The Baby Pact

1

Gail

I grumble as I pick up yet another candy wrapper from behind a chair. I’ve been on cleaning duty all morning, hunting down and picking up all the stray pieces of candy wrappers people tried to hide at last night’s Halloween party, just because they couldn’t be bothered to find a trash can. This is why I don’t like Halloween. That and the fact that all the shapeshifters come into the cities, coming into my places of safety.

I sit down on one of the chairs and look around the store; I love working at the bookstore, the place smells nice and musty, reminds me of spending my days at the library when I was younger. The only place I could hide away from my parents, from people who had expectations of me that I could never live up to.

“Gail.” A woman with bright red hair and a silver loop through her nose stands next to me, her hands at her sides. “I don’t care that you have a hangover. Get back to work. After this, you can put up the Christmas decorations.” Kathy turns around again and stalks off to the front of the store.

Right… A hangover… Don’t think so. Unlike what she might think, I was working on my new dance routine for my second job last night, so no booze for me. Not that I can afford it anyway, not with the way I get paid.

I stand up again and pull the chair aside, ready to stack it with the others, and tip over a cup with something sweet and sticky in it. The red splash slowly makes its way over the floor. I curse. Great, just what I need. I dump my garbage bag on the chair next to me and get the mop from the back room.

“Gail!” Kathy calls me from the front of the store. “Get your ass over here.”

“A moment.” I raise my voice so she can hear me as I grab the supplies. I’d rather get her wrath because I didn’t come over than get it for making a mess.

I’m mopping up the spilled drink when I hear footsteps behind me.

“I called you.” Kathy stops right in her tracks when she sees what I’m doing. “What did you do now? Can’t I leave you alone for just a moment?”

I look up and see my older brother standing behind her, looking at me with amusement. I quickly stand up.

“Someone put a drink under the chair.” I try to keep my voice steady, but for Jason to be here is rare, I don’t like the implications.

“So? You should have picked it up, not thrown it across the floor.” She rolls her eyes like I’m insane. “Anyway, this guy here asked for you at the front of the store. Don’t make it too long.” And she’s off again. I think she might be the one with the hangover. It’s not like she is very warm normally, but she is extra bitchy today.

“I see that you’re still great at getting yourself in trouble.” Jason sits on one of the chairs a bit to the side, away from the ever expanding puddle of red.

“How did you find me?” I turn my back to him as I clean up the mess. I don’t want him here; I don’t need him here.

“I just went to every book-store I could find in a few mile radius from your apartment. You didn’t think you could hide from us forever?” He moves and his voice changes. “Mum wants you to come home.”

I sigh and look at him. Jason’s eyes are guarded, but I can see the pain inside; he knows full well I won’t return, not ever. “Tell her that she can—” I’m about to say “go fuck herself” but I don’t think that would go over well. Jason adores Mum. “Tell her that I won’t ever go back.” It’s only during the months coming up to the mating season that she even thinks of me. All other times of the year she rather forgets that I even exist. The disappointment. The Omega.

“You know she won’t like that.” His voice is soft, which doesn’t forebode well.

“I know. You also know why I won’t return, why I left in the first place.”

Jason won’t meet my eyes. I know that he knows full well why I’d rather choose exile than go through that. “She’s your mother. We’re your family.”

“And you want to marry me off to the richest bastard that you can find. The only reason she wants me is to cash in on my breedability. I’m not important; the fact that I can make pretty babies is.” I grab the bucket and walk to the back. Jason follows me.

“I still think you’re being silly. It’s not like they will force you or anything. You have a say in what happens.” He stands closely behind me. He’s a lot taller than me and something inside me, deep inside, still reacts to his Alpha power, even if just a little. My medication might take away the natural instincts as an Omega, but it doesn’t take away the feeling that Jason is used to getting his way and I’m playing with fire for not complying with him.

I shudder. “You know I don’t have a say in it.”

“Not if you keep acting like this, no.” I feel his hand on my shoulder and I turn around quickly, slapping his hand away.

“Don’t touch me. I’m not returning. That is that. You know that; you know that it’s not safe for me out there.”

“It’s only not safe because you won’t accept who you are, you won’t accept your place.”

I don’t accept my place. I nearly laugh, but I know that he is serious. “Go.”

“I will be back and you will come home with me. You’re twenty-five, you’re running out of time. And our parents are running out of patience. Soon, no one will want you any more.” Jason glares at me. “Do you want to be left all alone, without anyone to provide for you? You really think that is a good idea?”

That still sounds significantly better than being forced to marry and mate with someone I don’t know and then be used as a baby-machine for I-don’t-know-how-long. “I’d rather be alone than be part of our parents’ money machine.”

Jason’s jaw sets. “Don’t come running to us when you’re all old and alone. You can’t keep doing this forever. Don’t think that we’ll let you off easy this time.” He turns around and stalks back out of the store.

I let out a shuddering breath. He is gone, for now. They always get more persistent around this time of the year, and I’m scared that they might start to take other routes if I don’t return home soon. Jason’s words run through my head again. ‘You will come home with me’ and ‘our parents are running out of patience’. But I don’t want to. I don’t want to be used as a breeding machine. I’m so much more—I’m a person, but never to them… To them I’ve always been just an Omega.

When my parents first found out that I was a full dragon Omega, they were horrified—an Omega among their children. But as I grew older and the Omega movement became stronger, they saw something else in me, a baby machine. They knew that when I came of age, they could get a good price for me to marry someone’s son or daughter, get a rich partner and pull themselves out of poverty. Because full dragon Omegas are rare, and marrying me off to a full dragon Alpha would mean that our kids could have special abilities. Full dragons themselves and having a full dragon carrier, their possibilities would be endless.

I close the door behind me and Kathy is staring at me, a weird look on her face. “What was that about?”

How much did she hear? “What do you mean?”

“Such a handsome man. Why would he come here for you? Why did you not go back with him?” She looks at me and it reminds me again that I’m among humans. I’m safe here. They don’t know about me. I make sure of that with medication and special toiletries, just to hide me so that I don’t get found out.

“Because he might look good, but he has a heart of stone.” I try to give her a smile.

She nods, then she relaxes again and glares at me. “Are you done cleaning up yet?”

I smile at her, back to business. Right. “Nearly. I’ll get the Christmas decorations after lunch.”

* * *

I stretch out on my bed, looking around my room. It’s small, but I call it home. I wrap my blanket around me as I turn to the TV. I’ve got a couple of hours between the jobs, a couple of hours before I need to put on my ‘costume’, my outfit for the night job. I go through the channels on the TV, not watching really, just wasting my time.

I left home as soon as I was accepted into a university. I couldn’t stay at home; I couldn’t keep living there. As soon as I reached puberty, I started taking hormone supplements, started taking medication to suppress my heat, to suppress everything that set me apart from humans. My parents hated it, but it was my choice. My life, my body, my choice. Though, as I came closer and closer to reaching maturity, they started putting more and more pressure on me to stop the medication, to ‘become normal’. Which is why I worked my ass off so I could go to a university out of state, away from my family, away from those who want to take my choice from me.

When I came here, I soon realised that I wouldn’t be able to support myself with just the money from my scholarship. I had to get money from somewhere. So I worked odd jobs, until I found my most recent one last year. I’m an exotic dancer. Just dancing—I don’t do anything else. Partially because that is where I draw the line, but also because as long as they don’t come too close, no shifter can recognise me. And anything more than just dancing will quickly get too close, way too close. I’m not naive, I’m just… not doing that. The downside of the medication is that I can’t recognise other sifters either, it also hides them from me. Which is why I prefer to stay away from places that a lot of shifters go to.

I need to stay hidden, to keep myself safe, to keep myself from becoming just a breeding machine. Some people believe that only fated mates are able to breed an Omega, but medicine even ‘fixed’ that. These days, as long as you have the money, any Alpha or Beta can mate with any Omega if they want to. I know that it happens. I saw it happen to a friend when I was younger. One day she was there, and the next time I saw her, months later, she was carrying a child, and I knew that she hadn’t mated with anyone. She was grabbed and used to mate, made into a breeding machine. I shiver and pull the blanket over me fully. That is in the past.

I’m safe, I’m safe.

I reach out to my phone and there is a text from one of the guys at the club, Aaron. “You coming in tonight?”

I text him back. “I’m scheduled, yes. Why?”

It doesn’t take long for a text to pop up again. “Apparently boss wants to extend the Halloween theme to tonight. You need to dress up if you’re coming.”

I sigh. Great. I didn’t go in last night because I didn’t want to join in the Halloween crazy, but apparently the boss has other ideas. I guess it isn’t as bad as Christmas themed. I remember last year’s Christmas special night. I do not look good in red stockings. Not at all.

My fingers fly over the digital keyboard. “Fine, I’ll figure something out.”

I stand up and get over to my closet. I guess I’ll have to find something interesting to wear for tonight. I slide all the clothes to one side, revealing the one thing there that does not fit with the rest, not even with the things I’d normally wear at the club.

It’s a black leather male corset. I swallow, taking it in my hands. It’s one of the few things I bought for myself in a short lived craze to be part of the Industrial music scene. Of all the things I had, I couldn’t sell or throw away this last thing. Just couldn’t.

I put it on the bed and return to the closet, now to find other things to wear with it. Preferably things that look sexy but that I can still dance in, as the corset makes things complicated enough without adding extra hurdles.

I grab a set of black shorts and my high boots that reach over my knees. Now, I’ve only gotta figure out a costume from these random parts.