Chapter 37 Syra

The ceremonial gown is a patchwork of many different fabrics scavenged over the years from former homes and storehouses in the Central Ruins and other parts of the Zone. Some pieces are lacy, others silken. Some seem new, while others appear terribly old. The one quality the pieces have in common is that they are all stark white.

The color is meant to represent purity.

I can't help but smirk at that.

After everything that's happened over the past several days, I am anything but pure. My three alpha mates have shared my body in the most shameful ways imaginable. They have spanked me and bred me. They have penetrated every part of me they can fit themselves inside of. They have knotted me and filled me with hot seed again and again and again…

But if they want me to play the innocent little virgin tonight, I can do that.

As a matter of fact, it sounds kind of fun.

While Hines fastens the back of the gown for me, I study the patchwork of fabrics that make it up. The whole thing looks as though it has been ripped apart and stitched back together a thousand times over.

My mind goes back to that night nine years ago when I watched the ritual through the air vent in the ceiling. I remember the circle of candles, and I remember the tangled bodies writhing in the center of it—sweating, grunting, moaning, thrusting.

Now, I remember something else too. I remember seeing dozens of white rags lying scattered all around the floor. I didn't think much of it at the time. I was more focused on the other details of the ritual. But now I understand.

Those rags were the omega's ceremonial gown. Her alphas ripped it off her body.

And soon my alphas will rip this gown off my body.

In front of a crowd.

My nervousness comes surging back. If I were doing this with my mates alone, it would not be a big deal. But tonight we will not be alone. There will be an audience to witness the alphas' domination of me.

Not like it's some big secret, of course. Every alpha who was at the prison raid heard what my mates did to me afterward, how they helped me through my heat. That was different, though. Tonight, they won't just hear it, they will see it too.

Source, at least my fathers won't be there.

I can do this.

Once my gown is fastened, Hines gives me a once over, then smiles and nods.

"You look amazing, Syra. Your alphas won't know what hit 'em."

I return her smile with a confidence I don't really feel.

"Thanks."

"You're going to be fine," she says, apparently sensing my nervousness. "Are you ready, or do you need a few minutes?"

"I'm ready."

I'm not—not really—but I know I won't magically become ready by waiting.

Hines, who is now dressed in a traditional two-piece outfit of animal hides, leads me around the edge of the pool to the far side of the bathing area. As the mist clears, a pair of big wooden doors seems to materialize in front of us. Hines reaches out to open it, but I catch her arm.

She stops and looks at me expectantly.

"Hey," I say. "Thank you for being my guide tonight."

"No problem. I'm not sure how good of a job I did. I don't have much experience being a guide, actually. This is my first time."

"You were wonderful," I tell her. "You helped put me at ease."

"You sure?" she says, looking at my trembling hand.

"Hey, I know I might not seem at ease, but trust me, if it weren't for your help I would be a total mess right now."

"You're gonna do great," she tells me, and gives my arm a squeeze.

"I do have one question…"

"What's up?"

"Are you going to be in the audience tonight?"

"Yes, I was planning on it. My alphas will be there waiting for me. We like to… watch the rituals together."

The way she blushes makes me think she and her mates will probably be doing more than watching. I've heard that if the ritual is a particularly exciting one, the alphas in the audience will become inspired to share their own omega mates in a similar fashion while the show is going on.

I guess it's a little weird to think that Hines will be doing that, but at the same time, it is oddly comforting. She's the first real omega friend I've ever had.

"Good," I say.

Hines smiles.

"Ready?"

"Ready."

This time, I really do mean it. I am ready.

Ready to face the crowd. Ready to face my mates. Ready to be stripped and shared and knotted.

Ready to be claimed.

Together, we open the doors and step into the long, dark corridor beyond. The tiled floor of the bathing area gives way to a carpet of thick moss that feels springy and soft against the soles of my bare feet.

As we move farther down the corridor, my heart slowly climbs into my throat, and my blood beats faster in my veins. I can feel it pulsing in the tips of my breasts, and down between my legs too.

I am scared and aroused all at the same time.

At last, we reach a second set of double doors. I can hear the muffled sounds of the crowd waiting on the other side. I experience a momentary impulse to turn and flee, but I remain strong and continue onward.

"Good luck," Hines whispers.

As she opens the double doors, I am greeted with a sight I have not seen in nine years. The room is immense and rectangular, with an upper level balcony running around the entire perimeter of the room. The only light comes from the candles encircling the low dais in the center. They cast a flickering orange glow.

Hines moves away from me and melts into the crowd.

I am alone.

But not for long. My three mates are somewhere in that crowd. I search for them as I advance toward the dais, but I cannot find them amid the hundreds of shadowy figures clustered around the sides of the room and up on the balcony above. Still, I can sense them nearby, watching me, waiting.

I keep walking toward the dais, trying not to tremble, trying not to look too nervous.

I glance up at the ceiling. There it is. The place where Markus and I fell through. It's been patched with boards, but it still brings back a rush of memories from that night nine years ago.

The night Markus kissed me.

The night Thorus caught me.

Now fate has brought me back to this place once again.

I reach the dais and step inside the ring of candles. When I'm in the very center of the ring, I stop, and await my mates.

While I'm standing there, my eyes instinctively scan the crowd around the edges of the room. I can barely make them out among the shadows. They are just a mass of indistinct forms. I can see their eyes though—thousands of eyes shining like the eyes of animals as they stare me down. It's a big crowd, I think. Bigger than the one that was gathered here the last time I was in this room.

I guess the news of what happened at the prison has gotten around. They want to see the unruly omega huntress who has caused such a stir.

I decide to give them what they want.

Standing up straight, my shoulders back, I return their stares with a defiant stare of my own. My heart is hammering inside me, and my guts are churning with fear, but I try not to let it show.

Then the chanting starts. At first, it is just a couple of voices, but then others join in, more and more alphas and omegas lending their voices, until the entire room is throbbing with that strange, wordless rhythm.

The mating rhythm.

Goosebumps wash across my skin. My erect nipples press against the fabric of my gown. Warm slick seeps out of me, staining my inner thighs.

Oh, Source.

There is movement at the edge of my vision. A pair of eyes separates from the crowd. An alpha stalks forward, his piercings glinting in the candlelight. Even before I can see him clearly, I know who it is.

Thorus.

The pack leader. The oldest and strongest of my three mates.

As he moves closer, I can see the bulge of his enormous arousal straining against the front of his loincloth.

My pulse races. My sex flutters with desire.

Another alpha steps forward. This one is Brik. I can tell just by the cocky way he saunters out of the crowd. His hungry eyes rake my body like claws. I shiver with a mix of fear and lust.

As he comes closer, I see the scars lining his left arm. After the prison, he told me what those were all about. Each one represented a Farlander he has killed as revenge for his fallen pack brother. He told me he had made a promise not to stop killing until he had filled his left arm with scars and put a scar on his right arm too.

Now he has one, up by his right shoulder. That one's for Anton. I gave it to Brik as a gift. He accepted it, on one condition.

I had to be the one to cut the notch on his shoulder.

Finally, a third male joins them from the shadows. This one has no piercings, but he walks with the confident stride of an alpha of the Central Tribe. He is Markus. My friend and my lover. My first mate. I remember that morning in the mausoleum when I gave him my virginity while he was sleeping.

A trickle runs down my leg.

The three alphas spread out until they are evenly spaced around the dais where I'm standing, and they start to circle like wolves, moving a little closer with each turn. Their sharp eyes seem to strip me bare.

Then they start to purr.

I cannot hear it over the chanting of the crowd, but I can feel it, deep vibrations gliding over my body like a physical touch, caressing, licking. It's the same sensation I felt that day in the graveyard when Thorus undid Markus's knot. The difference is that this time there are three voices moving over my skin.

Did Thorus teach the two younger alphas how to do that?

He must have.

And they've been keeping it a secret all this time, waiting to surprise me with it now at the start of the mating ritual.

The alphas continue to circle. They are closer now, but still outside the ring of candles, and still well beyond arm's reach. Nevertheless, they are able to touch me with their voices—and touch me they do, inside and out. Their purring passes over me and through me, massaging my most personal and sensitive places, my breasts, my buttocks, my clitoris, my anus.

Even my womb.

I writhe and moan in ecstasy as my hands chase the alphas' voices. I rub myself through the fabric of my ceremonial gown. I caress my own curves. I squeeze my own breasts. I touch between my legs.

If the alphas keep this up, they won't need to rip this gown off me; I'll do it myself.

Around us, the chanting of the crowd intensifies.

They are already enjoying the show.

My three alphas have reached the ring of candles, but they do not step inside yet. They continue to circle and purr. They join forces and focus their vibrations between my legs, coordinating their efforts so it feels like they are thrusting into me, fucking me with their voices, breeding me with their song.

When my climax comes, it is hard and quick, like a bolt of lightning from the heavens. It is so sudden, so unexpected, that it buckles my legs, and I start to go down.

Three pairs of strong hands catch me, arresting my fall.

My alphas are with me inside the ring of candles now.

The ritual has truly begun.