Slick (The Grayverse #1)

CHAPTER THREE

My alpha smells like… paradise .

If paradise was a deep, warm pocket lined with fur and laced with a scent so delicious, I can feel drool gather in my mouth.

It’s like a faded memory peeking out from behind a curtain, of something sweet but tangy, like cherry ice cream or tropical bubblegum. Something from before , that kisses its way over my heated skin and makes me hum with anticipation.

As the two guards bring him into the chamber, I can feel my heart hammering in the tight confines of the suit. I’m already in a heightened state, off-kilter about being in a new slick room, having Dex at my side for a deposit, and knowing that this is the last time he’ll care for me before he leaves for good. And now I have a real alpha in my midst, his scent leaking through the wall long before they drag him into the room.

I don’t like that at all . Dex said they might handcuff him, but the reality is a lot more disturbing than I imagined, with two burly guards hauling him around like a slab of meat. He has a black hood over his head, laced as tightly as my slick suit, and I have to wonder if he can breathe. There’s an ugly hook in the ceiling, and I smother a yelp when they fasten him to it like they’re spearing a worm.

But the thing that really makes me cringe is that there’s only one reason a naked alpha is dangled in front of an omega.

He's here because of me.

I knew that already, but I didn’t think it would be like this . The alpha scent they usually pump into me – via a face mask, or occasionally through a diffuser – has an acrid edge. It still smells good – like musk and metal, with a touch of spice – but it’s artificial, like a candle burning in another room. It gets my slick going, especially with the vibrations in the suit lining, but it’s still just a physical reaction. It’s nothing like the wholehearted bliss I feel when Dex pulls me into his arms after a long, hard deposit.

I glance at him now, but his gaze is locked on the glass wall. He’s breathing faster, his hands balled into his fists, and a flush on the back of his neck, and I catch a whiff of his scent. It’s faint, since he’s a beta, but his usual minty flavor is laced with something darker.

Worry, regret… and arousal?

My gaze snaps back to the window, and I can definitely see why. My alpha is a perfect specimen, with thick thighs, a muscled chest, and a massive erection, pointed right in our direction. He’s delicious, but my appreciation comes with a pinch of shame. I want him, more than anything, but not like this. I don’t want him angry, or hurt, or restrained, and I definitely don’t want him hanging from a hook behind a wall of reinforced glass.

But my distress turns to awe as his biceps bulge, and the cuffs on his wrists snap apart like paper. The guards scatter, snatching for their weapons, but my alpha boots one in the chest and snaps the neck of the other. I should feel sorry for the man whose life just ended, but I’ve never liked the guards, and they should know better than to hurt him…

“ My alpha. He’s finally come for me.”

When my alpha roars, a gush of slick pours out of me, an offering to lure him closer.

“Fuck, we have to get out of here!” Dex leaps forward and tries to unzip me from the suit. “If he can snap those cuffs, he can shatter that glass.”

Behind me, the collector squawks. “You can’t let her out! He’ll go into a rut if he smells her like this. We need to drain away her slick and get someone in here to sedate him!”

I can hear the controller’s fingers flying over his tablet a moment before the table tilts alarmingly. My stomach lurches as it slams back into the horizontal position and Dex glares at the controller. “Watch it, you asshole! You nearly gave her whiplash!”

“Better whiplash than luring that monster in here,” he snaps, and there’s an ominous hissing sound from inside my suit. My muscles clench, but there’s no escaping the plastic’s grip as it tightens on my body. As the controller promised, he’s about to squeeze every last drop of moisture out of me.

Dex must read the panic on my face, because he grabs the nearest zipper and tries to yank it open. “Let her out. This has gone too far…”

I grit my teeth and try to brace for the suction, but the plastic tightens so quickly, it makes my head spin. The room flashes white, then the blood red of a fresh wound.

Slick dribbles from between my thighs, but it’s a sour deposit, and I can’t stop the cry that’s torn from my lips. The pain swells until my ribs creak, and I cast a desperate glance in my alpha’s direction.

He doesn’t just unlace the hood; he tears it from his face, and I whimper as his dark eyes meet mine. It’s like staring into the night sky, only one churning with winged monsters, and I try to lift my arms to reach for him. I’m silently begging him to do the same to my slick suit, to rip it off my body, but he’s behind a wall of glass.

An alarm screams overhead – not the suit, even though my chest feels like it’s caving in. Someone is yelling over the intercom, ordering reinforcements to the collection wing. Dex is still trying to get the zippers on my suit open, but the collector has backed up to the wall, his fingers flying over the screen. I glare at him, even though I can barely see through the torrent of tears, falling too fast for the suit to absorb. I try to tell Dex to grab the tablet, but the words die on my lips as I surrender to another agonized cry.

It's answered with a deafening thud, and I open my eyes just enough to see my alpha wrench the hook out of the ceiling. It comes free with an ear-splitting whine, an explosion of plaster chunks and tangled wires showering down on his head. I cringe, but he just kicks the destruction aside and swings the metal hook over his shoulder. It takes a moment for my anguished brain to realize what he’s doing, and then the heavy base of the hook smashes into the wall separating us. Fragments of glass slice through the air like claws, Dex ducking under the table just in time to avoid their lethal reach. There’s a tortured scream from the collector in the corner, but it barely registers.

Paradise!

I take my first, gasping breath of his unadulterated scent, and slick pours from my body, so potent I can taste it on the back of my tongue.

It’s not a memory, but a promise, of cozy nights and slick-damp sheets, of a thick knot in my body and sharp teeth in my throat.

“Alpha.” The whine is almost silent, because there’s so little air left in my lungs. The suit is now an agonizing cage, and I whimper as the alpha studies me, those wild eyes burning into mine. I would give him my last moment, locked in his gaze, but two guards rush into the room behind him, their weapons up and ready to fire. They’re dressed in black uniforms I’ve never seen before, and they’re carrying guns, not batons. They smell of oil and hot metal, and they don’t blink as they size up the room. “Alpha!”

My cry of warning is lost in a ferocious bark. It rolls out of my alpha like thunder, a primal command that batters my ears and sizzles in my veins. I hiss in victory, but the guards rushing towards him jerk to a violent stop. In fact, they freeze mid-step, their fingers twitching on their guns and their eyes wide with terror. One of them grinds out something I can’t hear, but my alpha barks another command and they drop to the floor, as dead as stone.

“Beta,” the alpha growls as he stalks over to the guards. “Free her now .”

There’s less bark in his voice this time, but I’m not surprised to hear Dex moan as he crawls out from under the table. Fragments of glass crunch under his boots as he pulls himself up, his face pale and clammy as he leans over me. I can smell the fear on his breath, but his brow scrunches into a furious scowl as he runs his hands over my slick suit. Whirling on the collector, he curses when he finds the corner empty. “Fuck. He ran, the coward.”

“Emergency. Switch.” The room is starting to spin, my vision narrowing down to a distant point. I know I only have a handful of breaths left in me, but I manage to gasp, “Under. Table.”

Dex curses and drops into a crouch, his hands furiously searching for the switch.

I’m watching the curls on the nape of his neck, wishing I could stroke them one last time, when a shadow falls over me. My alpha is suddenly there , so big he blocks out the overhead light. He’s dripping with sweat, his lips a rabid snarl in the shadow of his beard. When he grabs Dex’s shoulder and shoves him aside, his bark makes my bones ache. “Move!”

Dex hisses in pain, and more tears leak from my eyes. “Don’t. Hurt. Him.”

It’s barely a whisper, but my alpha grunts and reaches under the table. I think he’s trying to find the switch, but instead he rips the collection tubes from their moorings. It instantly disconnects my suit from the system, and the suction stops, the plastic sagging against my skin. I drag in a ragged breath, but it’s still not easy to fill my lungs, and fury flashes in my alpha’s eyes. Leaning down, he swipes a jagged piece of glass off the floor and presses it to the top of my suit.

“Wait,” Dex pants, crawling back to my side. “Use the zippers, or you’ll cut her.”

“No time,” my alpha growls, giving him a glare from under bushy brows. “You should have stopped them, Beta.”

I expect Dex to defend himself – to tell the alpha he wasn’t even meant to be here, that he cares for me, that he does everything he can to help me - but his shoulders hunch, his eyes glazed with guilt. “I know. I fucked up.”

“I could snap your spine…” my alpha muses, slicing the plastic from my skin with barely a flick of his wrist, “but you smell like her.” His dark eyes bore into mine. “You claimed him.”

“I did.” I search Dex’s face, wondering if he already knew my secret. The counselors at the facility are always telling us that omegas can’t claim other designations, but Dex has been mine since the first time I saw him. “I love you. I always have.”

Instead of kissing me, like I’m hoping, Dex screws up his face like he’s in pain. “Diana… I’m so damn sorry for everything.”

“Spare me,” my alpha growls, peeling the last of the plastic away with his giant hands. I wriggle out of it with a relieved groan, and he drops the ruined suit on the floor with a wet splat. “She’s mine now. You hurt her again, and it’ll be the last thing you do.”

I open my mouth to tell him Dex has never hurt me – but my alpha is so close, it’s hard to speak around the drool in my mouth. Especially when his eyes trail down my body like a caress, his nostrils flaring as they take in my scent. “Have you ever had a knot before, Omega?”

“No.” I lick my lips, fascinated by the thick erection with the slight swelling at its base. I know it won’t grow to its full size until it’s buried deep inside me, and I shift restlessly on the table, canting my hips in his direction. “But I want it.”

“It gets a lot bigger than this.” He strokes a hand down his shaft, putting all his vein-wrapped glory on display. “It’s going to stretch you to your limit, Omega.”

I tilt my chin up, holding his gaze. “I can take it. I was built for you, Alpha.”

Needing to prove my point, I reach for the engorged flesh, but Dex moves his body to block me. My alpha growls in warning, but Dex doesn’t give an inch. “Look, you should make a break for it while you still can. They’re going to bring the whole tower down on your head, and you don’t want Diana getting caught in the middle of that.”

My alpha’s smile is a brutal slash against his thick beard. I want to reach out and stroke the lush hair, but I know we’re running out of time. “We should go to the Director and tell him that my mate has come to me. He’ll let me retire immediately, and we can all leave together.” Dex makes a sad sound, but it’s the soft look in my alpha’s eyes that makes me frown. “What reason would he have to stop us?”

Instead of answering, my alpha reaches out and brushes a thick thumb over my bottom lip. It’s saturated in his tangy scent, and I have to fight to keep my eyes from rolling back in pleasure. “We can talk about that later,” he rumbles. “Just know that we’re fighting our way out of here, sweet mate.”

A shiver passes over my damp skin, and I sit up, frightened but resolute. “Alright. Can you help me down?”

The alpha moves so fast, I barely catch my breath before his nose is buried in my neck. He runs his mouth over my sensitive gland, his beard prickling my pulse, and my head falls back, my toes curling with delight. If he wants to bite me and bond me now, I’m more than ready. I’d prefer to do it with his knot inside me, but it’s almost as good to feel his hot breath on my skin, a growl vibrating from his chest as he licks over my gland. When he pulls back, the possessive gleam in his eyes nearly makes me faint. “Are you with me, Omega?”

“Yes!” There’s no mistaking the desperation in my voice, or the scent of slick in the air from his nearness. The pulse in my neck is now throbbing between my legs, begging for the same treatment. I want kisses and licks, and the rasp of his beard on my soft folds. I need to crawl onto my knees and present for him, but I settle for opening my thighs, all the slick that was meant for the collection system glistening on my skin. “Please, Alpha. I need you.”

The growl becomes a bitten-off roar as he stares down at me. “I’m gonna bury myself so deep inside you. Cock, knot, and teeth. You’re mine , Omega, and every drop of that sweetness belongs to me.”

The shudder of need almost tips me off the bed. “Yes, Alpha. I’m yours.”

His smile is now a primal claiming. “Good. But not here. I’m taking you home.” He turns and gives Dex a hard look. “I want to carry her, but I’ll need my hands. Fuck this up, and I’ll kneecap you and let the vultures pick over your bones.”