Chapter 5 Eva
Using Joon’s hand clasped in mine, I led him through the beer garden and out the back, towards where I’d seen the sign for the mirror maze earlier.
Because of the circle of food stalls, the area was warmer, but on the other side, the cool air hit my skin, making goosebumps rise along my arms. It was either that or this new, exciting rush I was feeling.
But being with Joon still seemed to make me feel warm all over.
“I know they aren’t looking for me,” I said to him with a light laugh, “But I can’t help but feel like I’m on the run too.”
“Dressed like that? You should be afraid, sweetness.” Joon smirked. “I’m about ready to throw away the chase, if you were interested.”
I could feel my skirt bounce with every step, decidedly taking the time to sway my hips a little more at the omega’s admission.
Others walked around us, milling to whatever events caught their fancy as their body heat pressed against me, making my head spin.
Everyone was so caught up in their own world that it was easy to feel like we were alone.
“Are you kidding?” I said as I led the way, following the clearly marked signs for the maze, neon arrows painted with phrases like “beware” and “enter if you dare.”
Just outside the heavy metal double doors was a table with a pair of attendants lit with moody lanterns that cast their faces into ghoulish shadow.
"Good evening," the beta behind the desk said.
She was dressed like a clown, but in a sexy way.
Her face was white in an oval with blue and pink stars for eyes and giant lashes.
Large shoulder pads adorned the silk white and red dress she wore with a large, fanned-out skirt on the bottom.
"Welcome to the Primal Funhouse. Are you looking to go inside?”
Joon’s foot tapped impatiently beside me, head swivelling to look for his chasing alphas. “Yeah, we do.”
“What do you mean primal?” I asked, head tilting curiously.
“It’s a pre-set chase scene. Alphas enter through the other side and will take up chase if they spot you… What happens after that is up to you.”
Excitement skittered over me. “Oh, hey, I can be hunted too.” I teased Joon, who was already working on filling out a waiver.
“Maybe I should come from the other side and chase you then, huh?” he smirked.
I took the clipboard as it was offered to me, adorned with a small light for reading, using the attached pen to initial the segments that waived my right to sue if I tripped and busted my head, and agreeing to the safety protocols with my signature at the bottom.
"The first form is general liability,” the beta explained.
“Since you’ll be running around a haunted house with flashing lights and jump scares.
There’s also some segments that turn into a mirror maze—I do recommend slowing down a bit in those, if only to avoid breaking your nose.
" She flipped to the next page. "This is just ensuring your kinks are still okay and your consent. Tonight, the safeword is’ pumpkin’.
Because of the type of event we run, 'stop' alone won't cut it. If you want to stop, say pumpkin and all play ends instantly. Each room is set up with audio equipment, similar to Omega’s Lust, so if you need help at any time, someone will always be on standby. The last page is just an extra form with an agreement to have an anonymous partner, potentially wearing a mask or another kind of covering. Since we can’t possibly match everyone at these events, we do this one-time blanket consent instead. If you’re comfortable with the mask play, we’ll give you a separate bracelet to denote that. "
Her words swirled around me as I tried to take it all in.
My eyes scanned the page, and I understood what I was agreeing to, but it still all felt pretty foreign to me.
But this seemed like the perfect place to experience something like this.
I'd be able to try these things I'd never been able to, and knew there were safeguards in place.
It all felt perfect.
Maybe a little too perfect, as I caught Joon’s eye. He waggled his eyebrows suggestively, flicking a bit of his pink wig out of his face.
A guy in a skirt… Who knew I’d be into that?
I signed my name at the bottom of each page before handing the clipboard back, and the attendant checked it all over before taking the forms off to file into a large document binder lying flat on the table. "Perfect. What's the safeword?"
"Pumpkin," I confirmed.
Her painted-on red smile only grew wider as she smiled for real.
She gestured for us each to hold out our hands, and she added a black bracelet to the green ones we each wore.
"Excellent. You’ll enter just through there.
If you're ever feeling lost or too scared to continue, just stay where you are and say the safeword, and an employee will come find you. Do you have any questions?"
A million, but none she could help with. Especially not with Joon hopping from foot to foot beside me anxiously. "I'm all set."
“Perfect, enjoy yourselves!” she called happily, waving us inside. “May you find delight or fright, whatever it is you’re after tonight.”
The omega caught my wrist, dragging me inside with a laugh.
“I can’t believe a smokeshow like you is here alone,” he said, slowing slightly as we waited for our eyes to adjust to the relative pitch black of the room.
When I looked down at our held hands, the black bracelets she put on now glowed with little masks all around them.
The green ones glowed bright as well, so everyone knew what everyone was looking for.
In the distance, further than I anticipated, flickering candles on wall sconces lit the way down a winding hall, my hand in Joon’s going slick with sweat.
Every step I took felt warmer, a blanket of quiet pierced by distant screams that I wasn’t sure were a recording or genuine, making me jump around every bend.
I chastised myself not to dissect the experience, refusing to let my brain work double time to untangle the layers of atmosphere that’d be carefully curated into the space, down to the cobwebs we had to duck to avoid as we moved, our breaths coming fast in our eagerness, loud as they bounced back to us.
As a horror buff, I loved to pull it all apart and see what made it scary–but as a girl who needed to get over a lame as fuck breakup with a fun night of being scared shitless by masked alphas looking to suck and fuck… yeah, okay, it was brain off time.
“I just broke up with my boyfriend,” I admitted. “This is like, my first night out trying to get over it.”
“And you came to a horror orgy?” Joon said, blinking with a flutter of false lashes.
Damn, he really did commit to the bit.
A scuttling noise made him jump with a scream, his body colliding hard with mine.
“Sorry!”
“We have to stop meeting like this,” I laughed, knocking our temples together playfully. “But yeah… My friend convinced me to come.”
“Remind me to send her a gift basket.” Joon said, pulling away to walk at my side again, leaving me with a heavy dose of his sweet candy apple scent, a little sour with his temporary fear. “His loss is so my gain.”
I couldn’t quite tell if he was joking, and I opened my mouth to ask if he was when we rounded the corner to be blinded by the heady crimson glow of neon lights.
My nerves were finally starting to get the best of me, solidified as a piercing scream I was sure was real rang through the air, making me actually jump.
The familiar rush of adrenaline I'd been addicted to since I was a teen flooded my senses and drawing a smile to my lips as we crept down the path towards a fork in the road, barely visible after being blinded.
“Which wa—” I started to ask as a giant man in a mask popped from an alcove I hadn’t noticed before, chainsaw roaring. I screamed, my legs kicking into motion before my brain could catch up, carrying me as far and fast as I could go before my breath was ragged, heart hammering in my chest.
There were more noises and lights and hands reaching out from the black, but it registered as I sprinted, the heat becoming nearly unbearable. The air humid and thick in the confined space.
Sweltering.
When I finally slowed, I turned at the sound of heavy footfalls behind me, expecting to see Joon following—shocked to find an alpha with a rapidly receding hairline round the corner instead.
"Well, well, well…” He crooned in a husky, croaking voice that set my teeth on edge. “What do we have here?"
My nose scrunched as I scented him. It smelled like black licorice and something pungent I wasn't drawn to at all.
"Looks like we found a little omega bitch in heat. First rodeo, sugar?"
Heat?
I wasn't in heat.
At the very least, I was still a few weeks off. But maybe this was part of the scene, you know, the helpless damsel thing?
Either way, I wasn’t particularly interested in talking about it with this alpha; it was obvious we weren't a match—scent-wise or anything else.
I turned to run again. Maybe this asshole just wanted to get off on the thrill of scaring somebody.
But as I tried to get away, I ran smack dab into another body, alpha pheromones like the cheap body spray alphas in high school used instead of a shower flooding my nose and making me choke.
He grabbed my arm, twisting me around like a doll as the first alpha approached, eyes gleaming in the dark.
"Let go," I said, trying to wiggle from his grasp.
"I don't think so, sweet green. An unattended omega in heat is a bad idea in a place like this. Just think of what could happen."
“Yeah,” the balding alpha said, voice dripping with excitement. “Somebody might take advantage.”
Fuck.
For one, terrifying beat, I considered calling it, shouting pumpkin and going home. But there were steps, and Omega’s Lust had set boundaries.
“Red.” I said clearly, feeling the pressure around my wrist disappear immediately.
The disappointment on the balding alpha’s face was nearly palpable. “Did we come on too strong?”
I stepped away, backing up into the adjacent hall so I didn’t have to put my back to them as I moved quickly away. “Just not for me, thanks!”
“Hey, wait!” the other alpha said. “We weren’t joking about the—”
I didn’t hear the rest as I turned on my heel, racing around the next bend and through a sloppily concealed door into a dimly lit room filled with so many bodies it had me reeling.
I really must’ve been afraid not to notice the moans and growls coming from the doorway, a knot of people moving as one, froze me steadily in place as I watched them writhe in a tangle of wandering hands and mouths.
I’d just walked into a fucking orgy.
My eyes caught on a couple in the corner, tucked away against the wall and partially obscured by heavy silken drapes.
I could just barely catch a hand riding into the other man's toga, bunching the fabric and making it flutter with the steady flick of his wrist. The shorter man threw his head back, a moan I couldn’t hear spilling from his lips.
The taller man then boxed them in, cutting off my view, but the damage had been done, warmth spreading from my center down to my toes as I pressed my thighs together desperately.
God, where did Joon go? Maybe I’d just take him up on his offer.
It was like all of a sudden the world narrowed to the sounds of my own breathing and the heat warming its way over my body.
My vision felt like it was almost moving slowly, the previously loud screaming and music fading into the background, almost like I was standing outside of the party, listening through the wall.
Warm caramelized sugar and sharp, tangy salt coated my senses as thick, muscular arms wrapped around me from behind. “There you are,” a smooth, low voice crooned, close to my ear. “I’ve come to claim my prize, fuckdoll.”