snatched up from the floor before they sashayed over to the door where we waited. I didn’t know the women, shouldn’t have felt anything toward them one way or another, but as the nearest one sent me a disdainful sneer, my heat-addled mind saw red. Growling, I went at her, fingers arched into claws.
“The fuck is wrong with you?” Lucian gave me a shake that I barely noticed. I growled again, smirking as the Beta screeched and scurried away from me, an Omega who barely reached her shoulders.
“Who the fuck is that?” Lucian’s brother demanded. Climbing out of bed, he snatched up a pair of sweatpants. I thought him on the smaller side for an Alpha, tall, lean, but so powerful. I licked my lips as the muscles of his back and arms rippled, his tight ass disappearing under the material as he dragged the pants up.
“Rhett, meet your present.”
“Doesn’t look like much of a present,” Rhett said, scratching his stubble covered jaw as he approached, naked feet silent against the plush, carpeted floor. “What’s wrong with her? Does she need a doctor or something?” Halting abruptly, he stared down at his crotch. “The fuck?” he muttered. “I’ve been going at it all night.”
Lucian blew out an exaggerated puff of breath. “Do you have no sense of fucking smell? She’s an Omega, a Singular. I know she’s plain, but she’s going into heat, and it’s too late for suppressants.”
Rhett’s hands clenched into fists. This close, I could see the vivid green of his eyes. He didn’t think I was plain; he thought I was beautiful. Compared to the stunning red-head so dominant in Lucian’s mind, I was nothing.
Compared to the two Beta beauties who had just left Rhett’s bed, I was also nothing.
To Ethan, I was a dirty smear that he couldn’t wait to wipe away.
I’d been the subject of lust, curiosity, and cold scientific interest.
No one had ever thought me beautiful before, and the only explanation I could find was that the scent of my heat had bewitched the poor man’s mind.
“You can’t leave her here,” Rhett said, rooted to the spot and not taking his eyes off me. “I’m going to fuck her.”
Beads of sweat lined his upper lip; a thin sheen glistened across his chest as his body pumped out rich pheromones.
I tasted them in the back of my throat. Saliva pooled, and I swallowed. The cloying fragrance found a direct line to my womb and a sweet, sharp clench, low in my belly, sent a fresh gush of slick.
Rut? His thoughts were closer to panic than acceptance. I’m going into rut!
Lucian chuckled, fingers uncurling from my arm. “That’s the way it usually works. She’s yours. Don’t let her out, or you’ll have a shit storm to deal with.”
Lucian stalked off, abandoning me to my fate. At the door, he paused, thoughts a jumble as he played over what he’d done. “She’s important to the government, and Ethan Black. Putting your mark on her would be a bad fucking idea.”
CHAPTER TWENTY
Ethan
THE JOURNEY TO Lilly’s apartment was both too long and not long enough. I stood outside the door second-guessing myself and the reactions I might meet. Logic told me I’d done nothing to be ashamed of, and yet, I was no fool to the ways of Omegas. There had been a time when we were new to one another when I’d taunted Lilly with my experiences rutting other Omegas. Her possessiveness had soothed the darkness in me as I grappled with my own rage in sharing her with Ryker.
We were mated now, bonded, and she was thoroughly claimed and bred in her last heat.
That I’d done my best to make the right decision while far behind enemy ranks could not entirely obliterate the unpleasant aftertaste.
In my past, I had used Omegas, turned their nature against them that they might be more thoroughly controlled. Not every Alpha could become a Controller, for not all had the ruthless disposition and desire to subjugate.
Such deviant games had no place in what I shared with Lilly now. Control wasn’t merely control but a primal need to protect, and I subjugated only insofar as I must to keep her safe.
If I was no fool to the ways of Omegas, then I was also no fool to the ways Omegas were used by our government as a form of Alpha control. The kind of Alphas who became Controllers were the kind most in need of tempering by bonding with an Omega. I was