by L. V. Lane
She returned, still wrapped in the towel, and tossed some underwear and a collage of blue and white onto the bed. Her eyes flashed murder. I’d have thought after two weeks of wearing a Healer dress, she would be a little less feisty about this.
“Drop the towel.” Her face paled, and her lashes lowered. The spark wasn’t gone, but at least she was attempting to mask it. Her lips trembled, but she released her fierce grip on the towel, allowing it to drop to the floor. I looked my fill. She was a beautiful woman, soft curves, long caramel-blonde hair, amber eyes, and a smattering of freckles over her cheeks adding a layer of cute. There was nothing sweet about her personality. She was a bratty princess, through and through.
I definitely wanted to tame the brat…and get the princess all dirty.
“I’m your Controller. You don’t get to hide your body from me. I’m allowing you to put clothes on because it pleases me to have you covered while you’re outside. The moment you walk in that door, I expect you to be naked.”
She was bristling, and her mask was beginning to slip.
“You’ve got a lot of attitude flashing in those eyes. The only time I see attitude from an Omega is when they need attention. I’m finding it hard to believe you need more fucking or spanking, but I dare say I went easy on the spanking. If I get any more hesitation or resistance, I’m going to bend you over my knee. Now, bring me the underwear.”
Her tiny body trembled as she picked up the scraps of cream silk and brought them over to me. I inspected it and handed it back to her. “This won’t do. Bring me a selection.”
With her fury simmering, she disappeared back into the closet and returned a few minutes later with a multi-colored armful of lace and silk, which she placed on the seat beside me. She bit her lip, clearly worried.
I examined the collection. The sheer black set caught my eye. What can I say, it was a predictable choice, but the thought of that black, silky scrap of nothing against her pale skin only allowed the brain cells in my dick to have an input.
She frowned. “I can’t wear that, my nipples will show!”
“Put your clothes on and show me,” I growled.
Perhaps sensing my patience was limited, she stalked over to the bed, and without further backchat, dressed. It was a tragedy, seeing her beautiful body being enclosed in her selected attire. If I had my way, she’d be here naked for a couple of weeks. I was royally pissed at Ryker for having her to himself during transit.
It had taken a great deal of restraint to allow the handover to happen back on Tolis. There had been a stretched moment, while she had been standing between us, where I’d thought I might rip his throat out instead of letting her go.
I hadn’t been joking when I said she was addictive.
A worried frown marred her brow as she returned wearing a beautiful asymmetric skirt and a white wrap top. I liked seeing women in nice things…or nothing…or nice things and then nothing. “Hmm, they do show, don’t they.”
Cupping her breasts, I pinched and rolled her nipples between my thumb and fingers until they were stiff little peaks. The material was thick enough to hide the color of her underwear, but her erect nipples would definitely show. Her small teeth worried at her bottom lip, and she did an impressive job of trying not to react. Fuck, my mouth was watering, and my cock hadn’t lessened from stony since I’d left her tight cunt.
“Go and get a jacket.”
She didn’t hesitate this time, returning a few moments later shrugging into a white jacket that cinched in at her tiny waist. I could still see the faintest outline through the fabric, but unless someone was staring, they wouldn’t notice. I dedicated time to fondling them over the material. “There, much better. I like knowing this is underneath. Our little secret while you’re listening to Doctor Tsing proclaim his big plans.”
Her face said she wasn’t convinced.
CHAPTER FOUR
THE SKY HAD taken on a brighter glow as it transitioned into morning, and my anxiety rose as I anticipated Erison’s reaction if we arrived late. This was our first day back at the Chimera research station, and I knew Tsing was preparing a major launch party. Messing with Erison’s plans would be bad for me. Who knew what evil ideas he could hatch with sufficient motivation. I couldn’t rely on Ethan or Ryker remaining, and I knew the moment they left it would be a hundred times worse. Better to keep things as smooth as possible. I was hoping the new program would distract him from tormenting me, and I might finally be given some leeway to work on a project of my own.
“I’m going to be late,” I said.
Ethan’s hands rested on my hips. I wanted to get the day over with, but the expression he leveled my way made my legs feel weak. I thought Ryker was difficult, and he was in his own way, but Ethan was impossible to read.
“Doesn’t matter.” He set me away and stood, dismissing my concerns.
My lips began to tremble as he headed for the closet. “You don’t understand, he will make my day hell.”
Ethan’s head snapped back, and his eyes narrowed in a way that set my pulse racing. “No, he fucking won’t. If I say it doesn’t matter, it doesn’t fucking matter. You leave Tsing to me. If I decide to keep you home and correct you, that’s what’s going to happen. I’m your Controller. That’s the way it works. None of this is your concern anymore. The only person you need to worry about pleasing, is me.”
I could feel my temper rising. He sounded like my damn father—an attitude of entitlement.
I snatched up the colorful underwear mountain he’d discarded on the sofa. “And what happens after you’ve gone?” There was so much fear and frustration coursing through me, and it spilled out into those words.
I was standing there with an armful of silk and lace. I threw it to the floor in a fit of temper and spun about, intent upon locking myself in the bathroom. It wouldn’t hold him off for long, but it would piss him off, which pleased me to no end.
I didn’t reach the bathroom. For such a big man, he moved with terrifying speed, and I found myself caught within his constricting hold with his palm wrapped around my throat.
My previous knowledge of control did not prepare me for the feel of a hand closing over my throat and the way it could shut me down. This had changed when I met Ethan—he had been the first person to hold me in such a way. I’d seen my father rest his hand over my step-mother’s nape, but that gesture had always appeared loving, not controlling.
He didn’t offer the comforting rumble, and instead, I could feel his chest rising and falling and the faint tremble of his fingers. “They sent me to collect you, changed me so I would be able to meet all your needs. No one else is having this.” He cupped a big hand over my pussy through the layers of clothes that might as well not have been there. “I tolerate Ryker, but that’s all. And if he steps out of line, I’ll step on his neck. As for Doctor Tsing, Ryker’s told me all about his games. There are going to be some changes.”
“What sort of changes?” I asked, hopeful, and annoyed at myself for being hopeful.
He turned me around and sat on the bed, drawing me to stand between his legs.
Aware of his study, I reluctantly lifted my lashes.
“Did you fuck him?”
“Who?” My heart hammered in my chest, but he had a firm grip on my hips and escape wasn’t an option.
“Don’t play coy with me, Princess, or I’ll put you over my lap again. You know I’m talking about Tsing.”
I stilled. “Yes, once. A long time ago.”
Ethan’s fingers tightened. “Ryker thought he only wanted to.”
Oh god! What else had Ryker said? A terrible pounding kicked off at the back of my skull, signifying the onset of a flush.
“Stop fussing. In case you haven’t noticed, people are nervous around me. They would be right to be scared. I’m more than happy to fuck people up if they don’t fall into line, and I care a lot less about perceived constraints than Ryker does, and that man is a walking lunatic.”
“Now you’
ve gone and gotten yourself all flushed, and I’m going to need to fuck you again while I sort it out. After, you’ll need to clean up, and I’ll put more cream on your sore pussy. You’re not going to come while I put the cream on, are you? Because you know what will happen if you do, and we might never get out of this room.” He grinned. “No, I don’t mind either outcome, but I suspect you do.”
He had dimples. How could that be fair? I was mesmerized right up until his smile faded, and something dark and sinful took its place. “Take off your panties.”
And instantly, I was a breathless mess.
We left my apartment late, and despite Ethan’s admonishment not to fuss, I did.
It was a shock to see Ethan in civilian clothes. He would be handsome in anything—and nothing, but there was a certain allure to seeing him in ordinary clothes. The black shirt and pants emphasized how extraordinary he was. People stared at him, openly and covertly.
My mind was still reeling from his loaded statement prior to us leaving. All Alphas were possessive of things and people they considered to be theirs, and worse so with Omegas. Attachments formed, I knew this, often without permission. My face flamed thinking about him cupping my pussy and claiming that no one else was having it. But for how long would this determination last? I understood Controllers were possessive while they were allocated, but what was going to happen when they had to leave? How did they switch it off?
I had no answers, but something told me his sense of ownership went deep, even for a mere temporary arrangement. Did my father realize the visceral level of hatred Ethan felt toward the ruling elite? Ethan wanted to break me and mold me into his perfect little pet for many reasons, but the most dominant would be because of who and what I was.
I was a daughter of the ruling elite, the same ruling elite who had ripped Ethan from his family.
An act that had left them vulnerable. Ethan’s younger brother had died. I was a brat in his eyes, and one he wanted to control to satisfy his warped sense of revenge.
I thought he might even want to keep me.
My father wouldn’t agree to that. Would not tolerate that. Daddy may be a charming and brilliant man, but he was still an Alpha and was ruthless when it came to getting his own way. I could not imagine a disagreement between them being a civilized affair. My father would win, and for reasons I could not quantify, this made me feel sad.
Ethan was not a man who should fail at anything, and yet he could not win against the force of a man who formed part of the governing council.
I couldn’t win in this, either.
Ethan wasn’t a bad person. He had saved me…and after…nothing he had done to me was cruel.
Uncomfortable—mind-blowing—but not cruel.
We slipped into the back of the conference room Erison had commandeered for the launch. The whole team had been relocated to Chimera from Tolis. Nearly two hundred individuals spread over various work-streams to support the full program, and Erison controlled it all.
It had been my job once. I had loved it, had been passionate about it. Waking in the morning had filled my soul with purpose and reason. Now I was an Omega, and playing at a game until I came into my first heat. I’d been suppressing it for three years, which would prove challenging now that I had, not one but two, Controllers.
Which brought me right back to my decision to leave. Yet, doing so would not be an easy undertaking, especially with Ethan following my every move. Would his trust come with time? He couldn’t mean to watch me every moment of every day. Could he?
It was too much to hope that Erison had not noticed my late arrival. His face turned my way on several occasions as he continued with his impassioned speech about the new directions the program would take.
It was my suggestions he was repurposing as his own, and I bristled with every word that left his mouth. I began fidgeting when he got to the new transformational stream, which he hoped would improve Omega yields. This was my work from three years ago, work I had used as part of my doctorate paper, and he was blatantly passing it off as his own!
I might have growled…more of a light grumble, but I was dragged out of my seat so fast my head spun.
I was confused…and embarrassed to find myself on Ethan’s lap, with my cheek pressed to his chest and his Alpha rumble vibrating through me.
“Calm the fuck down, little Omega,” he said close to my ear. “Unless you want me to march up to the stage and part Tsing’s head from his body. We’ll discuss what he’s done to piss you off later, and I’ll decide whether to end him in a less public setting.”
My breathing steadied. It was hard to hold onto either the mortification or my anger while the rumbles soothed, but I was painfully aware of those around us making pointed attempts not to stare. Erison’s words faltered, so I presumed he had seen…and I thought Ethan might be glaring at him. I had seen that glare, and I was delighted it was making Erison nervous.
Ethan’s overprotectiveness reminded me of Ryker’s offer to strangle Erison—a bit. I didn’t think Ryker had been joking, much as I’d wanted to believe it at the time. I was certain Ethan was similarly serious.
In some ways, my two Controllers were as different as night and day, and in others quintessentially the same.
“I’m calm now,” I said. I was the lone Omega on the program, and I desperately wanted to blend in.
My inclusion here was a concession I was sure, because of my father’s influence. I was embarrassed, acutely so, by my predicament of being on a Controller’s lap. I remembered those occasions before I revealed when I had watched Omegas being disciplined and comforted publicly. Other dynamics had never seemed to mind. They might chuckle or shake their heads as if watching a naughty child being dealt with. Something inside me had always shied away from the scene. Seeing their faces redden, I would turn away, feeling their embarrassment as if it were my own.
The Copper Virus didn’t work as if given a blank slate. It took what was offered in the individual’s DNA and encouraged it to flourish. I was ever an Omega, and my empathy a result of my understanding of their plight at the deepest level, because I was also one, and because Omegas were naturally empathetic. Had my father always known I would be an Omega, even before I passed the age where other dynamics revealed?
Those soft, indulgent smiles when I asked him to give charity whenever I learned of some plight, even as a young child, must have been red flags to such an astute man. And he had indulged my causes generously. Indulged and encouraged, and nurtured every altruistic notion I displayed.
My mother was free-spirited, and I had often watched her with wonder as one might watch a bright butterfly flit around a flower. She was impetuous and self-centered at times, but I loved her passion and her vibrancy. As a child, I saw only the latter and aspired to be like her.
I was nothing like her and didn’t have a predisposition toward artistic pursuits of any kind. But I still admired the pretty clothes, the laughter, and the fun that flowed in her wake. She was voracious in every way, had more lovers than I can recall, and every one of them adored her and begged her to love them and only them. My father still looked at her as though confused as to how they had ever crossed paths. He was a possessive man, and my mother was the beautiful butterfly that could never be captured or held.
He loved his wife, Celeste, now. I could not imagine him being with anyone else, and certainly not my mother. Celeste was the sweetest, noblest woman I had ever met, and she had love enough for the world. She cared for me as gladly as she did her own children. All of them were Alphas. I was the only Omega born to my father, and she loved me like the daughter she never had. To reject the child of my father’s earlier lover was not a concept she could embrace.
“I’m calm,” I repeated.
“I like you here,” Ethan growled close to my ear. “You’ll stay here until I’m also calm. I’ve spent a good bit of time imagining his broken body scattered about the stage he’s working like a showman. I already want to rip his cock off knowing i
t’s been inside you. I might go ahead and rip his cock off anyway if I catch him looking at you again the way Ryker said he did.”
I snorted out a laugh. The rumble ceased.
“What the fuck was that?” He demanded, his voice a growl next to my ear.
“You sound like an Alpha,” I whispered.
He surprised me by chuckling and smoothed a big hand over my hair. “I am an Alpha, baby.”
I felt like I was entombed in a bubble while sitting on his lap, like the rest of the world didn’t matter, and I could fall into this too easily.
Could become dependent too easily.
“If you had any idea how close I came to getting out of my seat,” he said carelessly. “You wouldn’t be laughing about it.”
The bubble burst and the comfort dispersed in an instant. Ethan was the personification of violence, had ripped men apart in front of me before, and I was suddenly terrified he would do it again. This was a city, and rules existed here. You couldn’t commit such atrocities on a whim. I hated Erison at times, but he wasn’t a monster in need of a swift end.
My panic rose from its slumber, and I fought to escape his hold.
The soft rumble resumed. I was controlled effectively as his arms surrounded me, pinning me against him, and stilling my flight before it could shift from an idea to reality.
Fear was sitting on my periphery. I couldn’t catch it, not while I was under his cloying control. He would release me soon, and then the terror would smother me.
The session ended against the backdrop of my emotional soul searching. People filed out to the smaller groups, and as the rows around us cleared, he helped me back to my feet. His big hand rested over the nape of my neck. We exited. The next session was a smaller one with Erison, myself, and a select group involved in the transformational stream. I wasn’t ready for Erison yet, and I was certain Erison wasn’t prepared for Ethan so close to the limits of his temper.
