Arms came fast and rough around Brenya. No matter how she tried to dig her heels into the sidewalk, the flailing woman couldn’t plant a foot on the ground. She was being dragged, the strength of a massive body hard at her back. She wanted so badly to be free, to call for help past the hand pressed over her mouth, but frantic struggles amounted to nothing.

Hauled off the main causeway down a dead-end ventilation duct, Brenya could hardly breathe, too weak from the innate feebleness brought on by days of fasting. Before she could squirm away, her body was turned, pinioned between an unforgiving wall and the alarming presence of a colossal Alpha.

If unconditional dominance could be focused into a single creature, if it could be compressed, forced under one’s skin into the shape of a man, then Brenya was looking upon it. He had power in just one glance, the kind that exists without reason or fairness.

Over the endless whoosh of the duct’s massive fan, she lost her scream.

Their eyes met and the sound was never born from her throat. His were the intensity of hellacious rage, the shade of envy, and deadly focused. He leaned closer as she trembled, his large hand enclosing about the female’s throat.

Nostrils flaring, he sucked in an extended breath.

Green eyes rolled back in his head.

Panting, slapping his body so he might release his mass from smashing her further into the building did nothing more than earn a snarl from the male. He wanted his hostage still and silent.

Skin crawling, feeling as if she were on fire, Brenya dared to claw at the great hand encircling her throat. As if to acquiesce to the frantic plea, his grip abated, fingers trailing to the collar of her grey jumpsuit.

He was going to kill her—she could smell the aggression on the Alpha and began to cry. All she could think of was how she’d brought such an outcome on herself. She should never have tried to get through the gate. She should not have drunk from the fountain.

She was to be arrested and punished.

Frantic to explain, to earn release, Brenya whimpered, “Please. I’m sorry.”

As if she had never spoken, the male pinched the tab of her zipper. The grinding release as it descended down her neck confounded the woman. A tan clavicle grew exposed, the rise and fall of her chest all the more obvious. When her sling stopped his progress, before the fabric might part further, the Alpha’s knee batted her thighs apart. He’d hoisted her up so his nose might burrow against that freshly bared skin.

At the feel of his tongue rasping over flesh, Brenya’s panic hit a fever pitch. She screamed, more frantic writhing drawing a deeply disturbing growl from her attacker. His reverberating threat continued, even as his mouth descended to devour the female’s shrieks. It was as if he might swallow her up, his lips sliding, a serpentine tongue dipping in to stir up every syllable, to distort her pleas.

It was the lack of air, of bearing the weight of so much man pressed against her. Her insides began to burn. She could feel them systematically squeezing, cramping, coming apart until she was no longer crying for freedom, but whimpering from pain.

The smell of that stranger was heady, thick and salty… and nothing like jasmine.

Her stomach rolled, she gagged.

Why an Oversight Alpha was there, why he’d pinned her against that wall and felt free to touch her, she could not say. It was rare for elites of such rank to enter Beta sectors, though it was not the first time Brenya had laid eyes on the ones who governed. But never had she seen this one; never had she been close enough to one to feel that under their strange Centrist’s clothing, they were every bit as strong as their mass broadcasted.

Never had she shared breath with one.

Sweating profusely, she grew slippery in his grip. Or at least that’s why she thought her squirming had finally pulled the shackles of his hands away. She was wrong.

Her good arm was not enough to bat the male’s touch off when he reared and grabbed the front of her uniform. He didn’t even bother with the caught zipper. He wrenched cloth until the covering split down the front and breasts bounced free. And then he was touching them, palming the meaty flesh half hidden by a sling.

Gasping, unable to shove him back, she tried to beg him to stop, but his mouth ate up all noise.

Everywhere his fingers touched, skin burned. He was a brand, Brenya on fire.

There were laws against this sort of thing. There were laws that were supposed to protect females from terrifying Alphas—laws that forbade a male from reaching lower into her torn jumpsuit to poke at the place between her legs.

Blunt fingers ran the length of her slit, a squeal caught in the mouth of the male who would not stop tasting her tongue.

More fabric tore; he growled, and she was going to be sick. Brenya did not see how or even see when he’d reached between their bodies to free his member; she was not sure how he hitched her legs wider, or how he lined up. What she did know was that she buzzed as if being chopped up by that whirring fan when the Alpha drove home.

Once inside, he began to hush her… as if his captive’s panic had finally registered. “Shhhhhhh.”

“…please.”

A groan so filthy she shuddered, came from the beast. He lessened his grip on her knees, gravity pulling Brenya farther down a shaft she was sure would split her in two.

That engorged torture device could not be made to go deeper, the male frustrated that she was too small.

Hips jerking, he began to rut, bouncing her body back against the wall, his every thrust marked with an animal grunt.

Brenya gave up. She gave up and cried, eyes roving to find that at the end of the dank alley a few spectators stood by and did nothing while she was publicly mounted.

These things did not happen in Bernard Dome.

Teeth grazed her throat. She heard him whisper, “Mon petit chou.” —my little sweetheart.

Fluid gummed up sore thighs, made him slip and stretch a part of her that ached and smelled of blood.

The graze of his tongue traced from the hollow of her throat to the tip of her chin, the male pulling back to meet dulled eyes. He brought those swollen lips to the shell of the poor girl’s ear. Even as he grumbled, there was no pause in the upward pistoning of his hips. “Mon chou, you must relax and accept me or my knot will hurt you.”

“Please…”

She could feel the horror of what he referred to, a bulbous thing growing outside her opening. He’d failed to fully penetrate, no matter how he’d thrust. If he thought to shove that inside her, she knew she would die.

One arm hitched under her bottom, the other circling her neck, he bent her back, he opened her up. The sound that came from him as he pressed his cock forward, nothing in the world had ever unnerved her so deeply. Legs shaking, the lower half of her body lost in convulsions, those last inches burrowed their way into her organs. The growing knot was at her lower lips, she could feel its heat and pulse. When he forced it forward, the thing popped past the threshold and he fully invaded her body—only for his cock to expand to a point the pressure on her bladder grew, and she was certain she would urinate.

Something else came out of the female, strange smelling fluid squirted between their bodies, dripped down her rear, onto his legs, and all over the cobblestone ground.

The stranger ground his hips, still rutting as much as their joined bodies would allow. His sack tightened and the man cried out.

Mouth open in a silent scream, she felt it, that first wave of fire. He dumped an ocean of seed inside her, the Alpha coming over and over until Brenya was certain she would burst.

Eyes closed, she felt the nature of his touch alter. Above where his cock destroyed her, his thumb began to play. “That’s it, sweet girl.”

She knew what it was he touched—the nerve bundle that made mating pleasurable for Beta females. Parting her lashes to look down from where her head hung, she found hers swollen and distended from the abuse.

He was playing with her, sliding his slippery touch in insistent circles. All it led to was cramps and a wave of scorching fire. Brenya felt them consume her, burn through her veins until her insides began to rhythmically squeeze and he began to groan. On and on it went, her body bowed and legs mindlessly kicking.

She had zero control. She had no way of stopping it. It hurt—the worst pain she’d ever known—but it also felt as if the gods had filled her with sunlight, and it was that light that was going to incinerate her very being. Orgasm they called la petite mort, the little death, and in that moment, Brenya finally understood why.

* * *

Sound, the whimpers of a wounded animal, woke her. Every exhale held a whine, every inhale the shallow sounds of fear. Three breaths deep and Brenya realized that pathetic music was coming from her.

Soft linen lay under her cheek, body completely cocooned where she’d curled into a tight ball. Her good hand was pressed between bruised thighs, every muscle on fire, but it was nothing to the burn between her legs.

When she thought she might faint from the heat, a cool cloth passed over her forehead, her cheek, sweet ice trailing down her neck.

Somewhere behind her a man spoke, his voice tired. “Blood tests are conclusive. The Omega has not entered proper Estrous. Due to an inundation of Beta chemical conditioning, her body has turned on itself with misfired signals, fever, and an inflamed nervous system.”

“How is it that no one knew what she was?”

That low rumbled timbre she recognized. Knowing it was he who lingered so close, who touched her, sent Brenya into a panic. She tried to squirm away but could hardly move before a much stronger body was pressing her back. “Hush now, my girl. You’re safe.”

Safe? Was he insane?

“No…” pleas were jumbled, Brenya blubbering as if under an ocean of boiling tar. “Don’t.”

“Rest.” That cool cloth was pressed gently to her marred cheek. “I won’t leave you.”

A nearby feminine voice suggested, “Maybe you should leave…”

An Alpha’s answering growl silenced the unknown female. “You are here to witness, not to speak, Annette.”

The female offered a timid, “She’s afraid of you, Jacques.”

“She’s sick.” A hand settled on Brenya’s skull, fingers threading through tangled hair. “She’s confused. That’s all. She doesn’t understand what was done or why.”

The other presence in the room, the one her blurred vision could only just see outlined behind the monster pinning her down began to read off whatever report was before him. “Brenya Perin was listed as flawed—marked seven years ago as an inferior genetic Beta representation. That is the reason she has never been optioned for the breeding bank. She was never exposed to us, only noted for agreeing to partake in pleasurable coitus a handful of times since she came of age.”

The Alpha’s voice grew chilling. “Who fucked her?”

“Two Betas are listed here. More than twenty petitioned requests. It seems she only met the expected quota for mental health and nothing more.”

Her captor was less concerned with whether or not it was considered mentally hygienic to share pleasure, but instead infuriated over the fact another male had been sanctioned to touch her on more than one occasion. “Who did she allow to rut her repeatedly?”

“A Beta from Tech Sector, George Gerard. Before she was grounded, they shared a working relationship. His dossier states the male is serving three months in lockup for interfering with safety protocols after the decision was made to abandon your Omega outside the Dome. From what I see, you have him to thank for her survival—they were going to cut her loose.” The sound of paper flipping preceded, “He may even be ultimately responsible for forcing her body off chemical restraint. The Omega’s weeks in seclusion, her access to untreated rations, aggravated her endocrine system. Otherwise, Brenya may never have shown Omega characteristics. Her whole life might have been wasted laboring as a Beta.”

Wasted? She was one of the best engineering grunts under the glass. She had conducted dangerous maintenance on their Dome that had enriched millions of lives. How dare he!

“She’s in pain. Give her more morphine.” Cool fingers traveled from the shell of her ear down the length of a soft neck. At the curve before her shoulder, they lightly danced atop the still mottled skin. Though the male’s presence made her cringe, something in that soft rapping eased her growing irritation. “What can be done for her fever?”

She heard a sigh that hinged on exasperation, felt the prick of a needle in her arm. Even in her muddled state, she could sense his annoyance was not for the Alpha, it was directed toward her. Brenya was the root of his problem. “Nothing. She has not responded to conventional treatment. As her illness is tied to this retarded estrous, her fever may not go down for days, maybe a week… maybe longer. Omega physiology is not designed to withstand a lifetime of Beta pharmacology. Polluted as she is, her system is stuck and at war with itself. I cannot even assure you she will survive. This woman should never have been put in Palo Sector to be exposed to their food and water supply.”

The Alpha spoke with such carelessness, “If she dies, you die next.”

No. Brenya’s purpose was to protect life, her oaths sworn every morning since she was old enough to stand. Breath coming in short pants, she tried to focus. Her good hand reached out, gathering the Alpha’s sleeve in her fist. “Don’t hurt him.”

A low chuckle came from the male stroking her cheek. Running his fingertips over her lips, he said, “Look at me, mon chou.”

She tried. After blinking repeatedly, she centered upon her personal hell. Him. It was hard to focus, but she saw the tawny gold of his hair, she saw eyes brighter than the water at the fountain.

“Good girl.” Lips that were defined and full pressed against hers. “You want to help him? Then you must recover. Once you do, I’ll be yours to command.”

At her groaned complaint, noise reverberated more loudly from his chest. Only then did she realize the Alpha was purring—had been purring all along.

Brenya had heard of this thing. Once or twice she’d even experienced a muted copy, but to feel an Alpha purr was unlike anything she’d known. It wasn’t just the sound. That noise moved through a body, it shook tired places… it settled. Even terrified as she was, she melted.

Or had, until a cramp made the tender flesh between her legs sear. Gasping, she reached down and felt a fresh flow of liquid rush from her body.

The Alpha’s overbearing musk began to stink like it had in the alley. She did not need to open her eyes to know he’d licked his lips.

“She’s wetting through the sheet again. It might not be continuous, but her slick grows more abundant. My Omega will endure. Soon, I will be able to claim her.”

“Not soon. You tore her, Jacques. The vaginal fissures…” The older male approached. To Brenya’s horror, he flipped up the sheet covering her lower half. But before he might touch her, a feral growl rent the air. The sound of a weighty bulk slammed against the wall, it shook the room, and the old man’s groans led her to lean up.

As she was pushed back down, Brenya saw a small woman heavy with child trying to help a grey-haired old man to stand. Awkward as she was with so large a belly, she didn’t stop until her shoulder was under his, until she faced her host and my captor.

“Jacques, enough.”

“Go to your husband, Annette. Tell him what you saw here, and know he will laud me for not killing the fool who thought to expose my estrous high mate.”

Brenya could not see clearly enough to see if the woman scorned such a statement. But she heard no complaint, only the sound of a door unlatching before two ponderous bodies squeezed through.

Then they were alone.

The injection, the morphine, was doing its work. She was muted, caught in a place where the ceaseless purr was so distracting she wanted to swim through it. Even the pain began to dissipate.

His face, she could not stop looking at his face. Alphas were visually appealing. They looked different than Betas, more refined… bigger. Still, she would have rather had any other man in the world smiling down at her.

“None of this is your fault, Brenya.” His hand edged nearer where the sheet was sticky with what had gushed from her body. “You’ve been the ideal citizen. As Commodore, I commend you. Now, mon chou, you have a new task. You are to get better, the rest we can discuss afterward.”

She felt a squiggle between her legs. A slender warmth breached her, pumped cautiously through the river flowing from her private place.

As he fingered her, he spoke. “I owe you an ocean of apologies for what transpired when we met. You are the first Omega born under Bernard Dome in three generations. I may have been overzealous in securing you once I caught your scent.”

There was a sting, a stretch between her legs, the Alpha adding another finger to prod and twist inside.

“What are you doing?”

The beast had the audacity to smile. “Only I can offer what your body needs, sweet girl. You’re in a form of estrous. Without stimulation you will suffer.”

Before she might try to squirm away, she was flipped carefully onto her belly, his weight settling on her back. Strong arm tucked under her hip, those same fingers went right back into their slippery home, even with her legs pressed tightly shut. On and on it went until Brenya was certain she was going mad.

Pump, squirm, twist, part—over and over, until she hissed that what he was doing was not enough. She had not meant to, could not tell you what had possessed her to moan as she did. At her loudest drugged complaint, she was pressed again to her back, the massive man lowering between spread thighs. His fingers continued to gently spear her, but it was his mouth that made her scream.

There was no shame as he smiled and flicked his tongue over swollen lower lips. He tormented her clitoris, sucking, rolling, and dragging it about while his hand twisted until she thought she might go mad.

The fever, the pain, was forgotten. Brenya saw white, pure light, remembered the warmth of the breeze outside the Dome. For a moment, she was certain she could smell jasmine.

At the moment the little death came upon her, his teeth skimmed her inner thigh. He bit down. When the skin broke, it was the most exquisite pain.