Karissa sat up, and those facing her immediately snapped their gazes to her. A second later all seven males were staring at her. Her joints ached, especially her hips, and her pussy felt bruised enough to make her wince as she tucked her legs to the side, but that was the least of her concerns.
“Hello, little one. We’re glad you’re awake,” Mordek spoke first, stepping forward, and she felt the warmth his attention brought, the bubbly feeling inside that promised good things, and she wanted to crawl into his lap. Wanted him to erase the nausea their words had summoned, but she couldn’t. Not yet.
“What are you talking about?”
“You,” he answered, moving a little closer. “About how we will keep you safe.”
“With pair bonds?” she asked, repeating their words, and Mordek stopped in place. “What is that?”
“It’s… this.” He put his fist to his chest again, a dull thump against all that muscle, but it wasn’t an answer.
“You’re not helping, Mordek.” Halyrion grumbled, stalking past their leader to come to the bedding, crouching down at the edge. For a flash she remembered his cock in her throat, the taste of him as he’d cum so much that she’d spilled more than half over her lips trying to swallow. She was still coated in his seed, in all of theirs along with her own slick — a word that hadn’t even existed in her vocabulary a few days before.
“I don’t understand.” Anything.
“I know, little Omega, and they’re worried you’ll run from the truth so they’re avoiding it. But I know you’re stronger than you look, aren’t you?” Halyrion reached out with his undamaged hand, trailing his fingers through her hair as he tucked it behind her ear and purred.
Strong? Maybe, maybe not… but with just one purr she already felt the tension leaving her. That twisted feeling in her stomach fading as her bones turned to jelly. There were moments when she thought she’d already gone crazy, moments like this when she nuzzled into his palm and licked. A whine escaping her lips when he took his fingers away just as she’d tried to draw one between her lips. That didn’t feel strong, it felt like the definition of pathetic. But the truth was better than a lie, even a pretty lie, and if he was offering, she wanted it. When she nodded, he smirked, crawling forward onto the bedding.
“The pair bond is something that can only happen between an Alpha and an Omega.” Moving like a big cat, sleek and massive, he settled onto the mattress beside her, a strong arm coiling around her waist to draw her closer to that mind-melting purr. “Usually, it’s just with their mate. One Alpha… one Omega.”
“Okay,” she whispered, dazed as he lifted her effortlessly into his lap. Karissa felt limp as he held her against his firm chest, his three-fingered hand pushing her hair back, forcing her to rest her head on his shoulder. “Like a marriage?”
A chuckle made his purr rumble louder for a moment, buzzing against her ribs. “I guess, in a way, but it’s not paperwork, little Omega.”
“Like what then?” The question was automatic, because his other hand had slid between her thighs where she was sore… or had been sore. She couldn’t feel the ache anymore leaned against his body, surrounded in his purr. If only he weren’t in the clothes and she could feel his skin on hers. That would be better.
“It’s more permanent than a marriage. More like binding your spirit to another.” Confusing words only confused further by the fact that his fingers were tracing the fresh slick dripping from her slit. His deft touch split her below, finding her clit easily to stroke, rub, everything in her turning warm and soft and wet.
“How…” she whispered, half-moaning as he began little circles, and she felt the other males moving close. Eyes opening, she saw them towering above her. Gazes rolling across her skin, some focusing where Halyrion worked between her legs, others seeking her eyes.
“On my planet we called it a mating mark. It meant you’d chosen your mate.” Halyrion nuzzled against her cheek, breathing in her hair as he slid one thick finger deep, hooking behind her pubic bone to find that place that raised her hips in a wanton display.
“Now who’s avoiding the truth,” Jeden growled.
“It’s the bite,” Donvin filled in, pulling his shirt to the side to reveal a faded, shimmery scar on his shoulder. “My Nandestra gave me this on the day we chose each other.”
“The bite?” she echoed, barely able to focus on their words as Halyrion teased her, beckoning her with little crooks of his finger to hump the air.
“Halyrion, would you fucking stop? None of us can think, especially not her.” Parel’s voice, edged with a snarl, but when Halyrion began to move his hand she grabbed onto his wrist and growled.
“Don’t think the little Omega wants me to stop.” A second finger joined the first, and she clamped onto his wrist to keep him there. Whimpering as he worked them in and out.
“I can think,” she declared, her efforts to sound coherent belied by the moan that tainted the end of her words. Sucking her lip between her teeth for a moment, she pressed back against Halyrion, reveling in his purr, hips rolling over the rock hard cock trapped in his pants. “You all bit me. You already bit me. In the alley. I remember.”
“Yes, little one, but that was just our mark. To claim you for our pack.” Mordek moved close, crouching directly in front of her spread thighs, his pupils dilating as he inhaled her slick. A rumbling purr came to life in his chest. Purr in stereo. Front and back, and she was lost in the intensity of it as the next words left his lips. “The bond only forms when you choose to bite one of us, when we are inside you, and we bite you once again. It’s stronger if we knot you at the same time.”
Pleasure was winding tight inside her, a blooming heat that flooded slick down over her ass to the bedding, but she remembered biting Mordek. The hunger, the instinct to sink her teeth into that place on his shoulder that smelled so good. The same spot she’d bit Jeden. Eyes opening she saw Donvin, his expression dark and clouded, but where he’d stretched the neck of his shirt she could still see the edge of the shiny scar.
The same spot.
Releasing Halyrion’s wrist she reached up to her shoulder and gently touched the mangled skin where Jeden had buried his teeth hours before.
“That’s right, little Omega. Right here.” Halyrion’s tongue flicked over the tender spot, easing the ache with another targeted stroke at her g-spot. Thick fingers covered in slick, moving easily through the mess to wind her higher, the pleasure and their purrs sedating the reaction she knew she should be having. Panic, fear. Trapped.
“So we…” She couldn’t form the words, only able to look at Mordek, hoping he understood.
“We are bonded, little one.” Tapping his chest again, she felt something echo inside her in response. A weird little hum, a tug that made her lean towards him. His arms opened and she shifted off Halyrion’s lap, barely aware of his disappointed groan as he slid his fingers free. Karissa crawled forward until she was on her knees before the massive male. He was only crouched, balanced on the balls of his feet, so she still had to crane her neck to look up at him, feeling small, weak — and not at all strong.
“Fuck, she tastes like heaven,” Halyrion groaned from behind her, but her eyes stayed glued to Mordek’s pale green.
Another thump inside, a strange pull and she closed the last few inches to press her cheek to the place he kept touching. Fists twisting in the black shirt, she pushed it up and he helped by ripping it over his head. Revealing more scars, so many fucking scars across hard muscle carved in stark relief.
“Who hurt you?” she asked softly, tracing a few of them before she leaned in, breathing deep, licking at the place that smelled no different than the rest of him. Only this time when she pressed her cheek to his skin, she felt a vibration in the same place in her chest. A buzz that grew as his arms wrapped around her. Stronger until the hum entered her ears, competing with his purr, flooding her with more warmth and intoxicating calm.
“It doesn’t matter, little one.” Pushing his nose
into her hair, he sniffed her, like they all did, in a long inhale before he squeezed her just a little tighter. “All that matters is you are ours, and we are yours. Each of us.”
Another strange buzz in her chest, different, and she reached blindly for it, opening her eyes when she felt fingers entwine with hers. “Jeden.”
“Yes, Karissa. We’re bound too, and I am honored by it.” He pulled her hand under his shirt so she could press her palm to the point just at the bottom of his sternum.
“I don’t understand,” she whispered, unable to comprehend what she was feeling. There weren’t words for the strange hums that were so distinctly the two different males, and yet the same in their resonance inside her. The tugs towards them felt just as necessary, just as vital as breathing.
“It’s complicated, but this pack is yours. We are—” A metal door slammed into the wall in the far corner of the space, near stacks of boxes marked with food brands. Through the doorway came a young boy, supporting a male with one arm around his waist and the male’s arm over his shoulder. A male with bright white hair.
“MORDEK!” the boy shouted, and the Alpha snarled.
The soothing hum in her chest changed to something sharp, like nails scratched on a chalkboard, and she flinched as Mordek stood fast. The others stood too, a chorus of feral growls that shook the ground and had her cowering in an instant. Still, she watched as their leader stomped forward, his roar hurting her ears. “WHAT DID I SAY?”
A yelp and the boy dropped to his knees, struggling to maintain his hold on the male he supported who fell to his knees hard beside him. The male raised his free hand up, both of their heads bowed low as Mordek closed the gap.
When the other Alphas got close Mordek turned and snapped his teeth, snarling with an expression so vicious she had no question as to why he led them. He was fucking terrifying.
Every one of the Alphas stopped where they were, and she tugged on a blanket, coming up with a large shirt instead. One sniff told her it was Donvin’s, and she put it on, trying to hide her nakedness before the new male saw her.
Mordek paced in front of the newcomers, neither of them moving, and curiosity tugged at her. Unable to see anymore as Tinves and Halyrion blocked her view. At first she just crawled forward a few feet, but the cement hurt her knees and so she pushed herself up. Fortunately, Donvin’s shirt went to mid-thigh, and for the first time in days she was covered as she padded forward silently into the potent sea of male aggression.
“Speak,” Mordek snapped.
“I’m sorry. I-I know you said no one comes—”
“SO WHY ARE YOU DISOBEYING ME?” The second roar from Mordek made the other Alphas shift back on their heels, but the two males in front of him just cowered closer to the ground. Karissa had to admit she felt the same urge, but a memory was tugging at her as she stared at the new ones and… she needed to get closer.
“I-i-it’s Niken, sir. He’s hurt, and I was tending him, b-b-but he has information. Important information, sir.” Stumbling over his words, the boy still raised his gaze to the lead Alpha. “I thought it would be best if I brought him in. H-he can’t walk on his own.”
Niken…
“What happened to you?” Mordek asked, aiming the question at the male still leaning heavily on the boy that was so much smaller than him.
As she stepped past Tinves, the male reached out for her but she tugged her arm free, stepping out of his reach as she moved closer. The male with the bleached white hair looked like he’d been in a fight as he looked up at the head Alpha. One eye swollen shut, half his face black and blue, lip split on top and bottom, and more bruises around his throat above the neck of his shirt.
Could it be him under all that?
“I didn’t tell them anything, Mordek. Nothing.” His golden eye found her as she stepped past Jeden, and he gasped. “She’s safe! Oh, thank the gods—”
“YOU!” she shouted, nowhere near matching the roar of Mordek’s fury, but her rage boiled to the surface anyway. The growl clicking to life in her chest as she walked forward, narrowly avoiding Jeden’s grab for her as she stomped towards the male. “You fucking bastard! YOU DRUGGED ME! YOU DID THIS!”
“No! No, please, listen—” Niken pleaded, and she screamed. Ready to tear him apart, to rip his throat out with her teeth, red fury blinding her to everything until Mordek rounded on her.
“STOP!” This time the roar was aimed at her, a snap like a rubber band in her chest that instantly froze her. “KNEEL!” he shouted, a command, and her knees slammed into the concrete before her brain could process what was happening.
Raw rage thrummed through the thing she had just learned was a bond, scratchy and painful in comparison to the soft buzzing hum from before. Tears were in her eyes as she braced palms on the floor, folding in on herself as Mordek fumed, obliterating her own anger with his until her mind was filled with him.
It wasn’t until he turned his attention back to Niken that she was able to suck in a rough breath, heart racing, and it left on a weak whine. No one moved in the space as Mordek dragged his large hand over his short-cropped hair, growling viciously, rolling his shoulders as he paced between her and the two cowering males. The flood of slick between her thighs caught her nose and she squeezed her thighs together, hoping to hide it as her muscles trembled.
“What. Happened.” Mordek asked again, biting out each word.
“The Omega. Her. She took the Clarity at Tyranny and she left before I caught her scent. When the club closed, I went to take the train back here, b-but I smelled her. Tracked it down an alley, and then I knew you’d found her. I caught your scents with hers, it was soaked into cardboard so the rain hadn’t been able to wash it away completely.” His one-eyed gaze flicked to her, and then dropped to the ground as Mordek growled.
“Tell me the rest.”
Head bowed, Niken traced the split in his lip with his tongue before he spoke again. “I was going to call, to ensure you had her or see if I needed to t-track her scent, but I… I wasn’t the only one who caught it.”
“Tell him,” the boy whispered quietly, head bowed even lower than Niken’s.
“A pack found me in the alley, sir.”
“Fuck,” Parel cursed somewhere behind her, but she couldn’t move. Couldn’t even manage to turn her head. It was taking all of her shaking effort just to look up to where Niken spoke, but she heard the growls of a few of the other Alphas.
“They wanted to know where she was,” Mordek growled.
“Yes, sir.” Niken’s voice was quiet, but surprisingly strong as he continued. “But I didn’t tell them anything. I managed to break the ident-stick inside the phone and toss it into the trash before they got to me. They have nothing.”
Cracking his neck, Mordek blew out a slow breath. “You did well.”
“Thank you, sir.”
Stepping closer to the pair, Mordek lowered into a crouch, still much taller than Niken as he balanced on the the balls of his feet. “How bad are you hurt?”
Niken shrugged the shoulder not draped over the boy. “I’ll be fine. What matters is you have her, sir. Safe.”
“Yes,” Mordek agreed, gently touching the side of the male’s face that wasn’t as covered in bruises, he tilted Niken’s head back a bit, revealing the dark bruises on his throat. “How long did they have you?”
“A little over a day,” Niken answered, bowing his head as soon as Mordek released him. “Eventually they believed I’d just been pulled in by her scent. They let me go, but I crashed in an old warehouse yesterday in case they followed me. Made sure they wouldn’t track me here. Back to her and the pack.”
“Write down any names you remember, descriptions. Alishair will help you.” Mordek turned his gaze on her and she felt it like a weight. “Would you like to meet the Omega you protected, Niken?”
“If you wish, sir.” Niken’s answer was barely audible and aimed directly at the concrete.
Trembling, she looked up at Mordek as he stomped o
ver to her, pleading wordlessly for him to not be angry anymore, to bring back the hum, but his grip landed on the back of her neck, pinching. She yelped just before an odd tingle rushed over her skin, and then he half-lifted, half-dragged her the few remaining strides to where Niken sat slumped against the boy.
“This is Karissa. Our Omega.” Mordek released her neck to run his hand over her hair, gentle once more, and she leaned into his hand even as she cowered.
“Hello, Karissa,” Niken whispered, bowing his head a little lower.
His voice stirred her slightly, eyes narrowed on the limp mohawk falling over his forehead. It took so much effort to get her vocal chords to work, but the question was too important, even if it came out on a croak. “Where’s Tawny?”
That golden-amber eye lifted to her, pain creasing his forehead as guilt passed over his features. “Fine. Just fine. She left that night with your friends. The Clarity didn’t bring out any traits in her, or any of the others.”
“And are they looking for me? Is my mother looking for me?” Her voice broke, louder at the end as she fought tears and leaned closer to him.
Mordek caught her by the hair, and jerked her back. Not quite painful, but impossible to fight. “Omega…” his voice warned, and she struggled against the urge to submit as his growl rumbled low and quiet.
“I don’t know, Karissa. I’ve been… I haven’t seen her.” Niken swallowed, and she could see how much he’d been hurt. Bruised, bleeding, weak. The marks on his throat looked like fingers up close, wrapped from behind so that the edges of them almost touched where his Adam’s apple bobbed.
“Tell him thank you for sacrificing himself to keep you safe.” Mordek’s command accompanied a tightening of the grip in her hair, and she shifted, desperate to ease the ache. But as soon as her thighs parted, her scent flooded out with the dripping slick that she couldn’t control.
Niken’s head snapped up once again, pupil dilating fast in his one good eye, and the boy next to him whimpered. Mordek’s fist tightened sharply in her hair, lifting her ass from her heels as he growled louder. Rushing to snap her knees together, she knew it was too late, but she still shouted, “Thank you, Niken!”
Alpha's Promise: A Reverse Harem Omegaverse Story (The Clarity Series Book 2) Page 6