Hunger

Prologue

Like hell he was going to accept an arranged mating.

Jackson Colt sat in the study of his family's two story suburban mansion, looking down at the file of the omega his mother had set up for him in two days. He couldn't resist an eyeroll at all the garbage that was basically copy and pasted out of a historical romance.

Denmark Addington was prime omega material. He was intelligent, well-versed, proper, polite. His photos displayed a fair-haired man with high cheekbones, creamy soft skin, rosy cheeks, and a straight up fucking sweater vest. Like, if you went to Google, and looked up sweater vest stock photo, this guy's photo was probably the first image.

Jackson sighed, reaching up to pinch the bridge of his nose before closing the file and turning his head to look out the window at the rain that pelted the diamond glass panes gently. He could smell the cut grass from the gardner yesterday, the rain soaking into it and the heat outside making everything steamy.

He didn't want to be here. He didn't want to be in the study, going over an omega's marriage proposal for the hundredth time. He wanted to... fuck, he had no idea what he wanted to do. He wanted a breath of fresh air. He wanted something to put a kink in this mundane routine he was forced to live. His entire life could be written down on a single sheet of notebook paper. One day after the next, every day the same. It was a boredom so intense that he frankly was starting to get depressed. He wondered why he bothered to get up in the morning. Why he bothered to go to work at his family's hospital as a surgical resident.

Maybe it was because this life wasn't his, was it?

Now that he thought about it, his entire life was a schedule his parents had set up for him years ago. His mother, the city's beloved humanitarian, Aurora Colt, had vowed to find her sons the perfect mates after Jackson's father had left her-- again. She'd done her part well so far. Jackson's brothers all had their perfect mates.

Ethan, the eldest Colt brother, had happily married his wife, Irene, and the two had three beautiful children that were honestly the only enjoyment Jackson was getting out of his life right now. The meeting had been arranged and turned out just the way his mother had hoped.

Then there was Darren, the second eldest. Darren was a difficult one to pin down. Aurora had spent months looking for the proper mate and Darren had shot down every single one of them. Darren had always been their wild card. He could never do things the easy way. No, he'd found his mate through a series of unfortunately made choices and an accidental pregnancy that turned into a miscarriage that brought him and his fated pair together; Darren had married Ezra, an omega male. Despite having lost their child, somehow, the relationship had remained strong. Even if Ezra was the most disagreeable omega Jackson had ever had the displeasure of knowing.

Unlike most omegas, who tended to be more reserved, Ezra was a fucking spitfire and let everyone know it. He had a silver tongue, a quick temper, and he never put up with Darren's bullshit. Nor was he afraid to go after the guy when he did something offensive. Jackson really didn't like the guy, quite frankly, but holy shit, did their mother absolutely adore him. Thus meaning, should the two ever fight, Darren was run out of the house and Ezra sat for hours crying with Aurora, who always took his side.

The thought made Jackson smirk nostalgically before it faded and he thought of the third brother.

Jacob was probably the only one that didn't quite fit in with the family. It wasn't that he was a black sheep or anything; no, that was Jackson's job. It was the fact that Jacob's mate had died. A hunting accident had left Jacob's mate, Gregory, in a vegetative state before he'd been forced to pull the plug. Since then, Jacob had become somehow of a recluse and tended to haunt the mansion when he wasn't locked away at the research facility that was part of their family's hospital.