As the captain drove deeper and deeper into the base, passing through three checkpoints, each of them demanding stricter and stricter clearances, I tried to remember how many times I’d visited this part of the large base. Twice? Three times? Three times in five years. I tried to recognize buildings and landmarks, but it all was unfamiliar to me. The attitude towards me, however, was not. I remembered those looks very well.

Every time we got stopped, no one paid much attention to me until they caught my scent. I wasn’t producing pheromones, but if they stood close enough, they could still smell my basic scent that was slightly different from alphas. Once they realized what I was, their expressions changed. It was subtle, but it was still clear many of them saw me as unworthy of stepping a foot into their revered inner base, the area meant only for the strongest – the heroes. A small, unknown rookie omega had no business entering that one area so many strong alphas could only dream of seeing in person.

But there I was. Quite unexpectedly as well. My life was not getting any easier, I understood that, but I had reached my goal. As long as it would last, anyway.

The inner base was bigger than I’d expected, but it shouldn’t have been a surprise. These soldiers, the elite of the army, had everything they could possibly need from training grounds to command centers, even a bar and a grocery store, right here. I could see a lake and the beginning of jogging trails as we traveled through the area. Now I understood why the captain had arrived to meet me by car. We had to be several miles away from my old headquarters.

“Almost there,” the captain said when we approached another set of gates with a couple of guards standing by.

“Lion’s Gate?” I muttered when I read the sign on the fence.

“Our little neighborhood,” the captain said.

It was a fucking gated community, but instead of big family houses, I counted twelve blocky buildings, shaped like L, all boringly gray with two floors, flat roofs, and square windows. At least there was a little bit of grass and old trees growing between them, giving the whole cul-de-sac a little less depressing look.

“I’ll show you around the base another time. Let’s get you settled in first,” the captain spoke as he parked the car next to one of the buildings. “Welcome to Tactical Team Zero-Seven. This is our headquarters. Your home from now on.”

The numbers zero and seven were engraved on a big blue-and-gold placard, shaped like a shield with fancy ribbons, above the entrance of the building. The rest of the buildings had placards of their own, each with different numbers.

“So all twelve teams live here?” I asked.

“That is correct,” he said as he got out of the car.

That meant there were about one-hundred-and-twenty alphas in this little neighborhood. Plus one omega. I suddenly understood what it meant for me. There had been several omegas in my old unit, not nearly as many as there were alphas, but enough so we could watch out for each other. Together, we weren’t easy targets.

But now I was alone.

“You will get molested here…”

There were people sitting outside or working on their cars close by, and even from afar, I could smell the alphas all around me. And they could undoubtedly tell I was an omega.

I grit my teeth together and followed my new captain out of the car. He’d already taken one of my bags from the trunk, so I stepped next to him and took the other one. He gave me an encouraging nod before locking the doors and leading me to the entrance.

And I followed him, hoping he wasn’t walking me to my fresh new hell, worse than what I’d ever experienced so far. He held the door open for me, and I swiftly walked past him.

I was not ready for it. 

Ten elite soldiers, the captain had told me. Ten alphas, living and spending most of their time in a relatively small building. Their scents and pheromones hit me and my omega so hard we froze to our spot, then my omega nearly panicked and tried to steal control from our body.

No…! Run… Please…! it begged when I held onto our body, refusing to move. 

I almost panicked as well, since my omega had never tried to steal control from me like this before. It always shut down, retreated to the darkness at the back of our head, but this…?

Why was it trying to take control from me now…?

It was hard enough to keep myself calm without having to soothe my omega at the same time. I needed a moment to regain composure. I barely understood I just stood there, shaking my head as I tried to get me and my omega back in line, while the captain was watching me…

Holy shit… I really wasn’t in the infantry anymore…

“You all right?” the captain asked when I wasn’t moving.

“Sorry… Sorry…” I muttered and took a few wobbly steps deeper into the building while my omega still tried to convince me to run. “I’m… I’m…”

Calm down…! I almost shouted at my omega, and finally, it let go of our body and retreated into the darkness… But it was hurt… And it didn’t trust me at all at that moment…

“It’s our pheromones,” the captain guessed behind me.

“It’s fine, I’m… They’re just… Quite strong here,” I carefully admitted, hating the fact that I had to, but I had to give him something. “My omega got a little overwhelmed, that’s all. It calmed down already. We’re all good now,” I added hastily.

“So you still react to our pheromones?” he said.

“...I guess so, yeah, but we’ll get used to it, sir. It just caught us off guard, that’s all,” I tried to explain.

He squinted his eyes lightly at my words. Fuck. Like he wasn’t already listing my cons without having seen any pros yet.

“So there’s a chance you’ll freeze out on the battlefield because of our pheromones?” he asked, crossing his arms.

I should’ve lied… Now I couldn’t take it back. I couldn’t say it would never happen again because it already happened right in front of his eyes.

“I… It’s possible, yes,” I said quietly. “In small, confined areas with several strong alphas.”

He nodded slowly. “Are you and your omega all right now?”

“Yeah… Yes,” I said, nodding. 

Now that my omega wasn’t panicking in my ear… I just fucking hoped it wasn’t going to do that again… If this captain wasn’t going to kick me out straight away…

The captain nodded slowly. “All right. You can take a little breather if you need one before we’ll meet the guys.”

“Sir?” I muttered with a frown.

Was he just going to ignore how I froze just now?

“Hmm?”

“That’s… You…?” I stammered, but then decided to shut up in case I’d make my situation worse. “Sorry, I mean… I’m fine… I don’t need a moment. We’re all good now.”

“Yes, we’re all right,” he said calmly. “I won’t blame you for getting overwhelmed. It’s your first time here, after all, and my boys are strong.”

I felt flustered at his words. “I’m really sorry. This has never happened to me before, but I promise I will get used to the pheromones soon.”

“We’ll see what we can do about it,” he repeated, giving me a friendly smile. “I don’t avoid problems. I fix them.”

I stared at him, then nodded. “Thank you, sir.”

He bowed a little. “Come on then. They’ve probably heard us by now,” he said, and continued walking.

I stared after him for a moment longer. This was the hero of our people… I… I began to see why. Even my omega returned a little closer to study this captain. It was much calmer now, too… Maybe… Maybe this wasn’t going to be such a disaster, after all…

I let out a quiet sigh of relief, then glanced around hastily. We stood in a large entrance hall that continued through the entire building as a wide hallway with a few large rooms on the left, separated from each other by windowed walls. On my right was a single door, much heavier than the rest, with a sign that told me it was the equipment storage. The captain was heading toward a staircase further down the hallway on our right.

I hurried after him, hastily peering into the large rooms through the windows. The closest was a briefing room, with a long table and plenty of chairs around it. The room behind that had several computers, but I didn’t have time to take a closer look before reaching the staircase.

My omega kept a close eye on our surroundings as well, and quickly spotted several alphas right above us. It quickly retreated a little, and this time, I was sure it would shut down for good, but it returned again to take a curious sniff at the strong scents around us. It was still scared of these alphas, but… It was getting too curious to shut down. 

That was new, too…

I followed the captain up the stairs that led straight into a very large living room with a large couch, several armchairs, a big TV, and a few bookcases that were used to collect dust, apparently. Black leather and polished iron ruled the decor, and there wasn’t a single carpet, curtain, or a flower in sight.

Alphas…

To the left and behind us was a kitchen, just as big with black cabinets and modern equipment, and several round tables with chairs by the windows. Not the cleanest kitchen I had seen, no.

But there sat a couple of older men, staring at us without blinking. At me, more specifically.

“Boys…” Captain Hale said, gesturing for them to join us in the living room. “Where’s everyone else? I have a little something to tell you.”

“Something, huh?” repeated the other one of them, a man the size of a fucking mountain, glancing at my bags as they approached us. “Doesn’t seem that little.”

The captain turned to look down a long hallway on our right and whistled loudly. “Boys! I need you here for a minute!”

In seconds, several doors opened, and my omega retreated again to hide from them. At least it didn’t panic this time… A few more seconds later, I was surrounded by alphas, all giving me curious looks. The scent… Fuck me… Elite soldiers… The alphas in the infantry didn’t even compare to these guys… Their pheromones were unbelievably strong… 

But as I took in their scents, they did the same to me. I would’ve laughed if the situation hadn’t been so stressful. Each of them took a small whiff of my scent, then frowned and did it again, twice, to make sure they were smelling what they thought they were smelling.

“Uhm…?” one of them uttered while the captain took a head count.

“Three are missing,” Captain Hale said. “Doesn’t matter. I have some news,” he added, glancing at me. “This is Riley Steele. Your new teammate.”

His words were met with disbelief.

“Our… teammate?” a Hispanic guy repeated, his gaze moving from me to the captain and back to me. “I didn’t know we needed a new teammate.”

“Yeah, I thought we’re full,” another one said slowly.

“You’ve not recruited anyone in years.”

“You said you’re going out for lunch. That’s not the kind of leftovers you bring home,” one of the younger white guys said.

“I mean, if the date is good then yeah–” another Hispanic dude said to him, but his eyes glued on me.

“Guys. Is no one going to point out he’s an omega?” another of the youngest said.

They fell silent and stared at me.