But one day, it got exponentially worse for her when someone made a comment that was utterly innocuous to anyone who wasn't her. It wasn't even directed at her. Having heard what the commander had threatened to do to his legate, no one who wasn't very sure they could keep themselves entirely under control attended any meetings. Thus, they would never have dared to say anything to or about the woman in the room who used to be their comrade.

When they left, late that morning, his server—who had obviously been watching for them to leave—appeared seconds later, with their lunch.

She had been surprised when she'd discovered that his server was a child, but it was a little boy, much too young to be interested in her, thankfully. He was dirty and wearing rags, but every time he brought food to them—in enormous amounts to satisfy his appetite—the commander gave a good portion of it back to him, putting it in the same sack the child had brought it in, which was the same style as the one he'd worn on his back when he'd found her once she'd escaped. He called it a backpack, and it seemed to be very handy.

When Cat had discovered his small acts of charity to the boy, it had raised his stock in her eyes, although, today, she took no notice of the little transaction between them or how he tousled the boy's hair before he left, which was likely the only physical affection the urchin had ever experienced in his life. No one in her young life had ever touched her like that, unless they wanted something much more than just to touch her.

Zerk approached her and unlocked her cuff, moving to the table where he laid out their meal. Then he sat down and patted his leg, which was her signal to come take her place on it, which she did quite obediently.

He was trying to train the idea out of her that she had to fight him on every interaction they had; anyone who looked at the condition of her backside could see that and would probably come to the conclusion that her education in that matter was not going well. But he would have said it was. He saw real progress with her sometimes, and he was trying to strike a delicate balance between requiring that she submit to him and not wanting to break her.

The fact that she had come to him without resisting stubbornly when she might have previously, even if she was hungry, forcing him to discipline her again—was something he took note of.

But as the meal wore on, he definitely noticed that she was more subdued than usual—which was to say, not at all, although he didn't dwell on it. It became glaringly obvious, though, as he fed her several bites of everything and she didn't complain that she was getting full after only one or two, and she didn't complain—tentatively—that she was going to get fat it she ate anything more. She simply and quietly accepted whatever he gave her without complaint. Now, that made him a bit worried.

Zerk finished what remained of the meal without offering her any more, and she, of course, didn't ask for anything. When he was done, he daubed first her mouth with his napkin, then his own, throwing it down onto the table, then clearing his throat and leaning back a little, away from her, to pin her with his gaze.

"Are you feeling all right, little one?" he asked, frowning and pressing his hand to her forehead, as if anyone was ever able to tell anything about a sick person by doing that, but the gesture had survived the unsurvivable, so it must've been worth something.

"Yes, Sir," she answered in a tone that was unnaturally calm and almost…distracted, he would say.

"Look at me, Cat."

She did exactly as he asked, without question. That, alone, was enough to make him think there was something very wrong, but when her eyes settled on his, it was as if she was looking right through him.

"Are you hurting in any way—I mean, besides your little bottom?"

No bright blush at him calling her little or referring to her bottom and absolutely no hesitance in her response. "No, Sir."

"Is there anything wrong?"

His tiny baggage managed to look him straight in the eye and lie like a rug. "No, Sir."

He knew he shouldn't hesitate to punish her for lying to him, because he had absolutely no doubt that she had. As far as he knew, she'd not lied to him before, and he didn't want to encourage the trend. But he was hesitant to do so without knowing what the problem was, and he was much more concerned with finding out what was bothering her than disciplining her, at the moment, although he wasn't necessarily certain exactly how to go about it.

Moia had been much simpler. He could read her like a book, and she was a straightforward, forthright person—what she showed him was who she was. Once she began to trust him, which happened very quickly because she'd been raised to know what was expected of him as her Alpha, she was very open to him and never tried to hide anything from him that he knew of.

But Cat was a much pricklier, more complex person, with an equally complex personality. She was much more of a puzzle, and he enjoyed some aspects of that more than others. She'd been punished several times this morning before his men had arrived for another strategy session, but no worse than usual. He'd taken her twice already today, making her scream uncontrollably each time, begging him to stop when he knew she really didn't want him to. That wasn't unusual at all, either.

Soldiers had been in the room with them before—and when she was in much more revealing positions than just lying on her bed as she had been today—so it wasn't that, and she seemed to like Tito, the little boy who brought his meals, so that couldn't be it, either.

He was at a loss for answers, and, he had to admit, patience.

So, he went with his gut, moving her to face him on his lap—wrists still bound behind her—and spreading her legs around him. "You're very beautiful, you know."

He still got the blush he'd come to expect when he said things like that to her, with her demurely looking anywhere but at him until his finger brought her eyes to his. "It's true." He knew she didn't believe him, but that was okay. Zerk had a feeling that she'd rarely heard anything complimentary about herself from anyone—except perhaps about her ability to fight, and even then, he knew his men would only have done so in the most grudging of ways.

"And you know that you can talk to me, Cat?" His fingertip remained right beneath her chin, preventing her from being able to look down.

Still, her eyes flitted away from his when she answered in the manner he'd prescribed for her, "Yes, Sir."

He gave a short sigh and grimaced at her response, wanting to coax it out of her, but his genitals wanted something entirely different. He wondered whether he could fuck it out of her?

No, that had never worked when Moia had gotten herself into a funk, and he didn't think it would work any better with Cat.

But at least he could bring her pleasure.

He was still in his uniform, his cock rearing up against the metal of the zipper in his pants, and he almost enjoyed the pain of it as she sat atop his growing erection, which pressed it further into him. But he didn't last long as the material covering his crotch was quickly soaked by her juices, the thought—and reality—of which was more than he could take.

So, he lifted her off him just enough to free himself from the pants, only to land with his cock notched tightly against her as he set her back down, not allowing her to try to arch away from him but slowly, carefully placing his hands on her hips and forcing himself up inside her.

And damn if he didn't have to fight coming as soon as he was seated in her, just from how she was responding to being taken by him! He didn't often allow her to face him when he bred her, preferring—at least while they were new—to reinforce her new station in life and take her from behind, as an Alpha should have his omega.

She was still being shy and distant, but she couldn't fight what he was making her feel as her body assisted him in taking possession of her. She was well and truly helpless to avoid being penetrated by his long, thick cock, her efforts at saving herself starting out stronger but ending up weak and pitiful as she lost herself in the achingly wonderful sensation of being claimed as every pore of her wanted her to be.

Cat literally couldn't stop the sighs and gasps and—worst of all—the whimpering and mewling she did as he forced her to sink down onto him until she felt him notched against the opening to her womb.

Right where he always wanted to be.

Leaving an arm around her waist, his fingers found that little nub of hers that had been pulled from its protective hood by the size of him lodged between her lips, and it was already eager for his touch as he began to torment it while he adjusted her in preparation for the next step of his possession of her.

"No, please!" she begged, not even caring that she'd been reduced to that, but knowing what was coming, not that she really thought he'd stop just because of her pitiful plea.

"Yes, baby. You know what I have to do. But you also know that, once it's done, it will make things feel better for you," he whispered in a stern tone that he'd noticed made her gush and contract around him when he used it.

Cat shook her head, trying to lean away from him, but there was no hope for her.

He lifted her easily, and she could feel the tip of that cruel spike pressed against that swollen, sensitive spot just before he drove it home within her.

"Ah! No—please—Sir—take it—out! Oh, please!"

Zerk saw the tears roll down her cheeks, but he was resolute. "No, little girl," he rumbled softly, in both ways, at her as he began to rock himself into her, his knot forming more quickly with her than it ever had before and bringing more tears until he began to flutter his fingers over her clit with more purpose.

When he heard the breath hissing into her lungs and her head fell back, he knew he had her as she submitted herself completely to him.

"Please—Sir—my—my arms!"

He could barely speak, but he answered her in an animalistic growl as he grabbed them instead of her waist, using them to hold her down and reminding her of her captivity at the same time. "Bound is the best way to have you, little one. Makes you come harder, like punishing you does."

She wanted to dispute that, but she hadn't the mental capacity or even the will to do so. He was too terribly good at destroying every one of her defenses, storming her gates, and marauding through her body while refusing to allow her not to enjoy it at the same time. After those first few matings, he had pleasured her quite ruthlessly each and every time he had bred her.

And this time was no different. Before he allowed himself to begin spewing his load practically directly into her womb, he captured a nipple in his mouth and danced his fingers upon her utmost sensitivity until she threw her head back and screamed over and over in ecstasy.

His gravelly tones joined hers less than a minute later, and for a long moment, he indulged himself in the pure joy of their bond and the knot they shared. But then, as he always did, he brought her along on the ride that could just have been his. But Zerk adored how her orgasms milked his sperm from him much more quickly and eons more pleasantly than if he simply allowed himself to drain into her naturally.

So, he kept her screaming, easily losing count of how many orgasms he had brought her to. He kept her going as long as he did, only turning her loose when it had become physically possible to do so, although he had discovered that he liked to hold her close afterwards.

This time, he didn't have the wherewithal to hold her there, in what had become an uncomfortable chair, intending to do so afterwards, in the comfort of his bed.

But she surprised him. Once he'd let her up, she moved away from him to her bed. She didn't dash for the door or the book that would open the secret passage. She simply plopped down on the floor, even going so far as to put her own cuff back on, curling in on herself again, as she had during the meeting, and lying down with her back to him. Seconds later, the soft sounds of her sobs had him gritting his teeth.

Now, he hadn't established any rules for her that prohibited any of what she'd done, but he still didn't like it. He didn't like it one bit, especially the crying.

Zerk was a man who had to do what he thought he should do, so he scooped her up off the floor and held her tight, but that only seemed to make her cry more loudly. But he couldn't seem to convince himself to put her back in her own bed, so instead, he drew the blankets up and over the both of them, turning so that her small body was curved deeply into his, surrounding her with his warmth and purling at her.

He thought that vibrating, comforting sound had relaxed her a bit, and perhaps it had, but he also knew she was still crying, and he was out of ideas for the evening, although he remained awake, stroking her and holding her until she, eventually, fell asleep.

Although Zerk felt a nagging need to call a breeding doctor, he also was of a mind that it was probably too soon for that, so he held off for almost a week, watching her carefully for any signs of her returning to her usual defiant but not melancholy personality.

There were none. Nothing he did seemed to have any effect. He changed the composition of their meals so that they were comprised of only things he knew she liked—nothing. He brought her to exquisite sounding—and feeling, at least on his end—climaxes, some even with his mouth—nothing. If anything, they resulted in even more of the tears he all of a sudden couldn't bear. He'd even brought her into the shower with him for the first time, releasing her from her cuff and soaping up every bit of her himself, unable to resist taking her there, too.

Nothing.

Finally, he admitted defeat and sent for a doctor. The eunuch, Bil, who he knew relatively well, wasn't anywhere near as eager to come as Zerk felt he should have been, considering that it was his patronage that allowed him to stay in business. Since there had only ever been precious few other Alpha/omega couples breeding around them, he'd allowed the man to turn to treating other, more usual, maladies that appeared in the city, as long as he treated any of his injured men first. He'd given him a big building that had been a medical facility of some sort at one time and even allowed him to recruit staff. To be able to offer any kind of medical care at all—even the somewhat haphazard, hit and miss kind Bil practiced—was a definite advantage to the city.

Still, the man did offer to come the next day. The delay made Zerk want to put his fist through the wall as Cat just sat there on his bed, staring lifelessly at the wall, but he nodded at Tito, letting him know to tell the doctor that was acceptable.

He wasn't eager for the doctor to see that he still had to keep her chained, but he left her that way, just in case, not at all sure how she was going to react to being examined by him.

Well, no, that wasn't right. He knew how she was going to react—she was going to be furious and would likely behave badly, although she didn't know yet that he wouldn't hesitate to tan her hide in front of anyone—Tito, the doctor, his legate, gatherings of his men—anyone. He would not tolerate naughtiness from her.

She had yet to push him when they weren't alone, and he wasn't really surprised.

It was a measure of just how strangely she was acting, though, that she never made a peep, never voiced any kind of objection about what the other man did to her. Although, when she found herself spread before him in a manner that wasn't a lot different from how he sometimes had her, and she felt the speculum being pressed into her, then worked open, Cat did suck in her breath suddenly, as if she was in pain, but she hadn't moved or tried to resist in any way.

Zerk, who was sitting on the bed next to her, had reached out to pat her hands where they were folded primly on her stomach when she'd flinched, but she didn't acknowledge his touch. He trilled at her, anyway, hoping that it was helping her but not knowing for sure, at all. It was the not knowing about her that was killing him.

She was much too well behaved, and he feckin' well wanted to know why.

Unfortunately, when he took Bil outside, into the hallway, so that she couldn't hear what he said, the doctor wasn't a lot of help. He did tell him that she was quite healthy, which Zerk was glad to hear.

"She didn't present as an omega until very recently, Bil. Do you think that could affect her mood?"

The short, round man tapped his lips pensively. "Possibly. It's very unusual for her not to have had a heat cycle before now—she's at least eighteen, isn't she?"

"I believe she estimates her age at about twenty or so, but she's not sure—she never knew her parents and grew up on the streets."

He nodded. That wasn't an unfamiliar situation. "I take it you're breeding her as often as possible?"

"Oh, yes."

"And her first heat went well?"

Zerk nodded. "Yes, I would say so."

"How long did it last?"

"About ten days."

Bil looked surprised. "That's a little longer than usual, but well within the norms. And if anyone would know about heats, it would be you. You have more experience than almost anyone with omegas."

Zerk deflected the comment, even though he thought it was genuine. "Yes, but they're all different, aren't they?"

"Yes, they are. You mentioned that she's acting unusually? How so?"

"She's quieter, not as lively as she was when I first took her. She just seems down and dampened, somehow. She used to fight me—physically—about everything, but lately, she's incredibly obedient."

"Isn't that a blessing? Perhaps she's just settling into her new role."

He frowned. "No, I don't think so. It happened all of a sudden, but I can't put my finger on what triggered it."

"Well, it could be that she's been caught already—pregnancy emotions on top of new omega emotions would be quite a potent combination." Zerk nodded at that. "But let's give it another week and I'll come back to make a better determination."

When he came back into the room—out of habit, half worried that she'd managed to find a way out of there again—she was exactly where he'd left her, and it made him frown deeply.

He felt as if he'd done everything he should for her to try to determine what was going on with her. But it occurred to him that he hadn't done the one thing that had worked on her the last time she'd refused to answer a question he'd put to her.

He didn't doubt that there was an answer to his question about what was wrong with her. He doubted that she wanted to tell him.

So Zerk stood at the door and said very calmly, "Cat, fetch your cane."

She physically balked at that but did as he asked nonetheless, crossing the room to the other corner, where it lived, then bringing it to him.

He took her hand and arranged her still unnaturally malleable body over the edge of his bed, securing her wrists above her head, each of her ankles held well apart and tied to a leg of the it. Then, once he'd gotten her positioned the way he wanted her, he began very deliberately swishing the cane around behind her.

She flinched each time he did it, too.

At least, he was getting some kind of response from her.