Page 10 of The Omega Switch: Part 1
The atmosphere shifted instantly. The easy composure that I normally kept was shattered beneath something far more primal. Ronan straightened beside me, eyes darkening as his own instincts surged to the surface. Elias swore softly under his breath. We were hit with another wave of it as I reached the end of the hall, and my entire body tensed violently. Fuck. It was incredible.
It was soft enough that it should have disappeared into the air completely, yet somehow every trace of it dug deeper into my system with each breath. My alpha side reacted immediately, possessiveness roaring through me so hard it almost made me dizzy.Find her.The thought wasn’t even fully my own anymore.Mine.
I reached the supply closet door first, stopping abruptly as the scent poured through the cracks like smoke. My hand was flat against the wood, my jaw tight.
“She might be in there,” Elias said hoarsely. “Be careful, Hunter. Don’t lose yourself! She’s not ours!” He warned. He was right - not ours. Not yet. If I found her, I’d do everything in the world to convince her that she belonged with us. With a scent this good, I couldn't let her get away.
Ronan moved closer behind me, unusually tense. For someone normally so controlled, the look in his eyes was almost alarming.
“That scent…” Ronan muttered. “Jesus Christ.”
No omega should smell this good. But it triggered every protective, territorial instinct in our pack simultaneously. And yet somehow, whoever’s scent was behind that door had every single one of us nearly feral with the need to get closer. To soothe her, to protect her. To claim her.
I tried breathing through my mouth and got a grip on myself. The smell was still faint, and it was unlikely someone was behind the door. I opened it gently, hoping beyond hope to see who had emanated that glorious scent. But there was no one here.
I let out a breath, disappointment flooding my system. She was long gone, and part of me knew that when I smelled the barely there, halfway evaporated scent in the hall. But still. I turned and faced my pack.
“We need to find out whose scent this is. It had to be one of the omegas at the gala tonight.” I said, and Ronan nodded in agreement.
“I haven’t smelled a scent like that ever.” He muttered. Even Elias was affected, his pupils large.
“We can look at the guest list and figure out who attended.” He agreed. “We can’t force anyone to share their scent, though.” He added. Fuck. That was right. In all my desire to find this omega, I skipped over something important. We couldn’t just go around asking omegas to perfume for us. Not if we weren’t officially courting them.
“What if…” Elias said, his eyes lighting up with an idea. “What if we said we smelled a potential match and asked anyone interested to see if they could do a Bond match profile?” He offered. “It would be voluntary, and we wouldn’t even need to smell them. We’d know if they were meant for us. And if they weren’t, well. We can forget the scent and focus on finding our real match.”
I considered it. The idea made sense - our technology could theoretically find out if an omega here was a match for us or not. That is, if they decided to submit for testing. “Alright,” I said, my senses somewhat back in control. “Tomorrow, let’s send out a notice to everyone here. Some way or other, we will find out who this was.” I said. But test or not, I already knew that this omega had to be perfect for us.
Chapter 6
Ivy
I awoke with a warm, fuzzy feeling, and for the first time, I was actually looking forward to the day. Even though I’d been practically forgotten about last night by my family, the gala had been one of the best things that had happened to me in recent memory. I felt alive - I was going to be working with a renowned pack, learning more about bonding chemistry, and getting out of the lab for once. And, if I were being completely honest with myself, the majority of my excitement was just at the idea of being around Pack Vale again. I knew it would have to be under the close supervision of my family - I was an unbonded omega after all - but I felt the warm anticipation of being near them again and just felt happy for once. I let out a little jitter of excitement. I hadn’t felt truly happy for a long time.
I stretched, rolled out of bed, and still wore my pajamas as I went downstairs. Saturdays were nice for me, because the family didn’t work on weekends and didn’t expect breakfast early. Making meals had become somewhat my responsibility during the week. It wasn’t an official rule, but somehow it had just fallen on me to do it. I’d volunteered to make it when Clara had joined my family’s pack after her own pack denied their bond with her. It was a rare and tragic thing to happen - I never really got the backstory behind it. But either way, my father’s pack took her in, and I wanted her and her daughter to feel welcomed.
So, the first few weeks they were here, I got up early and made breakfast for everyone. At first, Clara had seemed grateful, and I genuinely wanted to help them feel welcome after her old pack rejected her bond. But over time, the gratitude faded, and the expectation took its place. If breakfast wasn’t ready, Clara would make comments about how stressful mornings were, while Arabella would complain dramatically about there being “nothing to eat.”
No one ever officially told me it was my responsibility, but over time, it just became one anyway. My father’s pack mates wandered into the kitchen each morning expecting coffee already brewing and food on the table. And because I’d started it, stopping suddenly would only make me look selfish. So, I kept waking up early, cooking for everyone, and cleaning up afterward, while the rest of the family treated it as if it had always been my responsibility.
But Saturdays were mine. Mara usually makes breakfast on weekends, so I was able to work on my own projects. And what I was interested in was usually lab or scent-related, so really itwas like being at work - not that I minded. I could work on my passion projects in the lab, things that weren’t commercially viable but that I still found interesting.
And for today’s goal, I wanted to read Elias’s research. I walked down the large staircase, my hand sliding along the railing as I heard Arabella’s voice echo from the living room. She was filming again, and I already knew it was for her Omega Femininity channel. I peeked around the corner, seeing her at her usual spot, with the background of our luxurious living room on full display.
“And remember, loves,” Arabella said brightly to the camera, tucking a piece of hair behind her ear, “small etiquette details matter so much around alphas. The way you present yourself reflects your self-respect.” She smiled softly, the picture of graceful perfection. “For example, it’s considered a major faux pas to eat directly from the utensil of an unbonded alpha. It can send the wrong message entirely and may come across as overly familiar or attention-seeking.”
My steps faltered for only a second. Last night - the spoon Hunter had offered me. She was talking aboutme. My mind raced as I thought back to it. I was sure that her friends had been watching us eat at the dinner table the whole time. Crap. Between sitting with their pack and that dessert incident, it probably looked like I’d been the one getting all the attention from Pack Vale. Her friends were sure to gossip about it. Maybe that’s why everyone left without me. I was sure Arabella’s friends would have brought it up to her, all of them such nosey people.
Arabella’s eyes flicked toward me briefly before she turned back to the camera with another practiced smile. “Boundaries are important, especially for unmated omegas. You always want to appear elegant and properly reserved.”
I knew exactly who the message was for. But instead of shrinking under it like I normally would, I simply kept walking past the living room. Today, Arabella’s passive-aggressive digs didn’t burrow under my skin the way they usually did - because all I could think about was Pack Vale, and how they had not been bothered one bit by my presence.
I passed by Mara in the kitchen, and she smiled up at me from the table where she was having a cup of coffee.
“You look well rested,” she said, and I nodded. “How did it go?” She asked, her voice lower this time. Mara had been with us since my mom was still around, and she’d seen exactly what happened once the pack dynamics changed. Mara had always been on my side. But she didn’t show it much - if she had, she likely wouldn't have a job here. So, she became a silent supporter, always helping me from the shadows as much as she could. I needed her - she was the one person who always reminded me when something wasn’t normal, even if it started to feel like it.
“It was amazing!” I said, stepping up to her and lowering my voice to an excited whisper. “I met Pack Vale - the ones Arabella’s collaborating with for the launch. They are actually really nice! And they want to talk about research with me! Well, one of them does, anyway.” I said, and her eyes lit up.
“Ivy! That’s wonderful!” She stood, reached for my hands, and gripped them, her excitement matching mine.
