He doubled his assault on her tender flesh until she twisted and writhed underneath him. “If you ever managed it, then I would hunt you down and bring you right back.”
“I want to contact my family. I want them to know that I’m still alive.”
“It sounds as if you‘re asking me for a favor.” He murmured the words against her skin. “And what will you do for me in return?”
She shuddered as he lapped at her most sensitive flesh. “I don’t know. What do you want?”
“That is a very dangerous question.” His cruel smile brushed against her belly as he shifted higher up her trapped body. “Luckily for you, I have everything that I want.”
He entered her without preamble, forcing her to take all of him in one thrust. She tried her best not to react, but a plaintive scream was pulled from deep in her throat as he pounded into her.
Ianthe tried to imagine herself somewhere — anywhere — else but he wouldn’t let her escape from him, even if that escape only happened in her own mind. If her eyes glazed over, he would paw at her and growl in her ear that she must submit to her mate. And if she continued to resist, his growl would grow more animalistic, deepening until the sound forced another rush of slick from her body and her body’s need for him overwhelmed everything else.
There was no escape from him, not even in her thoughts.
Tears gathered in the corners of her eyes as she surrendered to the temptation, letting a full awareness of him overwhelm her senses. He rewarded her with pleasure, wordlessly crooning as their bodies rocked together.
His hand pushed between their closely clasped bodies so that one finger could roughly circle the nub of flesh bundled with oversensitive nerves. She thrashed underneath him, unaware even within herself if she fought to get away or closer.
Legion teased her, alternating the pressure of his fingers on her clit as she twitched and begged him to finally end it. That traitorous voice whispered through her mind, entreating her to remember her place and submit!
When her hands clawed at his back, trying to compel him deeper, he responded by catching her wrists and forcing her arms above her head. When she tried to turn her head and escape at least the sight of him, he forced it back with his other pal until his face filled her vision.
He would consume her until nothing remained but his will.
His knot continued to grow larger inside of her and her inner muscles rhythmically clenched in response. She tried to buck him off, unwilling to allow him to force the climax from her body but he simply laughed at her and pressed harder with assaulting fingers until she spasmed and fell over the edge into reluctant ecstasy.
Ianthe cursed his name as the waves of pleasure over took her and she finally came, coerced into orgasm.
His teeth scraped the barely-healed wound at her shoulder and that small shock of pain was enough to make her clench more tightly around him. He roared his own pleasure, pistoning his hips in a way that sent shocks of white light across her eyes and momentarily blinded her.
“Who do you belong to?” He rasped in her ear, as his fingers continued to pluck at her clit, aggravating the sensitive flesh until she was past pleasure and into torment. “Say you’re mine.”
She could not move away from him as the pleasurable aftershocks of orgasm were cut with stinging twinges of pain. “Please…”
“You are my mate,” he growled, rough and demanding. “I am your Alpha. Say it!”
Ianthe had been pushed past what her body could take. Each thrust of his hips sent commingled shots of pleasure and pain that made her yearn for a loss of conciousness, her only escape from him. And he would not stop until she told him precisely what he wanted to hear.
“I’m yours,” she cried in the face of his onslaught. “Legion, I’m yours!”
The torture immediately ceased. And then Ianthe promptly burst into tears.
Legion shushed his overwrought and disoriented mate, as swollen mahogany eyes closed and each breath she took came in hiccuping gasps.
He brushed the tangled hair back from her forehead as she faded in and out of consciousness. He held her close while the knot slowly subsided.
And while he held her, he purred until her sobbing slowed to the occasional snivel. The sound resonated from his chest and down to her very bones, soothing her in a way that was both unwelcome and precisely what she desired.
Ianthe did not want to seek comfort from the man who abused her. But she desperately needed comfort and he was the only one available to provide it.
Even in her delirium, she recognized that there was a lesson in that.
“This is wrong,” she murmured against his chest, voice barely above a whisper. “This isn’t what I want.”
One hand rose to tangle in her hair as he sternly corrected her. “You don’t know what you want. You’ve spent your entire life denying your nature, poisoning yourself with alterants. The real you has been chemically sedated for her entire life. Accept your place in this, it is the natural way of things.”
She fought off the haze enough to glare at him, spitting out her response. “I made a choice.”
“Choice is an illusion.” Fingers caught hard against her scalp, forcing her head back until their eyes were inches apart. “Did you really think that your dynamic would remain a secret forever? You were meant to be mine. It was only a matter of time before I claimed you.”
They glared into each other’s eyes, the moment taut with an emotional resonance that neither fully understood.
The knot would keep them tied together for at least a few minutes more and he could not escape her questions anymore than she could escape his constant attention.
“How long did you know that I was Omega?” Her tone was disrespectful but she would gladly suffer the consequences to have her question answered. “Was it when the alterants failed during that dinner? Or was it before at Eros House?”
Something flickered in his gaze before his expression shuttered. “What does it matter?”
Ianthe latched on to that rare moment of weakening. “Was it before? Tell me.”
He growled at her, the sound enough of a threat that she immediately subsided and looked away. His hand slipped down to the back of her neck and squeezed, forcing submission.
“You are mine,” he snarled. “The how and why are inconsequential. I saw you and I wanted you. Everything else is simply details.”
“And when did you first see me?” she demanded, attempting to ignore the psychological stress of resisting him. “When was it, Legion?”
His expression turned calculating as he searched her face. He obviously weighed the relative advantages and disadvantages of revealing some small part of his machinations.
“I spend little time in the slums, it’s filthy with poisoned air.” His teeth bared in a grin at her glare, sensing the outrage that she didn’t bother to hide. He was the one who controlled the air processors after all. “But I had business to attend to several moon cycles ago and found myself in the lower sectors. Seeking refreshment, I stepped into the most disgusting cafeteria that I’ve ever had the misfortune of visiting. While there, I was served by the most delicious smelling Beta that I had ever encountered in my life.”
The truth was right there in front of her face, if only she had made sense of it. “Me.”
“Indeed,” he said on a low growl that caused something to clench deep inside of her. “I am acquainted with the man who procures the collection at Eros House. I made it clear to him that securing you would result in a significant payout.”
He had stalked her from the very beginning. “When did you know that I was Omega?”
The Alpha gave a careless shrug although he continued to watch her closely. The slight movement pulled at the knot still tying them together, hard enough to make her wince. “I suspected from the beginning, but I planned to have you regardless. Your dynamic has only made things simpler.”
“You did this.” Her voice was flat as the true horror of her situation made
itself known. She wanted to scream at him but the emotion receded in the face of the perverse numbness settling over her. “You’re responsible for all of it.”
“That should make you feel better. The choice you seem to value so highly was never yours in the first place. Your fate has been out of your hands from the beginning.”
“I hate you.” She spat the words.
“That doesn’t change the fact that you’re mine.”
His knot had shrank enough that he could move again inside of her, thrusting gently as she lay trapped in the circle of his arms. Their faces were mere inches apart as she shed silent tears and he gloried in his conquest.
And he played her body like a virtuoso plying a finely-tuned instrument, coaxing unwilling sounds of pleasure as he turned her own mind against her. The pleasure was all-consuming, almost enough to make her forget how much she hated him.
Legion toyed with her for hours until she was incoherent and babbling. He wrung half-a-dozen orgasms from her unwilling body until all thoughts of rebellion and resistance flew from her mind. She was too far gone to notice but through it all he watched her, attuned to each reaction and response, filing it all away for future reference.
He fucked her until she groggily begged him to stop, until she could take no more of the intensely pleasurable torture. The sheets beneath them soaked in slick as their combined scent saturated the air. She grasped at him in entreaty, the only port in a storm of overwhelming sensation.
Blessedly, Ianthe finally lost consciousness, clinging to him as he continued to glide smoothly inside of her. The lesson he intended to impart was clear.
She would submit or she would suffer.
Chapter Six
Ianthe woke alone in a bed that reeked of her Alpha’s spend.
Even within her own mind, she had to catch herself. He was not her anything and never would be. She could not let him warp her mind and encourage her to think of anything but escape.
Her body ached but not as badly as it had before. She was able to sit up with little more than a single groan of pain.
The curtains had been pulled back on the far side of the room. It surprised her to see that bright sunlight streamed from floor-to-ceiling windows where previously there had been solid walls. And then she realized that they weren’t windows at all, but holograms. The beautiful view was projected on the walls so realistically that it was nearly impossible to tell the difference between it and the real thing.
Snow-capped mountains dominated the horizon in front of a sun that was just beginning to rise. She had never seen mountains like these outside of vids on the CommNet. The view was so close to being real that she wondered if there were places left on the earth that still looked like that or if it was pure fantasy.
Vague memories surfaced that she tried valiantly to cast aside, insistent hands on her skin and a rough voice whispering filth into her ear. Perhaps it was possible that she dreamt the worst of it, although her aching body painted a very different picture of what she had endured.
But it would be better, she thought, to forget.
Silk sheets slipped across her skin as she carefully stretched, body sore in places that she would not have previously known existed if not for being so recently — and so harshly — manipulated.
He had literally fucked her into submission.
Legion was gone, at least for now, again leaving her locked in this room and trapped with her own thoughts. There wasn’t so much as a CommNet terminal for her to divert herself with, just the curtain-covered walls. At least now she had a view.
She was naked beneath the sheets of course. It wasn’t as if she expected anything else, but it still felt like an invasion. How many days had passed since she’d been locked naked in this room?
Legion wasn’t nearby, or at least his effect on her senses through the bond felt muted and distant. She could only assume that meant he was outside of the compound, at least temporarily. She would take advantage of the reprieve for as long as she could.
Sprawling on the bed with her arms wide, Ianthe glared up at the ceiling. For the first time she noticed the large mirror that hung there, directly over the bed.
“Classy,” she murmured, glaring at her reflection.
“The master does have a very particular taste, I’d say.”
With a shriek, Ianthe scrambled to cover herself with the blanket as she sat up and turned towards the door.
An older woman stood in the open doorway, a bundle of linen in her arms. Her graying hair was caught up in a neat knot at her neck and her face was deeply lined, but not attractive. It was impossible to tell her dynamic, obvious markers tended to fade with age, but the woman’s expression was without apparent malice.
“You almost scared the piss out of me.” Ianthe griped, gathering the bedclothes up to her chest.
“Well it’s a good thing that I do the laundry, then.” The woman strolled into the room as if a naked girl in the bed was a completely ordinary occurance.
And for all Ianthe knew, it was.
“Who are you?” Ianthe asked, the oddness of the situation overwhelming any ability to be polite.
“I’m Naomi,” the woman responded pertly, as if it should be obvious. “It’s my job to get you cleaned up.”
“I don’t understand.” Her deep suspicion must have shown on her face because the woman regarded her in exasperation.
“You haven’t bathed in days, if you hadn’t noticed.” Naomi’s nose wrinkled. “And I have my orders. Up you go.”
The door had shut behind Naomi but Ianthe regarded it with interest, wondering if it was unlocked. She scooted to the edge of the bed and placed one bare foot on the floor. “Where are we going?”
“Now don’t be getting any ideas. I have orders.”
It didn’t take a savant to figure out who the woman was taking her orders from. “He sent you? Legion?”
“Of course.” Naomi bustled around the room, depositing the pile of linen on a side table and beginning to strip the bed without apparent concern that Ianthe was still lying in it. “I’ve been with the master for years, since he was practically a boy.”
“You must know him fairly well.” Ianthe rose unsteadily to her feet, dirty bedding still wrapped around her body. “How long have you worked for him?”
“Look at me running my mouth.” Naomi’s expression shuttered, making it clear that no additional disclosures would be forthcoming. “Let me run you a bath and then I’ll bring a breakfast tray into the sitting room.”
Ianthe hadn’t initially recognized the bathtub for what it was when she had been in the bathroom earlier. She had noticed the gigantic porcelain structure but it had not registered as anything but another bizarre furnishing in this strange place.
Baths were an impossible luxury in the slums. Between the expense of the water itself and the effort that it took to purify it, soaking in a tub full of that precious resource was reserved for the wealthy. And even the bathtub in her childhood home was a tiny thing barely large enough to cover half of her body and made of thin metal leading to water that cooled too rapidly for pleasure soaking.
Ianthe slipped out of the bed and followed the sound of running water, only to find that this tub was something out of her imagination. Glimmering white porcelain sunk deep into the floor, large enough to fit her entire family and deep enough to cover her up to her neck while sitting up straight.
“Isn’t this wasteful?” Ianthe murmured the question as Naomi ran her hands under the tap to check the temperature. “You don’t have to make it so deep just for me.”
“I have my orders,” Naomi repeated. Clearly, her orders did not include paying attention to anything that Ianthe had to say. “Climb on in now.”
Knowing she had met her match and desperate to be clean, Ianthe climbed into the tub and sank down into the water. Heat enveloped her, soothing hurts and relaxing her in way that she wouldn’t have thought possible in this place. “Hmmmm.”
“I’m not allowed to use
fragrance in the water,” Naomi murmured, voice almost apologetic although her face maintained its stern countenance. “I’ve got a special soap that won’t interfere with your scent.”
Ianthe could only assume that was also on Legion’s orders. But she forced the darker, more desperate, thoughts way and tried to enjoy this rare moment of relaxation. Her body floated on the water, gentle waves lapping over her skin almost enough to lull her back to sleep.
Several minutes passed, the only sound was the splashing of the water against the tub’s sides. This must be what it was like to float in space, she thought, weightless and removed the world around you. If only she could spend the rest of her life in this place, clean and disconnected.
“All right, girl. That’s about enough of that. Out you go.”
The other woman’s voice jarred her from the moment of peace. There was nothing good in this place that lasted for long, Ianthe reminded herself. She needed to remember that.
“Do you have something for me to wear?” She asked, voice pert. “Or am I expected to spend the rest of my life naked?”
“Ooh, you’ve got a mouth on you.” Naomi sounded mildly entertained as she pressed a switch near the tub‘s side that caused the water to drain. “Won’t last for long with that, I bet.”
“You have so much experience with kidnapped women.”
Naomi arched an eyebrow at that. “You’re being very dramatic. I know a dozen girls would kill to be in your shoes.”
“What shoes?” Ianthe bit out, wrapping her arms around her body to cover herself as the waterline slowly lowered down her chest. “You won’t bring me any clothes.”
“I’ll have to tell him that you’re being all uncooperative like.” The woman’s tone was mild but there was a threat under the words. “Come on out now.”
Ianthe glared as she huddled on the bottom of the now completely empty tub, shivering. She understood this little rebellion to be entirely pointless but it was hard to give up so easily, especially when so much had already been taken from her. “No.”
Omega's Capture (Omegas of Pandora Book 2) Page 4
