Prologue pt 1 - The Incursion
For as long as she could remember, Lenora had known she was different.
It just wasn’t in the way she’d always thought.
“Lenora!” Her mother’s wail stopped Lenora dead in her tracks as she tried to sneak through the backyard to the well house. “What on earth did you do to your dress?”
Lenora bit her tongue on the arguments she wanted to give. That it wasn’t her dress, but her oldest sister Clara’s - handed down by way of Janice, Ellespeth, Beatrice and Victoria - and that she wouldn’t have gotten it dirty if they’d just let her keep wearing her older brother’s pants instead.
“Maude chewed a hole in the fence again and got stuck in a ditch. I had to get her out, and then I had to patch the fence....!”
“That goddamn goat.” Her mother disappeared from the kitchen window, storming outside and towing Lenora the rest of the way to the well house. “That’s what your brothers are for.”
“They were busy in the hayfield,” Lenora complained. “I couldn’t leave Maude to drown! She’s just a baby!”
Her mother sighed, starting to pump water for a bath. “Lenora. You’re almost twelve now. You need to start behaving like a proper young lady or you’ll never get a husband.”
For all the things her mother and older sisters said to her, that was the one that always made Lenora feel the most complicated. The last thing she wanted to do was be a housewife like her mother, spending her days cooking and cleaning and mending and sewing. She didn’t particularly want to work the fields like her father and brothers did either, though she enjoyed tending the animals as much as she enjoyed looking after her sister Clara’s baby. She liked babies very much. But the idea of marrying a man made it feel like she’d lose all the freedom she had, never have time to read or be able to do anything interesting with her life.
When she was young, it had made her act out and do things that girls weren’t supposed to do. Like climb trees and get muddy and pick fights, in the hope it would make her unsuitable. She swore up and down that she’d never swoon over a man like her older sisters did. But now, sometimes, when she looked at the older boys, it made her feel strange and hot and tingly between her thighs....
“Sorry,” she said, hanging her head with what she’d learned was the appropriate level of contriteness. “I’ll be better, mother.”
She had every intention of keeping her word. And for three whole days, she did.
Then, on her way home from school, she’d spotted the ragged edges of yet another freshly-chewed hole in the fence.
Sighing, Lenora glanced up at the sky. Her father and three older brothers would be in the fields for another few hours yet. And there was no way her older sisters - the ones who still lived at home - would go after a single idiot wayward goat.
It was laundry day, and a wealth of options hung from the line. It only took a few moments to steal the driest pair of Godfrey’s pants and somebody’s shirt. She changed in the well house, cinching the too-large clothes tight with the tie from her dress and hiding the rest of her clothes. She re-tied her hair into a tight knot at the back of her head against the summer heat. Then, being more careful to stay out of line of sight from the house, she snuck away and went after the damn goat.
Fortunately for the goat - and her clothes - she wasn’t in the muddy ditch. But that meant going farther, much farther, to where she was certain she’d gone. How a goat stupid enough to fall in a drainage ditch was smart enough to remember how to get to an apple orchard farther away from their farmstead than the town, Lenora didn’t know. But with luck, she could find Maude, get back and get the fence fixed - again - before anyone in her family realized where they’d gone.
She began to see signs of her when she finally reached her destination. Half-chewed windfall apples were scattered in the short orchard grass between trees. “Maude?”
That, of course, was when she heard the incursion bells.
Lenora’s blood ran cold.
Get to the town or the homestead. The bells hadn’t rung in almost a year, and never when Lenora had been so far from home or school. But the instructions had been drilled into her head since birth. When the bells rung, it was either because they’d been warned of a possible incursion by the mages, or - even worse - a Creature had been spotted. She needed to get to safety as soon as possible.
The town and the homestead were much, much too far away.
If you can’t get somewhere safe, hide. Hide someplace where there’s livestock nearby. Hide until the bells ring all clear.
That she could do. The Allaway family, their closest neighbours, had a livestock shelter she’d passed on the way. Some of their cows had been grazing. Lenora took off at a run. It wouldn’t take long to reach it, and she could hunker down between the hay bales and the wind break.
She reached the trail again, summer sandals pounding against the hard-packed dirt. Thank god she still ran and played every day instead of taking up with the needlework club after school like her sisters. Thank god -
And that, of course, was when the creature crested the ridge above her.
Lenora’s body locked up in terror, staring. It was huge, worm-like, the black serpentine body roiling. It also had far too many legs, pulling it too quickly over the rocky terrain, and wicked pincer-arms. Its face was a horrific mockery of a woman’s, twisted and snarling, the huge mouth full of terrible, dagger-like teeth.
The head jerked, swiveling lightning-fast. Locking onto her.
It had seen her.
Run.
Lenora thought she saw something shining slam into its body, but she was already turning, racing back towards the orchard. It was too far away, with nowhere to hide. It was too far, but she still had to try.
“Run!” she heard someone yell faintly behind her, but she couldn’t stop to look. All she could do was run faster, arms and legs pumping, feet pounding the ground. She could hear that horrible scrabbling noise getting louder, closer, and the orchard was so far, it was too far -
Something slammed into her, knocking her to the ground. White-hot pain shot down the entire back of her body, and the world went black.
~~~
Welcome to the World of Omegaverse Sex Magic
When humanity is gifted with magic, that magic comes with rules and needs.
Alphas are mankind’s bravest protectors, and the strongest source of magic, but that magic comes at a cost: An Alpha who refuses to find sexual release with a partner will begin to burn up from an excess of magic that can send them into rut, and can eventually damage both them and the world around them. And an Alpha who uses too much of their magic at once risks a terrible result: burnout, incurable and fatal.
Omegas are an Alpha’s most important support. Magically empowered through intimacy to keep an Alpha’s volatile magic from burning them up, Omegas can become as powerful as their Alphas, or stronger, and support them in battle to help avoid burnout. But once an Omega chooses a life of magic, that choice has consequences, as magic begins to trigger their Heat to help ensure the next generation of mages.
The most sacred and important relationship is that between Claimed Mates: A bonded pair is strongest of all, banking the most magic in their intimacy and working the strongest spells together. Protected by the deepest magic, a Claim ensures that an Alpha and Omega truly dedicated to each other can never be unwillingly parted.
Packs, poly relationships and open relationships are normal and encouraged. Far more Omegas need empowerment than there are Alphas to go around, and Alphas must have sex -- or they’ll die. Claimed Mates are encouraged to decide for themselves what this means with love and open communication.
Above all, Magic requires Consent: anyone forcing themselves on another finds their ability to work magic increasingly damaged. But cruel and selfish people in the world will always find ways to manipulate... to the detriment of far more than just themselves.
~~~
