Auctioned: An Omegaverse Anthology

by Merel Pierce

“Hush now, little one.” The taller of the Alphas was cradling her against his chest like a baby, strong arms making easy work of her weight as one hand smoothed back the grey blanket she had used to cover her hair. His expression was set, but there a softness in his eyes as he brushed a white-gold hair from her cheek and pressed her to his chest.

  He was vibrating. An odd calm overtook her.

  He was purring.

  “Elland?” the other Alpha asked.

  “You best radio on ahead,” he answered. “It looks like we are leaving tonight.” His strange silver eyes glanced downward, but there was no remorse on his face.

  “You sure know how to find trouble, Commander.”

  Rayne closed her eyes as their laughter filled her ears.

  Chapter Three

  “Get us in the air,” Elland barked as the ship’s door closed silently behind him. His small handpicked crew were already working, but they turned as a unit as the scent of his Omega reached them. Questions he didn’t have time to answer formed on their lips.

  “Now!” he added.

  They scurried back to their posts, but he could see the way their eyes darted towards the Omega where he had deposited her in own personal chair.

  She looked tiny in it, but he just couldn’t handle touching her. The sensation of her breath against him was making it impossible to stay in control, and that was what he needed to do—at least until they were in the air. As soon as that happened, he was going to enjoy unwrapping that mangy blanket from around her like she was a gift from the gods.

  Which she was.

  Finally, his very own Omega. He had begun to believe he would never find her, and that these trips to bring back new females to his warrior brethren would continue to torture him as each was paired with an Alpha.

  Now his wait was over.

  “Are the other women in stasis?” He moved silently around his men, punching buttons on the console until the room filled with blue light, more of the consoles flickering to life as they prepared to leave.

  It was their policy to put any Omega women into a forced sleep on their travels back. It never ended well if one went into her estrus in deep space surrounded by Alphas. Elland had heard tales of it. The crew had literally torn each other apart in their bid to lie with her, the rut consuming their control.

  “Yes, all of them except…” A slight nod in the direction of his woman. “She's going into heat.” The younger man, whose name Elland couldn’t remember was breathing deeply, his silver eyes darkening. “She needs to be…”

  “No.” Elland’s voice was sharp. “This one is mine.”

  “That isn’t our way, commander. If you insist on bringing her with us, then she will be placed with whomever the king feels she is most suited for. That is our way.”

  Elland frowned. Hades, their young warrior king and his good friend—would he really refuse him this?

  “Hades won't mind,” he said, though he wasn’t quite sure if that was true. Hades had a temper and didn’t like his rules to be ignored. Hell, Elland had sat in on that council meeting when it was decided Omegas would be assigned to the Alpha right for them. Elland had even voted for it. At the time, it had seemed a fair and honest way that would stop Alphas from fighting each other in their eagerness to find a mate.

  But now?

  Law be damned. He wasn’t about to let anyone take her from him. Not even his king.

  “I claim her.” He squared his shoulders, fists clenched at his sides. He didn’t want to hurt his own people, but he would without hesitation if they challenged him on this. He had waited too long for her.

  She was his.

  “Then you need to claim her properly.” Arran’s voice cut through the red haze of anger threatening to engulf him. The way his men were looking at her, like they were going to pounce any second, was flooding his senses with something he’d never felt before.

  Jealousy.

  “No.” The small voice, quiet and firm, spoke up suddenly, and there was fear in it. Elland frowned.

  Why was she so afraid of him? Surely, she could sense him the same he could her? Hell, he had sensed her presence across a crowded courtyard. He had saved her from rape and death, breaking countless laws in the process, just to keep her safe.

  So why the terror?

  “Then do it. Her estrus is starting. I can smell it.” Arran licked his lips and Elland growled low. “Lock the door behind you.”

  Elland was already moving, picking up the Omega, who went rigid in his arms. “I need to get her some—”

  “I’ll get you what you need” Arran's voice was suddenly strained. “Go now before I forget you are my friend.” His warning was clear, and Elland made quick work of removing temptation from his crew’s grasp.

  The longer she stayed around the five other alphas aboard his ship, the more danger she was in. He needed to get her behind his locked cabin door before they went into rut themselves.

  *

  “Easy, pet.”

  Rayne scooted back on the narrow bed Elland had placed her on, using her feet to push herself away from his hulking frame until her back hit the wall and she couldn’t go any farther. Her eyes darted around the small, but clean room before finally settling on the door. Which he’d shut.

  Even if she could get past him, there could be no escape for her. Already she could feel the rumble of the engines as they made ready to depart. Soon they would be in space amongst the stars she had always looked up at in wonder, beautiful sparks of light that meant a lifetime of servitude for a girl like her. Her mother was somewhere up there, although Rayne could barely remember her. She had been barely five years old when she had been ripped away from her.

  “You're bleeding.”

  She couldn’t help it—she screamed as his strong hands were suddenly on her, his silver eyes narrowed as he tried to drag the blanket from her body. If she lost that, she’d be almost totally naked from the waist up, and the thought of his eyes on her made something deep inside her the clench.

  Fresh pain swept over her. It had been coming on stronger and stronger since she had killed her master and escaped just the day before. Each new wave was stronger than the last. It wouldn’t be long until she was in full estrus, and then she wouldn’t even be herself anymore.

  She wouldn’t be Rayne.

  “Don’t touch me.” She slapped at him, but her palm never made contact; he caught it easily. A growl tumbled from his lips as he pressed her palm to his mouth, licking a wet line up the delicate skin there.

  Slick flooded from her body at the sound of it, coating her thighs in an instant, and his grumble deepened as he stared at her. His strange quicksilver eyes darkened, his chest rising and falling as the smell of her arousal hit him.

  “I'm not going to hurt you.” His words were comforting, but the tone made goosebumps erupt over her skin. “Stay still.” He pushed at her shoulders, forcing her back against the bed.

  This was it, then. Rayne closed her eyes, bracing herself for the pain that being with her first man would surely bring. Especially a man as huge as he was.

  “Where is the blood coming from?” He sounded thoughtful, his fingers sweeping over her body like he was searching for something.

  “It's not my blood.” Her voice was shaky, pain making her curl around herself, trying and failing to find a position that eased the cramping.

  “You are hurting?” He smoothed the hair back from her face, perfectly in control apart from the slight trembling in his hand. “I will make it go away, pet. I will make it all go away.”

  His eyes bore down on hers and she knew what he meant. She was even beginning to want it. That was how quickly her own body betrayed her.

  He set his lips in a thin, determined line. “But I need to wash the blood away first.”

  Chapter Four

  She was beautiful, just as Elland knew she would be, even under all the grime and blood. It had been the first thing he’d noticed as he’d laid her down on his bunk. The rust-colored s
tains on her hands and pitiful nightdress stood out like fiery beacons against the whiteness of the fabric. It was only when she had said it wasn’t her blood that he’d been able to breathe again.

  That was when he’d noticed her golden hair. He had caught a glimpse of it under her blanket shroud, but seeing it spread across his bed like a halo had compelled his fingers to brush it from her cheek.

  It always shocked him when he saw a woman with the hair the same color as the sun. Women on Auria didn’t have hair that color. Hell, women with golden manes were rare in every culture.

  He moved away from her quickly, afraid that he was about to lose control totally now that he’d finally seen her and had finally had the smallest glimpse of her skin. He wanted nothing more than to lose himself in her body, but not before he’d cleaned her.

  Taking her for the first time, when she had someone else’s blood still on her body, disgusted him, and he didn’t want the memories tarnished by it.

  “Come on, now.”

  He led her by the hand, his grip firm as she tried to drag her feet to the cubicle he used to clean himself. His hands were insistent as he tugged her smock-like dress over her hips. She batted his hand away, and he had no choice but to grin down at her.

  She must realize how her feeble attempts at escaping from him were just making her more desirable. Every touch of her hands set his body on fire. She had so much fight in her, so much inner strength in that tiny frame.

  She was the perfect mate for him. Even when she was in pain—and he could see she was in the way her face twisted and her pink lips thinned—she fought him.

  He just needed one tiny taste, just one before he cleaned her up and made her his. Using his height, he crowded her against the back of the cubicle, his arms trapping her.

  Just one taste.

  As he lowered his face to hers, she latched her teeth onto his arm. Hard.

  “No biting, pet,” he chuckled. Didn’t she realize that she couldn’t hurt him? Not with her little teeth, anyway. It would take much more than that. “At least, not yet.” He brought her chin up so she was looking at him.

  Her eyes were a deep green, reminding him of the forests back home on Auria. They clouded as another wave of pain overtook her.

  “Let's get you cleaned up,” he said.

  With a snap of his fingers, the water started, soaking her pitiful excuse for clothes. The thin material clung to her, outlining the curves of her breasts and the ample sweep of her hips.

  He wanted nothing more than to grip them tight as he plunged his hardening cock inside her, but he could wait a little while longer. The quicker he got her cleaned up, the sooner he could taste what she was hiding between her legs.

  His body shook with the strain of not pushing her against the wall and lifting one of those shapely legs around his waist so he could take her hard and fast right there.

  “I know you are hurting, pet.” His voice was soothing, a purr vibrating from his chest in the hope it would give her some measure of comfort. “I promise you I will make it go away soon.”

  He used the cloth in his hand to wipe down her arms and she turned to him with a scowl. She raked her nails down the back of his hand—whether to ease her own pain or to stop him, he didn’t know, nor did he care. He only grinned down at her.

  Pet, he had been calling her, and it suited her. She was like a cute, fluffy kitten, beautiful but not afraid to use her claws. Even if they were harmless.

  “Help me.”

  The agony in her voice snapped him out from his daydream. He could taste her fragrant slick on the back of his tongue, and his dick throbbed with the urge to claim her, to feel that sweet wetness all over him as he forced himself so far inside of that neither of them would know where one ended and the other began.

  Then someone hammered their fist on his door. “Commander,” his second called out.

  Elland stepped away instantly, the hand that had been washing her falling to his side.

  “Touch yourself, pet.” He guided her hand to the apex of her thighs. “Ease the pain a little until I come back.” He brushed his lips over her golden hair.

  Turning his back to her, he hurried to take whatever supplies Arran had managed to conjure up, not daring to look behind him to see if she was doing what he had ordered. His control was legendary, but even that would break if he saw her with her hand between her legs.

  He was an Alpha, but he wasn’t made of stone.

  “Commander.” Arran's voice was higher pitched than usual, his eyes searching over Elland’s shoulder for a glimpse of their rescued Omega. Elland growled a warning, taking the bundled items from the younger man's arms before hitting the button that closed the door in his face.

  “Pet?” he called to her as he deposited the items in a jumble in the middle of the floor, the sound of her sobbing tearing through him. She was there, crouched in a corner, and her face was twisted. Tears streamed down her cheeks, mixing with the water that still flowed above her.

  “Pet, why aren’t you helping yourself? You know how to take the edge off…”

  It hit him then, and he was across the room in two strides. “You do know? Pet, answer me.”

  “I don’t know what to do.” Her eyes were huge in her ashen face. “Help me.”

  He swore, long and low. She was a grown woman. How could she not know?

  Unless…

  She couldn’t possibly be telling him that this was the first time she had ever been in estrus?

  His hands were already moving, one pulling her against his chest, the other dragging the wet material of her gown up. He traced his fingertips up her thighs and through the slick that coated them until he could go no farther.

  “Is this your first heat, pet?” He slipped one finger along her slit, his hand instantly covered in her slick.

  “Yes.” She was trembling all over. “First. First for everything.”

  Elland reeled in shock. A brand-new virgin Omega? That was what the gods had favored him with?

  Virgins weren’t high on Aurian Alphas’ priority list like they were some races. But at that moment, he couldn’t believe his luck. He would be the first and only Alpha to ever be inside her.

  Sinking to his knees, he snaked one arm around her hips, bringing her towards his eagerly waiting mouth. He couldn’t wait any longer. He needed to taste her sweetness on his tongue.

  *

  The first swipe of Elland’s tongue made Rayne cry out. The second, his tongue flat, made a breathy moan escape her lips.

  What was he doing? Why wasn’t he forcing her down and just taking her? Wasn’t that what Alphas did, especially Alphas from Auria? Why such tenderness?

  “Come, I need to taste you properly.” Suddenly he was standing, holding her against the soaked shirt of his black military uniform, the coolness of it soothing her feverish skin.

  Rayne clawed at him. She needed something, anything to ease the gnawing ache in her center. The overwhelming urge to trace every blue swirl over his skin taking over her. She wanted to taste his skin as much as he seemed to want to taste hers.

  The smell of him was driving her wild.

  “Let me look at what is mine,” he rumbled, and suddenly she was on her feet, legs pressed against the edge of his bunk as he dragged her nightdress up over her head. It wasn’t cold in the room, and her skin was hot to the touch, but she shivered when he took in her nakedness.