by Addison Cain
“Bullshit. She touched her clit.”
“Her orgasm had already begun. I followed Caspian’s rules, and she creamed all over my hand.” Hefting his mangled cock to display its monstrous girth to his friend, Toby smirked. “When you see her take this thing later, you’ll wonder why you’ve never tried it.”
Kieran grimaced. “My dick hurts just looking at that freakish thing.”
As the two bickered, Wren turned away and climbed off the bed.
It had been a long day, and from the sound of it, it would be an even longer night. Uncaring if they called to her, she took up the nesting materials brought over from her house and began to craft a place of safety.
With the covers still pulled over her head, wrapped in comfort only a nest could offer, Kieran kneeled at her side. “The bed is for you to enjoy, Omega. You don’t have to sleep on the floor.”
She wanted to sleep on the floor.
Hard surfaces were familiar and the distinct smell of other women’s pussies was far enough away that she could almost forget the taint wafting in the air. Moving the covers so that Kieran might see her face, she pointed at her nose, pointed at the bed, then pointed at her nose again while squishing her face up in disgust.
“It smells bad?”
She nodded emphatically.
The Second stood tall, walking over to the purple monstrosity to sniff the air. Confused, he leaned down and pressed his nose right to the covers. “Smells good to me.”
Of course it smelled good to him, he was breathing in years of sexual conquests… probably reliving some fond memories. Alphas were sluts. Omegas were territorial. If she had to stay in the pipeworks to keep their bargain, she didn’t want to sleep on that.
She wouldn’t be able to sleep on that.
When he stomped over, green eyes snapping, Wren cut him to the quick. She reached for him, invited him in a hastily organized nest that smelled of only one female. Begrudgingly he took the bait, stripping off his shoes to settle for a moment's rest beside her.
Toby sat on the bed watching, still working his disgusting dick. He was ignored, dismissed when she gave him her back and wrapped Kieran’s arm around her middle.
Nose in her hair, protesting the discomfort of an unyielding floor, he pressed against her back. “Only this once.”
This life had to be lived one moment at a time. It was the only way to keep sane in the Warrens, and the only thing that would get her through these coming weeks in the pipeworks. So Wren took this moment and stole comfort from the Alpha still grumbling at her back.
Sinking into his warmth, purring for him so he might be tempted to purr for her, she closed her eyes and refused to dream.
Dreams only made reality hurt that much more.
Chapter 3
Arm asleep and shoulder throbbing, Kieran cracked open an eye. The Omega snored out a lazy purr, her lips parted and appealing. Very appealing.
She shouldn’t be… considering.
Yes, she was pretty, but so were most of the women in the pen. Hell, Rosie was fucking beautiful—full hips, red lips, and tits that he could bounce a quarter off of. Caspian’s mouse was… scrawny, inexperienced.
But she smelled amazing.
Her little hesitations were fun, the look in her eye as she discovered what Alpha cock really offered…
Goddamn perfection.
All her white hair, once it had been cleaned with actual soap and untangled, would turn heads for miles around. Just like those albino lavender eyes. Kieran would wager no other woman over half the planet had eyes like that.
And he did like to gamble.
Bets had already been placed, in fact. His money was riding on Rosie scratching her way back to Caspian’s lap and First-Alpha selling this one to a high-profile connection. His mouse was too unique to set free, and no matter what Caspian might have promised her, he wasn’t going to let a rare commodity slip back into the mud. Caspian’s mouse would be mated and fat with a baby in six months, tops.
Smirking, growing warm by the idea of her growing round, Kieran pondered if it should be his baby slipped in that belly before she was passed off. Her new owner didn’t need to know she was already seeded. Get him drunk enough the night of the claiming and none would be the wiser.
After seeing her invade the pipeworks just to fetch two boys… after watching her face down the meanest fucking Alpha on the planet, Kieran knew she’d never dare tell. This Omega would protect her brood at any cost.
Imagining a kid growing up in one of those fancy houses, lording over a city of morons… never knowing his good looks came from a reviled gangster daddy. What a laugh.
Of course, all of these potentialities would go to shit if Toby got clingy. The Third was like a dog with a bone—a weird, over-swollen, boner, more like. The Third had almost started a war over a Beta Caspian refused to let him keep. The problem had sorted itself out when Toby took things too far and she ended up dead as a doornail.
Kieran had seen the corpse.
That fucking deformed knot… Toby had taken it too far.
Leave an Alpha unappeased and riled with backed up cum, and turns out his mind might snap. Instinct took over until urges found release.
Which is why Caspian and Kieran would be right there tonight. Fuck, Kieran would have been there regardless. It was sure to be a hell of a show, but he still wasn’t sure why Caspian was allowing it… on the girl’s first day.
Unless he wanted her broken in, finished, and set aside quickly.
Even a whore as willing as Rosie only had to do that once—and only after she’d been shared between them for months. The way she’d whined afterward had been the end of it. One thing Caspian refused to tolerate was a woman’s whiny mouth.
Punished for all that bitching, Kieran was pretty sure Rosie hadn’t been allowed to draw breath until every last member of the gang had been sucked dry… even the Betas Rosie thought were beneath her.
Omega females were so damn presumptuous. Even this one, who’d conned him into sleeping on the floor.
He gave her shoulder a shake. “Omega, it’s time to wake up.”
The snoring caught on a snort, totally unladylike and almost endearing. It shouldn’t have made him smirk, but it did, and that annoyed Kieran enough that he pushed her onto her back and scowled. “You will not sleep on the floor in this room. You will sleep on the bed with me. I don’t care if you hate the smell.”
The woman yawned, sleepy-eyed as she reached up to pat his cheek.
It was the first time she’d touched him in any way slightly intimate that he had not initiated… and that too irritated him. Rosie was on him every chance she could get. Fuck, all the bitches in the pen were.
And this one thought to make him sleep on the floor?
“Next time you try to lure me with female tricks, remember this. Caspian didn’t want you in his room. I claimed you so Toby couldn’t fuck with you all night. Show some goddamn gratitude or I’ll dump you in the pen to sleep alone like the other whores.”
That word. That one hissed word, and the Omega went ragdoll still.
Snide, showing his face to best advantage, Kieran sneered. “You think of yourself as something other than a whore?”
She swallowed, blinked, and refused to shake her head.
“You just let a sexual deviant jam his fist into your pussy with no complaint. I watched. I liked watching. Just as much as I’ll like watching your cunt eat up the treat he has in store later.”
Nothing.
Wait. Was she… was she actually crying?
Arms bulging, smooth chest puffed, he didn’t allow her to move when she began to try to wriggle free. Instead he kept her pinned like a worm on a hook and watched her fail utterly at escaping his weight.
The alteration in her scent didn’t please him nor did the sensation pinging at his ribs when she made her sad, little sounds. “What did you imagine was going to happen when you made your trade?”
Kieran really wanted to know, completel
y befuddled by this behavior—Omegas were designed to serve Alphas. They wanted to. Rosie had been begging for his cock only this morning.
Living with him was better than starving in a freezing shit-box and trading scrap for half a credit and some rotting food.
Sitting up just enough so she might weasel away, Kieran saw the look in her eyes. Hurt. It wasn’t pouting because he’d commanded she do something she didn’t want to. It was honest to god pain.
“Answer me.”
The part of her that he caught when she’d been half awake and content, this is what she’d hidden under the silence. Raw… just like Caspian had said.
“It was bound to happen one way or another, you must know that. Stamped face or no, some male was going to find a use for you. Make the best of just who claimed you first. For a few months you’ll live like a queen. You’ll have food. You’ll have water, and baths, and attention. Nod that you understand.”
She did, but the look in her eyes was not gratitude or even excitement at the prospect. The Omega was resigned.
“Do you know how many whores in the pen would spill blood to be in your shoes right now?”
The shake of her head and the accompanying expression was not provoking, yet still his irritation grew. It was clear she sensed it. Those violet eyes glanced down in submission, her posture changing from defensive to meek.
“If you think I’m going to fall for that, you’re playing with the wrong Alpha.” Climbing to his feet, he pulled her up after him. “You’re here for one reason. Tonight you’ll feel a reminder of it… and tomorrow, you’ll build your fucking nest on the bed.”
Chapter 4
Water up to her chin, enough to drink for a week, sloshed warm and lovely every time she moved a muscle. This is what heaven had to be. All the flesh that stung was soothed, tense muscles were rendered jelly. Wren didn’t even care that what had started crystal clear was dingy gray once she’d settled in. For the first time in five years, every speck of mud was going to be off of her.
And there was soap. Soap!
Things to clean her hair. Another bottle to soften it.
These precious items would have cost her three month’s income. They would have been stolen from her house had anyone in the Warrens known she possessed them.
She ran the bar over her shoulder for the third time, purring like a well-fed cat.
Who knew something as simple as a bath could heal so much?
The morning had been difficult. If she let herself ruminate over how completely fucked she was, she’d start screaming. The evening was going to be worse. She was going to be shared by all three of them. Something larger than a fist was going to tear through her body for the pleasure of a gangster she only knew by reputation and insinuation. All her fear had to be crammed into a little box in her head. The lid shut tight.
Warrens rats lived only in the moment, and took the small pleasures a hard life offered. She took the bath and relished every finger pruning moment.
Right now, she was a sleek mouse. One who’d been fed more food than she could hold. Who had swallowed not two, but three glasses of clean water. One who was still alive.
Whose boys were still alive.
The moment had to be savored. Small victories had to be enjoyed.
Even when the steam exacerbated her cough, she didn’t mind. Purring as loud as her tight chest might allow, she dunked her head and doused all that hair with shampoo. Bubbles, glorious bubbles, ran down her temples.
It was scentless, made for Omegas—so her natural odor would not be spoiled by perfume.
And it felt wonderful.
The Alpha who’d brought her here watched from the door. The creeper…
Always spying, that one. In the handful of days she’d known him, Kieran had watched Caspian fuck her. Watched Toby lick her. Watched Toby fist her.
And now he watched her take a bath.
Of all the moments he’d witnessed, this one seemed to intrigue him most. Not that Wren was paying him any mind. There wasn’t much to like about the good-looking one. And he didn’t seem to like much about her. Yet still he’d hovered all day, buzzing his irritated purr at her side like a mosquito looking to bite.
Gathering her hair at her nape, Wren drew the suds down, pulling the tangled locks over her shoulder so she might scrub what hung down to her waist.
It was too long. A constant reminder of another sad day in her life.
Maybe it was time to cut it... considering the reason she’d let it grow long.
A remembrance of someone special lost to her. The one who had pulled her out of the mud.
But not now. Not here with these men.
When it was over and she was home with Alec and Mikael, all of it would go.
Inching forward so she might lean back and dunk her hair, for a brief moment lavender eyes met green. Brief, because she immediately lowered her lashes and submerged. Underwater was a different place, with different rules and no males in it to spoil the whoosh in her ears.
Soap dissolving, years of dirt floating away on that wave of warmth, Wren indulged until a coming cough urged her to break the surface.
As air tore from ailing lungs, Wren ignored the sharp pains and foul taste of what came up. Those things were not allowed in this moment. Those things had to wait.
“Catch your breath.” The Alpha invaded her peace, coming over with a small square of clean towel. He held it up for her to spit into. He even looked at what came up. “No blood, that’s good.”
No. No blood. Not yet at least.
Considering his behavior from before, Wren jerked when the male began to push wet hanks of clean hair off her face. “Do well tonight and I’ll take you to the doctor in the morning. We’ll let him take a look at you, and… you can see your boy.”
She grabbed his wrist with a strength that made the Alpha’s eyes go wide. Tugging it to make sure he was paying attention, she nodded enthusiastically.
“I ain’t saying he’ll fix you. You don’t sound so good.”
Who cared if he fixed her? Shaking her head, squeezing his wrist all the tighter she mouthed the word, Mikael.
It seemed to dawn on him what this really was about. “You want to visit the child…”
Yes! More than anything.
He seemed to grasp the leverage the situation offered. “You’ll nest properly on the bed?”
Yes!
“You’ll greet me with a smile and kiss, the way a fancy Omega pleases her mate?”
Forever, if that’s what it took.
“I’ll make a bet with you. You play along with what we want to do to you tonight. Fuck Caspian like you did on the couch—I better see his eyes roll back.” Fingers splaying on the back of her skull, Kieran give her a winning smile. “Make no complaints when Toby takes his turn. You take everything he gives you with all the enthusiasm you can muster. Do that, sell it, and I’ll take you to see your kid.”
The men’s evening entertainment was going to happen either way, but the whole horrible scenario was made more palatable if there was some tangible reward. Wren pressed her wet forehead to where his hands rested on the lip of the tub and nodded.
He hadn’t mentioned what he wanted sexually for himself, and that made a slow creep of warning itch up her spine. Men like Kieran, didn’t just want to be smiled at and kissed. He was going to make a demand. And it was going to be something she would hate.
She would do it with a goddamn smile if it meant even five minutes with Mikael.
***
Clean, so clean that even her fingernails didn’t hide a trace of dirt, Wren played dress up. Her hair had been brushed free of snarls, left to hang like a waterfall of white down her back. Kieran had painted her mouth with shine, the slip on her lips strange and tasting of cherries.
It had been years since she’d had cherries.
“Stop rubbing them together, you’ll ruin the effect.”
She obeyed, stealing one last lick when the Alpha turned his back to grab anoth
er other oddity from the armoire.
The devilish glitter in his eyes when he turned let her know she’d been caught. “You’ll be punished for that later.”
Pressing her hands together in supplication, Wren took a step toward him, ready to beg.
“Our deal still stands.” The male smirked and stood his ground when she put her hands to his chest, pleading with her eyes. “I’ll take you to the doctor, if you win our bet.”
Before she might back away, he swooped down and tasted her lips, sucking them clean until every last molecule of cherry flavor had been stolen. Arms fixed around her middle, the purr he pressed into her was of a different nature than the ones he’d lavished upon Wren before. Nothing like the rattle after Caspian had wrung her neck or the hum when the Second had fucked her. Different than the irritated buzz that had filled the air in the nest and followed her about all day.
This was rich and masculine… expectant. This was from a different person entirely.
This was appealing.
Play the game… be his fancy Omega.
She was already dressed in soft blue, already scrubbed clean and new. How hard could it be to play for one night?
Wren let Alpha music work upon her, opening her mouth to him. Even groaning when his tongue stole in.
A fancy Omega like the ones thriving in the upper levels, with mates who loved them and children who didn’t starve before their eyes. It was a dream she could easily fall into, just as she melted into Kieran’s arms.
Wren had spent a lot of time pretending since she’d been cast down into the mud. She was good at it. Pretend life wasn’t so awful.
Compartmentalize. Survive.
The purr she made was honest in the sense that it rang out with true hunger even if it wasn’t for this male. She was hungry. For life. For safety the strong arms wrapped around her could offer. For a future.
She kissed him back, eager and willing to play house if only for a few moments. She kissed him back and lied to herself.
Husky and warm, Kieran broke away, blinking down at the thing in his arms. “That was… that was good.”