In the beginning, vampires had always existed with humans. But people feared their abilities such as supernatural speed, unnatural strength, and never appearing to age. They remained hidden, while being hunted and persecuted.

Most of the rumors humans created about them were false. Garlic and holy water couldn’t hurt a vampire—the former was made up by authors, and the latter gave humans a false sense of hope that they could defeat one of the immortal creatures. Yes, they could walk during the daytime. The sun did not burn or turn them to dust. The chances of being killed by a human mob were more likely. Thus, vampires resorted to hunt their next meal at night, bringing forth this belief that the sun was fatal.

But vampires had weaknesses—silver, fire, and a stab to their heart. Destroying the heart was like cutting the head off a snake.

Eventually, as civilization became more modern, their existence was lost into myths. The fear of them became nothing more than a child’s Halloween costume and young adult stories.

Then the prophesied apocalypse began. Most vampires, the ones who couldn’t secretly transition into human society, took that opportunity to kill all they wanted.

Militaries failed. Governments fell. The humans’ demise was set in stone when, rather than fighting together as a species, each nation fought alone to protect their imaginary country borders. It was so trivial to the surviving people, those who lived like wild animals in nature and city ruins. How stupid of their ancestors.

It had now been 150 years since the vampires rose and conquered. After the humans’ downfall, it became their turn to hide and tremble in the shadows, hoping they weren’t next to be captured.

Becoming a blood slave would be their fate, otherwise.

A majority of vampires weren’t sparkly or merciful beings. They were all sadistic and selfish. If a human was caught, they were never seen again. In fact, one should assume they were as good as dead unless they were an alpha or at least a nice-looking beta. If an unfortunate human was a plain ol’ beta, they were sold like livestock to the slaughterhouse. They became blood slaves.

Most would rather die than accept that cruel destiny.

Human alphas and omegas were already rare long before the war. Betas, the normal ones who couldn’t detect pheromones, made up 80 percent of the population, while 15 percent were alphas, the preferred gender above the others because of their stronger physicality.

As for the remaining 5 percent…

Omegas.

Before the apocalypse, omegas weren’t considered the apple of a parent’s eye. They were looked down upon, and often faced stereotyping. Only one percent of omegas were male, the bottom of the barrel.

If humans had the genes, they could transition into werewolves. But like vampires, these large beasts became myths. They were more rare since they were bred out decades before the war. The genes were watered down because there was no use for humans who could change into large wolves anymore.

How ironic, because a wolf with big teeth and vampire-killing saliva probably would’ve been a useful defense against the bloodsuckers. Probably.

Things had changed. When the human population declined every year from mass blood supply cullings, so did the number of alphas and omegas. They became a treasure highly sought after by vampiric high society. Rumors said there was a breeding program for alphas and omegas to produce pups in captivity—humans with humans, vampires with vampires. These two species could not conceive together.

And the omega went from undesirable to the crème de la crème. Their rarity reached the point where owning one of these endangered genders was reserved for royalty. Vampires became desperate for an omega. King Abaddon hated to admit it, but the program he had started had technically failed, since an omega was never produced—just alphas and betas.

It was common knowledge that an omega hadn’t been born in decades. According to the few humans who had escaped the vampires’ clutches, the last omega had been born 43 years ago. Just the thought that there could be an omega out there was a hunting game for those bloodsuckers. Rounding up humans was easy to do since many had lost their will to fight.

The search wasn’t entirely pointless. There was an omega out there hiding within the cold, wet caverns of what used to be Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky.

The last omega.