Chapter 7

My stomach aches from eating too much, but I stare at the new room in wonder and horror.

A thin mat sits in the middle of the floor with a single pillow and a thin blanket folded in the center. Chains and ropes hang from the ceiling. Large metal cages line three of the four walls. Each one boasts stacks and stacks of soft, fluffy things.

Padlocks secure the cages closed, trapping euphoria out of reach.

It’s cruel. Too cruel.

The Battleshipsaunters into the room as though he isn’t dangling the biggest tease in front of my face. I swallow as tears prickle the back of my eyes.

Ever since my father murdered my mother, my brothers and I shared the nest she left behind. My father never gave us another scrap of fabric besides shabby clothes, and those I had to barter for when he gave me permission to go down the hall.

Yet The Battleship has enough nesting material stashed away to build dozens of nests at once.

My heart aches.

I swallow again and force my eyes away from the cages, but the chains hanging from the ceiling only increase my dread.

Heat rises from my toes again, but this time, it burns hotter and infects every cell in my body. Sweat gathers on my brow and pain spears through my abdomen. My core clenches and slick wets my folds.

A low, decadent vibration steals my senses. My pain drifts away and the scorching heat morphs into a delicious throbbing.

When my insides finally relax, I suck down a desperate breath, only to drown in spicy alpha pheromones. Wild and raw, his scent steals my thoughts and fills me with need.

A feminine rumble echoes in my ears. Jealousy snaps through me.

I jerk as the world flips and I land on the cold, tacky material of the sleeping pad. I stare at my clenched hands digging into the blue sleeping mat, struggling to connect my senses back to reality.

As the fog of need wanes, an embarrassed flush heats my face. I look up into rings of green and fight an unexpected wave of abandonment.

The alpha my body yearns for walks away from me without a backward glance. He steps over the threshold and disappears into the other room, leaving the door wide open, but I don’t dare move.

My womb throbs heavy and low in my abdomen. A puddle forms underneath me. I breathe through another cramp and twist my fingers harder into the mat.

Fabric rustles. The Battleship crosses from the washroom back toward the entrance with a towel slung low over his hips.

My mouth waters at the sight of his muscles. The cool air wafting over my nipples highlights their need for touch.

I bite the inside of my cheek and swallow my tears.

The air-tight seal on the front door hisses open.

I rise onto my knees, intending to jump up and run toward freedom, but another heat wave scorches through me, and by the time my vision returns, my entire body shakes as I hang my head on hands and knees, halfway off the mat.

The Battleshipspeaks to someone. I crawl closer to the doorway but stay out of sight, too aware of my nakedness to reveal myself to the stranger.

“Send two full servings of chicken, fruit, and bread from my stash to the new acquisitions. Assign them their own canteens and silverware to maintain as well. Their training starts tomorrow.”

My heart gives a prolonged squeeze at The Battleship’s words before galloping so hard my chest aches. I drop onto my hip, wrap my arms around myself, and lean my shoulder on the wall between the doorframe and the nearest cage.

Skepticism sweeps through me, but a small, quiet part of me longs to believe him. Even if it’s too much to ask of an alpha in this cruel world, I yearn to believe he plans to keep his promise.

But then again, he promised my father he’d break me. This may just be part of a bigger scheme.

Does it matter? He’s feeding my brothers. They have somewhere to sleep tonight—his decree to start their training ensures they’ll survive until the morning—and if he’s willing to invest other resources, such as utensils, then surely he doesn’t intend to kill them like most alphas would.

My brothers may be young, but they’ll grow and become a threat. Since my parents were alpha and omega, the likelihood of my brothers presenting as alphas is high.

My father would have murdered them the day they were born if I hadn’t hidden them in the closet with me when he visited.

Yet the alpha who vowed revenge on my father feeds them.

The front door hisses closed. Scarred feet stride into view. I look up—and up—past the towel, bandage, and muscles to meet his cruelly beautiful emerald orbs.

The towel shifts as his cock hardens. My core clenches and slick smears between my thighs.

“I ate,” I murmur, but I’m not sure if I say them to myself or to him.

“And I promised,” he says as he drops into a squat.

My breath hitches as he strokes his thumb along my jawline.

“I keep my promises, kitten, no matter what it takes.”

“What about the promise you made my father?”

“What about it?”

“You told him you’d break us.”

Fear skitters down my spine as he smirks, but an unexpected softness brackets his eyes. Agony rips through me again, so suddenly I cry out before my entire body clenches and cuts off the sound.

When the worst passes, I haul in a deep breath and savor his pheromones as they mingle oh so perfectly with mine. An absent-minded hum escapes my chest as callused fingers frame my face. I lift my heavy eyelids and sink into green wonder.

“I promised to make you mine, kitten. The breaking is a bonus.”

His masculine rumble scrambles my senses, and, without my permission, my hands explore his thick biceps and shoulders.

“But breaking hurts,” I whisper.

“Yes, it does, and I won’t hold back. You won’t, either. Give me everything, kitten, and I’ll piece you back together on the other side.”

I shouldn’t trust him. Shouldn’t believe him. Shouldn’t even want to.

But I do.

His mouth covers mine and I gasp at the unexpected intimacy. He takes advantage and sweeps his tongue between my teeth. Desire roars through me, much gentler than the waves of estrous yet no less demanding, and I whimper as he dominates my mouth with firm intensity.

He lifts me into his arms and stalks toward the center of the room, but when he stoops to set me down, I cringe away from the mat.

Slick gushes down my thighs, wetting the tacky surface and puddling onto the floor as I straddle the edge.

“It’s gross,” I snarl.

I hiss as fabric hits my face, my alpha throwing the thin sheet at me as he walks away from me yet again.

Despair and fury snap through me, but another cramp erases them.

Instinct takes over. I spread the sheet over the mat and tuck the edges underneath so none of the blue shows. When I reach for the pillow, the sound of squeaking hinges pulls my attention across the room.

The Battleship opens the furthest cage and pulls out three folded quilts.

I want them.

I want the cock bobbing underneath them, too.

A disjointed thought skitters across my mind: I don’t know this alpha’s name. I see every inch of his virile body, but I have no clue what to call him.

He unfolds the quilts and rubs them over his front before hanging them over his shoulder. My fingers itch to take them. He saunters closer but stops just out of arm’s reach.

“You have to earn these, kitten. Lie back and touch yourself. Show me how wet and needy that tight little pussy is for my cock.”

My surge of desire soaks the sheets, but obedience was never my strong suit.

I snarl and reach for the fabric.

He captures my wrist and pulls me toward him. With his fist wrapped around the massive knot at the base of his shaft, he rubs his cock over my face, painting me with the liquid seeping from his tip.

I push against his thighs, but he aligns himself with my mouth.

“Hissing and spitting, right, kitten? Open for me. No biting, unless you’d like me to return the favor.”

I nearly choke on my saliva, but I clamp my teeth together and sink my nails into his thighs.

His chuckle arrows straight to my core. Fresh seed spills onto my lips and drips off my chin to land on my breasts.

I mourn the waste but fight his hold.

The room is too big. The air too cold. Too open. Not safe.

I need a soft, warm nest to burrow into so this big, hard cock can sink between my legs. His grip tightens on my head.

I grab the corner of the quilts hanging from his shoulder and use both hands to smear them over my breasts, face, and neck before wrapping the cloth around his shaft, needing every fiber to smell like him. He hisses and presses his tip harder against my lips.

I nip him.

He jerks back.

I yank the quilts and add them to my collection, hastily stacking and scrunching them into place for the base of my nest.

They smell so good. I need more.

Another pile of fabric lands on my head, but despite the scent of sunlight and soap wafting from them, I hate the way they smell. With a furious snarl, I throw them back at my alpha.

In a bout of madness, I follow them through the air and find myself with my breasts plastered against his abdominals and both hands wrapped around his blanket-covered cock.

“I don’t even know your name.”

The voice is mine, but I hardly recognize it through the throaty, needy rumble.

“Why is it important to you, kitten? You want to know whose name to call out as you cum around my knot?”

I twist my wrists around his shaft, pulling a hiss from him.

“Or is it because you want to hear me say yours as I fill your pussy with my seed?”

When fragrant liquid soaks through the layers of cloth in my grip, I stumble back on wobbly legs and drop onto my hands and knees to continue building my nest.

“Both,” I admit.

His groan encourages a gush of fluid down my thighs. I slip between the layers of my nest, not satisfied but too stimulated to suffer through another moment out in the open.

Massive fingers close around my ankle, but the brutish male doesn’t yank me from my security.

“My name is Aft. Are you so eager to scream for me, kitten?”

I shiver at the roughness in his tone. He rubs his thumb over my ankle, highlighting the wetness flowing down my instep.

Another cramp steals through me, leaving me gasping and aching in a world of sensations and sweat. The first thing my mind focuses on is the cold air wafting over my ankle.

I need his touch. Everywhere. Especially on my breasts and between my legs.

I groan as more weight plops down on top of my nest. With his delicious perfume permeating from the fabric, his offering pleases me beyond belief. I snake out an arm and pull the extra blankets into my cocoon.

The world fades away as I stack, fluff, and knead a growing supply of nesting materials. Pillows, blankets, cushions, stuffed animals, curtains, it doesn’t matter what he offers. I include everything in the largest, most luxurious nest even the grandest omega would covet.

When new items stop appearing, I rearrange a few pillows until satisfaction flows from my chest. I realize my purr fills the air, but thinking is too hard, and I hurt too much to pretend I’m okay.

My alpha’s purr resonates through my bones. I reach through the layers of my nest and capture his ankle.

I need him. He’s the only one who can ease the emptiness within me.

His broad shoulders fill my vision and I moan as my insides throb in response to the pheromones wafting off his naked flesh.

So much skin. Too many scars. Even more muscles.

He crawls into my nest and settles over me.

I sink into an ocean of lust as he covers my mouth with his. He invades every part of me, his tongue claiming my mouth while his hands stroke, pinch, and tease my neck, breasts, and arms. The wet glide of his cock through my folds shatters the last of my control.

A feral beast emerges from my soul. Too hungry for restraint, I dig my heels into his ass and scratch my nails down his back.

The scent of fresh blood snaps something deep within my mind. I rip my mouth away from his and bite his shoulder so hard metallic warmth floods my tastebuds.

A partial bond forms between us.

It hurts.

Dreadful emptiness plagues both my heart and my womb.

He fills both.

In a whirlwind of pain and pleasure, he buries his cock deep inside me in one ruthless thrust, pulls my head aside by my hair, and sinks his teeth into my shoulder.

I die a million glorious deaths as he sets a brutal, delicious rhythm with both his tongue and his cock. Surging in and out while licking the flesh trapped between his teeth, he orchestrates my ultimate demise. I shatter again and again, only for him to gather my pieces, glue them together into a beautiful, kaleidoscopic mural, and smash them into even smaller pieces.

Time loses meaning. Nothing matters beyond the joining of our bodies. Sweat, blood, and lust soak the entire universe.

After a few erratic thrusts, he seats himself impossibly deeper and growls as his knot balloons inside me.

I fracture on a deeper level as he rearranges my organs, destroying everything I thought I knew about myself. My vision blanks white and horrible pleasure rips through me as his groin mashes my clit and his knot stretches sensitive tissues.

The moment my orgasm recedes, I drop into morose fatigue, too overwrought to handle the sudden shift in emotions.

My tears flow down my temples and soak the pillow under my head. My alpha strokes my face and hair with worshipful hands.

“Hush, kitten. You’re okay. I’ve got you,” he murmurs in a guttural, strained voice.

“Iris. My name,” I whisper between shuddering breaths.

He releases a decadent purr and rewards me with a searing kiss before grinding his hips into mine and responding, “Iris. My kitten. My omega.” He licks the tears from my temple. “Mine.”

I cry harder. He whispers filthy praise and tilts his hips, pulling groans from us both as his trapped cock shifts within my body. My womb aches as he continues to release his seed, and with his knot preventing the fluid from escaping, my discomfort grows.

It’s nothing compared to the pain in my heart.

I see him now. The bond between us glows with his masculine strength.

Everything he has is mine now, which means everything I have is his, so he knows how precious my brothers are to me.

I’ve given him access to my soul.

As I slip into exhausted slumber, I wait for panic to rise, but it doesn’t.

He may hurt and challenge me in ways I never expected, but he’ll never be a heartless monster like my father.

He’s mine. I claimed him.

Now I just have to convince him to give me my brothers back.