Alpha Shield

Sanctuary - Abby

**unedited!

Abby finished wiping off the last of the tables in the large dining hall. The Kindred Soul Omega Sanctuary, fondly shortened to just Sanctuary by the Omegas in residence, had a rotating chore list the residents worked on throughout the day. This week, it assigned Abby to clean up after dinner, along with a new friend, Catrina, and several others. The Omegas worked well together and murmured amongst themselves. Occasionally, a reminder of their shared pasts would sneak in when someone laughed a little too loud and they would either freeze or instinctively flinch, waiting for the abuse from a past tormentor.

Catrina had befriended Abby during her first week at Sanctuary. They'd both been assigned to work in the gardens, and the young brunette shyly introduced herself. They'd become fast friends over their discovered common love of books, and Catrina had shown Abby to her favorite room at Sanctuary.

The Library.

The males in Abby's family, her father and brothers, hadn't understood her love of reading. She'd only been allowed to attend primary school because they'd been living in the city. She'd loved school, and when one of her teachers introduced her to books, her love of reading grew. Books provided an escape from her overwhelming, traditionalist family. Her teachers never asked why she didn't take books home, but at the start of each week, a brand new stack appeared on her desk.

She knew better than to bring books home.

At her father's insistence, she'd been tested for her dynamic at an early age. When the test revealed beyond a doubt she'd present as an Omega, he'd begun training her to believe that an Omega's only place was beneath the control of first the Alphas in her family and then later her Alpha mate.

She didn't need to read for fun. She only needed to be able to read enough to follow instructions left by her keepers and the list of "rules" for proper Omega behavior. Nevermind the list was created by a sadistic serial killer and later adapted by his even more delusional son, Christoph. Mitchell Parmador adopted those rules for his Omega wife and children as if they had been handed down from the gods themselves.

The one time he found a book in her school bag, he made her take a pair of scissors and cut out every page from the binding. She'd tried to refuse. She was still too young for the Alpha's command to work on her, but it still worked on her mother.

By the time she'd cut the last page free, her mother's sobs rang through the house. Her brothers stood in the entrance to the kitchen absorbing every word as her father used their combined punishment as a teaching moment for the young Alphas in the house.

Ashamed and in tears, she'd taken the book back to school the next day. Her teacher simply looked at the remains of the book before setting it aside and gathering Abby in her arms.

That evening, her school's principal appeared at her house and met with her father in his office. Abby couldn't make out the words, but from his tone, her father didn't like what Mr. Kardine had to say.

By the end of the following week, her father moved them out to a rural part of the country several hours from the city, close to the border of a very traditionalist neighboring country, and her school years came to an end. Now, her job was to help her mother care for their house and family. A career was never in her future. Her life would be bound to her Alpha's, and it would be his choice what she could and couldn't do. Abby had held out hope for an Alpha who would let her read and eventually continue her education, but with an Alpha her father would approve of, she knew that was a distant dream.

From conversations she'd overheard between her father and brothers, they'd moved to a newly formed commune called Alpha's Haven. Supposedly some kind of Alpha paradise, her father described it as a place where Alphas could bring their Omegas and live as nature intended. No need to coddle Omegas as modern society dictated. Omegas were made to pleasure Alphas. That was their purpose in life. The way it used to be before organizations like the Omega Security Force started enforcing laws requiring equal treatment, and before the public school system started teaching Alphas how to properly care for a mate. A time before the Omega Balls where Omegas could be introduced when they were ready to find a mate. The concept of Omegas choosing their own mate was an anathema to her father.