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“Take them off,” he’d said, no alpha bark, merely a suggestion I could refuse. “Take them off and show me the fucking beautiful body that makes mine ache. I’m so fucking hard, Sloane. Take them off, if this is what you want. If you want me.”

Then I’d stripped like a good little omega, especially for him.

I had picked him.

“I’m glad you’re not an omega,” I said. “Because everything is hell.”

“I thought it would be hot, you know, to be that into a man.”

Not all of it was bad, none of it was terrible. If I were honest, it was the most amazing experience of my life. Then he’d taken me for breakfast, introduced me to his little omega harem, and left me alone with them so they could fill me in. There had been cattiness, but there had also been a ring of truth. I was just another helpless woman that he’d picked up and cared for, driven by a weird kind of alpha protective urge.

I didn’t want to be looked after. I wanted to be claimed, wanted what he’d promised as he’d fucked me in the early hours of the morning, the sweet words about how he would share the burden with me, be a partner. Only he didn’t want to be my partner. He wanted to add me to his little harem.

I still wanted him. Jesus, I needed to take some suppressants, or I was never going to think straight.

My stomach flip-flopped, and heat washed over my body in a new and yet familiar way.

Fuck! No, don’t let it be starting again. I groaned and pressed my hand to my belly. I could feel slick seeping. I can’t do this. I can’t be here. I can’t. I’m gonna make a mess on the couch! “Emma, I need those suppressants,” I said, the words half lost in another groan as savage contractions spasmed through my gut. It felt like a tiny little fist was abusing my womb. I was sinking already, lost…burning hot.

“Sloane?” Em’s worried voice came at me from a great distance as I rose, staggering to my feet. Nest, I needed my nest. I needed someone to come and take this away.

Someone came all right, but not with the suppressants I needed. I was buried in my nest, but even that tight ring of fabric and the darkened room wasn’t enough. What was happening to me made period cramps feel like foreplay. I was being ripped in two, my whole body convulsing with the pain that racked me, and I couldn’t even scream. Every muscle, every ligament strained to bear whatever the fuck this was, and just when I thought it couldn’t get any worse, they came. The door cracked open, and with what remaining strength I had, I cringed back, the light stabbing me in the eyes.

“Sloane? Oh shit?—!”

“Just leave it to us, ma’am. You said she was with an alpha last night?”

“Ah…yeah, but what does that?—”

“No way he’d leave a tasty little morsel like this alone. He’s rutted her, sent her into a frenzy. She’s one step away from her heat.”

“Yes, that. She said she needed suppressants, like right now.”

“We’ll need to get her down to the Dawn Agency. At her age, fucking around with an alpha so soon after discovering her true nature… It complicates things.”

“What? But I thought?—”

“Please, let us do our job. You’ll be able to come and see your sister once we’ve got her settled and sedated. Damn omegas, when they get fixated on something, they can be a bloody nightmare to deal with.”

As if on cue, my lips moved of their own accord.

“Jace…” It was a whisper, a plea, a bargaining with forces I didn’t understand, because somehow, I knew he was the answer to this. We’d called the wrong people, because they weren’t able to give me what I needed, only he was.

But instead of my alpha, his dark woody scent, his strong hands, his taste in my mouth, I got several pairs of harsh, biting fingers that dug into my skin, then gripped tighter still when I started to thrash.

“Jesus fucking Christ, the little bitch has gone deep! Shoot her up with something to calm her the fuck down!”

“No!”

I screamed, Em screamed, it felt like the world screamed, and I imagined somewhere out there in Desparion, he heard us, but they paid us little mind. My skin was pinched before a needle stuck in, sending a cloud of icy cold haziness through my limbs. Like a good little omega, I went limp, everything starting to fade.

“What the hell did you do? I asked for suppressants!” I dimly heard Em shout, but that soon faded.

“You don’t get to make the choices now. She’s an omega. She belongs in the Dawn Agency until a suitable alpha can be found for her.”

“You’re banishing her to an alpha zone? Who the hell do you think you are? She’s independently wealthy. She’s not going to live in some slum, popping out alpha babies!”

“Not any more she’s not. The assets of omegas are seized by the state until such time as a family member is approved to transfer them to. You’ll need to put in an application with the Office of Omega Affairs.”