"

  She fidgeted and moved awkwardly in place. "Since my first heat, Sir."

  "And how long since your last show, dear?"

  "Show?"

  "Your woman's time, when blood comes out from between your legs?"

  The poor girl looked horrified at that prospect, and Garron lifted her onto his lap, holding her tightly. "Has that never happened to you, little one?"

  She shook her head against his broad chest.

  "Well, that's something, especially considering that it is my medical opinion that she is breeding."

  Garron could not have been happier—he let out a war whoop and poured the doctor a glass of his best wine.

  "Will you join me for dinner, Doc?"

  Food was one of Seen's last, best pleasures, so he was hard pressed to turn it down. The Supreme Commander's food was usually quite good, much better than he had access to.

  He noted that Garron hadn't asked him to join "us.” And the young woman spent the entire meal perched on his knee, being fed from his hand. He had done a very good job taming her to his
hand, quite literally, and of course, he'd accomplished his first goal with her in her first heat—she was pregnant.

  And she was likely to be pregnant, every nine months like clockwork, or as close as he could possibly get to that—for the rest of her life, if her Alpha survived the coming battle.

  If she survived it, too.

  When they were all full of excellent food, including his little omega, he told her to go lie down on the bed, which she did immediately.

  "No touching," he called after her.

  Her, "yes, Sir," was full of embarrassment.

  Garron leaned toward him. "I assume you know that we're bearing down on Zerk's little metropolis."

  "That's what I understand."

  "I have a rather special assignment for you, Doctor. I want you to do special duty."

  Seen frowned. "Rather than seeing to the wounded?"

  "You have a second in command, don't you?"

  "Well, yes, I do—"

  "And you're getting a bit old for this game, aren't you? Wouldn't you rather take it easy somewhere?"

  Seen nodded. "Yes, but that's not likely to happen, and you know it."

  "It will happen—I promise you it will—if you would agree to do as I ask."

  "And what is that, exactly?"

  Olly couldn't help but overhear some of what they were saying, but not enough to make sense of it.

  When the doctor had left, Garron sat down on the bed and pulled her onto his lap. Taking her chin in his hand so that she had no choice but to look into his eyes, he said, "There is going to be a battle, little girl. But I have made arrangements to keep you safe. I will be leaving you now, but in the middle of the night, the doctor is going to come for you. You are to put on the garment I made for you and go with him—you're safe with his kind."

  "Doctors?" she asked, and Garron laughed.

  "No. H-he has no interest in women, even omegas."

  "Oh."

  "You must obey the doctor like you obey me." Then he gave her a flash of a smile. "Perhaps I should tell you to obey him better than you obey me."

  Olly bit her lip. "W-will you be all right?"

  "I will, little one. I have to be. I have to take care of you and, soon, our child. The doctor and I will arrange for him to bring you to me when the battle is over, and then I will take you back to my little corner of the world, and you won't ever have to leave it again."

  He surprised her by kissing her on the top of her head and standing, when she had thought that he would take her.

  "You should get as much sleep as you can, for the baby's sake. I don't know when you'll be able to sleep again."

  "How long will you be gone?" It wasn't a question she wanted to ask, necessarily, but she felt she had to. He was her protection in this world, and if she was going to be on her own again, she wanted to know it.

  Having met him, Ollyah wasn't sure whether the doctor was the best choice, but she did believe that he was doing the best he could for her.

  Just before he left, he woke her. She was surprised that she had been able to fall asleep at all, but if she was pregnant, she guessed that her body was following the baby's demands.

  "Ollyah, I want you to be as careful as possible. If all else fails and something happens to the doctor, do what you did before you met me. Stay as dirty and smelly as possible—my scent on the shirt should help—and fall back to the fringes where Mach found you. Stay away from anyone—even from my side—who has a gun. I don't mean to scare you, but I want you to be prepared. We're going to win, and I'll see you as soon as I can."

  He kissed the top of her head again, with a grin. "I don't want to give you a real kiss and stir you up—your scent would permeate the air around you."

  Then he put his huge hand over her lower belly, where their child lay.

  "I wish I could be with you—the both of you."

  Then he left without looking back.

  Chapter 8

  When the doctor arrived, he dismissed the men who were guarding her tent and went inside, waking her and making her stand in front of him.

  The he did something she didn't expect. He introduced himself.

  "My name is Seen. I figure if you're going to entrust your life to me, it might be nice to know who the hell I am. I'm a doctor—a healer, really. And I'm a eunuch."

  "I'm Ollyah. I-I hung around the edges of the camp, trying to be invisible as much as possible."

  "Well, you did a good job avoiding detection as long as you did," he complimented.

  He'd brought some kind of paste that he smeared all over her as well as the makeshift outfit she was wearing. It smelled very much like the herb that her Alpha had burned in order to cover her scent, and she said as much.

  "Yes, I discovered it. It's not really been put to the test much, although, if he's been using it and you've been living in a camp full of Alphas for the past weeks, then I guess it does work. Hmm. Well, I brought a lot of it, because I don't know how long it's going to last. We'll just keep applying it every once in a while, to keep you safe."

  He debated telling her what he was going to do, but he decided against it.

  "What did Garron tell you about where I'm taking you?"

  She shrugged. "To obey you better than I do him."

  He chuckled at that.

  The he produced a long knife, holding it as if he'd never seen such a thing in his life.

  Tsking, Olly reached out and plucked it from his loose grasp.

  "You know how to fight?"

  "Not well, but better than you, apparently."

  He didn't seem insulted in the least. "I'm a healer, not a fighter. I could cut you open with that and then sew you up, but I won't kill you."

  Seen stopped her on the way to the tent flap. "Stick close to me, and stay away from everyone else." Then he frowned. "Don't you have anything you want to bring with you?"

  She'd already packed away the only thing she really wanted to take, but he didn't need to know that. "No. I don't really own anything."

  The older man stopped and looked down at her. "Oh, honey, that's sad." He reached into the bag that he was taking with them and handed her a seashell he'd found on one of their campaigns.

  "What's this?"

  "It's a shell." She looked up at him blankly. "It's a good luck charm."

  "Oh." Olly tucked it into the small pocket she'd made him create in her garment.

  Then they headed out.

  Since he was in his uniform, he got dragged into helping some people, on the way out of camp and occasionally while they were getting to the perimeter, but he was also making them skirt their way around the battlefield as best they could, staying hidden as much as possible.

  Ollyah had never been so scared in all her life, even when the battle wasn't exactly raging all around them. But she could hear gunfire, men screaming in pain, the sounds of tanks and the clashing of swords. She held onto the doctor's hand with a death grip, the entire time, wishing he were Garron instead.

  She'd looked for him when they were closer, but she hadn't seen him—standing up and fighting or lying dead or dying on the ground. And she wasn't sure whether that was good or bad.

  It took quite some time to get them where he wanted to be, but eventually, they were at a secret entrance to the city walls. He led her down many corridors, through an abandoned marketplace that looked like a ghost town and then into another secret passageway, until they were in front of what looked like just another section of wall.

  He knocked on it five times, in some kind of rhythmic manner, and then there were two sharp knocks from behind it before it opened, and someone wearing the enemy's uniform greeted them with a bayonet to their necks.

  "What's the password?"

  "Everettlabs."

  "Get in. Are you being followed?"

  "No, I don't think so."

  The heavy door was closed and bolted behind them.

  "Who is this? We didn't expect anyone but you."

  Olly was amazed to realize
that the soldiers they were surrounded by were all female, some of them obviously pregnant.

  "Well, this opportunity presented itself, and I couldn't really refuse. She could be of some use, I suppose."

  "Who is she?" A woman carrying a baby, with a toddler clinging to her leg nervously, asked.

  Seen sighed. "She's Garron's pregnant omega."

  "You're joking!"

  "No, I'm not."

  Suddenly, an older woman came from the area behind where they had gathered, walking up to hug the man as tears streamed down her face. "Brother. How brave you are."

  "Hinda. I thought I'd never see you again."

  The woman with the children was the only one not dressed as a soldier. She took Olly's hand and brought her to the table that everyone then sat around. "Are you all right? Do you need medical care, either of you?"

  Seen shook his head, as did Olly.

  "How could you possibly have marched her through the lines—either side's—when she's an omega?" Tura demanded.

  The doctor dropped his rucksack down in the middle of the table and opened it, pulling out bags of the luminescent green stuff and handing it to the women. "I discovered this accidentally and told Garron about it. He didn't have any use for it—he didn't have an omega at that point, but he kept some, just in case he was able to find one or take someone else's. He's not had her very long, but she lived with him in the middle of his camp, for something like two weeks or so, and no one made a peep."

  Then he looked down at Olly. "I'm sorry. This is really your story to tell."

  Olly wasn't used to anyone deferring to her, and it flustered her a bit. "I lived on the outskirts of the camp followers, since I wasn't one, and I pretended to be a boy, but I wasn't going to be able to do that for much longer. I was pretty much starving to death, and I got lured away from the garbage piles by a guy named Mach, who sold me to the commander."

  "The commander?" Ebby asked.

  "Garron," Seen supplied.

  "What do you call him?" Emmy's question was from the heart, rather than trying to get useful information from her.