Chapter Text
The thick envelope in your hands doesn’t even need to be opened. You don’t need to run your fingers along the raised letters or feel the wax seal on the letter itself to know what it means.
Your observation of the letter sent to you by the Department Of Omega Affairs is one that you’d rather not make—the letter will spell out the time, date and location of an event that happens once every five years.
It was a Hunt, an even where chosen alpha’s and omega’s from around the world would arrive at a secure and private location. The event was part of a joint worldwide effort to secure and restore a population—one that had plummeted after a disease ripped through every country without faltering.
It was born out of a necessity and fear, a common threat that united countries to the same cause. Every five years the countries who agreed to the solution necessary, would cooperate and send either an alpha or omega to the Hunt.
You had missed your first Hunt. Once you turned 19 you were eligible in your country to be part of the joint effort though your name was not drawn. You had considered yourself lucky when you had missed your draw at 19–though you were not lucky now. Now, you had been called upon, you out of every other eligible omega was going to be added to the Hunt.
Your hands trembled when you gathered the envelope, your eyes had been drawn from the thickened piece of paper in your hand, to the soldier’s who delivered it. They had garnered the same uniform and flag of your country’s military, your best guess was that they were infantrymen.
An escort was standard for the weeks, even days leading up to the Hunt, with the alpha or omega chosen. There was an element of risk involved for the ones chosen for the draw, either from the opposition within the country or from those outside.
You raised your head and drew your attention away from the envelope in your hands to the soldiers waiting on you. The camouflaged uniforms appeared bore the names of the soldiers, Williams was the soldier on the left, Carter was the soldier on the right. The man and woman waiting on you were staring straight ahead, neither saying anything or speaking.
Williams was an omega, Carter was an alpha. Neither had marks on their necks, neither were mated, though you could tell that Williams was on suppressants. The two of them were following orders, like the soldiers they were, and you were meant to follow your own orders.
Though you could have denied the draw, with adequate and life or death reasons, it something that was highly unlikely to be successful. You were a healthy omega, you had no cause or reason to deny being in the Hunt. You had no one who relied on you for life, you hadn’t been miscounted as being mated or marked.
You were, in the eyes of the Department of Omega Affairs, a perfect choice.
“Congratulations, you have chosen from the draw for the year’s Hunt. The event that happens every five years is a worldwide joint effort between the countries that have—“ the context and history of the letter was nothing you haven’t heard before.
However there was a certain level of anxiety building within yourself as you had read the letter personally. The proclamation that you were chosen had been a cloud, an electrical storm that was building with a tentative ability to strike you down.
You felt the urge to burn the letter, the thick and dense parchment that was made to be an official and celebratory document, made you feel sick. There was nothing you wanted more than to avoid the draw until your cut off age of 36.
You wished you could have skipped it all over, or been one of the lucky omegas who had a reason to withdraw yourself from contention.
“—the event will be taking place in the United States.” You felt minutely relieved, some of the strenuous weight on your shoulders had been alleviated.
At least, if you could count it as a benefit, you would be in your own country. There wouldn’t be over exuberant flights that would take you beyond the borders of your country—though you couldn’t say the same of the other countries chosen alphas or omega’s.
With the letter read, and the message mostly observed and absorbed, you returned it to the tri-folded state and slipped it back into the envelope. You folded the top of the envelope down, shoving it into the body, and exhaled with a heavy weight on your chest.
All the weight that had been gone from your shoulders had now settled in your chest.
You had been rendered in a state of being between reactionary forces. You were chosen for the draw, you had no reason to request it being revoked. You were going to be thrown into the Hunt, with other omega’s to find your alpha.
The disease that ravaged countries, stripping them of huge dense populations, was now being rectified. Of all the omega’s that could’ve been drawn, it was you.
And from this moment on, until the Hunt concluded, you would have armed guards ensuring you wouldn’t try to run.