Chapter Text
“Why couldn't we have stayed just one more week, Dean?”
The teenager across from him whine, looking out the window of the run down burger joint, pouting. In another life, another time, Dean would have laughed at the picture his half brother painted; Broody, almost six foot and growing (if this kid out grew him and he ended up the shortest in the family, he swore). An Alpha teen having a God damn toddler temper tantrum.
“At least I could have said goodbye to my friends.” Adam continued on unaware of his brother’s inner monologue. “We always do this.”
Dean decided it was better to tune his brother out at this point, it did nothing for that tight ball of dread sitting in the bottom of his own stomach, the threads pulled tight every time their situation was talked about. Instead he tried to just focus on breathing through his mouth. In and out. Trying and failing to ignore the strong scent of Pine and cedar body spray that came off the both of them. It gave him a headache and not for the first time he wished that blockers weren't a thing of the past. A product that hid your own smell without smothering it with a stronger one. Body spray worked well enough to fool all the Betas they pass on a daily basis but the smell was headache inducing after a while, to the sensitive nose of an Omega or Alpha, and it wouldn't fool a Hell Hound if they were unlucky enough to come across one. But blockers were banned nowadays and there was no way to even find them on the black market.
After all, what need did anyone have to hide their scent anymore? When the government had saved the day by rounding up all those ‘criminal’ and ‘animal like’ Alphas. Collar and placed them into government sanctioned working facilities so they couldn't hurt the fine upstanding Omega and Beta citizens just going about their lives.
The few the government haven't been able to round up were now in hiding and on the run, being hunted by their own kind. Hell hounds, they were called. Alphas that cut a deal with the government, still collar, still slaves but with the ability to move freely about the country as long as they sniffed out their own kind. Or were lucky enough to find an Omega. Much more of a rarity nowadays.
Afterall no one had as good of a nose as an Alpha.
If you asked Dean, they sold their soul for that little bit of freedom.
He supposed it was his own designation that really started this whole thing. Omegas. Since there were less and less every generation. After all you could get an Alpha or a Beta out of any combination of secondary genders but only an Alpha and Omega pairing could produce an Omega child.
And as the population of Omegas started to decrease, the number of violent crimes committed by Alphas started to increase, especially against Omegas themselves, or so the government said. Laws were being passed before even Dean was born, enslaving non-mated Alphas. Hauling them away to those work camps. And by the time his brother Sam was born 4 years after him, laws were being passed to 'protect' Omegas as well. Laws that basically made it impossible for Omegas to exist freely without a rich benefactor.
Dean took another look at his youngest brother, half brother technically. Adam was young, so young, over 10 years his junior. And now at sixteen was starting to gain the muscle and height of adulthood. Before he had presented as an Alpha at twelve, the boy had been able to lead a normal life with his Beta mother.
It was always 50/50 with an Alpha/Beta pairing. 50/50 that you got a normal, apple pie life or a life on the run, trying to stay one step ahead of the law. One mistake away from being placed into a slave camp for life.
Their father knew these odds as well when he slept with Adam’s mother, but everyone is human and six years after their mom died, he had a short fling which resulted in the boy before him.
Adam, of course, had had the Winchester luck and presented as an Alpha a week after his 12th birthday. The only good luck he did seem to get was that they were able to get to him before the Hell Hounds did, after a desperate call from his mother, and get back on the road as a family of four on the run, instead of three.
He remembers how hard those first few months were on Adam. Going from a normal, safe life of school work and friends to motel rooms and looking over your shoulder every minute of every day had been bumpy to put it mildly.
There was a time, he supposed that he too had had a normal life, back before the fire that killed his Omega mother. Set by a single, outlaw Alpha that was jealous of his mother and father already being mated. He sometimes wonders if the police ever actually looked or prosecuted the man who did it or did his mother just become another martyr for the cause, another beautiful Omega taken by a beastly Alpha. One more government statistic used to damn the rest of them.
His father had been too scared to stay to find out. Even if he could have found another mate quickly, the government had already begun closing that loophole. Which meant his father in a camp, sooner than later, and Dean and Sam in foster care until they themselves presented. Spending the rest of their lives on the road running seemed like the right choice. Who knew how long they would have lasted in state custody.
A shiver goes down Dean's spine at that. Sam had presented at 10. Who knows how long a child could last in one of those camps.
Dean himself hadn't presented until 14, at least. Four months after Sam’s first rut. It may have been the only time Dean had ever seen his father cry. When Dean had finally worked up the courage to ask about it.
"You’ll be safer," his father had said.
As if being locked up in an institution for the rest of his life was going to be any kind of a life. The only way out would be to sell himself to the richest Beta who would have him.
Now they run from town to town, state to state. One step ahead of the cops and the Hell Hounds. Stealing and scamming as much money as they can. Staying in cheap motel after cheap motel. If they were lucky they got two rooms for the four of them. If they were really, really lucky they got a room to themselves for their own rut/heat.
But more times than not they weren't and they were forced to use the bathroom to take care of embarrassing personal needs and politely pretend that they didn't hear each other thought the thin motel walls, while sharing one room between four almost grown men.
The reason that just him and Adam had gone to get food today was because Sam was just finishing up his own rut in a cheap two bed motel room several blocks away. With the rest of them pretending they didn't hear what was going on in that bathroom with the shower running. Using the woods on the other side of the parking lot for their own business since it was better to leave Sam indoors at all times, so no one would catch a whiff of him.
A rut or heat was the only time an Alpha or Omega scent was strong enough for a Beta to smell them. Which means it was always their most dangerous time for them to be caught, so it was better to keep him indoors til the rut was a day or two passed just in case. But it was also important to move on as quickly as possible after, in case someone did become suspicious.
A delicate balancing act to be sure, that always puts all of them on edge. Dean, especially, felt tightly strung, as if that thread in him was pulled so taut, the slightest pressure could make him snap.
He hoped they would be able to get on the road today. The last town they had stayed at for over two months, trying to give Adam some sense of normalcy and a bit of the high school experience. But that was longer than their father was comfortable with. And once the rumors spread about a possible Hell Hound being in the area, well it was important to move on and get as much distance between them and it as possible.
Unfortunately Winchester luck stuck again and Sam went into rut only a day after hitting the road. Only a few hundred miles between them and a Hell Hound was a few hundred miles too close, in Dean’s opinion.
“Order 16 ready for pickup,” came over the speaker of the near empty restaurant.
Adam finally stopped complaining as they both slid out of the booth to grab the food. Hopefully when they got back, Sam would at least smell fine enough for travel and they could put more distance between themselves and the one thing that could sniff them out.
Dean listened to the sound of the Impala’s engine purr as drove back to the motel. One eye on the road in front of him, the other checking to make sure no one tailed them. Adam stared out the window watching the trees and buildings pass, looking pensive.
“Is this what our lives are ever going to be?” He asked into the stillness of the car.
The Omega glanced at him before turning his eyes back into the road. “I don't know,” he replied. “Maybe someday they'll fix the laws or we’ll find a place we can hide for good -”
“There's no such place,” Adam interrupted. Angrier now that he had been stewing in his own thoughts. “Our lives are just going to be like this forever. Fugitives on the run or animals trapped in a cage till they finally put us out of our misery.” The anger now making him practically pant.
Dean took one of his hands off the wheel and reached over to his brother, trying and failing to grab his hand as Adam jerked it out of reach. He was quicker on the second try and was able to snatch his brother’s hand, holding it tightly.
“Don't say that, we'll figure something out. Okay. As long as we're together, we'll be alright. Trust that we'll look out for you, we'll protect you.”
Letting go of his brother's hand, Dean looks back at the road, staring off into the middle distance. "It doesn't have to be perfect as long as we're together with the people we love.” He turns back to Adam. “Okay.”
The younger man chews on his lips for a moment, before agreeing. "Okay."
He reaches over to give his brother's hand one more squeeze before dropping it again and turning into the gravel parking lot of the motel the four of them are currently standing at.
It was a small, run down place that had seen better days, probably before even his dad was born. The weathered sign faded by the years, to the point that Dean wasn’t even sure what the motel was actually called. But it was cheap and they didn't ask questions about four men paying in cash and staying in a single motel room for a week. And more importantly they didn't have the luxury of going elsewhere.
He pulled the Impala in front of their motel room, the shabby window and the worn down red door with a bass eighteen hanging crooked on it looking the same as when they left it. Yet the small hairs on the back of Dean’s neck started to raise and the anxiety in his gut, somehow, pulled tighter
The parking lot was deserted, more so than usual. They had few neighbors in the week they had been here but now there were no other cars to be found, the lot completely empty. The sun-wore curtains of their room were pulled tight against anyone looking in, as they always were. Still something wasn't sitting right in the back of Dean's head.
Adam took off his seatbelt and started to get out of the car with the bag of burgers, oblivious to his brother's state. Dean’s hand shot out, grabbed him by the arm and pulled him back in, pulling the door closed with him in the process.
Startled, Adam whipped his head towards Dean. “What?”
“Something’s off,” Dean stated, never removing his eyes from the window of the room.
“How would you know that."
“Call it intuition” he snarked back. Before Adam could retort he continued. “I'm better at these things than you”
“That's sexist, Alphas are perfectly capable-”
The curtain more slightly in the window of their motel room as if someone was getting impatient to peek out.
Dean threw the car in reverse. “We're leaving," he told Adam.
“What? What about Dad? And Sam?” Adam yelped out while reaching for his seatbelt.
The wheels hadn't rolled back a foot before a large SUV peeled into the parking lot, spraying stones behind it. Two more vehicles followed closely behind, their blue and red lights flashing. The large black machine came squealing to a stop directly behind the Impala, trapping the car from its only exit
“Adam RUN!” Dean threw off his seatbelt and was out of the car in a blink, over the hood and feet on the ground just as Adam pulled himself out of the car. Grabbing the younger and turning around to make their escape, hoping they could lose them on foot. When what felt like a concrete wall slammed into the side of him, throwing him into the ground and then landing on top of him. He heard Adam give a yell and started to push up off the dirt, but was forced down again by the added weight of the large body on top of him.
Before Dean could try a second time, another body jumped on him to pin him down as they worked in tandem, cuffing his hands and feet. Pushing his head to the side so he could breathe, he saw Adam laying in the same position. Face bloody from the fall, eyes full of fear. The pained expression on his brother's face broke his heart.
It was over in a blink; both young men, hands cuffed behind their back and ankle cuffs attached and were dragged away from the motel room sidewalk and behind one of the black SUVs.
“Get off of me, you fuckers.” Adam howled, as he tried to struggle, feet dragging behind him. Pulled between two of the police officers, each one holding him by an arm. The shock seems to have worn off for his brother and now anger was the emotion of choice for Adam.
Dean was dragged along behind his brother by two more, head hanging down, watching the trail his brother's shoes made in the gravel of the stone parking lot. He went limp in the officers hands, sagging down til he was nothing but dead weight they had to pull behind them. Better to let them think he had given up til there was an opportunity, than to waste his energy struggling right now.
Already, Dean’s mind was working on ways they could get out of this. Maybe Dad and Sam had gotten away. Maybe they could create a distraction and if Dean could get the cuffs off when they did, they could get away. But he needed to bide his time and they needed to stay together. If they were separated, he may never get his brother back.
“If you don't be quiet, we will muzzle you” one of the police officers barked at Adam. A plain clothed one with a badge around his neck, he turned his head back down to the clipboard in his hands as Adam snapped his jaws shut, quietly stewing.
“I don't think we share the same kinks, Officer” Dean quipped back. Okay so maybe he wasn't going to go completely passive. Some things can't be helped after all. The man sent Dean a withering look.
Both men were deposited on their knees next to the passenger side of the largest of the SUVs, when they heard a commotion from another of the police vehicles. Whipping their heads towards the source of the sound, the thread of anxiety in him pulled tighter and his breath froze in his lungs.
Because from the back of another vehicle came his father and Sam dragged and chained up the same as Dean and Adam. The only difference were large brown muzzles covering the bottom half of their faces. Their eyes looked wild and hopeless. A feeling Dean knew his own eyes would soon start to reflect.
The other two men were dragged over by more cops and placed by Dean in a line, as the cops patted Dean and Adam down, looking for any contraband while waiting for actual transportation to an Alpha processing center.
While this was worse, it wasn't hopeless, Dean told himself. Trying to keep some kind of hope alive. The nearest processing center had to be several hours and a state away. They would be transported together. If even one of them could get loose, they could have a fighting shot of getting out of this.
They just needed to behave enough that they weren't drugged for the trip. And they just needed to escape before they got to that center because while these Betas couldn't smell a thing, there would be a Hell Hound at the center, there always was and as soon as they got a whiff of Dean, he would never see his family again. They would separate him as soon as he was found out.
They just needed to stay calm til they got into the van and were moving. The four of them against however few guards they would place in the transport would be to their advantage. Even if Dean had to break his thumb to get out these cuffs to do it, they would take that transport over.
‘Stay calm,’ he told himself. As Dean watched the jackass Beta with the clipboard get on his radio to call for said vehicle.
“Central command, come in.”
“This is central, go.” Came a muffled voice over the radio in the Beta's hand.
“We located and subdued a family group and I will need transport for them to an Alpha center for processing.” The man's head finally came up from his clipboard and he did a customary sweep of the four of them. “Looks like one parent with three young adults to late teen children. All four male. All four Alpha.”
“It’s three Alphas” a new voice called, the sound jerked Dean like a gun shot went off and that thread in his stomach tighten further. ‘No,’ he thought. Beside him Sam’s back went ramrod straight and Adam started a low growl
For around the corner of the SUV came a woman with bright red hair and a cruel smile on shining red lips. Around her throat sat a thick black collar, marking her as a Hell Hound. Traitorous Alpha bitch.
“I'm sorry, what, Abaddon?” The cop asked, confused and turning towards her.
“There's only three Alphas, I was all over that motel room. And there's only three different Alpha scents in there.” She gave a cruel, leering smile looking down the line of men. “The fourth scent was much sweeter.”
Dean put his head down and stared at the stones in the parking lot, maybe his brothers and dad would be able to get away, even if he wasn’t there. If he went quietly and didn’t make a scene when they separated him, his family would still have a chance to escape.
Beside him Sam too started to let out a low pitch growl behind the muzzle.
“A Beta then?” Jerk-off with the clipboard asked.
She smiled slowly as if this was some kind of inside joke. “No,” she stated. She then started walking in front of the men kneeling before her.
“Hmm, I wonder if I can pick you out on looks alone?” An inhumane taunt in the tone of her voice. Dean watched as her black boot stopped in front of him before a hand was roughly pulling his head up by his hair, so they were face to face.
“With a face like that, it's really not even a challenge is it?” She whispered softly as she ran a fingernail from her other hand down the side of his cheek.
“Hello, there little Omega,” she purred at him. Saying the word aloud seemed to break whatever spell she had on them because in the blink Adam attempted to lunge at her, snapping his jaws. She let out a laugh as she easily stepped out of the way and the boy fell on his face. Pulled down by the cuffs attached to his hands and feet. Before he could even attempt to pull himself up, two of the cops were grabbing him, pinning him down flat to the ground.
Dean watched frozen as he felt hands encircle his own arms and start dragging him away from his family.
Sam gave a muffled yell, also trying and failing to lunge after Dean. More cops fill Dean's vision as they try to hold his brothers down. His father too seemed to be struggling against the hold of more police. The panic felt contagious at that point and Dean started pulling against the two dragging him away.
A loud scream was heard and the smell of blood reached Dean's nose. Dean turned his head to see that Adam had gotten a mouth full of a cop’s bicep.
“God, drug all of them,” shouted the Jerk-off with the clipboard. "Goddamn Animals!"
“No,” Dean yelled
“You know how unpredictable Alphas get when Omegas are near.” Jerk-off continued to yell, talking as if Dean wasn't there. Like these people weren't his kin, like they were unruly beasts instead.
Dean attempted to fight harder against the arms holding him as they dragged him farther from his family. The last view Dean got of his father and brothers was of the three of them being dog piled on in the dirt with a tranquilizer gun being used on them.
Dean continues to pull against the two men holding him. Trying and failing to get back to his family.
“Drug him too. If he won't calm down," Jerk-off yelled. “Omegas are too delicate for this type of shit.”
That was the last thing he heard before a needle was shoved into his arm and everything went dark.
White was the first thing to meet his eyes, when he was finally able to pry them open.
Endless white.
White walls. White sheets press into half of his face. A white ceiling when he was able to roll over onto his back. A white, obviously locked door greeted him at the end of his white bed. Dean felt unease settled in his stomach when he also realized someone had taken his clothes and changed him into white hospital scrubs, down to white hospital socks.
Dean laid on his back and stared past that white, white ceiling. His hand absently came up to scratch the red bump now located at the base on his neck. Breathe in, breathe out, he told himself. That thread of anxiety still pulled tight.
'Don't think about it,' he told himself.
Don't think about how someone drugged him and undressed him without his permission.
Don't think about how he was dropped in here against his will for his own ‘safety’.
Don't think about how he'll never have his own freedom again, the red bump where the tracker under his skin would make sure of that.
Don't think about how he would never see his family again.
Don't think about the fate of his family in those slave camps.
Dean choked on his breath, and tried to suck more air into his lungs as his eyes welled up with tears, he refused to shed. They wouldn't get that from him. Breathe in, breathe out, he told himself.
When he finally felt like he could control the spiral of misery that had settled over, Dean got up.
There wasn't much to explore in his new 8x8 prison. The white brick walls and the white door were only broken up by a small window and slot in the center of it. There was no handle and no way for it to be open from the inside.
Dean tried to peer out into the hallway, which was dimly lit and quiet. And unsurprisingly led out to a white hallway with more white doors that looked exactly the same as this one.
Who knows how long he had been drugged for. Long enough to get him here, tagged and processed. Though he wasn't even sure where here was. Unlike the Alpha centers, Omega sanctuaries, as the government likes to call them, never release their actual location. For the safety of the Omegas they housed, they said. Dean couldn't stop the eye roll at that.
The only thing he could really be sure of was it was night, going by the deserted hallway. They had been grabbed bringing back dinner and going by how his stomach felt, it had been more than just a few hours. With his luck, a day or more had probably passed.
Which meant his father and brothers were more than likely already processed through the center and well on their way to a work camp somewhere in the lower 48.
‘Breathe in, breathe out,’ he told himself. Maybe they got lucky. Maybe the drugs wore off before they were processed. Maybe they were able to escape and were already back on the road. Maybe they were thinking of a plan to get him back even now.
‘No,’ Dean wiped that last thought from his mind, at the very least. Even if they had escaped their own fate, and God he hoped they did. They would never be able to get to him.
Omega were so much rarer now. To the point it was not only a state secret where the sanctuaries were located, but getting in was almost impossible. The sanctuaries were more like high security prisons, where Omegas were kept until they agreed to marry a rich beta, who would then also keep them under lock and key.
Everything done to Omegas was done out of a duty to protect them, afterall. Heavy on the sarcasm there.
Even if he was able to slip past his guards, he was already tagged. Another lovely precaution so no one could kidnap him of course. Removing it himself would be near impossible and finding someone to do it would take more money then he ever had.
No, Dean was caught and would now be in the system for the rest of his life. Living in this institution as they shoved suitor after suitor at him, trying to marry him off to whatever rich asshole would pay the most. Because he was a rare commodity.
That wasn't happening. Which means he would spend the rest of his life here. Dean tried to shove his feelings about that to the back of his mind. It wouldn't be so bad, he told himself. He had heard about how these places were run.
Beta loved to brag about how much better Omegas were treated under them now, how much safer they are with the new laws. He'll get three good meals a day, outdoor time in a high walled off courtyard, guards that would be very reluctant to put their hands on him and what looks like a very bland but clean room to sleep in here.
Except he’ll never be free again or see his family again.
‘Breathe in, breathe out,’ he told himself. ‘Stop thinking about it”
His stomach still took a sour turn, he shouldn't be upset by this because he knew what awaited his father and brothers in those Alpha camps. If they hadn't managed to escape, they were as good as dead.
Once the Alpha center processed them. They would have been microchip and collar as well. Unlike Omega collars, which only needed to be worn when out in public and were more of a way for rich Betas to show off their spouses. The collars on Alphas were a thick dark metal that were welded shut, and electrified. It was said the guards would not hesitate to use it for any infraction, real or otherwise.
After all, Alphas needed a very firm hand, otherwise they may all try to rebel.
The camps, themselves, were also notorious for their poor living and working conditions. Alphas only survived as long as they were useful and And well when the conditions took their national toll, what could they do.
Dean swallows down the bile threatening to up. He didn't want to think about the horrors that lay ahead for the rest of his family while he was living something closer to the high life in comparison.
He threw himself back on the bed, shoving his face into the pillow. Willing himself back to sleep. Letting his mind wander down that path was going to drive him mad. And madness would help no one.
Sleep didn't come and Dean spent the next few hours staring at those white walls til the dim lights started to brighten and a chime noise played from a speaker somewhere in the hall.
A voice chimes over the loud speaker “The time is 8 o’clock, breakfast will be served shortly. Thank you.”
A soft click announces his door popping open by itself. It seems Dean was now free to move about the cabin.
With an exhale, he picks himself off the bed and moves towards the door. Looking out the little window again, other people are starting to file out into the hallway, Everyone of them wearing the same outfit, white scrubs, as he was dressed in. Most of them greeted each other before going about their own morning routine.
Dean squares his shoulders back, takes a deep breath and tries to shove everything he was feeling back down into the pit of his stomach, with that tight thread of anxiety. Showing fear when he was entering a new place wasn't going to do him any favors and if he was going to figure out what his next steps were, he needed his wits about him.
Pushing the door open, Dean steps directly out into the hallway and promptly right into the path of a petite woman coming down that hallway.
“Watch it!”
“Sorry,” he puts his hands up and takes a step back from her. She was slightly younger than him, blonde but could almost pass for his sister in looks. Her eyes flicker up to Dean's face.
“You're the new Omega,” she states. “The one they brought in last night.”
“Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's me.” He answered slowly, wondering where she was going with this.
She looks him up and down once away before blowing out a breath and shaking her head as if she made up her mind. “Well, I don't have anything else to do this morning and it's not like they're going to give you an orientation. So I'll show you around,” she insists. Before walking around him and continuing down the hall. "Come on, or don't."
“...Thanks.” Dean watches her pass, before hurrying after her. "I think."
“Whatever, I'm Jo by the way,” she calls back.
“Dean." he tells her as he strides up beside her.
“Well, come on,” she waves him on as the hallway ends into some type of rec room. “It's a short tour and I want to be at breakfast before all the good fruit is gone”, she informed him. “Showers and bathrooms are over there, by the way.” She points to the wall on their left as they head to the right.
"Most don't stay long,” Jo explained, as they walked through the sparsely decorated lounge. She stopped them in front of a large picture window looking out into a courtyard. It was in fact the only window he had seen so far. “That's the only outdoor space we're allowed in and this is the only window we have. Unless you're in the upstairs meeting rooms.”
“Meeting rooms?” He asks.
“You go there when you match with a Beta. Start the in person part of marriage negotiations with them or their contract person."
“Negotiations?”
Jo gives him a dubious look. Before continuing on to the open door leading into the cafeteria. “The place is a big square with the courtyard in the middle. We're not allowed in the office or lobby, of course. Not much to do, no way to get out.” Jo sends him another look over her shoulder as they get in line for food. “The only way out is if someone puts a ring on it, as Beyoncé would say.”
Dean snorts at that, but his comeback dies on his tongue when he finally sees the food choices. Food on the run was never a sure thing. Money was always tight and motels didn't have anything near like a home kitchen. Take out was usually narrowed down to diners and fast food.
The buffet in front of him was probably more food in one place than he had ever seen in his life. It was more food than he had ever been able to afford to have in one sitting and he wasted no time loading up his own plate, to the amusement of his tour guide.
“Did the same thing my first day,” Jo tells him before beckoning him to follow her to a small round table already occupied by two other people, deep in conversation. “Dean, this is Kevin and Lisa.”
The other two Omegas stopped their conversation to greet and shake Dean's hand, before they quickly restarted talking as Dean and Jo took their seats at the table.
“He already agreed to take on the contract as soon as we announce the engagement and it will stipulate that a trust will be set not to exceed 100,000 a year in expenses for the both of us.”
“You should make that the yearly minimum, not maximum,” Kevin interrupted. “The man is worth over 50 million going by my research, he can afford to make sure you both are protected. You'll want to make sure there's enough money in case the marriage falls through later on. So you can still hold the work contract, if the worst should happen."
The brunette woman nodded her head. “Yes, I know. I need enough money that I can hold his security contract after I'm gon-”
Dean snorted, interrupting the two. All three Omega turned to look at him.
“You have a problem?” The brunette woman, Lisa, demanded.
Dean shook his head, “No”. Then he paused and thought about it for a moment. 'May as well asks,' he thought. “I just don't understand why you all are doing this, why marry these people that you have barely or haven't even met?”
Kevin gave him a look of disbelief. “And stay here instead?” He asked, gesturing all around them.
“I would rather spend my life looking at white walls than laying on my back for the people who put us here,” Dean retorted back.
Lisa spoke next, “Dean, you were caught as well, yes? Like the rest of us?” She emphasized.
He nodded, even though it was a rhetorical question. Omegas could only be born 'wild' anymore afterall.
“Were you alone or were you caught with a family member that was Alpha?” She continued.
He sucked a breath in thinking about his father and brothers. The look on his face was all the rest of the table needed to see to know the answer.
“My twelve year old son presented at school,” Lisa's voice cracked on the word son. “They had already taken him to a processing center by the time I had gotten to the school.” Dean reached over, cupping her hand with his own on the tabletop. “This rich Beta, I'm going to marry, is going to buy his work contract. He'll stay in a good home with plenty of food in his belly and guards that wouldn't dare touch him." She looked Dean directly in the eyes. "I'm going to keep my son safe and away from those government camps.”
“I don't understand,” Dean scrunched his nose thinking. “I thought all Alpha camps were government owned and the alphas always work government contracts.’
“If you're rich enough, you can buy government contracts and you can buy individual Alpha slave contracts.” Jo piped in. “The government does technically still own them, but as long as you're rich enough you can keep them for life.”
“It’s not a get out of jail free card,” Kevin added. “They still have to follow the law for detaining Alphas but it's a hell of a lot safer and nicer than what the government provides.”
It clicked in Dean's head then, “it's not a bug, it's a feature.” After all, an Omega could only be born from a Omega/Alpha pair and would only have Omega or Alpha siblings. The odds that an Omega had Alpha family was very likely.
Jo nodded in agreement. “Kevin and I were both caught with our Alpha mothers. You would be hard to find an Omega here who wasn't found with at least one Alpha family member.”
“No one here wants to see their family left in those camps, Dean,” Lisa said, giving his hand one more squeeze before letting go. “Laying on my back is a small price to pay for my child's safety.”
And with that the three other omegas got back to talking about Lisa's contact. Dean slowly pushed the food around his plate, thinking, his appetite had left him.
He could save his family, it would only require him selling his ass to do it. And really was that even a hard choice to make.
It was, in fact, the easiest choice he ever had to make.