by Merel Pierce
Of course, he couldn’t tell her that. Not yet, anyway. She was a thief, and she had to be punished for the trouble she’d caused. Allowing her to believe her life was in danger would keep her subdued, push her to submit to his whims. At least, until he could foster those behaviors naturally.
He had his concerns, however. Family could be strength, or family could be weakness. For his enemies, his family would be a break in the armor they might seek to use against him. He was fast overtaking the entire city, and the other organizations were frantic to find a way to stop him. Without an heir though, he’d have no one to inherit all that he’d worked so hard for.
The size difference between them seemed potentially problematic as well. Her health was another point of concern. The doctors had alluded to the fact that she may not make a very hearty or resilient mate and could risk passing on the sickly disposition to any child she managed to carry to term.
After having reviewed the security footage from the transfer station, Nikolai felt certain they were wrong. She was just as he said. Small and fierce. She was a survivor, like him. Even still, genetic screenings were already underway as he sat in his chair watching the omega clean the entirety of her plate, leaving no crumb or bit of gristle behind.
When she was finished, he removed the tray and sat it outside the door, where two beta guards stood silent watch. In Russian, he informed the men that they were not to be disturbed. He then locked the door before returning to the bed, unbuttoning his shirt casually as the tiny female looked up at him through wary eyes.
“What are you doing?”
“You need rest, and I intend to join you.” The male watched the way her eyes followed the progress of his fingers as he nimbly undid each button, enjoying the attention she didn’t seem to realize she was granting his body. The girl’s fingers tightened on the blanket covering her lap when he shrugged off the shirt and undid his belt.
“What does that mean, exactly?” She licked her lips nervously, and Nikolai felt his cock stir at the sight of her tiny pink tongue. Instead of answering her, he merely smirked.
The alpha continued to undress, unfastening his pants before sitting down on the mattress to remove his socks and shoes. She shied away, creeping as far towards the opposite side of the bed as she could. He stood once more, slipping out of his pants and underthings before he took hold of her blanket and jerked it back.
She winced when the material was pulled free of her grasp, and as her eyes lit upon his thickening shaft, she drew her knees up to her chest and pulled the t-shirt she wore over top of them in a childish attempt to hide herself. Being as it was his shirt, there was plenty of room for her to hide. But he didn’t intend to allow it for long. He paused, blanket still in hand.
“Come now, surely this isn’t the first time you’ve seen a man naked?”
Her mouth fell open, her cheeks flushing the prettiest pale shade of pink as her eyes leveled him with an affronted glare. “Of course not!”
He edged a knee onto the bed, moving closer to her with controlled, calculated motion. “You’ve had lovers, yes?”
“Yes!” She spat, swallowing hard when her eyes flickered down the length of his torso to the part of his anatomy she couldn’t help but be drawn to. Even half-mast as it was, he knew it was an impressive sight. He slid his other knee onto the bed and leaned towards her, his fists pressing to the mattress between them.
“How many lovers, little wolf?”
She squirmed. “Several. Why does it matter?” There was the faintest hint of change in the air, a trickle of pheromones teasing his nose as he drew nearer, now nearly face to face with her. She averted her eyes, chewing her lip furiously. It was easy to tell she was out of her element. Judging by what he’d seen when she’d woken in the cages, and how she’d behaved during what transpired after, the girl was used to being in control. His grin was knowing.
“Betas?”
She grunted, unable to even bring herself to speak now as she shifted uncomfortably in the cocoon of her shirt.
“Betas and alphas are nothing alike in bed. Now lie down, and I’ll give you back the covers,” he instructed evenly, his tone vibrating with intent. “Or, if you’d rather be difficult, I can growl for you, and you’ll forget all about wanting the blanket to begin with.”
Her eyes, wide and full of disbelief, rocketed back towards him, and the speed with which she submitted to his command suggested she was familiar enough with the alpha-omega interactions to know what the threat of an alpha’s growl meant. Whether she believed she was omega or not, she wasn’t willing to take the chance.
He watched with silent appreciation as she extended her legs, holding the hem of the shirt down against her thighs as she scooted forward and dropped herself backwards on the bed. He knew why she was concerned about the shirt riding up. He’d given her something to cover herself with, but no panties.
His eyes flickered lazily along her body, holding his tongue when he thought to tease her about how her awkwardness suggested she was less experienced than she claimed. Instead, he purred, “Good girl.” She blinked once, twice, and even as the tension in her muscles began to ebb, her brow knit with frustration.
True to his word, Nikolai reclined next to her and spread the blanket over them both. She huffed, but wisely refrained from pointing out that he hadn’t mentioned that they’d be sharing it. He was an alpha and this was his bed. She had sense enough to know there were limits to what she could expect to get away with while she was in it.
Nikolai rolled to face her, their bodies mere inches apart as he propped his head on his hand so that he might look down on the anxious girl at his side. “You needn’t worry, I won’t be putting my cock in any of your holes tonight,” he promised crudely. She pursed her lips, and the sidelong glance she gave him was almost scolding.
The male made a throaty noise of amusement that threatened to interrupt his purring, but immediately resume the rhythmic rumble when she looked mildly concerned that he might stop. “I’m not a rapist. When I mount you, it will be because you want it. So, put it out of your mind. I’m more interested in getting to know you while we have the opportunity. It seems to me you are a very interesting woman.”
It wasn’t entirely true, insinuating he wanted to get to know her more than he wanted to fuck her. In fact, he’d wanted to ravage her since the second discharge of slick she’d had when her stomach cramped as the doctors worked on her after her attack. The pheromones were diluted due to her faulty implant, but the scent was still enough to make him feel irritated beyond reason by anyone else that came near her.
It was then that’d he began looking for excuses to touch her. He bathed her, shaved her legs, massaged her muscles, brushed her hair, rubbed lotion into her skin and ointment into her bruises. He told himself it was only just to familiarize her body with his touch before she was awake to protest the pleasure his doting could bring. He’d justified it as part of conditioning her subconscious mind to accept his attention.
He posed his next question in the language of his father and grandfather before him. The language she had obviously understood enough of to repeat to his man in the transfer station. “Where did you learn Russian?” Her hands came to rest atop the blanket as he spoke, twisting the fabric restlessly between her fingers as she considered her answer.
In rough, fractured Russian, she answered, “When younger, I work in club where lots use.” The alpha’s eyes lit with pleasure as she answered him in his own tongue. He nodded his head, awarding her response with a dazzling smile that echoed his approval.
“What club was this?” He’d gone back to English, not interested in testing the limits of her Russian comprehension when there were other things he much preferred to learn about his captive. He lifted a careful hand, sifting his fingers through the generous length of her hair as he waited for a response. He allowed his eyes to follow the movements of his fingers instead of focusing on her face, hoping it might encourage her to turn her gaze on him willingly.
“Fortura.”
He frowned. Nikolai knew the place. Fortura belonged to one of his father’s old business associates before the war. It had an unfortunate but accurate reputation for trafficking in underage sex workers. “How old were you?”
“14.”
He sucked his teeth, surprised by the surge of displeasure he felt at the idea of a younger silver-haired omega being forced to dance for and service so many filthy, dangerous men. Noticing that she’d grown stiff, he realized his anger must have bled into his expression. He tried to lessen the tension of his facial muscles. “How long were you employed?”
“Three years,” she offered cautiously. “I was mostly behind the bar or cleaning up people’s messes though.” He let his eyes flicker briefly her direction, curious about the careful and almost soothing tone her voice had taken on. The look on her face confirmed his suspicion. She’d elaborated on her responsibilities at the club to ease his displeasure. She was perceptive, his little wolf. His anger cooled, and he rewarded her consideration by changing the topic.
“How old are you now?”
“23.”
She was ten years his junior. Nikolai’s lip twitched, and he resumed playing in her hair, ignoring the partial erection that was straining towards the girl’s body. She was too close. Her only saving grace was that she hadn’t entered estrous, and her hormones weren’t yet as potent as an omega’s should have been.
“How did you come to have such a unique name?”
She rolled eyes towards him in an exaggerated motion.
“It’s the month I was born. City workers aren’t very creative when it comes to naming children.”
“You dislike your name?”
“I’m used to it. I don’t know who I’d be if I weren’t December.”
As he continued to sift through her hair with his hands, he allowed his fingers to trace faintly over the side of her breast where the silver strands rested, watching her with as impassive an expression as he could manage. She stiffened as she had each time he touched her, her eyes following the path of his hand warily as he allowed it to crest the swell of her breast and glide down her torso to her stomach, where it would come to rest atop her own hands. “Since you haven’t asked, I assume you already know who I am. Bearing that in mind, why aren’t you frightened of me?”
“You’re Nikolai Petrovski, and yes, I am afraid of you.”
He folded one of her hands into his own and lifted it from her belly, moving slowly until he might press the captured fingers to his cheek. He held her hand in place, his gaze heating as he watched her pulse flutter in the slender, bruised column of her throat.
“You speak your mind rather freely for someone who claims to be scared.” The male teased, his purr deepening until it teetered on the edge of becoming something darker.
Her lashes fluttered and she cleared her throat, pressing her legs together more tightly beneath the blankets. It didn’t help her cause. A keen nose could still smell the faint scent of involuntary arousal he had caused, and it was all he could do not to drop the rumble an octave and give her a full-fledged growl.
“Fear doesn’t change anything. You’ll still do what you want, say what you want. No one is going to save me from you.”
“How very true.” He released her hand, pleased when it took a few seconds longer than he expected for her fingers to drop away. “How much do you know about the estrous of an omega, December?” He folded the edge of the blanket back far enough to allow him to slip his hand beneath it as he spoke. Moments later his fingers were skimming over her hip and dipping beneath the edge of her shirt.
The girl held perfectly still, like a mouse caught in the gaze of a cat who had yet to strike. It pleased him that she chose to go still when he initiated contact instead of fighting him. Of course, he knew that her cooperation now only suggested there would be a larger rebellion later.
“I know people have died because an omega happened to be in the wrong place when she went into heat. I know most women whisper about it like being an omega is some kind of curse.” She sounded concerned, her voice full of gravel. Her leg gave an involuntary jerk when the heat of his fingers dipped into the crease along her inner thigh. “I know other females call omegas whores for how they act, how they let men touch them when they are in estrous.” Nikolai hummed, giving the woman a dimpled smirk as his hand moved to cover her mound, his middle finger separating the folds of her sex in a light caress.
“They call them whores because they are jealous,” he leaned nearer, tilting his head so that he might press his nose beneath her ear and inhale. She hadn’t been lying. He could taste the fear in her scent. But he also sensed something else -- something that told him that her cycle would arrive sooner than the doctors originally thought. He felt himself growing harder at the thought. “Beta women can never know the sort of bond an omega shares with her alpha.”
She hissed as the tip of his finger brushed against the heated wetness of her slit, and he could hear her grinding her teeth in silent protest as he pressed that same digit slowly inward. He sank himself in to the knuckle, groaning soft approval at the tightness of her inner walls as the muscles seized around his finger. It was difficult to say whether she was attempting to push him out or pull him in, but the saturated heat of her hole was extremely enticing either way.
“I thought you said you weren’t going to fuck me.” She accused, shifting anxiously as if she meant to flee the bed. Ignoring her, Nikolai plunged the probing finger inward until her mound was flush with his hand, and he was surprised to find that he had bottomed out.
The corner of his lip turned down, his brow knitting with concern as he lifted his head to look down on her in silent question. His middle finger couldn’t have been more than four or four and a half inches long, and yet he was certain he was touching her cervix. His cock was easily over double that length. Eleven inches in fact. Yet, she looked uncomfortable with just his finger filling her.
While the doctors had assured him that once she had a proper estrous her body would be able to accommodate him, they hadn’t been certain if this first cycle would be normal or retarded by the fading medications in her system. One had even suggested it may take several moons for her to have a truly uninhibited cycle.
“I said I wasn’t going to stick my cock in you.” He corrected, his purr faltering as his concerns about the potential success of the pairing distracted him. The girl’s thighs grew tense, uncertainty washing through her expression as the scent of her fear grew stronger.
“You didn’t say I had to like what you did to me.” She whispered defensively, as if she thought his hesitation indicated that he was somewhat disappointed with her. Nikolai blinked, not expecting the self-consciousness that flickered through her eyes, even as she attempted to feign indifference. Realizing his misstep, he filed his concerns away for another time. She was tolerating his attention so well, after all. She deserved his full focus.
He dipped his head again, his mouth closing over the skin of her throat as he crooned a very masculine sound of approval for her. Slowly, he drew his finger back, only to pump it smoothly forward once more. When he was fully sheathed for the second time, he pressed into her further, testing the resistance of that back wall as she clenched and twitched around him. There was tension there, but the spongy tissue gave just a fraction under the pressure of his hand.
“You’ll like what I do to you,” his purr resuming its lazy vibrato. “You like it even now, or I wouldn’t have been able to penetrate you so easily. You are uniquely created to enjoy what only an alpha can give you. It’s not something you can help. There’s no shame in it,” he assured her warmly.
His finger pulsed forward, retracted, still palming her sex as he moved back and forth inside of her. Under the force of his purr, her stiffness again subsided, and eventually he felt the slightest unconscious tilt of her hips meeting his inward thrust. The subtle response might have gone unnoticed by a less observant male, but not him. “Y
ou are so deliciously tight…” He praised against her throat, sucking and nipping at her flesh as he carefully added a second finger to his assault, and moments later, a third.
“I thought you wanted to get to know me,” she murmured unhappily, obviously trying to distract him from his play. He felt her hand settle against his chest, fingers flexing nervously before she’d give him a tentative push. Of course, he didn’t budge. He merely continued to pulse back and forth into her sex, spreading his fingers inside her when her muscles tried to expel him.
“I am getting to know you.” Nikolai rumbled against her throat, smirking when she shoved at him again. “But tell me your favorite food and I’ll consider stopping.”
“Potatoes.” Her breath hitched, her pelvis jerking when the pads of his fingers slid against the sensitive flesh along the front wall of her sheath. “Or… or cheese. I have to pee. Can I go to the bathroom, please?” She sounded almost desperate and judging by how wet she’d gotten in such a short period of time, he could understand why she was eager to put distance between them.
The girl was more responsive than either of them expected, and she was already struggling not to lose control. It was all he could do not to growl and make her flood the sheets with slick, knowing she wouldn’t have any choice about how her body responded.
Reluctantly, he withdrew his fingers. The male watched her closely as he sucked each digit into his mouth, making a show of cleaning her juices from his skin. She looked almost embarrassed when he groaned and lapped at himself with his tongue, but he didn’t care. She tasted amazing, even as diluted as her natural attractants still were. She was sweet, her flavor delicate and pure.
He held her gaze until he was done, sheer will alone holding her eyes to his. When he’d finished, he extended his hand towards the wall where the dresser resided.