Dylan St. James: Omega Concealed

Unputdownable! Such a captivating story! I love strong character leads - no matter male or female - driven, cunning, resourceful but empathetic and caring under the tough shell. Combined with smooth, expressive, emotionally charged writing, it turned into irresistible page turner.
The fictional world was dark, but not overly so, edgy, turbulent and unpredictable with a distinctive dystopian feel.
Such a violent, hostile environment where alphas rule brutally, in constant games of dominance, betas are commodities and omegas are rare stock, all hands on deck could mean a significant difference between life and death. So the kids of the St.James family, raised in the poorer part of the town, were trained and given the tools for survival from a very young age. I loved the united front Dylan's family was presenting to outsiders and the way they handled every threat with quiet, ruthless efficency. Family, where everyone was valued as a person, not gender and designation.
The story is heavily plot driven, slow burnish, action packed with many twists and turns. Dylan and the whole St.James family are an important link in a hidden organisation that rescues kidnapped and abused Omegas, helps them safely cross state borders, reach a special Rescue Center where they are given a new identity and a fresh start. Every member of St. James has a role and contributes, no one is left behind and they have learned to work together like a well-oiled machine.
So when, after a particularly daring rescue mission, Dylan's scent matches roll into the family hardware store in the form of investigating but oh-so-tempting and devastatingly oblivious “detectives” searching for the missing Omega on behalf of her pack, they find themselves in an alternate reality and their pink glasses smashed to pieces. How Seth, Austin and Cameron could be described as good in their job being so ignorant to the world they live in, was a total shock and I was glad they caught up fast on the fact that not everything they saw on surface level is actually the shiny truth. Their confusion about being attracted to a beta was a second strike against their investigative skills. Come on, after finding out Omegas are not always happily bonded in their respective packs, should have ring a bell, that may be there is more about Omega identity, that there have to be ways for Omegas to stay hidden. For the short amount of time Seth, Austin and Cam were in Dylan's life, they surely stacked up an impressive amount of poor choices. And that's exactly what made the story interesting - nobody was perfect, they all made mistakes and needed to work together to build a foundation based on open communication and trust. But neither Dylan, nor her scent matches were ready for this giant leap of faith and a drastic change in the way they perceived the world, based on totally different social experience and upbringing. I am impatiently waiting to see the second part and hope for a positive personal growth. Seth, Austin and Cam have a real challenge on their hands to prove themselves worthy. Dylan has another kind of challenge to meet head on - tone down the negativity towards the people who have chosen to live in packs, learning to trust someone out of her immediate tight knitted family and hopefully to start seeing the good not only the bad.
I really enjoyed the story, the ups and downs, the beautiful examples of loyalty, devotion and love as well as the heartbreaking moments of hard truths and difficult choices.