*15 months ago*

Lissa had gone to school, but Rose had felt unwell and stayed home. In order to do so, Lissa had promised that she would return straight home, and keep her skin and fangs covered. She had been irritable and paranoid for days beforehand and Lissa was truly starting to worry for her friend.

When Lissa opened the door to the apartment, she noticed a potent scent in the apartment. She dropped her bag in shock to see her best friend, Rose who was cocooned in the living room. She was surrounded by blankets, pillows and towels from Lissa and Roses room in addition to their room-mate's linens.

Lissa tried to get Rose to talk to her, but she stayed inside her blanket cocoon, shaking and looking like a rabid animal.

Lissa ran to the bathroom, unable to cope with the stress and helplessness that she felt. She was 16 and had no idea how to help her friend, they were so isolated in Chicago. She found a razor blade and made 3 small cuts to her leg, the pain helped her focus her thoughts and gain control.

She made a decision.

She pressed a gauze on the cuts and applied pressure to her fresh wound. She took a deep breath and located her phone, scrolling down until she found Janine Hathaway's number. The phone rang, each dial tone felt like eternity. If she didn't answer, she didn't know what to do.

"Hello?" A groggy voice answered, clearly waking Janine from her sleep.

"Um. Hi guardian Hathaway."

"Vasilisa?" I could hear her rustling to get dressed.

"Before you alert others, please listen to me, for Rose's safety." Janine stayed quiet while Lissa laid out the information to her. "I'm worried about Rose, I don't know what to do… she is acting strange and hiding in blankets. I don't know how to help her."

Janine got Lissa to calm down and run through the chronological events and Rose's symptoms. "I think she is presenting as an Omega." Janine finally said, she sounded flat with little emotion.

Lissa paled as her worst fears had were confirmed. Being Omega, Rose's dreams of being her guardian had been squashed in an instant. The likelihood of her being passed around like a coveted pet from royal moroi to royal moroi was a frightening possibility.

"Give me your number and location. I'm currently in Nepal, but I will send help. Keep her hydrated as best you can, do not let any male humans come into the apartment…" she paused for a second. "You might want to get her something to, um, relieve the tension."

Lissa was confused for a few seconds until Janine's words finally made sense. Ick.

She informed Lissa that she would be in touch, arrangements had to be made for Rose's safety. Janine in turn had contacted the only person she could trust, Rose's father.

Lissa went to the closest strip mall to pick up glucose lollies and a case of sports drink and bottled water. She bought extra blankets, towels and sheets. Finally, she gathered her nerves to walk into an adult shop to purchase Rose a variety of self-pleasure items.

When Lissa returned, she made Rose drink water and eat a snack. She called their male roommate, Mark and explained that Rose was highly contagious and he shouldn't come home for the next week. Fortunately he was a germaphobe and he quickly agreed.

Lissa shut Rose into their room with extra blankets and spread out the adult toys on the floor. A few different vibrators and various sized dildos. Lissa moved what furniture she could to barricade the apartment front door, got out a big kitchen knife and camped out on the couch, ready to protect her friend.

Male neighbours started banging on the doors as Roses scent became more prominent. Lissa gripped the knife tighter and watched her phone waiting for a call.

Hours later, she received a call from a man. "Princess Dragomir, I've been looking for you two for a year. I'm Roses father, I am coming to you but it will take me another 8 hours to get there. I am sending some mated private guardians to protect you both, they will arrive in 15 minutes."

Lissa sighed with relief. He sent her a message with the profiles of the trusted guardians.

When the guardians arrived, she could hear scuffling outside. After ten minutes she heard a tapping on the door, the guardian commander identifying himself.

Lissa let go of the knife and moved the furniture from the door. Using her phone to verify the identities of the guardians. After checking on Rose, Lissa collapsed on their roommates bed, allowing her exhaustion to take over into sleep.

Lissa woke to a guardian shaking her awake. 'Mr Mazur is here to see you.'

She quickly checked on Rose, who was back under the blankets, practically vibrating, she made her sip a few mouthfuls of a sports drink.

She walked back into the living area to see a tall moroi man with dark hair, tan skin and a black suit with flashy jewellery and a cream panama hat and a red scarf. The man looked over the top, but the skin and hair matched Roses.

"Hey, I know you… You acted as my parents' lawyer."

"Ah Princess Dragomir, lovely to see you again, I am Roses father, Ibrahim Mazur, but please call me Abe." He gave me a gallant bow.

She nodded politely and extended her hand. "Thank you for coming."

Abe Mazur shook her hand and then gestured to a moroi woman with similar colouring with light brown hair. "May I introduce Dr Kaya, she is a world-renowned expert in omegas. Do you mind if she examines Rose to verify her diagnosis."

Lissa escorted Dr Kaya to their shared room and let her inside the room. When she returned to Mr Mazur, he had platters on the table and a glass of blood. Lissa picked up the blood and drank it greedily. She had been starved of blood for too long, relying on sparing amounts from Rose to sustain herself. Her glass was refilled and she drank it slowly, it was warmed to 37 degrees C.

"What led you girls to run away?" Abe asked.

Lissa shuffled uncomfortably. "It's a long story, and I would prefer to tell it with Rose. I felt that someone was stalking me and we had been warned of danger."

Abe looked at Lissa with a guarded expression and then smiled. "It sounds like my daughter is going to be a very good guardian."

"The best." Lissa smiled.

"Was this the first time Rose has had these symptoms?" He asked.

"Yes, I had no idea what was happening, so I called her mum. Why did you pose as my parents lawyer? Rose and I both met you and you said nothing, but she walked away with money and a scarf from you."

"I moonlight as a lawyer from time to time, but I prefer to be called a businessman. I gave her my scarf because she looked cold that day. I had used that opportunity to gift Rose with money to use without it being known it came from me, for her safety."

"So my parents didn't leave her money?" Lissa was disappointed, she had thought their gift to Rose was so kind and thoughtful to want her friend to be looked after.

Abe nodded sheepishly and turned to see the doctor leaving Rose's room. "She is in Estrous, first presentation. Princess, I have suppression medication that should help her return to normal mental clarity. It would be best if you administered it to her, she is in a delicate state."

Lissa gave Rose the medication and some more fluids. She found it odd to see her best friend appear comparatively weak in contrast to her normal warrior self.

R POV

Once the Estrous had resolved, and I was back to my normal self and ready to properly meet her father. I was seconds from a complete meltdown, realising that my future had changed completely, suddenly looking very bleak.

Lissa entered the room. "Rose." I looked up at her, she gave me a big hug and held on extra long. "Your mother and father are here."

I hadn't expected my mother, but my memory of the last few days was quite fuzzy. Some of it, I didn't care to share with anyone. I got up and walked into the living room where my diminutive sized mother with her fair skin and red curly hair stood next to a tall moroi man with dark skin and black hair. He wore the most ridiculous suit with bright blue tie and gold jewellery.

The combination of them together explained my personality perfectly, a series of contrasts and contradictions. I fell into my mothers arms and started crying, she awkwardly patted my back. An awkward back pat for her was the equivalent for declaring her everlasting love for me. She let go and turned me to face my father.

"Rosemarie, this is your father, Ibrahim Mazur."

I didn't know whether to hug him or not, so I waved at him as he went for a hug. we settled on him taking my hand and kissing it.

"Hi."

"It's lovely to see you again Rosemarie." I made a face at him calling me Rosemarie.

"Again? Please call me Rose, everyone but my mother does." Mum wrinkled her nose at this.

"Rose," He had kept hold of my hand like he didn't want to let go. "I met you as a baby, but you were probably too young to remember and shortly after I posed as the Dragomir lawyer. Shall we sit."

Lissa and I sat down on the couch and my parents took chairs across from us.

"First things first, Rosemarie, you are Omega." My mother jumped right in without sugar-coating things, just like me.

"Yeah, I figured," I responded flatly. What else could I say, i'm going to spend the rest of my life as someones property for sale. The best I could hope for is getting married quickly and not being raped and violated by my new husband… or owner.

When I went into estrous, I felt out of control. My sex drive was ramped up to maximum, I recalled flirting with guys over the last few weeks, becoming more overtly sexual. At a party last week, Lissa had to drag me away from a boy when I started unzipping his fly in the middle of a crowded party.

I felt a biological need to get his ejaculate inside me, I didn't know how to describe it. I felt like my autonomy had been removed while acting like a consenting party. It was very strange, I felt like an entity was taking over me, these secondary sex characteristics were no joke.

Life as a beta seemed so simple, they were basically humans with dhampir strength and reflexes. Alpha's and Omegas had different biological urges on a different level.

The treatment of Omega in moroi society appeared to be 'Glamorous'. I would be treated with a comfortable living in the palace and a sizeable stipend more than most guardians would see in their lifetime. But I would earn that by being available to rent or buy (i.e. marriage) by the crown after my 18th birthday. They treated Omega like breeders for the royal moroi.

Omega were considered weak, so they were not able to become guardians. I had been in training since I was four, the prospect of not being Lissa's guardian was devastating.

"We are in a unique position where we might be able to change your fate." I looked up at my father in surprise and I gripped Lissa's hand. "We are going to help you pass as a beta."

My parents outlined their plan. My father, or Abe as he liked to be called, had alchemist contacts and he was able to procure a supply of Estrous suppressing drugs. Usually this required registration at court, but he circumvented that by buying the company that manufactured them.

The next step was to develop pheromone altering medications. This had been in development as some first presentation stories had been horrific. When an omega is in estrous, they give off a powerful scent. Alphas are the most sensitive, than moroi with their heightened senses, betas are less conscious and humans can detect it to the least extent.

Humans will be attracted, but would have no idea why. Betas would not be able to distinguish my scent as being specifically different, but more drawn to me.

Maybe I was always meant to be Omega, I was curvier and slimmer than most of the female dhampirs. I thought it was my good looks that attracted people, maybe it was just chemical.

"We are still developing this treatment, we are estimating 6 months until it is ready. Dr Kaya can explain it better than I can."

"So let me get this straight. You two think that we can get away with hiding my Omega state indefinitely so I can still become a guardian?"

"Precisely," Abe replied. "We would need to take certain precautions, but we think it is best that we eventually return you girls to school after an appropriate period of testing. Can you tell us why you left the school?"

Lissa and I started our story, the car accident, our bond, Ms Karp's warning, Lissa's sensation of feeling like she was being watched and Lissa's special abilities - healing and compulsion.

My mother looked like she didn't believe it, but Abe watched us with a shrewd expression. "There is a woman in Russia who is rumoured to have similar abilities in a small dhampir town in Siberia, we might be able to get more information from her."

I could feel lissa was as shocked as I was through the bond and my mother had her mouth wide open.

"There is someone else?" Lissa asked. "I mean other than Ms Karp"

My parents bristled slightly in response to Ms Karps name. "She left the school, her whereabouts are unknown". Janine said slowly. I could detect she hadn't given us the whole truth, but she didn't look like she was going to give the information up.

(9 months ago)

My father had relocated us to Portland and kept us hidden. I trained with his guardian, Pavel, working on Krav Maga and Akido for my return to dhampir training. When Abe left for business, Pavel stayed behind to continue my training. He went through guarding strategy and tried to catch me up on guarding techniques.

Lissa and I had met a couple called Oksana and Mark via Skype. They were a bonded moroi and dhampir couple. Mark was a beta, so they didn't have my problem.

Oksana had sent a charmed ring and she had walked Lissa through the process of charming silver. They had recently moved on to the process of healing the darkness out of me, we had not mastered that yet.

He placed his private guardians next to our residence for our protection. In addition, he hired human witches to protect us with barriers to detect and ward off strigoi.

Dr Kaya was explaining the medication to us all, with varying levels of success…

"Omega's produce pheromones estratetraenol and copulins, betas produce androstenol and Alphas have large quantities of androstenone. Androstenol is the base sex hormone, which can be converted into estratetraenol or androstenone. This is really interesting as in humans have androstenedione-"

She looked around and noticed that we were all staring at her blankly. "In essence, I have developed a deodorant that changes your pheromone scent to mask that of a beta. But you will still have a little bit copulin scent, making you more popular to your admirers."

Everyone nodded. "So this should fool everyone, even alphas?" I asked.

"That's is something we need to test over the next few months with mated alphas, but the hope is that you can pass for a beta and finish your schooling."

"Why are you doing this Dr Kaya? What is your angle." My mother looked at me with irritation, but I needed to know she wasn't going to sell me out first chance she gets.

"A couple reasons actually. Firstly, this is cutting edge science and I can reach breakthroughs never thought possible, thanks to your fathers funding. Secondly, I had a niece who presented omega and I don't want to frighten you, but it was traumatic. She was never the same after that, so if I can use my research to help other Omegas, I will."

I relaxed a little, if her motivations were scientific alone, I was at risk of her selling me out. A family member made it more personal and likely sympathetic to other Omegas.

"Don't worry Kiz, I vet people very carefully, especially when it comes to my family." He looked paternal, yet at the same time he glanced at Dr Kaya with a menacing pointed look. It was as though he was reminding her not to step out of line.

"Now, lets talk about the suppression medication and contraception. You will need to take these both daily, we will label them as Fish oil and B complex in your bottles. It is imperative that you take these every day at the same time, we want to keep you protected. Also, I don't think that the pheromone spray will be able to mask you in full estrous, so you need to stay suppressed."

Over the next 6 months, Lissa and I were home schooled and I trained at a small studio that Abe purchased above where we lived. If we were caught by the guardians, before everything was put in place then I could kiss my future goodbye.

I trained with mated and unmated betas to test the effectiveness of the spray and the medications. Then we trialled the pheromone spray with multiple alphas in my fathers employ, some were mated (like Pavel) and some were not.

Dr Kaya wanted to test the spray in training conditions as I was likely produce more when I was sweating. I went through two suppressed Estrous cycles during this time. I became a little flirty during this period, but nothing out of control.

(One week before returning to the school)

My parents both came over for dinner one night, which was very unusual as I hadn't seen Janine since my presentation. Lissa and I knew this was big news.

"It's time," Abe said.

"Really? like today or when?" Lissa asked. I was very nervous about this concept, we had left for a reason and now we were going back into the lions den.

"I'm going to have my guardians withdraw from the building, no moroi or Dhampir can be seen by the guardians. We will get a coven of witches to stay nearby, these ladies are not to be underestimated."

"Ok" I said slowly. Having met my father before, I felt like the other shoe was going to drop and I wanted them to hurry up and tell us.

"Rosemarie, your father and I were talking about how to optimise safety for both of you. We have developed contingency plans for an estrous presentation. If either of you get abducted, the witches have masked trackers that we will place in your arms. Even Abe cannot detect it with his considerable earth magic."

Lissa was agreeable through the bond. "That sounds sensible" I said.

"We will have a team of mated Mazur Guardians nearby to the school, ready for any emergency." We nodded, then I saw her shift her eyes to Abe.

"Kiz, we want another layer of protection. I got Lissa to do a series of experiments on a variety of Mazur guards; the Alphas and betas." This must have occurred while I was doing my training, I was apprehensive now.

"We think that Lissa should compel you to suppress these memories of your presentation." Mum finished.

"You can't be serious!"

"Guardians are very good at picking up non-verbal cues, subtle things that you are not consciously aware of. We just want to optimise your chances of graduating without being detected."

"Liss? What do you think" I asked her. She replied through the bond. I know you don't like this, but you know I'm the one doing this. We will confirm exactly what I will say to you and make a safety clause for it to be removed in certain situations.

"Make sure you get me to take my pills and spray myself religiously." I responded and my parents visibly relaxed, knowing I would agree.

The four of us argued the specifics of what information needed to be suppressed. I would remember my father, but nothing about myself being Omega. Lissa's job was to watch me at St Vlad's, in addition to a few trusted guardian, Alberta Petrov and Yuri Vanco. My lack of awareness when I presented meant that Lissa had to watch for the signs.

The team withdrew that night and my parents left, leaving a tip with the school guardians that we were in Portland. He stayed in contact with Lissa, as she knew everything and I was about to forget.

Lissa focused her gaze upon me, I was enthralled, I couldn't do anything else that what she was suggesting. "Rose, you are going to forget that you are an omega. We have been on the run for almost two years and you have protected me. We met your father who helped us procure blood supply for me and financial support. You took us to Portland 12 months ago as I was spotted by a moroi at a museum.

You will diligently take your multivitamin tablets and use your deodorant spray every day, particularly when I ask you to. You will be honest with me when I ask you questions and you will remember everything when I say 'Pomnit' or if you are in a life threatening situation."

I blinked, I felt like I had forgotten something, almost like it was on the tip of my tongue and then vanished.. I looked around, something looked different.

"Lissa, where are our go bags? We always have to be prepared!"

"Sorry Rose, I'll grab them right now." She sent a text to someone.

"Who are you messaging?"

"Your dad, regarding my next blood shipment" She seemed off, I searched the bond but she was staying neutral.

"I think I'll have a lie down" I said.

"Me too"

We both went to sleep, in the middle of the night I boiled upright, waking from Lissa's dream.

I have decided the next chapter will be the end of part one. I am 2 chapters ahead and know the next 10 chapter story beats, but I'm trying to figure out where I am taking this story and i'm just not there yet. I am working full time and back into studying for my professional exam again... So I dont know how long the hiatus will be between parts.