Auctioned: An Omegaverse Anthology

by Merel Pierce

  Then she was floating, lost in a sea of sensation and drunk on the scent of Alpha lust.

  She swallowed every drop.

  Magda stared up at the man through eyes blurred by tears as he surrendered to his partner and his pleasure, awed by the vulnerability in his expression. It was beautiful, that look. She’d never seen its like before, and she never would again. He was a singular man, her Alpha.

  Her Alpha.

  If only Magda could have been so blessed.

  Her sob worked free around his softening shaft before she could stop it. Both men’s eyes fluttered open, looking down on her in unison, one in annoyance and the other in concern.

  The hands in her hair loosened, slipping free to stroke her. He purred for her, soft and low, as he removed himself from her mouth. Something she could easily have mistaken for affection warmed his face.

  “Good girl, 817.”

  The other Alpha snorted. “Yes, what a good little fuckhole, doing what she was born to.”

  Obviously, the larger man wasn’t impressed.

  A wet squelching signaled his retreat, her guard grimacing and standing up straight. Muscles tense, he slipped himself back into his pants and zipped them up. He made quick work of his belt as he shot an unpleasant glance over his shoulder. The other Alpha was already tucked in and zipped up tight, glowering at them both.

  “Head on out, Lorin. You know how it looks when we come out together.”

  The man waved him off, sneering as he made his way down the hall. “Stop playing around back here and get to work, Eli.”

  Elias sighed. “Fuck off, buddy.”

  Magda tried to blink away her tears, wiping her eyes when he returned his attention to her. She gave him a weak smile, trying to ignore the way her skin buzzed and how she still leaked slick for him. He winked at her, returning her smile with a more convincing one.

  “Thank you, sugar. You be good, okay? I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  “Yes, Alpha,” she murmured with a nod. If she hadn’t known better, she’d have thought he was as reluctant for the moment to be over as she was. But that was stupid.

  “See you soon, hellcat.”

  Chapter Three

  Elias was exhausted by the time he stepped over the threshold of his and Lorin’s apartment. He imagined he would find Lorin still in a rut, and the thought didn’t improve his mood. One humiliation a day was his limit. He wouldn’t be submitting again, even if it meant he ended the night with a black eye and swollen lip.

  That didn’t happen. Instead he found Lorin chemically subdued in the living room, waiting for him. Elias took those awful little herbal pills every day when there were Omegas in heat in the pens. Sometimes he took them twice. Lorin always refused until he did something stupid. He was quick to swallow them after the fact.

  “Feeling better?” Elias deadpanned.

  Lorin stood up, diverting his eyes and rubbing the back of his neck. “You know how I get when they all go into heat.”

  “Doesn’t make you less of a prick.” Elias shrugged out of his jacket and tossed his keys down on the table, meeting Lorin halfway across the living room. “If you’d take the damn pills regularly, it wouldn’t hit you so hard.”

  “I’m sorry, all right?”

  “Mmhm,” Elias pulled his shirt over his head and tossed it aside. His belt was next. He had a sore ass and a short temper, and he was starting to feel like Lorin needed a taste of his own medicine. “Why don’t you get on your knees and show me how sorry you are?”

  *

  Midnight found them lying in bed together, exhausted. Elias hadn’t forgiven him easily, but the whole affair was settled after the third time he’d come in one of Lorin’s holes.

  Lorin’s arm was thrown across Elias’ torso, the man’s head resting on his chest. Elias was purring lazily, his fingers stroking back and forth across Lorin’s shoulder. The effect of his low rumble wasn’t the same for an Alpha as it was an Omega, but Elias knew Lorin enjoyed it anyway.

  “I want the girl, Lorin,” he said, apropos of nothing but his train of thought.

  The burly man stirred. “Hmm?”

  “817. The Omega? When we started this, you and I,” Elias elaborated, “I told you someday I might want my own Omega. Remember?”

  Lorin’s arm tightened around his ribs, its owner rubbing the scruff of his cheek across Elias’s sternum. “I remember. I’d just hoped you’d settle on some pretty boy we could both enjoy.”

  He didn’t let Lorin’s sulky tone bother him. They’d made this deal years ago when Elias agreed to move in. One day he’d choose an Omega to introduce into their little family. Whether Lorin liked his choice was never part of the discussion.

  “I didn’t pick her to spite you, Rin.” He folded his arms around Lorin, holding him close. “I chose her because she just feels right.”

  “But she’s defective,” Lorin protested. “She can’t give you children, and she’s got no formal education. Why don’t you at least find a well-bred bitch who can offer something of value?”

  “She’s got the only kind of education I care about,” Elias snapped. “And you know I don’t want children. She’s a good girl. You’d like her if you gave her a chance.”

  “Where are you going to put her? This apartment is hardly big enough as it is.”

  Elias slapped his shoulder. “I’ll put her right here in this bed, is where.” He snorted. “But don’t worry, I’ll keep her away from your pillow.”

  The larger male grumbled unhappily, prompting Elias to sigh.

  “Jesus, Lorin. She can nest in the bottom of my closet, okay? Until we get it figured out.”

  He was quiet, giving Lorin time to process and come to grips with what he’d been told. He adored Lorin, but the man’s ego was a pain in his ass. Elias knew he was already brooding, upset because he didn’t feel like he was enough to keep Elias’s interest.

  True to form, Lorin grumbled, “I thought things were good between us. I thought we were happy.”

  Elias smiled affectionately at the predictable uncertainty in the other man’s voice. “We are happy. This isn’t about ‘us’ not being enough. This is something I’ve always wanted. Needed. And I think she’ll be the best fit. You saw her today. No judgement, just eager to please. She’ll complement what we have.”

  “She just doesn’t want to die.”

  “Who would, asshole?”

  Now, it was Lorin’s turn to sigh. “Fine, I’ll put us on the disposal transport list tomorrow. But you owe me.”

  Elias grinned, ruffling the other man’s hair. “And I’m sure you’ll make it hurt when you come to collect.”

  *

  Lorin woke up in a bad mood. He got ready in the dark, leaving for work while Elias still slept. He wasn’t in the mood to talk. He was too busy brooding. Until last night, he’d forgotten all about the promises he’d made.

  He’d always known he was taking a risk, chasing after a man who wasn’t like him. He’d sensed Elias wasn’t a typical Alpha the first time he’d met him, but it had taken a while to ferret out why. Nondiscriminatory; that was what Lorin called him. Elias could be with anyone who struck his fancy, male or female. He liked them both.

  Elias was the whole package: handsome, smart, aggressive. Lorin had wanted him, so Lorin had chased him. Eventually he’d worn Elias down with his persistence and charm. They’d been together ever since.

  He adored the bastard. His downfall was that he’d been so eager to get his hands on Elias back then he’d agreed to his terms without much thought. Now that obsession was coming back to bite him in the ass.

  The last thing he wanted was to share Elias, but he knew sharing him was better than losing him. It wasn’t like Lorin could blame him for wanting an Omega. It was instinctual, something most Alphas craved. Elias had been very open about that being something he wanted in his life eventually. Lorin had agreed, and he hadn’t posed any conditions. This was his own fault.

  He would keep his word.


  When he arrived at work he logged on, clocked in, and opened the transport schedule. Normally done the last Friday of the month, Lorin was dismayed to find that the next shipment had been moved up due to overcrowding. It was scheduled to leave today.

  “Fuck!”

  He pulled out his phone and dialed Elias, quickly coding himself in as part of the transport crew on the system log.

  “Hello?”

  “They’ve moved it up to today. I’m going to have to get her myself.”

  For a moment Elias was silent. “Alone, Rin? You know how those disposal station rats are. It’s too dangerous with no one at your back. Maybe I can come in—”

  “There isn’t time, it’s leaving in half an hour.”

  “I… Forget it, Rin. It’s not worth the risk.” The disappointment in Elias’s voice stung. They may not have been bonded, but as far as Lorin was concerned, Elias was his mate. Hearing his sadness didn’t sit well with him. It made him feel like he couldn’t take care of him, provide for him.

  Lorin growled. “Shut up. You want that bitch, and I said you could have her. I’ll take care of it. End of discussion.”

  He didn’t hear what Elias said as he hung up the phone. Knowing he’d call back, Lorin turned it off and shoved it in his pocket.

  He tugged off his shirt and took his security vest out of his locker, dropping it over his head and pulling the pieces together under his arms. The second the clasps on the sides were closed, the advanced nanotech joined the two halves, making the garment seamless and form-fitting. Bullets, knives, fingernails—nothing would pierce the alien-made weave. Anyone on transport was made to take the added precaution of wearing one. There was always a risk when you were handling desperate people taking their last ride.

  Lorin pulled his shirt back on and retrieved his belt, securing his electrified baton used to subdue prisoners in its holster. He hid a second, more compact and volatile version of the weapon in the holster around his ankle.

  He made his way down to the dock, knowing this close to launch the slaves would have already been loaded onto the transport. The two Alphas lounging outside the back of the vehicle looked up at him in surprise when he approached, obviously not expecting an additional handler for the trip.

  Before they had an opportunity to ask, Lorin shouldered past them. “Boss thought I could use a break from the pens.” Being one of the largest Alphas on staff below deck had its advantages. People didn’t ask a lot of questions.

  The transport was a long, rectangular armored vehicle. Two rows of cells were split by a walkway that ran the length of the cargo hold. There were cages at the front and back for handlers, and a security coded door separated them from the slaves.

  The hall was barely wide enough for Lorin’s shoulders, forcing him to angle sideways as he walked. The cells on either side were crammed tight with bodies. Hands bound at their waists, they were forced still by the complete lack of space.

  The stink of fear and piss alone was enough to curl his lip. The whimpering and begging made his stomach turn. He hated disposal transport. Usually he avoided it like the plague.

  Elias owed him.

  Halfway to the front of the hold, he spotted that Omega. Shorter than the Betas in her pen, pressed against the front, she would have been hard to miss.

  He saw recognition in her eyes as he passed, but he spared her only a fleeting glance. She didn’t need to know the plan. She’d only get the others riled up.

  He made his way to the front where two other men were already seated on the steel bench, waiting for the all-clear. He got the same quizzical look from them as he had the last two.

  “What the hell, Reinhilt? You aren’t scheduled on transport.”

  He glared at the familiar Beta, a man named Decker. “Am now.”

  The other man, an Alpha called Mullins, leered at him. “Got anything to do with that little cunt your boy-toy’s been fawnin’ over?”

  Lorin snarled, moving into the man’s space before he had a chance to stand up and face him. Palms pressed to the metal above his head, he bent forward. The guttural growl of his challenge came easy enough, fueled by his annoyance at having to be here in the first place.

  “What’s it to you?”

  Mullins bristled, giving a stiff shrug. “Ain’t nothin’. Just didn’t figure you for a trash collector.”

  “Fuck off, Mullins.”

  He whirled away, stalking to the other side of the cage where leaned against the bars, folding his arms across his chest and staring down the hall towards the back of the vehicle. He couldn’t take the girl until she was scanned out at the disposal center, which meant he’d have to wait until they unloaded.

  Lorin hated waiting.

  Chapter Four

  The trip took hours. By the time they arrived, he was feeling like a caged animal himself.

  The air inside the transport was thick, suffocating him with pheromones and bodily odors. Ventilation wasn’t something the administration worried about when it came to slaves destined for disposal. It was all Lorin could do not to gag as he swallowed down bile. He couldn’t wait to get this over with.

  He was already halfway down the hall by the time the transport stopped moving and the dock-locks engaged. Red lights inside the back doors flashed green, indicating that it was safe to unload. He helped them unlatch the doors, shoving them open and stepping out into the loading bay.

  “In a hurry, Reinhilt?”

  Lorin lifted a middle finger over his shoulder, ignoring the other men as he assessed his surroundings. There were five guards on the dock—three Beta, two Alpha—a rough-looking crew of miscreants. No one worth a damn worked out here in the wilds, let alone lived here.

  You had to be a real piece of shit to do the work they did—willingly ending dozens of lives and disposing of the cremated remains. Day in, day out, they accepted load after load of slaves from numerous cities. It was the same type of atrocity that you read about in history texts, except now it was done behind closed doors and considered socially acceptable.

  Lorin wasn’t immune to the horror; he just had a more realistic outlook on it. As a prime Alpha, he knew exactly where he’d end up if he spoke out: A-Hall, right next to the rest of the Alphas being sold for breeding and fighting.

  He took up a position next to the open transport doors, eyeing the guards as they came down to check out the newest shipment. It wasn’t uncommon for slaves brought out here to end up on the black market. No doubt they were assessing the goods filing out of the hold.

  Disgusted, he watched the filthy men leer and grin, zapping slaves indiscriminately and laughing when they cried out. They were sorting them, pulling the best of all dynamics and forcing them into a holding pen off to one side of the dock. Most likely they were destined for some clandestine auction. The rest of the lot were shoddy, as slaves went. They’d be bound for the disposal chamber.

  The second that little auburn-headed female stumbled out of the transport, he snatched a fistful of her hair and jerked the Omega back against his chest. Her yelp drew the attention of the guards, their eyes narrowing on Lorin and his captive. He wrapped his forearm around her front, barring her chest to hold her against him.

  “What’s this? What are you doing?”