Forbidden: Part One (Luna & Sol Omegaverse Book 1)
Forbidden: Part One – Chapter 61

“Josie, sweetheart, you’re so tense you’re going to hurt yourself,” Cam said, scooting his chair closer to mine so he could rub my neck. I leaned into his touch, trying to focus on the feel of him, but nothing could soothe me while sitting in the Designation Center lobby.

“I just have a really bad feeling about this,” I whispered, fidgeting in my seat.

Ben squeezed my hand from the seat beside mine, his leg bouncing as he looked around the hall.

“We’ll go in there, answer their questions, and be out of here before you know it,” Theo said. “Where do you want to go for lunch?”

I shrugged. My stomach was so twisted up I wasn’t sure I could eat anything.

“I just want to go home,” I whispered.

“We’ll be back home so soon, baby girl,” Cam said, squeezing my thigh. “Just hold on.”

I nodded and forced myself to take a steadying breath.

A door opened down the hall, and laughter filtered into the lobby. I gripped Cam and Ben’s hands as tightly as I could as heavy footsteps sounded on the marble floor.

An alpha I’d never seen before strode towards us with a mild smile plastered on his face. His blond hair was perfectly coiffed and his dark navy suit was tight across his chest, as if it were a size too small. The very lines of his body felt sinister, and it took everything in me to stay in my chair when he raked his eyes over me, licking his lips. Cam and Ben tensed, and Theo subtly angled his chair to partially block me from the alpha’s view.

Then, heavy footsteps echoed in the lobby as a group of security officers filed in and lined up against the wall.

No, no, no.

There was a ringing in my ears, and I didn’t understand how I was sitting silently when everything inside me was screaming.

“What the fuck?” Cam muttered, putting his arm around me.

I couldn’t feel his skin against mine. I couldn’t feel anything.

“Welcome, Pack Ashwood and Ms. Porter. It’s always an exciting day to have a newly formed pack visit us.”

His voice raised the hairs on my skin, and I had to suppress a whimper. Ben moved closer to me on my other side, running his hand up and down my arm as if he knew my scar was aching.

“Who are you?” Theo asked.

The alpha’s smile didn’t falter, even at Theo’s curt tone.

“My name is Todd Cross. I am the newly appointed Director of Pack Cohesion here at the Designation Center. My department was created specifically to help alphas replace the perfect omega for their packs and to ensure a seamless transition to pack life.” His voice was robotic, as if each word was carefully rehearsed. “Now, we’re ready to begin the interviews. To ensure the highest quality of care, you will each be interviewed separately. This is to ensure everyone feels free to express themselves fully.”

I felt myself falling into a haze. Theo and Cam stood up, and I saw Theo’s lips move, but I didn’t hear what he said. The sound around me grew muffled and I noticed, as if I were observing myself from a distance, that I was on the verge of a panic attack.

“That is not what we were told,” Cam bit out, his raised voice startling me back to reality.

“New procedure,” Director Cross said smugly.

Ben gripped my arm tighter. My eyes flitted to the guards.

“No,” I whimpered.

Director Cross fixed me with an ice-cold stare. “Omegas do not contradict alphas,” he snarled, his tone no longer mellow. “It’s not a good sign when alphas can’t keep their omega in line.”

“We want to do the interview together,” Theo said. “That’s what we were told would happen.”

“Like I said, the policy has changed to better serve the needs of our pack alphas. If you refuse to follow procedure, we will be forced to determine you are unfit to have an omega.”

“You can’t fucking do this,” Cam snarled, taking a step towards Director Cross.

Immediately, two guards stepped up on either side of the director, their hands on their weapons. Acting on sheer instinct, I lunged out of my chair at Cam, wrapping my arms around his waist. I pressed my face against his back and held on as tightly as I could. His entire body vibrated, his hands clenched into fists.

“Cam,” I said, my voice coming out in a hoarse whisper.

No response.

“Alpha, please,” I whimpered.

I didn’t know what I was asking for, except that it was clear the DC had planned all of this with precision. They would delight in denying our pack status. Before meeting my alphas, all I wanted was to spend the rest of my life alone. Now I wouldn’t survive being separated from them.

Something must have broken through to Cam because he placed his hand over mine on his stomach. He gently broke my grip enough to turn around to look at me.

I bit my lip to keep it from trembling. If I lost it right now, so would my alphas. It would be my fault if anything happened to them.

“We have to do what they say,” I whispered, hating that we had an audience.

“Omegas are always so dramatic,” Director Cross said with condescension. “Such emotional manipulators. You’ll all be led back to your individual interview rooms in a moment. The interviews will be brief, nothing to get worked up about.”

My gaze was still locked with Cam’s, and I silently begged him to go along with it. He was breathing heavily, his eyes unfocused. I wanted to reassure him, to tell him this wasn’t like when he lost his sister, but the words wouldn’t come out. How could I tell him everything would be okay when I felt like I was being marched to hell?

Another alpha entered the hall.

“Ahh, Dave. Perfect timing. You will take Ms. Porter back for her interview,” Director Cross said, looking down at his watch impatiently.

I peered around Cam to see Dave standing there next to the director, a blank expression on his face. He gave me a curt nod and the tightness in my chest eased enough for me to take a deep, shuddering breath. If Dave was here, Amirah must have had a hand in this.

Theo, so used to being in control, looked stricken. “I’m so sorry, love.” He kissed my cheek before whispering, “I texted Amirah for backup. I’m going to make sure everything’s okay.”

Ben simply pressed up against my side, holding me as tightly as he could.

Cam shook his head, his eyes becoming more focused. He turned to look at Dave, his expression hard.

“We are not leaving here without you,” Cam said in a low growl, gripping my chin. “We are all walking out of here together as a pack. You belong with us, sweetheart.”

I nodded, desperately wanting to believe his words. Cam tucked me into his chest, briefly purring for me before letting me go.

I forced myself to take steady steps away from my alphas. I’m doing this for them. I have to protect them. I walked past the guards, their menacing stares quickening my footsteps.

Panic overtook me as I followed Dave down a long corridor off the main lobby. I looked back, my alphas’ desperate gazes meeting mine. Every muscle in my body screamed at me to run back to them, to escape this place once and for all. But Director Cross’s threat hung in the air. I needed to show them I could be a good omega. So I forced myself to turn away from them, to follow Dave deeper into the bowels of the Designation Center.

We left the brightly lit and luxuriously decorated lobby, the halls turning bleak and gray the further we walked. I wished Dave would talk to me, comfort me like he had when he escorted me for my interviews. But today, he walked in stony silence, setting a quick pace that forced me to almost jog to keep up as he led me through the twisted maze of hallways. My harried footsteps and pounding heart were the only noises breaking the eerie silence.

Dave stopped abruptly at the end of a small hallway tucked away at the back of the building. My wide eyes met his as he pulled open the metal door. I wanted to ask him what was going on, to scream, anything, but my throat was closed up.

“They’re expecting you,” Dave said in a gravelly voice, gesturing for me to enter the room.

I forced myself to put one foot in front of the other, feeling like I was dragging my limbs through concrete. As I walked past Dave, I caught a whiff of his scent—his deeply distressed and acidic scent. Alarm gripped me, my omega whining at the intensity, my body on full alert. I whipped back to the door, ready to bolt down the hallway back to my alphas. I no longer cared about following the procedures. I needed to get out.

Just as I lunged towards the exit, Dave shut the door.

Locking me inside.

Alone.

Panic consumed me as I clawed at the door, the solid metal expanse refusing to give way. I tried to scream, but no sound escaped. I clawed at my throat, trying to breathe. Blackness encroached on my vision and the room started to spin. I leaned against the door, the coolness of the metal a contrast to my heated skin. I dug my nails into my palms, wishing it was Theo’s soothing hands I was feeling instead, but the pain was enough to bring me out of my panic spiral. You can get out of this, just fucking pull yourself together.

I pushed myself off the door and turned to face the room. In the haze of my panic, I registered a vaguely familiar scent I couldn’t quite place underneath the medical antiseptic smell. A warning tickled in the back of my brain, something alerting me to danger, but I didn’t know what. I scanned the room to see if there was any other way out and saw two things I hadn’t noticed before.

The first was an exam table with wide leather straps.

The second was a metal door just to the left of the table.

My mind went blank and I crumpled to my knees.

I was trapped.

Keep going, keep fighting, don’t give up.

My arms shook and tears I didn’t realize I was crying hit the floor.

Keep going, keep fighting, don’t give up.

The mantra played on repeat in my head. And it was my alphas’ voices. And Luc’s, and Sam’s, and all of my friends.

I pressed my nose to my sweater, the combination of cinnamon roll, apple spice, and coffee clearing my mind.

I started crawling towards the metal door, silent tears streaming down my face, my shaky arms barely able to drag me to what I hoped beyond hope that it was an exit.

I cowered as I reached the medical table, momentarily frozen by flashbacks, the scar on my arm burning with memory. I lifted my head, forcing myself to focus on my destination—the door in front of me.

And then it opened.

Out stepped an alpha in a perfectly pressed black suit.

The smell of rotten fruit assaulted me.

Glen Jacoby met my gaze with a sinister smile. “Hello, Josephine.”

To be continued in book two.