Primal: A Dark Sci-Fi Reverse Harem Romance (Alpha Unknown Book 1)

by Penelope Woods

Year: 2009

  Location: South America

  Rule #1: If summoned by a beast, don’t try to run.

  -Adeline’s field notes

  The light pouring through the cracks of my door blinded me, and the alarm was blaring next to my eardrum. I tried to focus my vision on the spinning fan above me. Sweat beaded on my forehead, but every so often a light breeze would remind me of how far I’d come. Sleep was no longer necessary, but I sure wasn’t ready to start the day. I came to this musty hostel because I had heard the stories. I wasn’t sure what to believe, but once I passed through the gateway, I realized I had made a crucial mistake.

  Clearly, I was already deep into the trip. I knew how important my mental health here was, so I went over the routine. “It’s approximately 11:35 a.m. GMT. I am in the Onyx Zone. The time is approximately—” I turned my head to glance at the clock. The numbers on the screen were all jumbled. “Never mind.”

  That fucking clock sounded like an air raid siren, but the whooshing sounds of cars passing outside my window somehow calmed my nerves. I was alive. At least, I was for the time being. Who knew how long I would last since I had entered the Onyx Zone?

  I could hear my superiors’ warnings: “Whatever you do, don’t fall asleep.”

  If one fell asleep in the zone, it was rumored one would lose their minds. Of course, it was nearly impossible to decipher reality from myth. The native tribes in the Amazon region all spoke of different legends. My team did our best to translate and prepare, but no one really believed the interviews would lead to a real place. Well, no one except for me.

  The urge to fall asleep was too strong. Now, it was going to be a lot harder to discern illusion from reality. Despite being told about the hallucinations, I wasn’t prepared for what I’d encounter once I entered the room and sat down on the edge of the bed. In my dreams, I was shown a large stone tablet made of ashy stone, but as soon as I placed my hand on it, I was forced awake.

  “Come on, Adeline. Get it together,” I groaned, throat dry and cracked from a lack of drinking water.

  The morning was always a struggle because it meant the usual. It meant remembering who you were. If there was anything I was trying to get away from, it was myself. I was twenty-eight and well into adulthood, but I hadn’t a clue what the hell I was doing anymore.

  The truth was, I was lost. My scientific studies were going nowhere. All my notes on the subject sounded like the ramblings of a mad old cat lady, but I knew the stories had to be true because I had seen something when I was a little girl. My work was important. Soon, I’d find the other side and show the world what it meant to disappear.

  I reached out to grab my communications device. Patting the bed to the side, I felt nothing, so I quickly turned and saw the bed had... shifted. The night before, the sheets were blue. That morning, they were red. Very simple changes, but they proved to me the phenomena were real. I wasn’t crazy. Everything my team had studied was turning out to be true. I was closer than I’d thought.

  On the other side, my team was patiently waiting for my call, but without any means of communication to the outside world, I was pretty screwed. No, I was worse than screwed. I was lost in another realm.

  As if the deafening tones from the alarm weren’t enough, the radio turned on next. I tried to swallow, but it played an old and familiar commercial. “Having troubles with your sleep? Do you have unwanted memories ruining your day? Call our new facility for more details!”

  “Urrgh,” I moaned and widened my eyes to wake up some more. “Where the hell did it go?”

  My arms felt like they had tubes running through them. My neck felt sore. Symptoms of the Onyx Zone. However, items brought in weren’t supposed to go missing...

  The pull from sleep was strong, but the horrible sensation I could only describe as being the complete and total loss of human interaction snapped me onto my butt. I sat hunched over on the edge of the bed and smacked the stop button—possibly the first time I had ever ignored the snooze.

  Finally, I was awake, but I had more work to do. I had flown halfway across the world to find this place. I’d scoured the streets, asked the locals for help, but it took months to find it.

  At first sight, I thought I had been led there as a joke. It was just a normal hostel, rundown and abandoned. It was so innocuous, I had managed to walk by it every morning on my way to coffee. When I found it, I radioed my team and was granted approval to enter. I did, but I didn’t find a portal.

  Instead, there were rooms. One room in particular called to me, a door at the end of the long and dilapidated hallway. I opened it, fell asleep, and woke up like this. It wasn’t at all how I expected it to be.

  Standing near the window, I parted the curtains and looked down at the bustling street, except when my eyes adjusted to the light, I was looking at something I didn’t expect. Strangely, from that very window, I found myself staring at a familiar house. I saw myself as a young girl, catching insects in a large and very green yard. Then I saw a woman. It wasn’t my mother, but she, too, looked familiar. In a fit of unnatural rage, she ran toward me. She flung her arm back before smacking me in the face.

  My cries echoed in my ear and, suddenly, I was twisting inside myself. Memory upon memory came at me like shards of broken glass, ready to annihilate my very being. I screamed and fell back, landing on my tailbone.

  I winced in pain, but I was in my room again. “What the fuck...”

  I took a deep breath and tried to forget what I had just witnessed, but it was clear the hallucinations were starting to speed up. It was impossible to know who or what to trust. I signed up for this mission, but I didn’t think I’d have to relive my past.

  To most, I was the nerdy brunette from a small town in southern Michigan, innocent and protected. But I’d found out pretty quick the world was darker than it seemed.

  My father and I had eventually lost touch. It was hard to believe, but he just up and left. His work was more important than his family. Of course, he didn’t tell us that. He didn’t tell us anything at all. All of the memories I had of him were tarnished by his abandonment. I refused to speak to him again.

  Months ago, when he passed away, it shattered me. He was the one who taught me how to be me. He was supposed to be my side, on the field and off. But he had failed my family in more ways than one.

  Communication was impossible in every relationship. People wanted different things at different moments. People were irritable. People could be happy, but most of the time, people were violent. Like my mother’s austerity. Like my father’s absence.

  I was never good enough, never fast enough, was never a bright enough star to succeed as a woman in my family. I also would never have the follower count, the perfect hair, and the faux smile to sell myself out like the new generation could. It wasn’t that I hated my family or the modern world I had found myself in. I didn’t. I guess I just didn’t feel like I belonged to it anymore.

  The hallucinations were bringing me to a place of extreme discomfort, but I dug further, knowing the laws of physics surrounding this place would eventually bring me to where I needed to go.

  Every scientist worth their salt knew, sometimes, danger could bring about a state of knowing, Sure, I didn’t have my complex readers, communication device, or any of the Geiger counters I promised my superiors I would pack. But I’d promised myself I wouldn’t interfere too much with the physical nature of the realm I was inside. If I was lost to the world, so be it. It had been lost to me some time ago.

  I didn’t need much. I didn’t need a big house, children, or a million dollars. All I needed was my work. Of course, as strong and independent as I was, I couldn’t stop my heart from hurting.

  I wasn’t only healing from my father’s untimely death. There was also the issue of Zane, my ex-boyfriend. Keyword: ex.

  Zane wanted someone different. When I’d break down and confide in him, he called me weak, but I wasn’t. I just had a lot to overcome.

  As time went
by, there was less to say. To look at my partner, the man I spent years with, and know the magic was slowly drifting away shattered my heart.

  Every day, I saw his disapproval. He could barely look at me. Before bed, I used to stare at the ceiling fan and wonder how he used to be so gentle, so kind, and completely obsessed with me. I would constantly think about the times he’d drive hours to see me.

  He used to fuck my brains out. The days of lying in bed, ordering pizza, and cuddling until my heart could explode with love disappeared in an instant. How was it possible? How did we lose each other?

  I needed to leave the room—that much was clear, but try as I might, I couldn’t take the first steps. Now that I was actually here, I felt sick to my stomach. For the first time in so long, I was scared. Suddenly, I remembered the interviews I gave to a few locals only a few years back. They’d warned me not to continue with my search. They told me what I’d find here... and who I’d find.

  “The Beasts.”

  Gods among men. Devils guarding a holy tablet. The locals didn’t really believe any of that stuff, right? Those things were supposed to be a myth. But I knew what I had seen as a little girl. It had to be them.

  “Fuck,” I groaned.

  I took another glance around the room. It was a plain and small hostel room, nothing too fancy. The faded pink wallpaper torn at the edges. It was definitely the right place to get murdered in.

  I checked my things. No communication device anywhere. No phone or outside line. All I’d managed to keep with me were my sample kits, clothes, an emergency battery, and a crude detonation device I had confiscated from an underling. “Just in case.” It probably didn’t even work, and as soon as I saw it, I wish I hadn’t brought it in with me.

  The sickness continued to spread, as well as my fear things weren’t going as planned. More and more, it felt like I was losing control. Every step I took, I’d forget where I was, only to have my worst memories thrust upon me again.

  I stumbled forward, heaving my body against the bathroom door. As I fell onto the stained tile floor, I began to salivate. “No,” I grunted. But it was too late. Within a few seconds, my gut reacted. Luckily, I made it to the toilet before I blew chunks.

  “Not cool,” I murmured between heaving breaths.

  The shower was near. It wasn’t the world’s best, but I had definitely seen worse. I’d be fine once I got a little water. I ran the faucet, listening to the abrupt sounds of the pressure building up inside the old pipes. Finally, a stream came from the head. I watched as the color shifted from yellow to clear.

  “Disgusting,” I muttered before smelling myself. In this small and off-charted province, water was hard to come by. If I wanted to shower, I had to pay. Truthfully, I hadn’t bathed in days, so I wasn’t about to let some dirty liquid scare me off. I had been through worse. Plus, I wasn’t sure the color wasn’t another hallucination.

  Stepping inside, I felt the looming presence of the narrow walls as if they were closing in around me. Though I was hit with the right amount of force and heat, I didn’t feel refreshed. Strangely, no amount of soap could scrub away the dirt. And then, as if this realm were taunting me, I could barely breathe. The steam enveloped my body until I lost sight of everything. Throat closing, I closed my eyes and tried to calm myself through the apparent panic attack, but I started coughing violently.

  Dropping near the drain, I felt the hands of something sinister grab my throat and squeeze as hard as it could. A cloud overtook me until the heavy hand of darkness quickly evaporated.

  For the time being, I was free. Was this a warning?

  “Whatever happens,” I whispered, “I need to remember none of what I’m feeling is real. It’s all being pulled directly from my subconscious.”

  What was this place trying to tell me? That the past year was a lie? I had wasted too much time on Zane? I came there to discover new territory so humanity might be able to reclaim something before Earth’s glaciers flooded the entrance to the portal forever. But I had to admit this was more personal than commendable activism.

  Memories faded so fast. There were so many bad ones with Zane, but the good always seemed to linger above the rest. Still, I had wasted too much time. I spent a lot of my life trying to understand and fix other people’s problems. I dated the wrong men, worked on the wrong tasks, and supported too many family members who never gave the same effort back. Memories were important, but I had let so many of the good ones shine in order to be able to turn a blind eye to all the bad ones.

  When I felt a little more normal, I exited the shower as I came in. I was still dirty, dry, and parched. I tried the sink, but when no sound rumbled, I knew it wasn’t working and hadn’t in a long time. I leaned against the counter and looked at my eyes in the mirror. Everything checked out as normal.

  “Just keep repeating this: You’re okay.”

  I nearly fell onto my face when I heard heavy footsteps in the hallway coming toward my room. Running out of the bathroom, I near the bed. The beasts I was warned about... They had found me. Three heavy knocks shook my core.

  “Please be room service,” I whispered with cold fear in my chest.

  Knock. Knock. Knock.

  My heart pounded rapidly like a freight train with no conductor. Quickly wrapping the towel above my breasts, I clumsily leaned my cheek against the door to listen for any more unknown footsteps.

  “Who is it? Who’s there?” I called out.

  No answer.

  I swallowed and slowly placed my eye in front of the peephole. What I saw was odd, to say the least. Resting and tucked neatly against the door was the day’s paper. Except, the date read 1989, and the picture over the illegible headline was that of my father. “Oh, okay. This makes sense,” I whispered, sarcastically. “Okay, Adeline. You have officially lost your damn mind. Maybe it’s time to leave.”

  Surely, this was a weird situation to be in, and the hostel itself was quiet enough to inspire even more curiosity. Now, outside my window, I could see the whole region. The world looked about as mundane as it always had.

  Still, I refused to open the door. Something about the green-tinted hallway outside that freaked the hell out of me. Like the stone tablet inside in my dreams, it felt ominous.

  Though the knocking had ceased, I never got the sense anyone left. And when I looked through the peephole again, the paper was gone. I made a decision. “Yep, fuck this. Time to leave.”

  I’d studied for years. I took notes, conducted interviews with the locals, and I managed to find out this world was connected to something much larger. The one tough truth everyone seemed to know was that, once you entered the zone, you could never leave on your own accord.

  The phone rang, forcing me backward as a shrill gasp escaped my throat. I looked down at the old phone, but it only rang louder. Tears fell from my eyes. I was stuck here. What the fuck had I done?

  I stepped away, but the phone rang even louder. As if it needed to be answered, as if I was required to answer that damn phone.

  Timidly, I reached down and closed my palm around the rounded edges of the black receiver. I closed my eyes and brought it to my ear as tears rolled down my lips. I could hear breathing.

  Slow, deliberate masculine breathing. Heavy enough to feel. Deliberate enough to make your skin crawl and your pussy wet at the same time. Oddly, I felt connected to it.

  I didn’t know how to react, but there was an inner pressure to reply to the sounds. “H-hello?”

  A voice as rough as gravel responded. “Room 415?”

  I felt like a confused and stupid child lost without a trail of breadcrumbs to guide me. I didn’t have my team of scientists. I didn’t have Zane. I only had myself.

  “Y-yes, um, it is,” I whispered.

  “Someone will be coming to your door in five minutes. Do not leave.”

  The call clicked to an abrupt end, and though I wanted to respond, it would have been a fruitless action. Instead, I let the phone fall until the cord wrapped aro
und my finger.

  “Well, Adeline. Great job. They know you’re here.”

  2

  Adeline

  I propped my body against the door, eye nearly clasped around the peephole. I had been waiting in that position for the last ten minutes, hoping to catch the doorman by surprise, but he never seemed to come. Finally, fed up, I opened the door.

  There he was. A man?

  No. He was something different.

  Completely different.

  His body was massively built, and he wore practically nothing. I should have been horrified, and maybe part of me was, but I felt his heated call against my ear and slumped against his warmth. “Sweet Adeline.”

  The weirdest part was I actually felt turned on…

  His hot mouth fell across my cheek as he growled low and commanding. He extended his wickedly long tongue until it touched the center of my lips. When I clenched my mouth shut, his growling intensified, and he forced his hand low until he propped me against the wall and dug two fingers inside me. He arched them for his control and I gasped out in sudden pleasure.

  “Who sent you? This place is not safe,” he snarled.

  My words caught against my vocal cords, and I let out a shrill squeal of horror. “N-n-nobody sent me.”

  He drove in deeper, and, strangely, I was wet. “Shut the fuck up and open for me, slut,” he said.

  Body completely tense, I went into shock. I managed to open my mouth, but he would not remove his fingers. He drew his body closer to mine. No matter how hard I fought against his brutal body, he subdued me. I tried to scream, but his fiery glare was enough to shut my trembling mouth.

  He was so strong, so terrible and wicked but I could not look away. A part of me was enthralled, though I should have been horrified. His skin glowed red, and his eyes shifted, predatory and alien. I knew exactly who he was. One of them, the beasts from the legends. The beasts I had seen as a little girl. Though he looked human, he was clearly something else entirely.