by A. R. Ford
I didn’t have long to wait. The sound of footsteps thumping on the stairs grew louder, before transitioning to the hallway outside the room. Sounds of debauchery filtered in through the wall. Moans. Groans. Squeaking bed springs. An occasional shouted expletive. My gut clenched at the thought of having to give myself to a stranger, just to survive.
The steps stopped outside my prison. A key turned in the lock. The door swung open to reveal a stranger who seemed more intent on hiding his face, than breaking me in for the whore house. The door slammed shut, the key turned in the lock. The inevitable future loomed in front of me.
The man was nearly as tall as the top of the door. Dark blonde hair cut short all over his head. A scar ran vertically from just over his right eyebrow, down the center of the right side of his face. His skin was dark from long hours in the sun. Thick brows were drawn together, as if a simmering pot of rage inside him was within seconds of bubbling over. A good week’s worth of whiskers darkened his chin, and jaw. Muscles bulged through the thin, button-down shirt he wore. The tails were tucked into jeans that did little to disguise thick thighs. Colorful tattoos swirled up the sides of his neck. Some even dotted his hands, and fingers. His whole body was probably covered in tattoos. Pale blue eyes looked me over, from head to toe. Assessing. Gauging.
For some reason, the stranger looked familiar. I couldn’t remember if I had met him somewhere before. He sat on the bed to remove his boots. A heavy backpack came to rest on the floor with a thud. He lay down on the ragged blanket. Unconcerned. Relaxed. Self-assured.
“You gonna just stand there staring?” he drawled in a voice that rasped on my nerves. Deep. Tinged with humor.
“I’m not doing anything with you.”
The stranger chuckled before stretching in much the same way a cat does after taking a nap in the sun. Slowly, rotating an arm here, a shoulder there. The crack of joints brought a throaty groan reminiscent of the sounds filtering in through the wall.
“Not interested,” he drawled. “Jinx told me he had a new girl. New girls mean trouble. Whore houses are great places to sleep. No one with good manners, and common sense, comes looking for you here.”
“What exactly do you think I’ll do?” I stood in the same corner as before, too scared to admit everything about this situation reminded me of a bad dream come to life.
“If you’re smart, you’ll get your ass over here, and sleep. We have a long way to go tomorrow.” With that, the stranger turned onto one side. He closed his eyes after punching the pillow into shape.
“I’m not going anywhere with you.”
“It’s going with me, or doing what’s going on in the room next door. You’ll be broken within a month. Broken in ways you could never imagine. Let me know when you make up your mind.” His words came out in that maddening drawl, like he had all the time in the world.
Like an idiot, I walked over to the bed, and lay on top of the blanket. Like him. I turned my back on him, clutching the pillow against my body. “I’d at least like to know your name.”
“Rafe Stone. I suppose you’ll want me to know what your name is?” He yawned, and stretched again until the bones in his neck popped. Once again, he groaned. A deep sound that reverberated in his chest. Little tingles of electricity made the hairs on my arms stand up.
“I guess if you didn’t act like the world owed you something, I’d be more accommodating.” I spat the words with every bit of acidic anger, and fear, that brewed in my gut. I did it without thinking things through. It was the last time I’d make that mistake with Rafe.
He rolled with the grace of a predator. Before I knew it, he had me pinned down, my wrists held above my head with one hand, while the other forcefully gripped my chin. The fingers digging into my flesh would leave bruises. Rafe lowered his head until his nose was inches from my neck. He drew in a few breaths before grinning at me. White teeth gleamed. Teeth I knew would hurt if he used them on me.
“I can smell the fear on you. Fear doesn’t make women good partners in bed.” Even more of his muscles dug into me. His chest rippled when he released my wrists. “Now, about that name.”
“Emmy Rowe,” I said while I glared at him. He might pin me down, but my eyes could say more than words ever could. I told him how much I hated him because I hated the men who put me in this room. I hated him because no one could save my family. I hated him because he frightened me on a deep, almost visceral, level.
“You’d best not cut me with those eyes, again, Emmy.” My name rolled off his tongue like an exotic word. “Emmy. Nice name. Do you think you could be as nice as your name?”
“If some asshole would get off me, I’d probably be nicer than I am now. It’s hard to breath with a couple hundred pounds of shit on you.”
Rafe loved that one. He rolled onto his back, laughing so hard, I knew people would think he’d gone crazy. I know I sure did. After a long time, the horse laughs turned into chuckles. Amused sounds that grated on my nerves. Why was it everything this man did, bothered me?
“This is gonna be one hell of a trip,” he chortled.
“Trip? I’m not going anywhere with you until I know everything.”
“Everything would take too long. Let’s just say this; I despise Jinx, and his whore house. And someone who took care of you asked me to look after you if anything ever happened to them.” Rafe settled down with one arm behind his head. He yawned so big; his jaws popped. “I always keep my promises.”
“Who asked you to look after me?” I crouched over him. My body trembled with expectation.
“Your dad.”
“He wasn’t my dad, just some asshole who got paid to watch over me for some reason.”
“He was as much a dad as most kids see in the wasteland.”
“A real dad wouldn’t have beat me every day, or two. A real dad wouldn’t have called me the Omega whore. That’s how I know for sure he wasn’t my real dad. Just some asshole watching over me, I guess. Nobody ever cared to tell me the truth.” I shrugged at the statement of fact. It was the first time I had been able to get all that off my chest. It felt good, too. No stranger laying a guilt trip on me was going to make me believe otherwise.
I wasn’t sure I could trust this guy. Emmett trusted him for some reason. Maybe I could depend on him. It was either that, or rot in a whore house. The choice was easy to make when I looked at it that way.
Chapter 3
Emmy
Rafe was awake, pacing the room, when I woke up the next morning. He gave me just enough time to wash my face, and scrub my teeth with the stub of a toothbrush I stowed in a backpack. It took me almost running to keep up with him.
He stopped in an office, near the entryway. The man with the twisted face sat behind a desk, writing in a ledger. He looked up when Rafe walked into the room.
A grin peeled the man’s lips away from yellow teeth. “You look happy, Rafe. I trust our new girl met your expectations?”
“She’s going with me, now.”
“The hell you say.” Scar-faced man stood up so suddenly, the chair tipped over. A pistol in one hand wavered back and forth from me, to Rafe.
Rafe took one step closer, and one step to the side. His big body stood between the gun, and me. “You owe me, Jinx. I stopped a guy from robbing you last time I was here.”
“The girl stays.” Jinx’s voice was low, and gravelly.
The next few seconds were a blur. Rafe grabbed the gun, and Jinx’s wrist, at the same time. With a twist, the gun was free. Then, one balled up fist struck Jinx right in the nose. Blood poured. Jinx roared, and fell back in the chair while clutching his nose.
“You shoulda listened,” Rafe muttered. “Hopefully, this doesn’t cancel my invitation here.” He tossed a wad of credits on the desk. “That ought to take care of any profit you’d get out of her. She’d be broken down in a month, no good for your establishment. Don’t send people after me, Jinx. If you do, I’ll kill them, then I’ll come back, and kill you. Got it?”
&n
bsp; Jinx howled, tears streaming down his face. He could only nod. Rafe turned around, grinning at me before he grabbed my arm, and yanked me out of the office. We made a quick escape from the town. Rafe occasionally glanced over one shoulder. I knew he was looking for some of Jinx’s men. He didn’t say another word until the sun rose high in the sky.
My legs were burning by the time we stopped. I could walk long distances, but not at the pace Rafe set. When we finally stopped, at high noon, Rafe jerked his head toward the path behind us.
“Keep your eyes peeled, Emmy.”
I did just as he asked. Kept looking over one shoulder while we chewed a piece of jerky. Looked again while we drank our fill of water. That night, I made sure to look every now and then while we made camp under a rocky overhang. Rafe gathered firewood while I cut pine boughs to keep us off the ground.
Rafe pulled a pot from his backpack after camp was set up. A few handfuls of dried vegetables, rice, and jerky, combined with water, then, shoved close to the fire, would be supper. “You hungry, yet?” he asked while stirring our would-be meal.
“Yep.” Too much had happened in the past few weeks for me to feel like carrying on a conversation. “You never did tell me where we’re headed, or how you knew Emmett.”
Firelight cast dancing shadows around us. Rafe kept his eyes on the food while he talked. “Emmett saved my life once. Kept a bear from killing me. That was back when I was young, and foolish, of course. Did you ever see the claw marks on his back? We thought the damned thing was dead. When he came to help me stand up, it woke up, and came back for round three. It got a few claws in him one time.” He unfastened the sheath on his thigh. The huge knife slid free, gleaming in the firelight. “He buried this right in its heart. I’ve never seen anything like it before, or since. And then, he gave the knife to me saying I might need it in the future.”
“So, you’ve not always been some mysterious giant warrior carrying a knife on your leg.” I didn’t ask the question, just stated what I already knew.
“Not always.” Rafe cleared his throat, brows scrunching together. I knew from the short time we had been together, that meant he was through talking. “If you wouldn’t mind filling up the coffee pot from the spring, I’ll get our food ready. Forgot to do that earlier.”
The food was dished out in enamel bowls when I came back with the water. We each had a wooden spoon to eat with. It took a while for the coffee to percolate. We just sat there enjoying a hot meal. Rafe scrubbed the dishes clean with sand he scooped out of the damp ground near the spring. By that time, I was so tired, I couldn’t keep my eyes open. I fell asleep wondering if there was more to Rafe’s story.
The same process repeated itself for two more days. Something strange occurred on the morning of the final day while I sat by the fire, warming my hands. Rafe bent over the fire to pour a cup of coffee. A twisted finger of smoke spiraled upward; at the same moment a flame grew from wood being shoved in its direction. A reddish gleam came from Rafe’s eyes. I bolted, and ran like my life depended on it. Because it did.
I knew there was more to the story. Rumors started circulating about cyborgs at some point in the wasteland. If you could believe the rumors, there were only a few cyborgs in the world. All of them belonged to Luca Walker’s family. Their purpose was mysterious. Some people said they were there to destroy everyone. Others said the cyborgs were there to protect any Omegas located in the world, as it struggled to come back to the modern age.
It didn’t matter, now, what the purpose of cyborgs were. One had saved me from a fate worse than death, only to be taking me somewhere he wouldn’t share with me. The pounding of Rafe’s feet on the ground behind me brought another scream. My foot caught on a root in the forest floor when I veered into the woods. Instead of helping me, the trees were my enemy. I crashed to the ground, hard.
Rafe picked me up like a sack of feed. He slung me over one shoulder. “You shouldn’t have done that.”
“Let me go!” My fists beat his back, feet kicking as I struggled to be free. All that got me was a hard swat on the rear end.
Rafe lowered me to the ground, but pinned me down with one knee in my gut. His hand held one of my arms down. He retrieved something from the backpack that sat only a couple feet away. A black leather kit of some sort. I saw the gleam of surgical stainless steel, and instruments. I froze. Unable to move, or scream, as I watched his movements.
Rafe pushed the sleeve of my shirt up almost to my shoulder, not caring that it ripped in the process. He retrieved a spray bottle of some kind before spraying most of the inside of my inner arm. The spray was cold. It dyed my skin a dark orange-red. Before I could jerk free, a scalpel bit into the soft skin of my arm. I howled, the sound echoing in the air. Who was I fooling? No one was looking for me. No one would come save me. Less than a second later, he used a pair of tweezers to dig into the flesh of my arm. Blood welled when he pulled a tiny object, the size and thickness of a matchstick, from my arm.
“That hurts! Stop it! Let me go! You promised Emmett you would watch over me.” My voice was thick with tears. Breath came in panting gasps as I twisted, and kicked. Nothing was moving Rafe off of me. He held pressure on the tiny incision until the bleeding stopped.
“I had hoped things would be different, Emmy.” He released the arm he pinned to the ground. “Don’t move. Understand?”
Fear twisted in my gut. He had a knife. He was so much stronger than me. There was no hope of escape. Without saying another word, he dressed the wound on my arm before retrieving a syringe. The sting of the medication made me gasp.
“What are you doing to me? I thought you were protecting me?”
“Removing your heat suppressant implant. I’ve injected you with an estrus inducing compound.”
“It was you, wasn’t it?” My mind swirled with the implications of Rafe’s suggestion.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Rafe muttered.
“I remember you taking me to the Rowes. You gave Emmett money to watch over me. You said you’d be back. How could you do something like that?” My words came out in a low voice filled with shock at remembering who Rafe was. The harsh reality of betrayal added to the emotional turmoil awoken when I learned how deep Rafe’s treachery ran..
“More than one death has resulted from Alphas in a rutting frenzy. It was safer this way. Your guardians couldn’t have defended you had an Alpha in rut tried to take you. As for why? Money talks, Emmy. Always remember that.” At least he had the decency to avoid my gaze.
Rafe broke camp with mechanical efficiency. A few kicks of dirt put the fire out. Before I could move, or protest, he picked me up, slung me over his shoulder, yet again, and set off at a breakneck pace. The world bounced by me. I twisted my head to see something, anything that would give me a clue where we were headed. I didn’t have long to wait before I saw it. The leaning sign with an arrow carved in it, and the word Walden.
It was still early. Rafe as much ran as he walked on the way here. The few times I had struggled earned me a quick slap on the behind. Each one grew progressively stronger until I couldn’t bear the thought of another. My rear end stung like fire. He carried me into a building where he paused for a few seconds on the ground floor.
“Is he in?” Rafe asked someone.
“In the penthouse, waiting. You made quick work of the retrieval,” a man replied. “You should get her up there. I can smell the change in her scent, already.”
Rafe entered an actual working elevator. A pushed button signaled the doors to close. My stomach heaved when the elevator rose. The only things I could see when he left the elevator, was rich, blood-red carpet, new wallpaper, and a few men with weapons. A door opened, then slammed shut. I was tossed, unceremoniously, onto a sofa. The first thought in my mind was Rafe, the traitor, needed to pay.
I ran at him. My foot glanced off his shin a second before I punched him in the balls. It hurt me a lot more than it did him. He simply grabbed my hair, lifting me until I st
ood on my tiptoes. His eyes narrowed, focusing on me for a second before moving elsewhere. “Here’s your Omega, Evan. Now, about my pay.”
Rafe released his hold on my hair when the stranger tossed him a wad of credits held with a rubber band into the air. His extended hand caught the wad of credits.
That’s when I saw Evan for the first time. He was huge—all rippling muscles, and oozing cockiness. Black hair that almost shone blue when light struck it. Jade eyes that caught, and held my attention. Digging into my heart, soul, mind. That’s when I felt it. The first cramp, low in my belly, brought me to my knees. A gush of moisture between my legs, horrified me. Was I bleeding? A hand thrust between my legs came away with only a sheen of slick moisture.
“Be on your way, now,” Evan advised with a throaty laugh. “Make sure you tell the others only Betas stand guard. Meals are to be delivered outside in the hallway. I am not to be disturbed, under any circumstance.”
“Understood,” Rafe replied. “Lucky you. A hidden Omega with a heat suppressant implant just removed, and injected with an estrus inducer, falls into your lap, courtesy of me.”
Evan walked alongside Rafe. He locked the door before he turned, and walked to me. He helped me to stand. Then, he hovered closer. So close, I could feel the heat from his body. “Your estrus has already begun, little Omega. What is your name?”
His voice was impossibly deep, and raspy. The rasp plucked at nerve endings suddenly connected to the secret place between my legs that began to throb after the first cramp. Another cramp, and gush of fluid, made me gasp.
“Em-Emmy!” I whispered. His hand encircled the back of my neck, pulling me closer until our bodies touched. A low growl vibrated in his chest. The sound triggered another cramp, harder than the ones before. I cried out, pushing against his body. “You can’t keep me here!”
Evan leaned over me, sniffing my neck, and shoulder. His tongue traced the shell of my ear. Shivers rippled along my spine. “I can, and I will. I’ve never had an Omega before. After learning of the bliss estrus and rut can bring, I was determined to find it for myself. Fortunate for me that your friend needed money more than he needed to protect you.”
