“Okay, so you clear on the plan?” Chuck asked me as we approached the club. “We go in, find you an alpha, the best looking one you can find, and you fuck him. You fuck him, he gets you pregnant, and then Marcellus won’t want anything to do with you anymore. We clear!?”

I felt his eyes on me as we walked through the snow that had started to fall just after dinner, but I couldn’t look at him. My bones were cold, but it had nothing to do with the below freezing temperature.

“Hey!” he growled, elbowing me in the ribs. “Are we clear?”

“Yeah,” I muttered. “We’re clear.”

“I know this isn’t what you want,” Chuck said, his voice firm and intent. “But it’s what needs to happen.”

He was right about one thing: this wasn’t what I wanted, but he was probably right about the other: this did need to happen.

We’d snuck out of the house tonight using temporary pheromone blockers that would let us get into town without Marcellus realizing we were missing. Marcellus was our pack leader, and he had strict rules about his omegas leaving the house without permission.

We weren’t really his omegas as much as we were his property. Marcellus did have his own brood pack who gave him pups, but he had very different plans for those omegas not fortunate enough to be part of his prized few – he sold them to other alphas at virginity auctions.

And that’s where I was headed tomorrow if this plan didn’t work.

It was Chuck’s idea. Virgins were what Marcellus trafficked in, and if I wasn’t one tomorrow, he wouldn’t be able to sell me. I was terrified of the auctions and being sold off to some sadistic alpha who wanted me only for my prized, untouched body, but I was also terrified of what he wanted me to do tonight.

We rounded the corner and the club came into view, the sign blaring through the storm.

The Love Knot. It was a shifter bar with a reputation for finding Mr. Right Now, if that’s what you were looking for, and as a result, didn’t exactly draw a crowd of gentlemen. They didn’t even card me at the door. I guess omegas in heat were a hot commodity.

But that was the idea. I needed an alpha and I needed him quick. I was just barely eighteen years old, and my heat had come the day after my birthday. Marcellus had plucked me out of the Whispering Pines Orphanage in Vermont when I was only eight, and I’d been with him ever since.

I’d never known my parents – I didn’t even know if I had a mother and a father or two fathers. Either the people at the orphanage didn’t know, or they didn’t want to tell me.

The place had been less than ideal. The building probably should have been torn down years ago. It was a bland brick rectangle filled with kids packed in four or more to a room. The food was terrible and life was miserable.

It had been hard there and when I’d heard someone had come to adopt me I was thrilled, but after my first night with Marcellus, I yearned to be back with the other orphans.

He wasn’t really strict, he just had a temper that seemed to come out of nowhere and was completely unpredictable. I never knew what would set him off and what wouldn’t, but if I did something wrong – well, let’s just say it wasn’t only a stern talking to I’d get as a reprimand.

He’d adopted me for a specific reason, the same reason he’d taken the rest of the omegas that lived with him. Every day I lived in fear of my first heat. I knew what he did with the other omegas, and when my heat finally came, I knew what was in store for me. I tried to hide it, but pheromone blockers were completely illegal on Marcellus’s property, for that specific reason. He’d found out and signed me up for the auction.

Chuck got his hands on some temporary blockers somehow. They only lasted a couple of hours tops, but it was enough to get me out of the house. By the time we got to the club, the scent of my heat was everywhere, and as we came up on the line to get in, I saw heads start to turn.

“Ooooh, someone’s smellin’ sweet tonight!” A voice called out. More heads turned.

“God damn, who’s that spicy treat I smell?” Another gruff voice called out.

I dropped my head as my cheeks went red. All this attention wasn’t something I was comfortable with. But as far as Chuck’s plan was concerned, it was exactly what I needed.

“Let them see you,” Chuck whispered, nudging me to raise my chin. I did, but not happily, and felt the eyes of the line of alphas outside the club searching over my body. I felt like a piece of meat. Chuck took me straight to the head of the line to the guy watching the door. Even he sniffed the air as I approached and looked at me with a half grin.

“Got room for two?” Chuck asked. The bouncer didn’t even look at him. He just kept his eyes on me. He was absolutely enormous, out of shape with a huge pot belly and wore his hair in two long braids that came well over his shoulders. “Come on, JD. Don’t be a prick.”

“Oh, I got something in mind for my prick,” he grinned, eyeing my crotch. Slowly, I sidestepped behind Chuck but heard excited whispers behind me and realized all I’d done was give the alphas in line a better view of my ass.

Fuck, I cursed inside. There’s nowhere to run!

I huddled up under my jacket. My body was on fire, so I wasn’t really cold, but the sensation of the snowflakes melting on my neck was making me even more uncomfortable than I already was.

“You looking for trouble?” JD asked Chuck, his eyes still on me. “Bringing a cute omega like him into the club when he’s in full heat?”

“Looking for a good time, JD,” Chuck replied. “Just like everybody else here.”

“Might start a riot in there if I let this one in,” he smiled. “Why don’t you just leave him with me?”

“Hey, what happened to that other bouncer that worked here?” Chuck asked. “He was a lot nicer than you.”

JD shrugged all nonchalant. “Quit. Went and started his own pack up in the woods or something. Ain’t seen him in years.”

“Years?” Chuck gasped. “I guess it’s been longer than I thought since I was last here.”

JD’s eyes started at my toes and crept up my body. I could almost feel his gaze, like spider legs making their way across me. I took a deep breath, doing my best to calm my heart rate.

“So you gonna let us in or what?” Chuck demanded.

“Yeah, yeah,” JD replied, sounding annoyed. “If you aren’t leaving him here with me then I guess I’ll let ya in.”

He stepped aside, lifted the grungy old red rope and nodded to the door.

“Thank you,” Chuck said sarcastically.

He stepped past JD and I followed, but as I brushed by him, I heard the sharp intake of breath as he sniffed me, taking in the scent of my heat.

“I’ll be here until two, sweet cheeks,” he whispered. “Show you what a real man’s knot is like.”

The hair on the back of my neck stood up and I felt goosebumps appear on my arms. I hurried behind Chuck as we stepped through the door into the pounding bass of the club.

This was it. This was where I was going to find a man to give my virginity to. Not because I wanted to, but because I had to. Otherwise it was a life of servitude for me. Otherwise tomorrow I’d be sold off to the highest bidder and that would be it for me.

“Come on,” Chuck said. “It’s time to do this.”

Right, I thought, doing my best to summon all of my strength. Let’s do this.