Omega Rescued

SERIES: Omegas of OAN
BOOK: 4 of 4
STANDALONE? Interconnected standalones with a series arc
TROPES: Alien Romance, Omegaverse, Alien with Alien Anatomy, Beauty and the Beast Retelling, Heats, Science Experiment Heroine, Alien Invasion, Kidnapping, Rescue Romance, Cinnamon Roll Hero

“Would you truly wish to return home, knowing that you could hurt someone? Someone you love?”

Callista always wanted to be special. The omega daughter of the ambitious and wealthy Hoskiss family, she’s never been expected to do anything other than marry well and breed the next generation of Alphas. When she learns of a terraforming expedition traveling to the new Oberon colony, she is willing to strike any bargain to get herself on that mission, away from her cold, calculating parents and a life that has never felt like her own.

But Calli’s choices are stolen from her anew when she wakes up from cryosleep on a spaceship—one that seems to be under attack, judging by the warnings and sirens.

Estrevaga D’Thani is a veteran member of Anti-Theta, the elite taskforce working to subvert and ultimately defeat the Theta-Devs threatening the Earth… and he’s also a defector from the original invading force. He refused to support the cruel experiments and flesh peddling, turning his back on his own kind to help the humans.

Humans like Calli, who he stumbles upon while Anti-Theta is raiding the attacked transport ship.

As the two make their escape, he realizes she has been used as a test subject too, like so many others before her. Others who never survived the process. Abducted and altered, Calli must now come to terms with those changes—or risk seriously harming humanity.

Can Estrevaga help Calli learn to uncover and harness her new abilities, or will she never see him as anything more than just another Theta-Dev beast like the ones who held her captive?

Omega Rescued is the final book int he Omegas of OAN series. While each book is a standalone following a different couple there is a series arc and they're best read in order. A content guide is available for readers with sensitivies on the author's website www.alexisbosborne.com

Waking up from cryosleep was somehow even worse than the induction process. Induction had been claustrophobic, but unthawing was painful. It left her shivering on a cold, hard surface with a stinging sensation underneath her skin.

Calli’s mind struggled to come back to reality. Voices and noises filtered in and out through her consciousness as her eyes fluttered open and closed. The harsh light that shone down on her from somewhere above made her blink against its blinding brightness. 

People were talking, but her brain didn’t want to make sense of it. The words carried no meaning. Everything had a faraway feeling to it, almost like a lucid dream.

Another bolt of pain licked up her spine, making her gasp. She shivered and tried to wrap her arms around her chest, to hug herself, but a tight band on her wrists arrested the movement, trapping her arms.

Was she still in her pod? Had something gone wrong with the thawing process? Was she awake too soon? Or maybe they’d already landed on Oberon and her body was just having a hard time adjusting. The recruiter had said that could happen.

The surrounding murmuring faded in and out like so much background noise.

For a moment, she nearly drifted back to sleep, or unconsciousness. She was so cold and tired. Another stab of pain assaulted her, this one deep enough to make her lips part with a cry. Her eyes fluttered open, only for her to squeeze them shut against the light.

The voices grew louder and more distinct, losing their fuzzy edges, and then a dark shape blurred above her. A hand brushed over her face, sliding her eyelids closed. Something cold ran up her arm like ice. Suffering followed it. It scraped her raw from the inside out. The pain softened, and then the world did too.

Too tired to protest, her consciousness sank back down as once again she succumbed to an induced slumber that provided no rest.

***

An alarm wailed, waking her with such a jolt that she woke with her heart hammering in her chest. Eyes flying open, Calli inhaled sharply and pressed a hand to her breast as if she could stop its rapid beating that way.

She was no longer strapped down. She was no longer in pain either. But the air was chilled and that was uncomfortable.

Mind sluggish, she looked around in confusion. This wasn’t her room.

She cataloged her surroundings. She assumed they would wake her in a medical facility once they landed at the Oberon colony. This sparsely furnished chamber wasn’t what she’d expected.

Sitting up, she nearly fell back down to the bed as a wave of vertigo made everything spin in circles around her. Her vision swam, the effect nauseating. She shut her eyes and settled on one elbow, breathing through it as her head righted itself.

The alarm was mind-splitting in intensity, and it made the pounding in her skull worse. With a groan, Calli sat up and covered her ears, then swung her legs out of bed. The sheet and a loose-fitting hospital gown fell down to her knees.

Maybe I am in a medical bay after all.

This wasn’t like any medical facility she’d ever seen before. The walls were gray and plain. The floor was just the same. It was cold underneath her feet, but nowhere near as icy as it was when she’d first awakened. The room held only a small bed with a single pillow. A desk was paired with an accompanying chair. Someone had bolted both pieces of the heavy furniture to the ground.

This room looked nothing like the brochures with the photographs of a colony base tastefully designed with wide open rooms and vaulted ceilings.

Where am I?

Something loud banged against the door. Calli jumped back with a gasp, eyes wide. The backs of her calves hit the bed behind her. Her confusion deepened into dread.

“Something is wrong,” she whispered to herself.

Swallowing past the lump in her throat, she crept to the door and its small viewing pane. There was no shade or curtain.

So much for privacy.

She frowned. When nothing struck the door again, she gathered up her courage to press her face to the plasglass window and peer outside. It was so high up. She had to lean against the door and stand up on her tiptoes to look out.

A white and black blur ran by, and the vague sounds of fighting filtered through the solid door. A Theta-Dev ran past, one hand cupped to his side where blood seeped down over his fingers. It splattered onto the floor as he disappeared.

Covering her mouth with a hand to stifle her gasp, she leapt back from the window and ducked down underneath the edge, out of view.

Are the Theta-Devs attacking the transport ship? Shit… are they attacking the colony?

The colony was supposed to be safer than Earth. Her parents would have never let her go otherwise. Not if they’d thought it would be dangerous.

Hand covering her mouth, not that anyone could probably hear her whimper over the blaring alarm, Calli peered out the window again. The hallway was empty. Only the trailing drops of blood on the riveted metal floor proved that she hadn’t hallucinated it.

The alarm stopped abruptly.

“Warning,” an AI announcer said. Its voice was monotone as it sounded from the hidden overhead speakers. “Evacuation protocols have been activated. Please make your way in a calm and orderly manner to the escape pods.” It repeated the phrase in several more languages before starting all over again, looping.

Her fingers tightened on the window’s rim. So she was on a ship. Only ships had escape pods. Orbiting space stations and colonies had lifeboats.

She looked around the room and wished she had more substantial clothing. Anything but the thin hospital gown. It hung off her like a sack. There weren’t even shoes for her to wear.

What had happened to her cryosleep suit, and who had undressed her?

Should she go out there? The Theta-Devs never attacked alone; they always struck in groups. She’d seen one, but there had to be others. And they were out there. Beyond her door. This room was safer. She could huddle under the window. If they didn’t open the door, maybe they wouldn’t see her.

The ship’s AI cycled through its warning again, and Calli realized she was wasting precious time by waffling about what to do. The ship was potentially not safe to stay on. Ships didn’t evacuate for no reason.

She didn’t want to miss her chance at getting into an escape pod. There were always enough pods for everyone, all passengers and crew. But sometimes, in their panic, people left without filling up all four seats.

The door button was cold underneath her hand as she pressed it. It slid open and disappeared into the wall. Calli popped her head out, looking up and down the narrow hallway. It was empty.

Creeping around the blood splatters on the floor, she followed the emergency beacon’s lit path toward the escape pods. Turning around tight corners, she made her way to the lifeboat deck. The evacuation alarm continued, her heart pounding in time with it.

Footsteps stomping against the metal floor echoed behind her as someone came her way. Calli sucked in a breath and palmed a random room open, ducking inside and closing it behind her. 

The footsteps ran past, followed by shouting, growling, and then the sounds of pulsefire.

Shit, shit, shit.

She backed away from the door. It was a break room of some sort. Small and bleak-looking, it was obviously designed for the crew. Three cups of coffee and a half-eaten muffin were still on the small table. As if their owners would be back at any moment to claim them. She had a feeling that was unlikely to happen.

Pulsefire, growling, and shouting sounded through the break room door.

Fucking fuck. What now?

The evacuation alarm droned on, taunting her. She was not going out there. No way. Not while whatever was happening… happened.

The noises stopped or died down until they couldn’t be heard over the alarm. Calli counted to one hundred, then counted again, took a deep breath, and palmed the door open.

A Theta-Dev soldier kneeled on the chest of an unmoving soldier, a pool of red blood spreading on the metal floor underneath them. Unconscious or dead? She couldn’t tell.

She forgot how to breathe.

The alien stared at her, amber eyes narrowing and a growl half-formed on his leonine lips. A fang peaked out as he grinned.

Calli took a step back, the primordial urge to run suffocating her. But there was nowhere to go. Her back hit the table, rattling the coffee cups and plate.

The Theta-Dev got off the soldier, prying up his battleax with the movement. It slid free of the soldier’s body, drops of blood dripping off it and splattering on the ground. The alien moved as a large cat would when stalking prey, his tail moving in a lazy arc behind him as he advanced to the open doorway.

Gripping the table, Calli edged away until she was leaning back over it. He crossed the short distance between them, his hand going to her throat.

He wouldn’t kill her, she knew that. What they did to human women was so much worse.

Claws pricked at her soft skin. She swallowed, the movement tight against his palm. Tears rolled down her cheeks as she cried. Knees shaking, she trembled as he leaned down and sniffed the top of her head, his breath blowing against the baby hairs that framed her face.

“Found you,” he said in nearly perfect English. “The general will be happy to hear that not all was lost today.”

His grip slackened from her throat to thread into her hair. He held her by the nape and squeezed, pulling her away from the table, and then tugged her against his bloodied front.

“Hurry, female. Before more human fools come to die beneath my claws and blade.”

“No!” She struggled against him as he pulled her to his side. She jabbed an elbow into his taut form, doing more damage to herself than him.

He laughed.

The sound of it filled her with a rage that made her forget the danger she was in. Heedless of the pull of his fingers in her hair, Calli fought against him. She stomped on his boot and tried to get her elbow in his solar plexus like she’d learned.

He wrestled with her, taking her jabs as if they were love taps. 

Screaming with frustration, they were both surprised when a tiny explosion popped.

Something cut her cheek, slicing it open, and warmth ran down her face.

He picked her up and turned them. Fisting her hands on the arm that pinned her to his chest like an iron bar, she dug her useless, blunt nails into his fur and scratched.

A snarl from the doorway made both their heads whip up.

Another Theta-Dev stood there, nostrils flaring and purple eyes shining with anger.

The one holding her growled. “Preda tel.” His alien words rumbled through her where they touched.

The Theta-Dev in the doorway narrowed his eyes. His dangerous tail swished behind him. “Otpusti yeye.”

The alien holding her lowered her, the grip on her slackening. Slowly, he eased her to the ground. “Yas udovol’stviyem ub’yu tebya.” He chuckled.

Extending his hands out to the side, the purple-eyed alien smirked. “Segodnya ty ne naydesh’ udovol’stviya. Tol’ko smert’ ili sdacha.”

The alien at her side grabbed her by the shoulder and shoved her away from him.

Her hip clipped the edge of the table as she bounced against it. Calli didn’t need to be told twice. She shrank back until she hit the wall on the opposite side of the cramped room. The alien in the doorway studied her. He looked her up and down. And then he slid into the room with a lethal grace.

They circled each other. A tail jabbed forward, only to be blocked with the handle of an ax. One feinted left, the other blocking it.

Pretending to attack with his tail, the one who had captured her spun, raising his ax into the air with the movement. The Theta-Dev who’d interrupted leapt, using the opening to close the gap between them.

Inching along the wall with her backside pressed flush against it, Calli edged to the door as they fought. It was difficult to move around them. For every three inches that she gained, she lost two. 

Their movements were too unpredictable for her to judge where they’d end up. If she tried to run to the door, she might run right into the path of an ax. Or their tails. Those were just as deadly.

Not wanting to get in the middle of the swinging axes or slicing tails, she cowered in a corner and sank down below the level of the table, using it to shield her. Maybe if they couldn’t see her, they’d just forget she was there.

There was cursing and growling, followed by sharp yells of pain. The ax swung down and sank into the table, the silver edge cutting through.

Calli stared at it with the sort of numb calmness that came along with shock. Blood had dried on the blade in brown flakes, caught in the grooves of the etching that decorated its razor-sharp rim.

One alien was on top of the other, his tail and its concealed spines snapping in the air.

Her cheek itched. When she wiped it, the trickle of blood that had rolled down her face smeared onto her fingers. She frowned at it, wondering what had happened. The room looked fine. It made little sense. Something had exploded. Where was the evidence of it?

The fight had devolved to fists smacking against flesh. The dull sound echoed in the tiny room.

When her captor was still and collapsed on the table, the purple-eyed one stopped his assault. Calli stared at him, wondering what this one had planned for her.

What do they want from me?

Fear curdled in her stomach. She knew. They wanted human women to alter and breed, to save their dying race. The United States was the last country to come to an accord with them.

“You are safe now,” he said. He peeled himself off the unmoving male beneath him.

Calli looked at him and frowned.

She stared at him, eyes flicking up and down his form, seeing the emblem on his black tactical suit for the first time. The Anti-Theta logo appeared across his broad chest in black on black relief.

She recognized him from the news. “You’re Estrevaga.” He was so much larger in person. Or maybe everyone in Anti-Theta was just ridiculously tall.

“Come.” He beckoned, holding a hand out to her. Dots of red blood had stained his white fur, pink, and caked under his claws. “We must hurry before—”

An explosion, a real one that made everything tremble, rocked them and sent Calli sprawling. She slapped her palms down and gasped. Ears ringing, the sound even louder than the evacuation alert that was still blaring, she peeled herself up off the floor.

Screeching metal whined and twisted. Part of the ceiling fell, collapsing and exposing the wiring and pipes that were threaded inside the walls of the ship. Something blotted out the overhead light. Looking up, she saw Estrevaga was curled over her. He pushed her back down, covering her with his body.

Calli pressed her hands to her head and ducked her head for whatever good that might do.

Even with her ears covered, the sounds of the ship warping and crumpling were enough to set her on edge. They were going to die. Something had either blown up or imploded. Surely this compromised the ship. How long before it blew them out into the vacuum of space?

The emergency alert broadcast stopped mid-sentence, the AI's voice whining as it died.

He lifted off of her. She waited a beat, then sat up. Estrevaga slid to her side, sitting next to her.

The ceiling had caved in and blocked the doorway, their only mode of escape cut off. Part of the wall had crumpled in too, pinching it in the middle. She might squeeze through the tiny opening in the bottom, but he wouldn’t. Not with how broad his shoulders were.

“Are you injured?” he asked, looking her over.

Calli settled onto her hip and tucked the flimsy, loose hospital gown around her legs. “No. I’m fine. The door’s not, though.”

Whether it was a good or bad thing that the evacuation protocols turned off, she wasn’t certain.

“Hmm…” He didn’t seem too alarmed by this development as he stared down at his wrist comm, nodding every so often.

Calli watched the tiny braids in his long white hair shift with the movement.

“I will call my teammates.” Sighing, he tapped at the screen multiple times. “If I can get this thing to cooperate.”

Craning to look, Calli watched him struggle with the comm. His fingers were too large to use the small screen effectively. Every time he tried to select an option, some part of his finger pad would touch another area.

“Do you… can I help?” she asked.

“You know how to work it?”

She blinked at him, fighting to keep her expression neutral. “It’s a comm. Yes. Everyone knows how to use them.”

Moving closer, she curled herself up into his space and looked at his device. He held it up for her to see it better. Tapping through the main menu, she brought up the contact list. “Who do you want to call?”

“Orrson.”

“O-Orrson Sarratt?”

She hesitated, blinking at the name of one of the most influential individuals in the US, then scrolled down the short list, working through the alphabet. The names of the Anti-Theta team members appeared one after another.

It was surreal. These were people she’d seen on news broadcasts and magazine spreads. And here she was, sitting on the floor of a ship next to Estrevaga, just going through their numbers.

When she got to the Os, she tapped on Orrson’s name and held her breath as it dialed. The comm rang, and then it patched them in.

“E! Where are ya, big guy? Zina said you disappeared on her,” Orrson Sarratt asked through the comm.

Estrevaga held it up to his mouth, yelling into it. “We are trapped in a tiny room.”

Calli winced, touching two fingers to his arm and pushing it down. “You don’t have to hold it up that close to your face. Just right about here and… talk normally, don’t yell.”

He frowned at her. “And they will hear me? Like this?” His expression was skeptical.

“Hey, buddy,” Orrson interrupted, “who’s your friend?”

They both glanced at the comm as it beeped and the video call feature activated. “Umm, hi.” She waved, then immediately regretted it, feeling like an idiot.

“The Uchenyy was guarding her. He has been dealt with, but the door is broken,” Estrevaga answered, bringing the comm back up to his mouth.

Calli pulled his hand back down and shook her head. “He can hear you from down here, I promise.”

“If you can teach E how to use that comm without screaming, then you’re hired, mystery woman,” Orrson said. “SYSTEM, scan her.”

A blue beam shot out from Estrevaga’s comm, spreading out into a bar. It scanned down her face. The light blinded her for a moment, then closed up and disappeared. “Callista Hoskiss,” a sophisticated-sounding AI said. “Age twenty-four, lives in New Soho, currently at Celestial Pioneers, specializing in pedology through an honorary diploma.”

Calli frowned, her mouth parting in surprise. “That’s… how…” How did he know that? He knew everything about her with just a face scan. That broke so many laws.

“Hoskiss… That sounds familiar… Where do I know tha—wait, any relation to Miles Hoskiss?”

Calli’s concerned frown turned into a scowl. She sat back on her heels and fisted her hands in her hospital gown. “Yeah.” She sighed.

“Sore subject, huh? Lemme patch the rest of the team in, hang tight,” Orrson said before the line crackled, then died.

They waited in tense silence as Calli thought about her brother. Her perfect Alpha brother. With his law degree and the career trajectory that made all of his peers jealous. Even here, she still couldn’t get out from under her brother’s shadow. Leaving Earth hadn’t been enough.

“Estrevaga, where did you go? You left all the fun for me. Not that I’m complaining,” an unfamiliar voice said over the comm. One by one, they patched the rest of the team into the call.

Calli glanced at the screen and saw a blue ring flashing around the letter W. That was Warrick, she assumed. The sharpshooter who never talked to the cameras. The only one in Anti-Theta who seemed to slink away from the limelight whenever the media interviewed them.

“I smelled a female and went to investigate,” Estrevaga answered.

Calli glanced up at him, her focus zeroed in on his large, triangular nose. He’d smelled her from across a spaceship? That was unsettling.

“You found one of the test subjects? Alive?” a woman asked.

Zina Kinova. Calli didn’t need to look at the comm to know she’d see the letter Z if she did. Zina was the only woman within Anti-Theta’s ranks.

“Living and listening,” Orrson said. “Hey, flower power, drop me a pin. We’re almost done here. Whoever is closest is going to come get you guys.”

Estrevaga looked at her, a silent question on his face. Calli nodded. She minimized the phone call and found the comm’s map feature, dropping a location pin.

“Who’s a flower girl?” another voice asked, confused. More sound of pulsefire came through over the line.

“Nice of you to join us, El Capitan,” Orrson said. “Our boy E found himself a damsel in distress.” More pulsefire sounded, followed by fighting.

Any starstruck awe she’d had evaporated. Now she was just irritated. “She doesn’t like being talked about like she’s not there,” Calli muttered loud enough for them to hear.

Ugh. Now they have me talking about myself in the third person.

“Got it. I’m the closest,” someone new said.

Calli gave up on keeping track of who was talking. There were just too many of them. Tuning them out, she hugged herself, very aware of the fact that she was kneeling on a dirty, bloody floor in nothing but a thin hospital gown and she didn’t even have any underwear on.

Anti-Theta was about to see her without a bra.

Fan-fucking-tastic.

“My apologies,” Estrevaga said, dragging her attention away from her introspective thoughts. “They are kind people, but… they’re used to soldier’s banter.”

The sound of metal shrieking interrupted them before she could think of a response. The bent door frame crumpled, opening one inch at a time. A man appeared, long brown hair falling forward as he propped his cybernetic arm up on the frame and pushed.

“Hey,” the cyborg said, leaning against the doorway and using the leverage to manhandle the wrecked frame open with his metal arm. He flipped his head, flinging the hair out of his eyes, then grinned. “I heard you needed a hand.”

Calli groaned at the terrible pun, wondering exactly what the hell had happened to her simple, boring life.