Possession forbidden alp.., p.1
Possession: Forbidden Alphas Book 1, page 1
POSSESSION
Forbidden Alphas Book 1
LILIANA CARLISLE
Copyright © 2022 by Liliana Carlisle
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Cover by Dazed Designs
Edited by Courtney Countryman
Created with Vellum
CONTENTS
Author’s Note
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Epilogue
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About the Author
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AUTHOR’S NOTE
This book contains adult content not suitable for young readers. It contains mentions of physical and emotional abuse, not done by the hero. There is also a brief mention of potential child abuse.
CHAPTER 1
HAZEL
Her lungs burn.
They should, because of the cigarette that rests between her lips, but she’s surprised at the unpleasantness.
She was hoping for a rush, anything at all, to snap her out of the stupor her mind is stuck in.
Holding the pack in her hands was more exciting than having the damn cigarette in her mouth, and disappointment clouds her thoughts.
Nothing has changed.
Tomorrow, she’ll be back at that school, teaching the children and wondering if she’s doing the right thing.
But for now she stares out past the water, focusing on the small point of light.
She’s parked too far away to see it clearly. Chain link and barbed wire block the view of the small island. Even if she pressed herself against the fence, she wouldn’t be able to make out any of the details.
She’s not supposed to be here, that much is for sure.
So why is she sitting in her car, staring at the chain-link fence, hoping for something to change?
There must be something seriously wrong with her. She’s sure no one else does this.
No one else stares danger in the face, wondering when it will come out to play.
You’re losing it. You should leave.
She tries the cigarette again, letting the smoke invade her lungs, and she ends up coughing obnoxiously.
It’s still dull.
It’s still not enough.
“You went out there again, didn’t you?” Ava asks on their lunch break.
Hazel bites her lip and stares at her salad. “Went out where?” She tries to sound innocent, but to no avail.
“You know where,” her best friend hisses. “You know exactly what I’m talking about.”
The break room is empty except for them, the only two Omegas that work at Lincoln City Elementary.
They’re the only two Omegas with teaching jobs in all of Washington state.
Hazel chews on a piece of lettuce, refusing to meet Ava’s eyes. “Even if I did, there’s nothing wrong with it.”
She doesn’t sound convincing at all.
“Are you trying to get yourself killed?” Ava snaps, keeping her voice low. “What if they escape? What if one of them smells you, and breaks out—”
“That won’t happen. I just go there to think.”
“Then go somewhere else!” Ava slams her fist down on the table, and Hazel jumps. “Go anywhere else to think. Sit on a roof, climb a tree, I don’t care. But please, you can’t keep going there.”
Hazel swallows a bite of salad and stabs at another piece of lettuce. She still can’t meet Ava’s eyes. How can she begin to explain what she’s feeling to Ava? “Nothing feels right anymore,” she mutters. “Not since they took Connor.”
Ava darts her eyes around the room, making sure the area is still empty. “It was an isolated incident,” she whispers. “You know children are never supposed to present that young, Hazel. It wasn’t safe to keep him here anymore.”
Tears fill Hazel’s eyes. If she lets them fall, she fears they’ll never stop.
“I miss him too,” Ava continues. “My kids ask about him all the time. And I’m still not sure what we’re supposed to say half the time.”
Hazel scoffs and shakes her head. “We’re supposed to say what the administration wants us to say.”
The lettuce of her salad tastes bitter the longer she thinks about what her employers did.
“It’s all so screwed up,” Ava adds. “But flirting with danger won’t solve anything. Promise me you’ll be careful. They can’t lose you, too.”
The kids can’t lose you like they did Connor.
But she can’t promise her friend anything.
Maybe she can start being more honest, though. She could tell Ava about how all of this has affected her, and the way her tendencies towards self-destruction have increased.
She takes a deep breath.
“Ava, I—”
Sirens fill the air, and her friend gives her a warning look, as if to say I told you so.
The shrill pitch has become more of a nuisance than a warning by now. She hates it.
The drill makes her roll her eyes, but she stands up anyway, leaving her salad on the table as she hurries to gather the kids from lunch.
They’re already accustomed to these drills, and small groans of annoyance fill the air as she and Ava usher their classrooms into their designated spots.
The kids aren’t who the city is really worried about, though.
After leaving the children with the Beta teachers, Ava and Hazel make their way to their own safe room, this one specifically designed to withstand tactical forces.
Just in case.
If the sirens had sounded at her apartment, she would have locked herself inside the Alpha-resistant building.
If they sounded at the grocery store, she would have been ushered into a special room built exclusively for Omegas.
Regardless of where she is, there will always be a place for her to hide from the Alphas should they escape their military island.
It’ll never happen, of course.
It’s just a precaution.
She’s in a daze as she walks into the small room with Ava. They lock the door behind themselves and scan their handprints to keep the door sealed.
“It’s alright,” Ava says, gripping her friend’s hand. “They’re doing the right thing. If Connor was showing signs of—”
“But he shouldn’t have,” Hazel whispers back. “He’s only seven years old. What did they do with him?”
Her voice wavers and tears fill her eyes while Ava remains silent.
Her best friend doesn’t have the answers.
She wonders if either of them will ever know what happened to the child.
CHAPTER 2
ABEL
Lincoln City is practicing their drills again, and Abel grits his teeth as he hears the faint sound of the sirens echoing.
Ten years.
It’s been ten fucking years of hearing those drills, ten years of knowing what he’s without.
They sold him a lie, and he’s had ten years to fester in that awful fact.
He stares up at the ceiling over his bunk, doing his best to ignore the blaring sounds.
But it’s always a reminder of what Lincoln City, the state of Washington, and the rest of the United States think of Alphas.
“Do you think they’ll ever know?” Draven asks from the bunk under him. “Do you think they’ll ever see us differently?”
It can’t keep going on like this.
“They will eventually,” Abel replies. “They have to.”
He doesn’t know how much more he can take before he breaks.
“There’s a child here,” Draven whispers after training. They’re both soaked in sweat from sparring, and Abel’s ribs ache from a nasty hit Reid landed on him.
It’s nothing he’s not used to. Pain is instructive. Pain creates discipline and turns them all into effortless killing machines for when the time comes.
He’s come to terms with it.
But Draven’s words give him pause.
“What?”
“There’s a fucking kid here,” Draven hisses, his expression furious. “Abel, I swear to fucking God, there’s a little boy. They say he’s…presenting.”
Nausea rolls in Abel’s gut while his jaw clenches so tightly he’s sure it will crack.
“That’s not possible,” he says finally.< br />
Alphas and Omegas don’t present until after they’re reached their adult years. Abel and Draven both presented when they were eighteen, but Draven has only been on the island for four years.
His bunkmate isn’t as hardened as him yet, and Draven looks like he’s seconds away from losing it.
“I heard him crying, Abel. He doesn’t know what’s happening to him.”
Abel swallows, his rage reaching a boiling point.
If he opens his mouth, he’ll scream and never stop.
Draven continues to panic.
“They took a kid. How can this be okay—”
And before Draven can stop him, Abel storms up to one of the senior guards, who regards him with narrowed eyes.
“Is it true?” Abel barks, and the guard only smirks in response.
“Is what true?”
“That there’s a child here,” Abel snarls.
“That’s on a need-to-know basis.” The guard all but grins at him, his eyes dancing with wicked delight.
The asshole.
“Fuck you, Ryland,” Abel growls, shoving him. “They can’t just take a fucking kid away. He’s supposed to grow up here?”
“Watch your fucking tone, Abel,” Ryland sneers, pushing him back. “Or I’ll make sure they take away your allowance.”
It’s the worst threat possible, but right now Abel doesn’t care.
“Fuck the allowance,” he hisses, the words falling from his mouth before he can stop them. “And fuck you for not giving a shit.”
“Fine. Have fun without it for a month.”
Abel freezes. “You’re really going to take it away for a month,” he deadpans.
Ryland’s smarmy smile grows. He’s never liked Abel, and having a bit of power over him must make Ryland hard as a rock.
“Have fun with blue balls,” he says smugly.
Abel doesn’t regret the punch. It’s worth it to see Ryland’s nose explode with blood, even as Abel is knocked to the ground by an electric jolt from a taser.
He still gives a good fight, he thinks to himself. With their rigorous training, he’s able to kick two other guards off of himself before a pistol butt knocks him unconscious.
CHAPTER 3
HAZEL
“Miss Hazel, is Connor coming back?”
She doesn’t know how many times she can endure being asked that question. Kaylee’s innocent green eyes look up at her, interrupting story time.
“I heard he turned into an Alpha!” another kid yells, and others join in.
“Yeah, he was growling!”
“That means he’s going to be a soldier! So cool!”
“No, he’s going to be big and ugly and scary!”
The book shakes in Hazel’s hands as she sits in the reading circle. Her eyes meet Kaylee’s and her heart breaks as the little girl begins to cry.
“I’m going to miss him,” Kaylee wails.
At the sight of their classmate falling apart, others start crying.
Get it together, Hazel. Control this.
But she wants to fall apart along with them. She wants to throw herself down on the ground, curl up into a ball, and weep.
Snap out of it. Get it together and deal with your shit later.
“Hey,” she says, giving the children a calm, bright smile. “It’s always good to be concerned about a friend. But I know for a fact Connor is alright.”
“But is he coming back?” Allen asks her, his lip trembling.
“I can’t answer that for sure,” she tells him gently. “But no matter what, I know Connor is safe and happy.”
“Do you promise?” Kaylee asks. “Do you really promise?”
Hazel swallows, and her smile feels forced.
Lie to them. You have to.
“I promise,” she says, doing her best to appear genuine.
Kaylee sniffles and nods.
“Okay,” the little girl whispers.
Crisis adverted, for now.
“What if we wrote Connor a card, all signed it, and I gave it to his parents?”
The idea leaves her mouth before she can second-guess it. If she could somehow talk to Connor’s family, maybe they could confirm he’s alright.
There’s no way they would send him to that island, right?
Connor, the sweet, smart little boy who constantly asked questions and always played with Kaylee and Allen.
The children agree enthusiastically to write their friend a letter, and the rest of the day goes by without a hitch.
The bell rings, and Hazel heads to the front of the school, card clutched in her hand.
She runs into the superintendent having a heated discussion with a Beta woman.
Hazel recognizes her immediately.
Connor’s mother.
Whatever she was about to say dies the moment the Beta woman meets Hazel’s eyes.
“You,” Connor’s mother snarls. “You’re the reason he’s gone.”
Her eyes are haunted as she stares at Hazel with malice. “My son would still be here if it wasn’t for people like you.”
A sharp sting spreads across Hazel’s cheek, and it takes her a moment to realize the child’s mother struck her.
“You Omega bitch,” she hisses at the same time the card for Connor falls to the floor.
A school security guard steps in between them, pushing the mother away as Hazel stares on in disbelief and shame, her cheek burning in pain.
“I’m…I’m so sorry,” she chokes out.
“That’s not good enough!” Connor’s mother snaps, her body trembling with rage and heartbreak. “I haven’t seen my son in a week. You’re the reason they send Alphas away. It’s your fault—”
The superintendent shouts for help while the security guard leads Hazel out the front of the school building and toward the parking lot.
It’s not my fault, Hazel wants to say. I didn’t make the rules.
The guard quietly escorts her to her car and watches as she shakily opens the door, cocking an eyebrow when he notices the pack of cigarettes below the passenger seat.
“I’m going to pretend I didn’t see that,” the officer says quietly.
Any other time, she would roll her eyes. It’s not that it's illegal for her to smoke or drink, but it’s generally frowned upon for an Omega.
Again, she doesn’t make the rules.
“Okay,” she whispers, not willing to engage in an argument. Her cheek still burns from the slap as she cradles her face. “Thanks.”
“Go home. Get rest, Hazel. And throw those things away.”
She nods and blinks away the tears that fill her eyes.
When the guard leaves, she drives back to her apartment, numb with shock.
It’s not my fault. I didn’t do this.
She can’t control if a child presents as an Alpha, right?
If she had it her way, he would never be sent to the island. He would have a normal life, one where he could choose who he wants to be.
A life where he’s a Beta, and nothing more.
Yet, if her suspicions are correct…
How could they do that to a child?
It made sense for so many years. Alphas are different. They’re stronger, more agile, and more powerful than the average Beta human.
But they’re also ruled by their impulses and primal needs. They’re quick to anger and violence.
They can be downright barbaric.
So, a specialized exclusive branch of the military is the best place for them, according to the United States.
Even if it’s the only choice for them.
But a seven-year-old soldier?
Or maybe it’s something worse. Maybe they’ve decided to experiment on him to figure out why a child could present so young…
