Disobedience and Devotion - Sneak Peek

Rating: Explicit. ABO Dynamics, Alpha Kara, Omega Lena.

Description: Lena Luthor is known for her rebellious nature, but when going against the law lands her a death sentence, she finds herself at the mercy of Clark Danvers, the wealthiest alpha in town. When he offers to wed her, much to her brother's relief, Lena wonders if she traded an early death for a life sentence by Clark's side. Clark is arrogant, aloof, and a stickler for abiding by the rules, all of which Lena loathes, but once they are bound together, she discovers that Clark isn't all that he appears.

*Content warnings: Alphas don't treat omegas well in this society and so there are things like public displays of dominance and discipline, etc. Omegas, by class, are considered the property of only male alphas and have no autonomy or the right to hold assets of their own. 

Tags: #ABO, Darker ABO, #Think of this as a Victorian setting, only with ABO dynamics, different laws, weirder religious traditions, and a very strict social structure. #Alpha Kara, #Omega Lena, #This is a bit like Beauty and the Beast, too #Kara is definitely playing a role - hiding behind her tough persona at the beginning, and doing what is required or expected of her rather than behaving like herself.

 

The black birds at the top of the church spire made trilling noises that echoed around the town square where all else was quiet. No one spoke too loudly in the presence of the accused omega — not when her fate was still an undecided matter. The peasants came and went at their usual pace, sparing curious glances at the woman who sat tied behind steel bars. It was the wealthier men in waistcoats and fine jackets that took the most time studying her.
 

If not drawn in by her predicament, they were stopped by Lena’s looks — her mane of dark hair and extraordinarily green eyes. Those eyes belonged on a chain of gold, to beguile and charm anyone who stared too long into their hypnotic depths. That was what the strongest alphas said of her when they passed. It gave them reason to pause, take in the omega’s nudity and grunt obscenities at her. Some of them even tried to break the lock on her cage when she defiantly set her jaw, stared back and cursed them in her anger. They saw her as unafraid and far too proud. 

Inside, Lena only felt terrified. With how they restrained her, she was forced to kneel throughout the morning until she wobbled and fell from exhaustion. In all of her young life, she had never been in such a helpless position, publicly disgraced and treated like an animal as she answered for her crimes. 

Her eyes followed the birds as they took to the air, but the state of her body brought her attention back down to earth. Bare-chested and with only a loose cloth tied around her waist, she lacked protection from the cold. Shackles bit into her skin and connected to a leather collar at her neck. She could not jerk her neck this way or that without pain. 

Confined to a cage, she was at least protected from any hands that strayed forward to hit her. Not all hands were unfriendly, but she ducked from them all the same.

 

Every so often, a child would break away from her parents and run to the metal bars, sticking a sweet inside, or a piece of bread. She was grateful for the offerings and lifted them with shaky fingers, pressing the food into her mouth before it could be taken from her. 

Once, a young omega darted forward, removed her bonnet, and thrust it through the bars to Lena. 

“Lena Luthor,” the soft-spoken omega had muttered. “Bless you for the strength you’ve shown. For fighting all of these unfair laws against our kind.”

Lena had lifted the bonnet just as the omega’s husband caned the kind woman in the legs for daring to approach the cage.

 

“Don’t hurt her,” Lena cried out, but the damage was done: the omega landed on her knees and had to plead for mercy. 

The rules of their society were strict and absolute: male alphas married the breeding stock— the omegas. Female alphas and betas of both gender could pair more freely without often producing heirs. 

There was no other way, not without breaking tradition and the law. 

At the time of an omega’s first heat, when her hormones began to attract potent alphas, she went into seclusion and the town elders congregated to choose her a mate. No omega had a say in their process, and no omega ever defied the traditions without severe punishment. The penalty for disobedience was death, unless an alpha spoke for the omega. 

Lena expected to die, because before she even came into her first heat, she had run away and lived within the forest for the better part of three months. She survived by foraging and hunting, and finding shelter wherever it was safe. 

If not for an accident involving a child almost drowning in a lake, Lena would have never been discovered. Rescuing the child was the right thing to do, but it left her drenched and slowed her when all of the alpha and beta hunters were close by. They had caught her and returned her to the town — to this cage.
 

Curling on her side as the sun went down, Lena was certain that she wouldn’t last another nightfall. For several days, Lena had been left without much food or water, and the town elders had also deprived her of clothes. Shivering, she flattened herself against the dirt as much as her bindings would allow. 

As frail as she felt, Lena refused to show it in the daytime when alphas were about and breathing in the scents of her weakness. In the afternoon, she was much more on edge and less able to hide it. By full dark, she smelled of despair and flinched at the slightest movements around her. 

It was on what she had begun to think of as her final night that Lena saw the gleam of a torch in the distance. The bright, swaying flame broke apart into several flames as the party of alphas came down from a bridge. The suffocating stench of their pheromones blew in with the wind and Lena pressed herself against the stone wall next to her cage. 

Among the alphas were a few that Lena recognized and detested: Governor Phil Baker, Morgan Edge, and John Corben. Behind them stood her brother Lex, and Lena wondered if he had managed to persuade them to free her into his care. It was much more likely that they would hang her, and as the eldest alpha of her household, Lex insisted on witnessing it.

Three other alphas joined the group, all cloaked and solemn as they waited. The governor turned to speak to Corben and Edge, leaving Lena to puzzle over her final sentence.

“Is this the beautiful omega who is causing so much trouble?” Governor Baker asked rhetorically, eyeing her up as much as he could while she was crouched. “Come, dear, let me have a look at you.” 

Lena had little choice but to straighten up and show her face. Her jaw was sharp enough to slice through him, and her eyes glistened with rage. Fortunately her long black ringlets covered her breasts and allowed her some degree of modesty. 

“Such a shame to see such a lovely thing this position,” Baker crooned. “An omega of your age and social status should be breeding.” 

John Corben stepped forward and whispered into Baker’s ear: “It is worth noting that Miss Luthor has not yet come into her first heat, though she is well past the age for it. Nearly twenty-five. Perhaps that is the reason she fled, so as not to cause her family shame.” 

Baker approached the cage with a glimmer of interest in his usually bovine stare. He reeked of sexual aggression as he bent down to take a closer look at her breasts. “When an alpha breaks her in properly, it will take care of all that,” he quietly insisted. “One rough mating, and her first heat will start. She looks the softer type. Even after an alpha fills her womb, I am sure she will beg for children. Won’t you, sweetheart? Are you going to ask your alpha to breed you?”

 

“You dishonor me with talk like that,” Lena softly said. She clawed up the mud at the bottom of her cage in case she needed to lob it into an alpha’s eyes to defend herself.



“Now you want to speak of honor,” Edge chuckled and grinned, striding forward to pass a key off to Baker. “You have committed a sin against nature, and a crime against your people. No alpha should want you, but you must be very blessed indeed, because Mr. Danvers has lowered himself and taken you for his mate. Stand now and let me free you from your bindings. Tonight, you will go home with him, and tomorrow we’ll handle the formal ceremony uniting you in the eyes of God.” 

 

Lena gasped and swung her eyes towards a figure in the darkness: there among the other alphas was Clark Danvers, a handsome man whom the ladies in town treated like a saint, although she knew him only to be of an impulsive and strong-willed temperament. 

“You may not officially be bound yet, but should you forget yourself and bring disgrace by trying to flee in the night, then Mr. Danvers can, and will discipline you as he sees fit.” Baker intoned gruffly, his eyes roaming over her in a way that left her feeling more naked in her skin, and somehow more filthy despite the layers of muck that already clung to her.

 

“The harsher the better.” Edge announced with a sneer. His calloused hands were rough on her chilled body, and he shoved her into the bars while he made idle work of her bindings. “Take it from me,” He boasted, and went so far as to smack Lena’s backside roughly, like a prized cattle that had just been sold. “An insubordinate omega, prone to the whimsy of rebelling against her very nature, requires a particularly heavy hand to rid them of such foolish notions.”
 

Lex sighed heavily and waved a gloved hand towards Lena as if he were disgusted by her behavior. “Lena has always been more willful than she ought to be. Even as a child she was precocious.” He wiped the front of his coat and grimaced at the stench of her outrage and fear. “The only redeeming fact in all of this is that the Luthor name will not be tarnished by her momentary lapse in sanity, though I dare say I wonder if Clark has fallen into one himself.”

 

 All eyes turned to Clark, and his handsome features appeared almost monstrous in the flickering torch light. Shadows danced within his eyes and he snarled low in his throat as his scent became overpowering, a challenge to the other alphas that would dare question him. One by one they submitted by lowering their gaze, and only then did Clark finally speak. “Gentlemen, to allow something so exquisite to perish would surely be worse than the crimes she’s committed.” He snapped his fingers, the sound sharp in the dead of night, and commanded, “Come here, girl. Stand before me so I may inspect the condition you are in.”

 

Lena made a throaty noise of distress and bent her head. Clark’s scents deeply affected her, so much that she immediately went to him and almost swooned when he cupped her chin. She hated obeying him and how he touched her face. He handled her with a tenderness that could only be faked. It made her chest heave until all of her black curls tumbled out of the way. 

Clark’s eyes ventured down to her breasts—pale, with dark red and swollen nipples circled by a flat and lighter areola. 

“If you’re done, I would like some clothes,” Lena uttered sternly. “Please.”

 

The harsh red abrasions on her wrists kept Lena from completely losing focus and forgetting what she truly wanted—freedom and safety. It would be terrible to fall prey to her omega sensitivities now after so many years of resisting. She rubbed at her aching injuries and waited for Clark to finish exploring her.