by L. V. Lane
As I slumped back, flashbacks played behind my closed eyes.
Tolis, and the drop door. Uncorrupted soldiers wearing exoskeletons, their faces hidden behind hideous ant-faced helmets. Fighting, blood, and pain. Ethan, storming along a dark, wood-paneled corridor like the wrath of god and ripping a soldier apart. Ryker, gentle and coaxing—and then his empty, expressionless face.
The images swirled on and on, a wild rollercoaster of emotional highs and lows.
“In case you’re still confused,” Ethan had said as I laid between them. “I’m keeping you, we both are. Our perfect little Omega to fuck, and to breed.” He was talking about claiming me, biting me, and completing a permanent bond.
Safe.
I’d been safe, for one perfect moment.
Blinking slowly, I let my eyes adjust to the gloom.
I was laying on top of a small cot with width and length enough for my slight body, and little more. And still wearing my blue dress, although my feet were bare.
I was alone. For some reason, this made me more anxious than if someone had been present. Soft lighting cast shadows over plain white walls. A small room, enough for a cot and an open doorway, through which I could see a tiny shower room. There were no other features, no windows, no visible door, even the dull light had no apparent source.
I blinked again, forcing my eyes to stay open when they wanted to close. Steeling myself for the inevitable roiling in my gut, I attempted to sit up again.
The room spun so fast I had to brace my palm against the bed.
I moaned weakly. I was going to be sick.
That instinctive urge not to vomit over myself or the bed, saw me pitching over the side. The landing sent a sharp pain lancing through my knees. I lurched up and stumbled a zig-zag path for the open doorway to the shower room.
Collapsing at the toilet, I heaved up bile until there was nothing left, and then dry heaved until exhausted, I collapsed on the floor where I stared at the featureless white ceiling.
The dizziness was slow to recede, and I gulped deep breaths and tried to work out where I was.
I remembered taking a lunch break with Merry in the research center gardens, only yesterday. Her hair had been the lilac that I loved, and which accented her pretty blue eyes. I’d gotten lucky with Merry; intelligent, efficient, and the epitome of organized, but also a happy, infectious bubble of kindness.
We had sat talking as we ate our lunch, the sun warm and pleasant on my shoulders. She had said that Ethan and Ryker were smitten with me, which was undoubtedly the worst possible choice of word.
Later, I shared a bed with both Ethan and Ryker, and for the briefest moment, I had allowed myself to imagine a brighter future.
I rubbed the center of my chest. Inside me, buried deeply, was a fluttering sensation. As I concentrated on it, the fluttering grew stronger.
I had awoken before them—squished in the best kind of way between their big, warm bodies. They had looked so peaceful asleep that I had stared in wonder at them for the longest time after I wriggled out.
I hadn’t expected them to sleep through me getting ready, but when they did, it soon turned into a game. Punishment was inevitable, but I didn’t hate punishment anymore. If I was honest, I think I had come to crave it.
My chest ached. My whole body ached.
A tear trickled out the corner of my eyes, rolling down the sides of my face until it merged into my hairline.
I’ve been drugged. Erison’s Beta guard had drugged me while Erison had watched. “Take the Omega away,” he had said. Such visceral anger permeated every word and every aspect of his demeanor. I could feel his hatred
Why had I done that? Why had I sneaked out? Why had I put myself at risk?
Hindsight was an unwelcome guest in my predicament.
Erison Tsing was a man of purpose, had I not gone to him, he would have found another way.
I had made it easy for him, though, had walked right into his trap like the gullible fool I am.
Had I allowed Ryker or Ethan to accompany me, maybe I would still be safe…or perhaps they would have been killed, and I would have still been taken anyway.
It was done, for better or worse, it was done…and it could not be undone.
How did I find myself in this corner? Why would Erison do this to me? We had been friends once—lovers once. Had I slighted him? No, I could not believe that was the issue, but what then? The program?
He was an intelligent man, he must have understood I was no threat to his position or authority.
Only Ethan had been increasingly absent because he was investigating something, and I began to wonder what he might have uncovered. “Make no mistake,” Ethan had said. “I am going to kill him. But first I’m going to destroy him—systematically—I will strip him of every bit of false personal pride and fake prestige. I will rip him up and tear him down. And only then, when he is nothing, will I kill him.”
A sick dread invaded my core. What if Ethan was dead, what if he had uncovered something Tsing was trying to hide?
Ethan wasn’t dead, instinctively I understood that I would know if this were the case.
In my mind a stone dropped into a well, it sank and sank, bouncing off walls until it hit the water with a splash. The splash echoed, and a recent event filtered through.
The Omega workstream, the one we had been about to trial. There had been discrepancies with the numbers, a subtle notion that they weren’t adding up. I had questioned Erison, but he had smoothed it over. Another workstream handled viral creation. I was told it did not concern me.
I shuddered. What had I stumbled upon?
Did Ethan know? If he did, why hadn’t he told me…trusted me? I would never have gone to meet Erison had I realized.
Ethan didn’t think he needed to tell me because I was supposed to be controlled—obedient. I wasn’t supposed to leave without an escort.
Only I had.
I hadn’t mentioned the figures to Ethan, either. To be fair to both of us, Erison was the last person on our minds when we were together.
Blinking, I scrubbed at my damp cheeks. Mindful that nausea might return, I rolled onto my side and pushed myself to sit, propping my back against the shower room wall.
I’m going to Lyus.
My knowledge of Lyus was limited; the Empire had abandoned it long ago. Someone there had paid for me. An enemy of my father, or merely someone interested in capitalizing on an Omega?
My blood.
They would want my blood.
My blood? It dawned upon me that I wasn’t flushed.
My fingers clamped over my throat. I had been flushed before I left, I was certain. My skin crawled imagining someone taking from me while I had been unconscious. It touched a note of vulnerability and of misuse at the deepest level.
I wasn’t one for bad language. My father’s position meant I had lived my life under the kind of spotlight where such expressions were frowned upon, and I had conditioned myself accordingly. But as I sat on the floor of the tiny shower room, awaiting an unknown fate, and struggling to comprehend this calamity of my own making, the only words that again came to mind were, “What the fuck have I done?”
CHAPTER FIVE
WAKING BROUGHT A sense of restlessness. I wanted to disappear into a private space and process what had happened. That wasn’t going to be allowed. Easing out of bed, I padded over to the window.
Ridous was a small, core planet, and it had been my regular base between operations. It was now our regular base. My apartment was lovely but small, and my window looked out across the sprawling sea of towers that constituted the city. Transports zipped by in endless streams, while the brightly colored billboards jostled for space.
My sleep had been fitful, every time I moved, Logan moved with me. Always touching, surrounding, and dominating until his presence consumed my every thought and feeling.
Earlier, after he had spanked me, he had taken me down onto the lounge floor, and there he had knotted me. A small knot he had s
aid. It did not feel small—it was both monstrous and perfect. I was shocked that he could make it happen so readily without my being in heat.
I was tight, he’d said, and then he’d forced it in and out, stretching me.
A shudder rippled through me. Sometimes Logan terrified me—he was so relentless, determined.
My reaction to what he did, terrified me more.
I rubbed my arms, feeling a chill that went beyond my impending heat.
Something was wrong, but I couldn’t pinpoint what.
My gaze shifted from the city view, seeing Logan’s approach reflected through the window. Even after our time together, my breath still caught in my throat whenever I saw his handsome face. And his body, yes that perfect, sculptured body completed the package. As he reached me, his arm snaked around my waist, pulling me flush against his powerful body. It did not seem possible that I could be so lucky to have his love after the way I betrayed him…and he had died to save me.
“Hey.” Logan’s knuckles skimmed down the side of my throat. “You good?” I met his eyes through the glass and nodded. I was so tiny beside him, and my lashes lowered to watch his hand slide up to cup my breast. I had learned enough to know that Logan would do whatever he thought was best. “You are so fucking beautiful,” he said, nuzzling the side of my throat where his fingers had trailed. “And have tits like a porn star! I swear I must have died and gone to heaven the day I became your Controller.”
He squeezed his big hand over my breast for emphasis.
“That is not a compliment!” I said seriously.
“Baby, I’m hung like a porn star, we were made for each other.”
I laughed in spite of my best efforts not to.
“You going to start your nest tomorrow?” It was phrased as a question, but I could feel the underlying threat, and his emotions shifted from playful to dark.
I swallowed. I was an emotional sponge. I picked up everything unless I had a mental shield in place.
At times my defense slipped—it slipped a lot with Logan. His words were raw lust; he was thinking about fucking me in the nest, and knotting me…the full knot.
Oh god, the knot! The feeling of it inside me, the way it held his pelvis flush to mine, the way his whole cock felt bigger, and the way the thick swelling flared new nerves to life.
“Yes,” I said. And I did want to make a nest. I’d been looking at the soft material he left for me surreptitiously every day, but I felt oddly shy about taking the first step. He wasn’t going to give me a choice. He expected a nest—I would be making a nest.
An impression of wrongness suddenly settled over me again. Dark, unwholesome emotions that belonged to neither Logan nor me.
His hand lifted, catching my chin, and turning my face so he could study me. “Your eyes are gray,” he said as he inspected me.
“Something is wrong,” I said.
He frowned. “Wrong?”
Withdrawing from his hold, I rubbed absently at the center of my chest. “Something is wrong,” I said with greater conviction. “Oh god! There’s something wrong with Lilly.” Malaise gripped me up so abruptly that I thought I was on the verge of losing my mind. This had happened once before, and the sensations ripping through me reminded me of Tolis.
“Perhaps it’s her heat or her blood,” Logan said, and I was relieved he didn’t try to distract me from my concerns this time. “She has an unusual singularity.” His emotions had shifted to the ones I associated with his protective instincts. He didn’t like the way I was emotionally tied to her, however distant, but especially now as I was about to go into heat myself. “And she does have two Controllers.” His intensity eased, and he smiled. “Why don’t you try contacting her now? It will ease your mind.”
I nodded.
Returning to the bedroom, I sent another message. There was still no answer, but she was busy with the program, so it wasn’t unusual for her not to answer…and I knew Ethan and Ryker had been keeping her occupied outside of work. When I looked up, Logan was watching me.
I sighed. “I’m being foolish,” I said. “She has two Alpha Controllers, and she’s in Chimera. How much trouble could she be in?”
His smile was warm and encouraging. “Come to bed,” he said, and it wasn’t a tone that I could argue with. His eyes darkened, and I felt my breath catch when I sensed what he wanted. He was going to knot me again, would force that thick swelling in and out of me, would stretch me mercilessly because he thought I needed it, and because it pleased him to.
And god help me, I knew my eyes would be blazing violet, and that he knew exactly what it meant.
He held out his hand; I took it, and he led me back to bed.
Here he laid me down and set about a gentle exploration. Soft kisses covered my face, my lips, my neck, and trailed down to my breasts, where he teased me with a reverence that took my breath away. I was a writhing mess of sensual delight long before he spread my legs and put his wicked tongue to use.
I unraveled at his command, heart racing, and body splintering. Then he crawled over me, pushing my legs wide and filled me with his cock. I gasped at the stretch, feeling a tendril of apprehension as I considered what was to come. His dark eyes held mine before he pressed a gentle kiss to my forehead. “Open for me, baby.”
My legs parted further, cradling his hips, and he studied me with that familiar expression that held love and lust in equal measure.
He began to fuck, slow and sublime, while his gaze held me captive.
“You feel hotter,” he said, his eyes lowering to my lips before his mouth covered mine.
I opened my body and mind to him in every way.
Oh god!
Thoughts, dark and full of carnal hunger, leaked out. Logan growled softly, pressing fevered kisses along my throat.
He bit.
“Oh god. I—Oh.” I tried to hold off my release. Tried desperately to ignore the sensations as he adjusted the angle so his cock would hit that sensitive spot just right. My climax would trigger his knot, but the mere thought of abstinence bought the sweet sensation forth.
My pussy locked over the thick length of his cock.
“Good girl,” he growled next to my ear.
Panic and pleasure went to war. I tried to buck him off.
His fingers closed over the front of my throat, and he fucked into me harder, head lifting to reveal an expression of savage determination.
“You like that? Want more?”
My mind was conflicted, but my body was not. “Yes, please, yes.”
He pulled almost out and slammed back in deep, driving his cock all the way in. I thrashed, instinctively trying to take more. Gripping my hips, he fucked me hard, unleashing his aggression, and battering the entrance to my womb with every thrust.
It hurt. It made me wet.
I growled. It rose up out of my chest, fear, pleasure, and the sure knowledge that his dreadful knot would fill me imminently.
I cried out as his cock was ripped from me.
“Hands and knees, now!”
A sharp slap connected with my thigh. My mind had gone into freefall. I turned over, dazed, and now desperate in the absence of the perfect fullness.
My back arched, the cry leaving my lips was barely human.
Fisting a handful of my hair, he fucked me with deep, ruthless intent.
“You want my knot?”
Pleading and begging, I told him that I did, held my body perfectly, and presented my pussy for the ravishing it was taking.
“Only good Omegas get knotted by their Alphas. Good girls have a nest for their Alphas to knot them in. I expect a fucking nest. I expect you to be in it, ready to be fucked and knotted.”
I went wild underneath him, slamming back to receive everything he would give. His feelings swamped my sensitive mind. His focus was absolute, determined, and suffused with a feral need to claim.
A breathy moan escaped me as the monstrous swelling bloomed, and his hot cum flooded my pussy.
His growl was savage. “Mine.” He ground into me, holding me still while my heart pounded wildly and my pussy spasmed. “Oh god. I need more.”
His growl was a warning to submit, and I knew he wasn’t close to being done.
The pressure of that bulge made me restless, but his arm anchored around my waist and his searching fingers found my clit where he rubbed mercilessly over that swollen bundle of nerves, pinching and petting it between his fingers until I came again.
His teeth nipped against my shoulder, and I could feel the tension within him, the urge to bite deep enough to claim.
I wanted him to bite.
“That’s a good girl, loosen up for my cock.”
My pussy had locked painfully tight, but he kept rocking his hips, racking my pleasure higher as the slight movement tormented the sensitive flesh enclosing the bloated ridge until my muscles gave at last.
“Fuck, I’ve really opened your pussy.”
I did not like the sound of that.
“Hush. It’s not hurting you. Keep still for me and let me test it.” Hands bracing my hips, he drew back, and my pussy strained to hold him as the thick bulge neared my entrance. “It’s only a small knot. Not even half the normal size. I need to work it in and out.”
“No!” I pressed back, inner muscles gripping.
“Yes.” He teased my clit while my body and mind shuddered under the conflicting stimulations. I was so engorged, slippery, and sensitive under his fingers that it set off another rhythmic wave of climax that twisted up into a sharp, agonizing pleasure.
I whimpered, my stomach cramping. There was too much cum inside me, and the knot kept it trapped.
He rocked gently. “Good girl, let me stretch you some more.”
Tears stung the back of my eyes as the knot slipped out, and a flood poured out, soaking my thighs and the bedding.
“Fuck,” he muttered and jabbed his cock straight back in, pinching my nipple with one hand and my clit with the other as if this might distract me from the sting as my pussy was stretched to accept both his cock and knot.
This time I screamed as I came for him, my body shook and spasmed like I was the subject of a violent storm, and I lost all command of my body.