Chapter 25

Asoldier I don’t recognize takes me from Seb. He’s wearing a blacked-out helmet with a breathing pipe attached, and everything about him freaks me out. A fight breaks out, a scuffle, raised voices, and low growls.

Ash tells Seb to let them take me. I hate Ash.

I hate Seb more when he stops fighting and agrees.

A sharp sense of abandonment swamps me, and I cry pitifully as I’m carried from the dock where the shuttle landed. I can’t stand the alpha’s scent under my nose. It disgusts me.

“Put me down!”

He refuses.

I’m carried along corridors and into a white medical room, where he and his companion strap me down on an examination table. I go wild, arching up, hissing, and railing against them with all I have until the straps tighten and deny the fight in me.

Once I’m secured, they take up positions flanking the door on either side.

My pussy is throbbing with arousal, my pants are saturated with the evidence, and my world is distorted through the tears leaking from my eyes as I tug against the straps.

“I want Seb,” I say, lifting my head off the table and glaring at them. “Take me to Seb.”

They remain impassive, staring straight ahead and ignoring me.

As my anxiety reaches a fever pitch, a woman enters the room.

I blink the tears from my eyes. She’s not familiar to me, either. I don’t know who she is or what she’s here for. The ache tearing through my body leaves me feeling unhinged. I’m nothing but a writhing mass of volatile emotions. “I want Seb.”

The woman smiles. She’s wearing a smart business suit. But the cut is unusual and strangely simplistic. Not our clothing… She’s not from my world, I realize. We’re in a dome, yet everything feels off. I don’t know what this place is. Some kind of secret base?

No. Ash called it Chancely. Ash, who told Seb to stand down and let the soldiers take me, and who I still hate for that. It feels strangely anti-climactic to be in Chancely after all our crazy travels through the forest.

“I’m Juliet,” she says, approaching me. “I’m going to look after you today.”

I want to scoff at her looking after me when I’m strapped down on a table. Only, she doesn’t feel like a threat. Rather, her presence is comforting. She appeared beautiful from a distance, when she first came in. Up close, she is at a spellbinding level of perfection. Her skin is flawless, and her long red hair has the kind of bouncy waves that I couldn’t emulate even were my hair longer than my shoulders. Her scent is sweet and soothing. It takes the edge off the rampant arousal ripping through me.

“I’m just going to run some tests,” she says.

I jerk against the straps when she opens a drawer and takes out a familiar black box.

“Nothing that will hurt, I promise. You’re going into heat and will need some help with that.”

The young man on the shuttle, Kayce, mentioned heat. My body feels like it’s on fire. Is that what heat is? Some kind of illness? “I don’t know what that means.”

“Let me run the test, Isla. That’s your name, isn’t it?”

My wary eyes shoot to the door. I’m waiting for Seb to charge in and take me from this bed. “I want Seb.”

Her face softens, but her smile is wry. “Don’t we all, darling? But we can’t always have what we want.”

I was indifferent toward her a moment ago. Now I want to rip her glossy locks from her head. Seb is mine. At least, I want him to be.

“The test will help me understand what’s happening to you,” she continues. “They gave you some pain medication on the shuttle. But the heat and arousal you’re feeling won’t leave quickly. If I can perform some tests, then there are medications I can give you that will alleviate the symptoms.”

“I want Seb,” I repeat, quietly.

“We’ll see.” A hint of frost enters her eyes. “I can’t help you with anything, Isla, until you let me do this test.” She’s shown she can be firm when she wants to, and she places the black device on the examination table beside my hand. “You’ve experienced this before, haven’t you?”

I look from the black device to the rubber mittens covering my hands. “I can’t take the gloves off.”

“You don’t need to worry about that,” she says confidently. “You’re not the first omega to have this gift, although it is an unusual one. The base is insulated, not that you present a threat while you’re in heat—your body is far too focused on other needs. The mittens were necessary on the shuttle, but not anymore. There will be training later to help you channel your gift. Even though you’re upset, your life is not in any danger. Even so, without training or unless you’re faced with a strong threat, you pose minimal risk to equipment.”

I’m not capable of analytical thought. Sweat bathes my body, and I linger in a state of arousal so fierce I just want something, anything, to ease this ache. She seems to know what she’s talking about, and, although I’m strapped down, she appears to be seeking my permission. Seb isn’t here to guide me, nor Ash, nor Noah. It’s just me and this strange, beautiful woman with the extra-blue eyes who talks about Seb like she knows him.

“They bound you for your safety,” she says as if reading the direction of my thoughts. “Omegas can hurt themselves when they go into heat like this, unprepared. Once the tests are done, I can give you some medication and privacy, and there will be no more need for restraints.”

“Please, just make this feeling go away.”

“I will do my very best, Isla. I promise. After the test.”

She is very persistent. And firm. I don’t have any options but to trust her, so I nod, and she slides the mitten from my hand and presses my thumb to the plate.

She takes the device to a console, where she taps away and leaves me to fret.

“I’ll need to send a report to the general, but, in summary, your awakening is complete. This is a stress-triggered heat, but it will nevertheless need to work through your system. I can offer you some suppressants, but you should brace for it to get worse before it gets better.”

That doesn’t sound encouraging. I can taste blood where I have chewed on the inside of my cheek. “Yes, anything. Please just make it stop.”

She opens a drawer and takes out a needle and vial. I swore I’d never let one of these crazies pump anything into me again. But at least she asked me, and I’m too far gone to care.

“You’re going to feel a little sleepy,” she says as she rolls my sleeve up and administers the dose. “It will wear off soon enough, but we can take you to a private room now, where you can tend to matters for yourself.”

Her words are all jumbled up in my mind. I want Seb. I have already worked out I’m not going to have him, so I’ll take anything over being strapped down, feeling like I’m ready to tear the skin from my flesh.

Her hand rubs soothingly against my shoulder.

“Are we really in Chancely?” I slur.

She smiles. “Yes. We have been headquartered here since the very start. It was one of the first domes to go through the transition. We always remove omegas en route. You probably think we stop the shuttles on occasion. The truth is we stop every one heading for an assimilated dome. It’s safer that way.” Her expression turns rueful. “Well, usually. I hear you’ve had quite an adventure.”

My horror at this news slides from my mental gasp as my eyes and limbs grow heavy.

“You’re so pretty,” I say, struggling to keep my eyes open.

“So I’ve been told.” She smiles again and releases the strap at my left wrist, then the right, and then my ankles and waist. I’m floating and don’t even try to move. “The guards will carry you to a safe place now, Isla. I know you don’t want them to touch you, but it will be over soon, I promise. And we can supply you with something appropriate to help with your symptoms.”

“Ful…. Muss… Zeb…. Too hot…” I mumble. The floaty feeling stays with me as the men in the breathing masks approach and carry me into a strange, padded room. Juliet comes with me, holding my hand the whole way. She orders them from the room.

The floor I lie on feels soft, like a mattress. The colors are green and the lights blue.

“Itchy…. Hot.” I tug at my clothes, my fingers not coordinated to take them off.

“Do you want help undressing?”

I mumble, yes.

She helps me to strip, gathers my clothes, and presses something thick and long into my hand.

As the door clicks shut, and I find myself alone, the lethargy begins to fade.

Heat and burning need rise to take its place.

I stare down in horror at the fat dildo in my hand. It’s soft to the touch, also firm, but with some flex.

I fling it away in disgust.

It’s not long before I crawl to the corner of the padded room where I threw it and put it where the boiling fury inside me demands.