A/N:So, this is something COMPLETELY different from what I've written before, and I don't think I've seen any A/B/O fics in JE before. Hope people will enjoy it. If you have any questions, feel free to leave them in reviews or send them via PM! Rating this T for language because I don't think I'm brave enough to dive in to the smut that you see in a lot of A/B/O fics on my first attempt!

Chapter 1

Steph's POV

Alphas, Betas, and Omegas, that's just the way the world worked. Simplistically put, there were alphas to protect, betas to balance, and omegas to provide the comforts of a home- a "nest".

My name is Stephanie Plum, I'm an omega, and I thought that last little bit was mostly crap. Sure, I'd dated through the years. At thirty something I'd been on more than a few dates and even had a couple more serious relationships. Yet, even though I was with an omega, I never really felt the need to create a home.

Dickie was a beta who wished he was an alpha. It took a while for me to understand that about him, but eventually I figured it out. There was nothing wrong with a beta and an omega being in a committed relationship. Many were able to do so and live perfectly happy lives feeling completely fulfilled. I'd thought Dickie was one of those, and that we didn't need an alpha to make us happy. So I'd agreed to move in with Dickie. But, of course, it turned out that Dickie was a beta who was envious of alphas and felt he should have been one only something went wrong. So Dickie banged any omega he could get to spread her (or his) legs, and felt no remorse over that fact because it made him feel like more of an alpha. The prick.

Then there was Joe Morelli. Morelli was an alpha, and he had no problem throwing around his alpha pheromones to make omegas comply. That night in Tasty Pastry when I'd given him my virginity, I'd been young, foolish, and too inexperienced to know how to resist. Although it had been terrible at the time to find him gone, I could only look back at it as time went on and be happy that he'd had to report to the Navy first thing the next morning. Yes, he'd written about me all over and generally embarrassed the hell out of me, but if he'd stayed, he could have talked me into a permanent bond without even really trying, and that would have been that.

When Morelli came back into town, part of my interest in taking his case on had been desire to prove myself strong and capable without him. Prove to him that I wasn't just some omega who would drop in submission for him to take. Of course, as my lady-bits had only been too happy to point out, I still had needs. For my part, the on-off relationship we began after I'd proven his innocence was purely about need fulfillment as well. I never let him help me out when I was in heat, just took heat suppressant meds and/or got familiar with my latest Pleasure Treasures purchase.

Unfortunately, on Morelli's side of things, I was still an omega whose virginity he'd taken, and he felt that gave him some kind of claim over me. In the beginning, he hadn't pressured much, most likely because it gave him freedom to bang anything that moved without me being able to feel upset about some other omega or beta's scent being all over him. Before too long though, it was all bond this and bond that. The fact that I didn't want to bond with him, make a nest with him, or provide him with "pups" began to be unacceptable. And don't even get him started on my job.

I, Stephanie Plum, was an omega doing an alpha's work. That's right- decades of equality movements, and there were still plenty of alphas out there who believed that omegas shouldn't work at all, and if they did, they should only be allowed very specific types of jobs. Generally those would be your support and hospitality jobs. Of course there were omegas, like my mother, who also believed this to be true and definitely didn't help my cause. Between Joe and my mother, I'd almost given in and just let Joe bond me. After all, I wasn't getting any younger and if I wasn't careful I'd never find myself a mate.

But thankfully I'd realized that I'd rather NEVER have a mate than be mated with Morelli and I'd gotten out of there lickety-split. When Ranger found out, he'd put a guard on me and another on my apartment. I'd fussed and hollered at him almost all day every day until he'd just started answering his phone and immediately hanging up. The time he hadn't even bothered to pick up the phone, I'd left a ten minute long rant about personal freedom and how I didn't leave one overbearing alpha who thought he could make all my decisions for me only to be stuck in the clutches of another. That night, Morelli had shown up and tried to force the bond, only to be stopped in the nick of time by a couple of Merry Men.

When I'd finally calmed down enough to stop jumping at every little shadow, Ranger and I had sat down and talked. As much as I didn't want to admit it, Ranger had a point. I was an omega who didn't want to be forced to make a home and play by everyone else's rules, so who was I to try to demand that Ranger be an alpha in ways he wasn't ready to be. To me, Ranger smelled like a warm campfire. Something comforting that could give me heat when I needed it, but he definitely didn't bring out that omega need for me any more than anyone else I'd met had. Ranger was happy to protect me, make me a part of his life in that way, but he wasn't going to be my alpha. If it weren't for the fact that he'd told me he'd even help me through a heat if one hit and I didn't want to take suppressants for one reason or another, I'd say I was Ranger's little sister. Obviously with the occasional sex for comfort, that wasn't true, but Ranger would never bond with me, and we would never have that relationship. It was difficult, but I finally accepted that reality.

After the incident with Morelli, it had taken me a little while to get back on my feet and feel confident enough to strike out on my own as a bounty hunter again. The first couple of times I'd tried to bring in an alpha, I'd panicked and some of Ranger's men had silently stepped in and helped me out. The Merry Men really were like my big brothers. Honestly, I wasn't sure why it was the case, maybe they just had the best control of anyone on the planet. However exactly it came to be, the alphas among them outnumbered the betas almost four to one, and none of them had ever made a move on me. For the most part, packs were a thing of the past, but the Merry Men were darn close. If someone within the group had made a move on me, it would have certainly torn them apart, but none of them seemed to give it a second thought. Really it boiled down to the fact that we weren't compatible.

In a way, it was a little unnerving to constantly be around so many alphas who had no interest in my omeganess. But more than anything, I found it to be a relief. When I'd had a couple more close calls with alpha skips breaking into my apartment as well as a few run-ins with Morelli that had been way outside of my comfort range, we'd made some changes. The first had been that I stopped going after the alpha skips. Sure, it wasn't always a bad thing when I did, but really I'd lost my nerve where that was concerned. Ranger had given me the option of either taking a partner with me when I took them down or just not going after them anymore, and I'd decided on the latter. I would still do the legwork and track them down, but I'd be safely elsewhere (like a van a couple blocks away) while the takedown happened.

The second major change had been me moving into Rangeman. I'd been, I think completely understandably, hesitant to agree. What omega in her right mind would move into a building full of alphas and betas with whom she had no relationship nor did she want to? At least that's what the gossips in Trenton, and especially the Burg had to say about the matter. That or they would claim that I let all those men share me and was nothing better than a broodmare. How they explained a broodmare who never had any offspring, I don't know. I guess really they just thought I was a whore.

In reality though, I just had really good friends. Especially Ranger. Without asking for anything in return, he'd set up an apartment for me on Ella and Louis's floor. Ella was an omega and Louis was a beta, and they were a happily bonded pair so I never felt threatened in any way by their presence. And if I went into heat, nothing bad would happen. My door was outfitted with a top-of-the-line omega protection system that couldn't be unlocked by anyone but another omega when I was in heat. Going above and beyond, Ranger had installed panic rooms on every other floor of the building with the same locking system just in case I was visiting and got struck by the world's worst timing. As a bonded omega past her childbearing years, it was never something Ella really had to worry about anymore, but I could sense that even she felt a little bit better for their presence.

When I'd moved in initially, it had been on a trial basis and hadn't been contingent on me signing on with Rangeman. Then it had just worked so well that I had forgotten it wasn't permanent, but no one seemed to mind. The seventh floor was Ranger, sixth floor was Ella and Louis, me, and Ella's kitchen. Somehow I didn't get fat. And floors five through the basement were all Rangeman business and employee apartments. I had a desk there where I could run searches on my skips whenever I wanted to or I could drop by and run some for Rangeman if I felt like it. The apartment and the protective big brothers were mine regardless of how much or how little I worked for Ranger. And they were never conditional on my putting out.

Mary Lou, Lula, and Connie thought I was one lucky bitch, and from time to time they still hinted at thinking that I was holding out on the true nature of my relationship with Ranger or one of the other Merry Men. They only ever teased or hinted about such things in private, and never in a judgmental way. Anytime they heard a busybody going on about me in public, they were some of my fiercest defenders. Mary Lou may have been an omega and the same age as me, but she was quite the mama bear who wouldn't hesitate to take on anyone who spoke ill of me. The rumors and gossip never went away, but I did manage to grow a thicker skin and learn to just ignore it.

Ranger and his men obviously heard the rumors and were very displeased about them anytime it came up, but we hardly ever spoke of it. One day, Ranger asked me if I wouldn't mind attending the staff meeting they were having. Because I didn't have a desperate need to go after any of my skips, and he rarely asked me for things like that, I readily agreed. Of course, that meant waking up at a time no one in their right mind would consider morning, taking a shower, and stumbling my way downstairs when I would much rather still be sleeping.

I shuffled into the conference room bleary eyed, and everyone turned and looked at me in amusement. I pulled my phone out of the pocket of my Rangeman cargo pants and took a glimpse at the screen.

"What? I'm two minutes early! Don't say a meeting starts at 6am," Ranger made a face and I just rolled my eyes and said, "Fine, 0600 hours, if you want it to start earlier than that!"

Pretty much everyone in the room instantly started letting off soothing scents and I gave them a look that said I knew what they were doing and they weren't going to get anything past me as I walked over and took my seat next to Ranger on the opposite side of Tank. I slouched down in my chair surprised when Ella popped up with a doughnut and coffee.

"Why are you here, Ella? You're usually too smart to come to these things," I said only half joking.

"Ranger asked Louis and I to be here, so we're here."

That was odd, as was the fact that I was getting a doughnut without anyone giving me any crap. Halfway through enjoying said doughnut and the coffee, I realized that I was still being bombarded by those soothing scents.

"Oh my god," I started panicking. "What is it? Is it Grandma Mazur? Did she die? Oh man, is it me? Am I dying?"

"No one is dying, Babe," Ranger said calmly.

"Okay, then what's going on? I have a feeling I'm the last one to know about whatever it is."

"Well, you are, but only because we wanted to make sure we had everything arranged and you had options no matter what you decided."

"Ooookay… that doesn't make it any more clear. Let's hear it."

"As you may or may not have figured out by now, one of the reasons this office is located in Trenton is because it is a nice sized city with a decent amount of crime, but also because it is not all that far from Fort Dix. While I was still under contract with the government, it made sense to be close to a support center like that so I could quickly be transported wherever I was needed. At this point in time, however, I and the rest of the men here, are now free of any government contracts, leaving us free to do whatever we want."

"You're leaving me," I whispered out feeling more than a little hurt. When every man in the room growled at that, I couldn't help but jump. Ranger grabbed my hand and gave it a comforting squeeze before letting go.

"You know that's not true unless you want it to be. Like I said, you've got options. I've managed to use what was essentially a retirement bonus to buy out my silent partner, so I now have complete control over every aspect of Rangeman. I'd like to move my primary base of operations from Trenton to New York. We've already scoped out and purchased a new building and had all the same safeguards for you put into place. Tank made sure all the paperwork was in order for you to be able to continue bounty hunting in New York, including a license to carry. We've identified some bonds offices that would be happy to work with you, and you can essentially choose from among them. We hope that you'll come with us, but if you don't want to, we'll split the team up and rotate between offices so that you can stay in Trenton and still be able to see everyone from time to time."

I sniffled a little because that was hands-down the sweetest thing anyone had ever done for me without wanting anything. When I thought about it, I realized that really there was no question for me. This group of men was basically home for me in a way that Trenton had stopped being the day Morelli had attacked me and no one had believed me. It had been almost a year since that day, and I was ready to move on. New York could be my fresh start. Still sniffling, I looked up and gave the conference room a wobbly smile and said, "alright, New York. Let's give it a go!"

After that, things moved pretty quickly. Like a lot of people, I tended to think of Manhattan as being all ridiculously huge buildings such as Avengers Tower, but you really don't have to go very far off the beaten path to get more reasonably sized buildings. Apparently Ranger had his eye out for a couple of years, and when I reasonably sized building popped up on 1st Ave just a few blocks up from the UN, he had pounced. It was an older building, and Rangeman had bought it, gutted it, and renovated it basically from the bones out. Two weeks later I had a figurative knock-down, drag-out fight with my mother on my way out of town, and hardly looked in the rearview as I left. Although Ranger had offered them positions, Connie and Lula had elected to stay on with Plum Bail Bonds but promised to call and visit when they could.

Of course that meant there was a ton of work to do researching and deciding which bondsman we wanted to work with in our new city. Eventually though we worked out a system, and a few months in I was on the streets of a new city tracking down skips and bringing them in- often with a little bit of assistance from my favorite group of men. I was still wary of alphas, but omegas and betas I'd take down on my own whenever possible. I'd even started to get to know a few of the local cops, and I'd gone out on a few dates that had failed spectacularly as soon as they caught sight of the Merry Men.