Lonely alpha a why choos.., p.1
Lonely Alpha: A Why Choose Omegaverse, page 1
LONELY ALPHA
THE POISONVERSE
OLIVIA LEWIN
Copyright © 2023 by Olivia Lewin
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.
This is a work of fiction intended for adults aged 18+. Names, characters, places, and incidents described within are either the product of the author’s imagination, or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons is entirely coincidental.
Published by Reber Media Company
Cover design by Marie Mackay
Created with Vellum
CONTENTS
Content
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
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Chapter 57
Chapter 58
Chapter 59
Chapter 60
Chapter 61
Chapter 62
Chapter 63
Chapter 64
Chapter 65
Chapter 66
Chapter 67
Epilogue 1
Epilogue 2
Epilogue 3
What’s Next in the PoisonVerse?
Author’s Note
Also by Olivia Lewin
About the Author
CONTENT
HOLD UP! Is there anything I should know as a reader?
Lonely Alpha is an omegaverse with 18+ content, including both FF and MM spice. MMFFM, with AAAOA pack dynamic.
It’s in Canadian English! Expect colour instead of color and some other regional differences!
What about content warnings?
Violence, knife and gun violence, attempted sexual assault, attempted strangulation, violence between love interests due to flashback/trauma (resolved quickly)
Via flashbacks: depictions of emotional, physical, psychological abuse, torture, house fire
Minor depictions of: drinking and drunkenness, drug use and detox, rude comments on weight
And for spicy sexual content, there’s: nesting, knotting, heat, light knife play, BDSM, breeding kink (no pregnancy), pegging
If you need more clarification, feel free to email me!
olivia@lewinauthor.com
Warnings for all my books also live at: www.olivialewin.com/contentwarnings
ONE
LEIGHTON
“Why the hell did you let her into my apartment?”
I could hardly take my eyes off the omega sitting on my couch, not even to hiss my question at Liberty.
Liberty was focused on my uninvited guest as well, her candy apple red bag of cleaning supplies sitting on my small dining table.
“Look, you haven’t been up close and personal with her yet,” Liberty said defensively.
“What is that supposed to mean?”
We were both keeping our voices hushed, although a glass door separated the breakfast nook from the living room where the omega sat. Her gaze was focused down, her posture prim and proper as she perched on the edge of my black leather couch. Liberty hadn’t even thought to get her name before she’d let her in.
“You know that feeling you get when you look at someone and realize they would do anything to get their way?”
Heaving a sigh, I turned to her. “Libby, the woman on my couch is a five-foot-tall omega who can’t be more than twenty-one years old. What was she going to do to you?”
Liberty still had one eye on the omega when she answered me, her weight shifting nervously from foot to foot. “Talk to me again when you’ve tried to stand in her damn way.”
Admittedly, it was concerning that my housekeeper, best friend, and assistant was this freaked out. She wasn’t unfamiliar with dangerous men and women—if she was easily unnerved, she wouldn’t have done well working for me. However, I was having trouble seeing what she saw.
“Fine. Let anyone in my apartment without permission again, and I fire you.”
She snorted, grabbing her cleaning supplies and heading through the kitchen toward the condo’s front door. Her spine was straight, watching my guest until she couldn’t anymore. “Who would replace me? Toss out these empty threats all you want, Leigh. You know I’m irreplaceable,” she teased.
Liberty fled like the hounds of hell were nipping at her heels before I could respond, my front door slamming behind her.
When I looked back at the omega, she was looking at me.
Blue eyes caught and held mine, her eyelashes thick and dark. Honey brown hair fell in waves around her face, the strands so long they brushed the couch cushion she sat on. A dark dress hugged her curves before flowing out from her waist, the style ultra-feminine with ruffles and lace. She wore dark flats adorned with bows.
Paying closer attention, I tried to pinpoint what had unnerved Liberty.
The way she held herself was poised but tense, her hands on the couch like she was ready to push to her feet and run. A bandage wrapped around one hand, giving no sign of what the injury was. Her dress was discoloured in places, the stains barely visible on the dark fabric and hidden by ruffles. Those flats were caked in dirt and sand, bits falling off and dirtying my shag rug.
And her eyes…
I blinked first.
She was surprisingly unnerving to look at, after all.
Pushing through the glass doors and into the living room, I strode across the open-concept space until I was standing in front of her. We were separated by my glass coffee table, adorned with a display of fake florals in whites and blacks. I took only shallow breaths, not wanting my impression of her to be influenced by the siren call of her omega scent.
The less I inhaled, the less it would affect me. I had a bad feeling about the hints of chocolate and coconut I caught from her.
“Who are you?” I asked, crossing my arms over my chest.
Closer, I could see a thick scar slashing through her left eyebrow. Whatever gave it to her had almost taken out her eye.
“Kiara,” she said.
Short fingers tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. The movement of her hair wafted her scent toward me, making it impossible to avoid. That coconut and chocolate scent was heavy and sweet. It called to me, admittedly, and tempted me to see if it smelled even sweeter between her legs.
I raised an eyebrow, used to keeping my reactions off my face. “I’m going to need more information than that, after you barged into my home.”
“There was no barging,” she denied. “The housekeeper let me in.”
I couldn’t respond to that because it was technically correct. It wasn’t as if I could accuse her of intimidating Libby into doing what she wanted.
“Give me something else, or get out,” I said.
“It’s a long story, but you need to dark bond me.”
What?
For a second, I thought I’d gotten lost in her soft, lilting voice and hadn’t heard correctly. Then I caught a flash of something in her eyes—desperation was the closest descriptor I could come up with. Her teeth sank into her bottom lip.
What had her so desperate she would ask for a dark bond?
They weren’t a bond omegas wanted. Fuck, it was illegal for me to dark bond an omega like her. That kind of connection gave the alpha complete control. Kiara would have to listen to every command I gave her, and she’d never met me before.
“You need to leave,” I said.
Rounding the coffee table and reaching for her shoulder, I froze before we could touch. This close, I spotted things I hadn’t noticed from afar.
The dark spots on her dress were definitely blood. Faint scents were on her, lessened with chemicals like she’d tried to use dampener on her clothing. That wasn’t what was most telling, though.
Just above the neckline of her dress, above one of those stains, was a smear of dark red upon her ample cleavage. It was flaking off, falling down into her clothes.
She stared between my outstretched hand and my fa
“I can explain that,” she said, her voice wobbling.
Could she? Or would it all be lies? I doubted I had a truthful, law-abiding omega in my house if she was half-drenched in blood and asking for a dark bond.
What were my options here? Calling the police was the most reasonable thing to do. They were the ones who could test that blood and figure out what had happened to cause it.
Going against my better judgement, I didn’t pull my phone from my pocket.
“Go ahead, then,” I demanded. “Explain.”
She flinched at my tone, and a flash of regret stabbed me.
“I didn’t mean to do it,” she said. “I promise, I didn’t.”
As a corporate fixer—one who dealt with plenty of under the table business—I’d heard that more than once. That gleam of panic in her baby blues was familiar.
“Tell me what you did, Kiara.”
One of her hands pressed to her sternum, the other stroking through her hair. Fidgeting, like she was about to lie. She didn’t look away from me as she spoke, trying to sell her words as truth.
“A man in my apartment building attacked me, so I hit him with the fire extinguisher. I didn’t think he’d bleed so much or get so… hurt.”
That was when she glanced away, and I saw what Liberty had.
She did have the look of someone who was dangerous when you stood in her way.
I wonder what the man did to her? He must have been standing between her and something she wanted desperately.
Even though I didn’t quite believe it was as simple as that, a quiet rage boiled in my stomach on her behalf. No one should dare rough up an omega.
“And then I ran,” she continued, “and just kept running. That was how Soren found me.”
Of course. Soren.
“Fuck,” I growled.
Running a hand through my straight black hair, I fumbled in my pocket for my phone. No missed calls. Trust Soren to send a crazy omega to my house and not even give me a fucking heads up.
He was what you could call… eccentric. Meddling. Annoying as fuck. I was unfortunately stuck with him because of my in-depth knowledge of some of his many crimes. He never let me forget my place as his well-paid and well-connected dog.
“Why did Soren send you here?” I asked.
She shrugged. The midafternoon sun shone through the window around her, beginning to peek around the neighbouring high-rise buildings. It gave her a halo, making her ample curves seem pillowy and innocent.
Kiara was not innocent. I knew that much.
“He said you’d be able to help me. With the dark bond.” She tacked on the clarification.
“I will not be dark bonding anyone.”
Her plush lips parted and she looked like she was about to plead, but I tapped Soren’s contact info and brought my phone to my ear.
He made me wait until the fifth ring before picking up.
“Leigh-Leigh, darling, to what do I owe the pleasure?” he asked.
His voice was silky smooth, a tool he used to con the world into believing he was a songbird and not a snake.
“You know what. Why did you send her here, Soren?”
“Oh, Kiara? She needs an alpha. You’re available. Since you’re not in a pack and not registered as silver status, a dark bond is the only kind you can experience, after all. I thought you would appreciate it.”
As a packless alpha, I couldn’t bond an omega to me with a normal bond. I’d also never find a scent match omega—something I was more than happy with.
If I’d opted in to silver status, I would have been able to experience either, but it was always too much hassle for me. The process was irritating. The Institute tried to talk you out of it, preferring alphas and omegas to be opted into pack dynamics and not the one-on-one bonds of silver status. It was never worth it when I didn’t plan to bond an omega anyway.
Dark bonds were different.
I could bite her right here and now, and the bond would stick. It would be illegal to do it against her will, but if she gave me permission that was a nonissue.
“You’re a nuisance,” I muttered before I could stop myself.
My spine stiffened, and I internally cursed for talking back to Soren. I could almost see his feral grin in front of me right now. He was carefree and smirking right until the second you tried to disobey him.
Then he showed you the reason he was a billionaire who had dirt on everyone in New Oxford.
“At the end of the day, Leigh-Leigh, who you bond isn’t my business,” he said nonchalantly. “However, you’re expected to keep Kiara safe and in your vicinity. She’s useful to me. Is that clear?”
“Crystal,” I grit out.
“I expect to be showered with gifts the next time we see each other, darling. You know how delicate my feelings are. Being called a nuisance is like a stake to the heart.”
Soren wanted for nothing, but if gifts would appease him, I would find something to match the horrendous decor of his Citrine Hills mansion. I would hate every minute of catering to him, but working for him was one of the many things in my life I had no choice but to do.
“Of cour—”
He cut me off with the beep of the line going dead.
My gaze rose to Kiara again. She had watched the interaction with interest, that hand still oddly placed on her sternum while the other hung by her side. With a few taps of my phone, the front door deadbolt was locking with a loud buzz and the alarm system was engaged.
“Looks like you’re staying,” I said.
Her expression brightened, hand finally dropping from her torso. She’d taken one step toward me when I held up a hand.
“Not to get dark bonded. You’re staying because Soren wants you safe, and I’ve been saddled with that responsibility.”
“No, you need to—”
I cut off her objection. “If you try to leave, the alarm is going to go off. I’ll promise you this—being in here is going to be far more comfortable than trying to escape, dark bond or not.”
Her jaw set, teeth grinding together. Kiara didn’t seem pleased with this compromise.
Well, she could join the fucking club.
I wasn’t going to do anything that would put my job with Soren in jeopardy, not when so much was riding on it. What the criminal billionaire wants, he gets. “I’ll show you to the room you’ll be staying in and find you some clothes. We’re going to need to do something about the bloody dress.”
If only Liberty were still here. Collecting samples and eliminating blood stains was her specialty.
I didn’t wait for Kiara to follow as I strode into my office, where I would pull the couch out into a bed for her to stay.
Indefinitely.
Fuck me.
TWO
KIARA
Soren had said her name was Leighton Winston.
She hadn’t bothered to introduce herself, too busy reaming me out for arriving here in the first place. The name I’d been told suited her, though. It was regal and uptight, hinting at old money. It was the kind of name I’d expect to find in a Gossip Girl novel.
