Chapter 5

 

When the wall opened, Esin retreated, and then the blasted thing grew whole as if no passage had ever existed. The smooth surface was back... smooth as glass. In fact, Morgaine could see her stricken, bared reflection in it—damp hair stuck to her skin, breasts flushed, eyes wild.

She looked at that reflection as if it were another person, muttering, “He took the towel with him.” In shock, she shook the warm, dripping fluid from her hand. “I don’t have a towel.”

“I have brought you clothing.” Sergeant Uriel slipped the lightest hint of fatherly cajoling into his command, gesturing to a place on the floor where he expected her to stand. “Come.”

Breaking her attention away from the wall, feeling utterly betrayed, Morgaine felt her lip quiver. “What just happened?”

A blunt answer was offered. “You brought him to release.”

She had not brought him to anything. Esin had only taken. And now she reeked of that stuff that had oozed from the fabric over his… she didn’t even want to find a word for that thing.

What would he have done to her had Sergeant Uriel not intervened? Distressed, she met the eyes of the older man. “Esin said he was not allowed to penetrate me today. Are you the one who decides when he rapes me?”

The sergeant began to purr. “It won’t be rape.”

At the magic of the vibration, air left her lungs on a painful exhale. A feeling of emptiness grew behind her breastbone. “I should just get it over with then. All of this, I want it to be over.” Tears fell in earnest, her voice shaking worse than her slimy, soaked fingers. “Call him back in and let him finish. I will keep my eyes closed. Afterward, kill me.”

Sergeant Uriel did not press her to approach again. Instead he crossed the room to her.

“No one is going to kill you. As I told you before, you’re safe here.”

“Safe?” That word must have meant something very different in this place. “He just…” her voice failed “…on my hand.”

“Omega, the Alpha did not hurt you. His behavior was perfectly acceptable in reaction to your sexual excitement.”

Gaping, all she could manage was a stuttered, “I told him to stop.”

“Your genitals responded. The scent of slick is unmistakable. Your mind must be trained to acknowledge what your body already knows.”

Arms around her middle, shaking like a leaf, Morgaine barely managed a sneer. “And what does my body know?”

“That you exist to submit. That there will be joy and pleasure in obedience. That Alphas are the only males capable of bringing you proper release.”

What would her mother think if she had seen this? The sweet woman would have been appalled. Females in the settlement would never have been put upon in this way.

Ashamed down to her core, Morgaine looked back at her fluid-smeared hand, “I need to wash this off.”

“That is unnecessary, offensive even to the Alpha who gave you his scent. Now, hold still while I dress you.” Draped over Sergeant Uriel’s arm was a cloth of royal blue, the same shade as her eyes. He lifted it over her head, arranging the long panel to hang from her neck. The garment left her back bared, the two hanging ends doing little more than swathing each breast. Around her waist he fashioned the two tails, knotting them, twisting, and fussing until one panel fell in front to cover her sex, the other kissed the skin over her rear.

There was no modesty in such clothing. Every curve, every hint of secret flesh was on display if she so much as breathed.

“All Omegas of breeding age wear such a garment. Your mate’s rank and title will be embroidered on the back panel.” Next, he pointed to the fabric over her mound. “And here. Should another Alpha see you, they will know to whom you belong.

“The panels across your chest can be pulled aside to bare your breasts for your mate. Eventually, they will facilitate the easy feeding of an infant. Below the waist nothing constrictive will impede mutual pleasure. Should you grow aroused, your slick will saturate your thighs, not the fabric. And it is easy to remove for mating.”

Slick... there was that word again.

“Slick?”

As if to demonstrate the garment’s easy access, Sergeant Uriel reached under the front panel and abruptly swiped through the remnants of leaking fluid smeared between her thighs. He even went so far as to hold his fingers before her eyes so she might see how the pads of his fingers slipped when rubbed together. “Slick. I assume you grasp its purpose?”

Uncertain if it was possible to be more mortified, heat rushed to Morgaine’s face.

The cretin had the gall to look marginally amused. “Omegas respond to Alpha overtures by preparing their bodies for vigorous mating. Slick is released. Alphas, in turn, grow excited. Your pheromones demand that they fill you with seed. The corporal gave you seed. Instead of shaking off his offering, you should have rubbed it between your legs or across your breasts. Next time, do not repeat the same mistaken behavior.”

All of this insanity was too much. She fell to her knees, gripping at his legs, and begged for mercy. “If I could have a real dress, a modest dress, he wouldn’t see the slick. He wouldn’t want to touch—”

Ignoring her protest, Uriel yanked at her arm until Morgaine wobbled to her feet. In response to her theatrics, he gave a tug to the fabric at her waist. One undone knot, and the garment began to fall to the floor. “This is a real dress, but if you don’t want it...”

Snatching the slipping edges before her nipples were on display, Morgaine clutched it to her chest, and backed away as if he were more of a threat than Esin. “I want it.”

Their eyes met, Uriel ceasing his purr as if to drive home what was at stake should she be difficult. “Then obey and be still.”

Or another lesson would take place.

“Return to where you were standing.” He snapped his fingers and pointed to the space before him. “This is the only warning I am going to give. Do not back away from me again.”

She crept forward, hunched like a broken doll, and let the man’s hands go where they would.

Unlike Esin, Uriel was not interested in tweaking her nipples or palming her ass. His movements were perfunctory, his objective simple: teaching her how to put on the real dress.

Once the scandalous blue garment was back in place, he said, “You have questions, Morgaine, and are encouraged to ask them. My duty is to answer them as clearly and honestly as I can. What is coming will be difficult for you if you do not take this opportunity to heart. Remember that. Do not waste your time on hysterics.”

“Coming for me?” Penetration? Subjugation? Humiliation? What else did these monsters have in store? Hysterics seem the natural reaction to this nightmare.

“I will make you a plate of food.” He took her elbow, leading her to the table where she’d been sick. “As you eat, we will talk.”

Sitting where she was directed, Morgaine tried to make that dress cover as much as possible.

The vomit on the table Sergeant Uriel covered with a nearby napkin, picking through the foodstuffs on display to arrange a plate of simple bread and nuts. When it was before her, he cocked his head for her to eat, and said, “In Corporal Esin’s presence, slick dripped from your cunt. What followed upset you.”

Cunt? That was the most vulgar word Morgaine knew. No one spoke it casually while wiping up cold vomit with a silk napkin.

So she kept her mouth shut and her eyes on the plate.

Silence seemed the answer Sergeant Uriel desired. As if to reward her restraint, a soft purr filled the air between them. “This transition is only as difficult as you make it.”

She nodded, picking at a piece of bread.

It had been only a few hours since she’d woken. Many things had been said, much of it out of her understanding. There were words thrown around she’d never heard, insinuations, expectations... none of it clear. Daring to glace up from her plate, she met the sergeant’s eyes and asked, “Why am I here if not to be punished?”

“Eat three more bites.” He waited as she did so, stoic yet continuing to purr. When the last of her food was swallowed down, he said, “You are here to be made whole.”

Taking her by the elbow again, he led her to the center of the room She was made to sit on a bench facing the forest view. “Keep your eyes on the screen. When I return, we will discuss what you’ve learned. Do not make me describe what will happen should you disobey.”

 

***

 

Her hair had dried, her skin was dry, but the cushion under her body was saturated with unwelcome, slippery fluid. Little puddles collected on the floor where liquid dripped from the bench or ran down in rivulets over calves and bare feet.

The air in the room was drenched in an unusual sweet scent.

Slick, as Sergeant Uriel had called it, seasoned every breath.

No matter how she tried to will it away, she could not stop more from leaking.

And she had tried. Bunching up the front panel of her skirt and pressing it between her legs had not helped. The fabric had grown soaked, and now stuck to her skin in a way that made her want to remove it completely.

Every inch where the blue gown clung felt itchy, so itchy, that had she been back in her cottage, she would have torn the damn thing off and let the air play against her skin instead.

These unnatural feelings and thoughts, Morgaine understood where they come from. It was the wall before her, alive again with provocative images.

And she had been told to sit and pay attention.

The things displayed were vulgar in nature, though little could be seen beyond a pretty girl’s expression and the bunching musculature of the male’s back who pinned her down. It was more the story told in lascivious groans and coarse grunts as that unseen man surged forward, over and over. The Alpha’s every sound was obscene, the volume turned up to echo loudly throughout Morgaine’s room. The girl the Omega projected on the wall, her eager moans and keen cries were even louder.

Like Esmerelda’s, the unnamed female’s irises had been eaten up fully by a black pupil. Only this time, Morgaine had watched the transformation from honey-eyed innocent, to black-eyed... she was not even sure what to call such a wanton female. Whore?

The male called her mate. And then he had growled at her until the woman was practically salivating.

It was not a noise that inspired lust upon the room’s solo audience. The Alpha’s growl had been animalistic and dangerous, similar in tone to the low-pitched rumble that had come from Esin when he’d pawed her body earlier.

She had hated the sound of it… yet against her will, it had inspired a fresh rush of slick to warm her thighs.

When the Alpha on screen had pushed his mate down, Morgaine had been unable to see what made the girl squeal. All she could see was the look on the Omega’s face, and how her breath had caught with that first sharp surge.

The beast used her roughly and for an extended period of time, until the girl was screaming for release, until even Morgaine had dug her fingernails into her palms in anticipation of this thing she’d only heard whispered about between the girls back home.

And then the roar.

It shook the room, shook Morgaine, and left the place between her legs clenching around a sorry feeling of emptiness.

She even whimpered, her nipples growing so tight they throbbed.

“He is knotting her now, the base of his member expanding inside her body as he ejaculates.”

Distracted by lewd images, the pulsing, plumped flesh between her legs, and the unrelenting itch to rub the ache from her breasts, she’d not heard Sergeant Uriel return. Eyes wide, she darted a glance over her shoulder, embarrassed to be seen in such a state.

There was no way to hide her drenched lap, the puddles, where her hands had wandered… the smell.

Smell? Yes there was a delightful smell. Nostrils flaring, she took in a deep breath. Musk… rich spiced skin. Sweat.

Like a starving woman, she closed her eyes as she savored the taste on her tongue.

“If you were to look at yourself right now, Morgaine, you would find your eyes mirror the Omega in the image. Your pupils are blown, your cunt has grown ripe and ushers slick. Both reactions entice an Alpha into the rut. Were you in estrous, like the Omega on the screen, they would be compounded, and you would be begging any male to ease your excitement. You would be unable to stop yourself.”

“Estrous?”

He nodded. “An uncontrolled estrous was the reason Esmeralda and all the settlers died. Her body’s pheromones instigated a rut Beta males could not resist. She died. They died. Everyone suffered. Yet in a controlled environment, in the care of an experienced Alpha, estrous brings great pleasure.”

Staring, glassy-eyed, Morgaine unknowingly licked her lips, yet openly disagreed. “I would not beg.”

The corner of Uriel’s mouth turned up, the fine lines beside his eyes charming. “Your pride is something to be seen, girl. It has caught the attention of several Alphas and complicated arbitration. Many desire you for a mate.”

Mate?

Like the male on the wall? The one holding her down and making the loud Omega squeal?

Just the thought had her breasts grow heavy and sore. Unthinking, she reached up to soothe them. Once her palms were full of flesh, the outrageousness of her behavior began to register. Caught mindlessly groping herself in front of this…Alpha, she blinked once, snapped out of it, and put a hand over her mouth in shame.

Uriel attempted to placate. “I am not offended by your interest. You responded to the exercise exactly as you should have. And if you wish to partake, I can send a suitable Alpha in to guide you through sexual stimulation to orgasm.”

To be pushed down and entered as the Omega on the screen had been? Just the thought made her pussy clench with such power, fluid rushed from between her legs to splatter on the floor.

Never had a Beta’s attentions inspired her lust.

And lust is all this was.

Lust was an empty, hollow emotion that, when indulged in, left a person sullied. Love was what was required.

Love was the reason women in her settlement went to great lengths to keep their modesty intact. Suitors were not to be tempted by their bodies, but by their deeds and their minds.

Yet she was very much caught in the tempting throes of lust. All of this from watching one pair grunting on the screen.

And she had not even seen them fucking... she’d only seen the Alpha’s back and the Omega’s face.

Perhaps her horrid neighbor had been right. She was a harlot.

Her eyes left the Alpha, traveling to feast upon the fur scraps in the sunken bed. A whisper of so much softness against her skin; that would cool this heat. She could sprawl about that nest, roll around and luxuriate like a cat. Find what she needed.

Uriel purred temptation with a voice of pure velvet. “An experienced Alpha is waiting right outside the door, Morgaine. Shall I let him in?”

A stranger in a strange room who would touch her in an odd sunken bed saturated by the scent of many males. Why that sounded delicious, she could not say.

“It could be more than one Alpha. Do you wish to sample those with the greatest stake in claiming you as theirs? They would spoil you.”

Multiple males?

Esmeralda had died horribly being savaged by multiple males. Her murder had been a sad, frightening thing.

Fear sobered her.

As if he saw the change, Uriel increased the sound of his purr. “They would be gentle, Morgaine. Exceedingly careful.”

Esin had not been gentle when he’d grabbed her arm and forced it from her breasts. He had not been gentle when he’d wrapped her fingers around his cock and jerked her fist up and down.

Had they been exceedingly careful when they’d held her mother against the wall by her neck? How about when they branded that sweet woman’s face? Were the Alphas careful in that?

This whole situation was absurd.

In one day, she’d woken in fear, watched a gruesome death, been pawed by a male she despised, ordered around, and covered in semen. Her life was in the hands of Alpha soldiers she could not see—men who manipulated the very room they had trapped her in so she might bend to their will. She had no say. Instead, she was told that she would want everything they had planned for her. And then she had become aroused to the point of insanity by nothing more than images on a wall.

This was not who she was. Her reputation in the settlement was excellent. Morgaine was a steady girl, one who could weave cloth almost as fine as her mother’s.

Her mother... who was alone in their cottage. And she would never see her again. One outlandish projection on the wall could not take away that heartache.

Sexual excitement faded into hopelessness, the change in her scent obvious to them both.

Wretched, Morgaine muttered, “I bet she’s sitting on my cot, right now, crying into my pillow. And unlike myself, I doubt she has eaten anything today. What has been done will destroy her, and there is nothing I can do but sit here and obey.”

“The Beta female was well compensated for her beautiful Omega offspring. She will never have to work again... might even have enough to tempt a settler of standing into taking her as wife. She could have more children, Beta children she could keep.”

Morgaine scoffed outright. “Alphas ruined her future long ago. No settler would have her. It was bad enough that one of you put me in her body, only for another Alpha to take me away. I was her everything... and you burned her face for protecting me from the same fate you forced on her.”

Narrowing his eyes, measuring her words, body language, and anger, Uriel grew unnervingly silent.

Angry over what had been done to her, what had been done to her mother, and that she had no way to fix any of it, Morgaine threw in his face, “You didn’t know? Is it against your code to use Beta women when you come to rob us?” Slinging the newest word in her vocabulary with spite, Morgaine grew mean. “You only mount Omegas?”

A measured answer was offered despite her outright rudeness. “If what you say is confirmed, the Alpha in question will face great penalties. Betas are protected—we assure they never suffer disease, hunger, or war. Alphas design, supply, and protect their Eden, and in exchange we take what’s owed.”

“Protect from what?” She pointed at him, all the unspent lust twisting into spite. “The only thing we have to fear is you.”

Her words set off the musk of Alpha anger. Gritting his teeth, Sergeant Uriel growled, “You have no idea the dangers in this universe. I cannot count the Alphas who have sacrificed their lives so you might flourish in peace. There is war even now, always war, that you, your mother, your people have all been shielded from. Be grateful, and consider why we take Omegas while they are still young. The love you feel for your mother was stolen. It was stolen from your future mate. It belongs to him alone, and he will help you learn that.”

“Then I hate him already.” Turning her head to dismiss the intruder, Morgaine made herself look at the lovers’ continued ecstasy, and ignored the feeling of more slick trickling down her leg.