“Graduated Woodside at thirteen. Went to Smythe and walked out with a degree before I hit eighteen. I was recruited by the Black Guard before I walked the stage and was in training two months later. Few alphas were hired back then. There were only three of us all during the time I was there. Then at the ripe age of twenty-eight, I learned the truth and my world exploded.”
“You’re omega?”
“Sort of,”Dash whispered. He scowled, the memory of the day he learned he was a freak making it harder to breathe.
“How are yousort ofan omega?” Emerson asked. “Although, I’ve never met an omega with a knot, so there’s clearly a lot I don’t know.”
“The specialist the Guard brought in called me a hybrid. It’s supposedly a rare condition.”
“A hybrid…”
Dash nodded. “I’m alpha…andomega.”
He peeked up through his lashes to see how Emerson reacted. His alpha stared, expression blank. Dash squirmed a bit, doubt causing his stomach to twist into knots. He sat silently for a minute, wishing Emerson would say something.
Anything.
“The Guardbrought in a specialist for you?”
“I…” Dash closed his eyes a few seconds. “Something happened… while I was on site. There were witnesses, and an investigation was opened. They demanded I be seen by a doctor or risk immediate termination.”
A low, angry growl came from Emerson.“Whathappened?”
Dash winced. He didn’t want to tell that story, especially not after sharing his first heat with Emerson. First heat… and maybe his last if things didn’t go well.
“I’d rather not relive it in full detail right now, if you don’t mind. What I can tell you is—I was on site, in the locker room. I went into heat for the first time and… it was noticed. There were two other alphas on my team.”
“Jackson…”
“Was one, yes, but he didnothingwrong,” Dash said.
“I get that some alphas can’t control themselves when a rut hits, and the instinct is hard to combat—but if he truly cared about you, he would’ve gotten away.Iwould have.”
Dash tensed, pulling away a little.“Emerson…”
“Didhe hurt you?”
“No! He helped protect me, Em. Iswearit.”
Emerson searched his face, near seething with outrage. He didn’t look like he believed Dash, but he calmed a bit, regardless. Still, Dash wasn’t sure Emerson would truly relax until he heard the whole story.
“I’d been with the Black Guard for nearly a decade. Our team of four was made up of myself, two other alpha agents and Mason. We’d all worked together for years. Trusted one anotherimplicitly.We were as close as brothers.”
He scrubbed his face, preparing himself for the next part. “We’d infiltrated a Wildling group who’d been targeting a tiny province far south of Rocinate. The Wildlings had destroyed the outer wall, killed nearly two dozen alphas and betas, left dozens more gravely injured, and captured nearly a dozen omegas. We were sent in to free the omegas and neutralize their leaders—the chieftain and his eldest son.”
“I’d assumed you’d been an investigator,” Emerson murmured, eyes wide. “Like what you do now. But you were in the field?”
“Investigation was my main role, but field work was often a part of that, too,” Dash replied. “Whatever was needed of our team. Alphas were so rare in the Guard, we were hardly everpegged as agents. Our team could slip in and out without much notice. We infiltrated clans under the guise of being a group of Wildlings exiled from our own to seek intel on many occasions.”
Emerson stared in disbelief, a hint of judgement creeping into his eyes.
The fine hairs at the back of Dash’s neck rose in warning. “You seem more shocked by this news than learning I’m in heat. Are you struggling to reconcile me being a weak, fragile omegaanda member of an elite ops team within the Guard?”
“No!”Emerson’s face turned pink. “I just hadn’t pegged you as a field operative.”
Dash sensed truth to that but wasn’t sure. He didn’t want Emerson treating him differently just because a part of him was biologically omega.
“There’snothingweak or fragile about you, by the way,” Emerson added.
