Chapter 1
Chapter One
Darby
P eople could have died because of me, because I’d cracked for just a moment.
You couldn’t crack as an air traffic controller. All those planes and all those people relied on you to guide them and keep everything sorted in the air. But it was also one of the most stressful jobs in the world, and in the end, that was what had gotten the best of me.
“Darby Austen?” the handsome, young beta facilitating things in the omega waiting area of the Grand Hotel asked, glancing up from his clipboard.
I almost didn’t raise my hand and call out, “Here.” I wasn’t entirely certain I deserved the privilege of beta-testing the new auction format that the Dark Fantasies Club was trying out. I’d received an exclusive invitation to help prove the concept last month and had jumped on the opportunity, but now? After a meltdown that nearly caused two planes to collide on the runway at Barrington International Airport?
The only thing that had stopped me from calling the organizers of the Dark Fantasies Club back and canceling on them was the hope that I could be paired up with a sadistic alpha Dom who would give me exactly what I deserved.
“Nice to see you, Mr. Austen,” the beta, Denny, who I’d met before at the Dark Fantasies Club home office in Norwalk, shook my hand when I got up and met him at the door. “Exciting day, isn’t it?”
“Um, yeah,” I said, trying to summon up some false enthusiasm as Denny led me out of the waiting room and a few feet down the hall to a different conference room.
“Congratulations on being selected to pilot the new program,” Denny said.
I tensed.
Denny cringed.
“Sorry,” Denny said. “Maybe we won’t use that word.”
A fresh wave of guilt and shame curled through me. Obviously, Denny had seen the news report about the near collision at the airport. Anyone who had been watching the news last week had heard about it. The press hadn’t been shy about sharing my name in their reports.
Denny’s smile was back in seconds as we stepped into the second room. The omega auction trial was being held at the Grand Hotel, one of Barrington’s finest luxury hotels, which stood just off the beach in the heart of the city. The hotel was large enough to host multiple events at the same time, but I’d heard from an omega friend who was also a member of the Dark Fantasies Club that the entire hotel had been booked and secured for this event.
It was a big deal.
The room where Denny asked me to sit on the other side of a plain desk was just an ordinary conference room that had been sectioned off using the movable walls hotels had to make their event spaces larger or smaller. Whoever had decorated it had done an amazing job of making it feel like a seedy office in some remote, secret warehouse.
“Mr. Kuhl will be in to interview you in just a moment,” Denny said, smiling reassuringly at me. He paused before walking away to ask, “You got the packet about how the auction is going to work?”
“Yes.” I nodded. “I’ll be interviewed about what I’m looking for in an alpha play partner, and my CV will be passed around to the alphas who have been invited to the event. Then I’ll be marched out on a stage during the actual auction and they’ll bid on me based on compatibility.”
“More or less,” Denny said, then nodded. “I envy you all. I kind of wish they were testing the program with betas, but Mr. Kuhl and Mr. Farrow want to limit this test to omega subs and alpha Doms. I’m going to pay attention and hope I get a chance to be auctioned in the future, though,” he added with a wink, then turned to go.
I smiled weakly. I hoped Denny did get a chance to play someday. He was young, gorgeous, and had a lot of omega-like tendencies. He was a surprisingly hard player, too, as I’d seen at an open party event once. And he was one of the nicest guys I’d ever met.
Me, on the other hand…. I was in my mid-thirties, well past the age when most alphas wanted to play with me. I was stressed out most of the time, except when I was being flogged or fucked by a brutal alpha, and I didn’t have any of the traditional, sweet, supple omega good looks. Well, not anymore.
I didn’t have to wait long for Caden Kuhl, one of the co-founders of the Dark Fantasies Club, to enter the room. For someone who had co-invented a club and app that allowed alphas and omegas to play out some incredibly dark, beyond kinky fantasies, Caden was one of the most cheerful and easy-going alphas I’d ever met. When he wasn’t in his Dom persona.
“Hey, Darby,” he said, coming over to shake my hand heartily. “It’s great to see you. I’m so happy you accepted the invitation to test the program. Hamish and I have high hopes for this whole auction format. We’re so eager for this test, and for your feedback.”
I tried not to wince visibly as I shook his hand. Knowing how important this was to Caden made me feel even less worthy of the honor of being asked to test the program.
“I’ll do whatever you want,” I said, working to match his level of enthusiasm.
“My hope is that this format will give you the best experience as well,” he said, letting go of my hand, then walking around to sit at the desk. “Have a seat.”
It was a sign of how ready I was to play that I dropped immediately back into my seat at his command. The part of me that wanted to give up control and just obey started to unfurl.
“So the way this is going to work is that I’ll ask you a few questions about the experience you’re looking for, and using this and what I know about your tastes and preferences already, I’ll pre-match you with one of our alpha volunteers.”
My brow went up. “So it won’t be a real auction?”
“We’re going to work to make the experience feel as authentic as possible,” Caden said, raising one hand as if trying to appease me, “but the alpha who bids the highest and wins you will have been preselected for you based on both of your preferences. Sort of like how it works on the app. Or an ordinary dating app, really.”
“Oh.” I tried not to be disappointed. I wanted the feeling of a complete stranger, a dangerous unknown, snatching me up at my most vulnerable and doing wicked things to me.
“I think you’ll still be satisfied with the experience we have in mind,” Caden reassured me again. “That’s part of the feedback we’ll be looking for afterward. Now, tell me what you’re looking for in this experience.”
I hesitated for only a second. Caden had probably seen the news reports about the near-miss at the airport, and he would guess at the level of self-loathing I felt because of it. But maybe that would work in my favor.
“I want someone really sadistic,” I said, suddenly energetic. “I want the full non-con experience.”
“Consensual non-con,” Caden clarified.
I nodded. I would have been up for genuine non-con at this point.
“I want brutality, humiliation, and degradation,” I went on. “I need lots of pain and forced sex. I want to feel like I’m at the mercy of a cruel Dom who doesn’t care about whether I live or die, who just wants to get off on using me.”
“Okay,” Caden said, nodding thoughtfully.
Nowhere else in the world could I spout all the things I’d just said and have the person sitting across from me react like I’d told them I wanted sugar and cream in my coffee.
“I’m assuming all forms of bondage are alright with you, too?” Caden asked.
“Yes,” I said without hesitation.
“Forced heat?” Caden asked.
That idea pinged something in me. “Absolutely,” I said.
“Any preferences about your alpha’s age, physical attributes, or kinks?”
I shrugged. “No, not really. I’d like someone big and beefy, but most alphas are.”
Caden smiled. “It’s a gift of genetics,” he said, sitting a little taller to show off how massive he was.
I wouldn’t have said no to Caden playing with me, really. He was all sunshine and light now, but I’d seen him get downright brutal when he was in character.
“Okay, I think we’re good to go,” he said, slapping the arms of his chair and smiling. “Come right through this way to the changing room.”
I stood and followed him to a door built into the movable wall at the other end of the room. It opened into what looked like a gym locker room, but without the showers.
“Undress and pick one of the lockers to store your things in,” Caden said. “This room will be monitored throughout the event, so your things are perfectly safe here.”
“What should I do once I’m undressed?” I asked, already shrugging out of the jacket I wore.
Caden gave me a smile that had a sadistic glint to it. “Don’t worry about that.”
The deceptively relaxed way he said that had my pulse kicking up. I couldn’t wait to see what they had planned.
“Remember,” Caden said as he walked back to the door, “you can end the fantasy at any point. The entire staff of the Dark Fantasies Club is acting as everyone’s seconds. Only our most trusted clients have been invited to this trial, so despite appearances, everything is tightly controlled.”
“Alright, thanks,” I said.
Caden left, which meant all I needed to do was undress and wait for what happened next.
I wandered over to the row of lockers, picked one at random, and hung my jacket on the hook inside. I then took my wallet, phone, and keys out of my pockets and put them on the shelf at the top of the locker before peeling out of my clothes.
It felt decidedly unsettling to strip naked in a staged locker room by myself. I could hear vague talking and the distant sounds of a hotel kitchen far away somewhere. It wasn’t silent, but the noise was so removed that it gave me a sense of unreality.
I didn’t really know what was going on within the parameters of the auction. Getting naked stirred me, though, and my hole felt slipperier than usual. As soon as I slid out of my underwear, folded that, and set it on the shelf with the rest of my things, I didn’t know?—
Before I could fully straighten, someone was directly behind me. I could smell alpha for a heartbeat before a thick, dark hood or bag of some sort was thrown over my head, completely blinding me to everything.
“Gotcha,” a deep, gruff voice growled in my ear.
One arm clamped around my shoulders and chest, and the alpha’s other hand brushed its way down my body, fondling my belly, my hip, and my ass before clamping around my cock and balls.
“Ooh, you’re a pretty one,” the alpha rumbled. “You’ll fetch a high price.”
“No,” I gusted out, figuring I should play my part in the fantasy. “No, let me go!”
I struggled a little, but not much.
“Feisty, too,” the alpha said. “Someone’s going to enjoy breaking you.”
He lifted me off my feet and carried me away from the lockers. The black hood obscured everything just enough to make things disorienting.
“Let me go!” I cried out, kicking and struggling.
I was too short and thin to be much of a burden to the extra-large alpha who had grabbed me. I vaguely recognized his scent, enough to be relatively certain it was Hamish Farrow himself playing the role of alpha thug kidnapper.
We went through some sort of doorway, and I immediately sensed that we weren’t alone. All around me, I heard tight panting, shuffling, and a few plaintive moans.
“Stick him in cage eight,” another voice said.
“Yep,” Hamish answered.
We traveled farther across the room, then I was pushed over the top of a waist-high cage of some sort. Hamish held me there with his body as he retrieved rope from somewhere and tied my hands and arms together behind my back. Once that was done, I was wrenched back, then maneuvered into the cage I’d been leaning over. With a high-pitched creak, the door shut and I was left alone.
“How many are left?” the other voice asked.
“Just five,” Hamish answered.
That tracked. There had been five other omegas in the waiting room when I’d left.
That was it, then. Hamish left, presumably to get the next omega, and I was left alone, bound, and naked in a cage.
The experience started to feel real. I could hear the other omega players in the cages that must have filled the room. The sense of fear and uncertainty was real, too. I was beginning to see that Caden was right about making the experience as authentic as possible for all of us.
Waiting was the first torture we all endured. It took time to process each new omega. Hamish’s dialog was mostly the same each time one of the new omegas was brought in and stuffed in a cage. Some of them protested, but most of us kept quiet, waiting to play.
The only break in the ordinary was one omega somewhere farther down the line from me who was keening and shuffling, and who sounded genuinely distressed.
“What’s with that one?” the other voice asked, his footsteps traveling down the line of cages.
“Nothing,” Hamish answered for the omega. “He’s just gone into heat. That’s why he’s here. He’ll fetch a lot of money for that heat and for suffering it a while.”
“Gotcha,” the other voice said, then added, “We’ll do him first. I can’t wait to see how the alphas go wild for him.”
There was more waiting. I counted until the last of the omegas was brought in and caged. My arms were starting to hurt from being bound, and my breath was hot because of the hood covering my head. But they were all nice touches.
Then they started taking us, one by one, starting with the omega in heat, into the next room for the auction itself. I couldn’t see, obviously, but I could hear snatches of the auction every time they opened the door.
It sounded like there were a lot of alphas in the other room. The rough talking, laughing, and cat-calling each time a new omega was dragged through the door had my skin prickling and my breath catching.
“Our next specimen is this sweet little blond thing,” I heard Caden’s voice, now embodying cruelty and callousness as it sounded through some sort of amplifier. “He might be eighteen, he might not. He’s certainly ripe, though. Look at that sweet hole.”
The door shut, and whatever else Caden said was muted.
My heart pounded against my ribs. It sounded like the actual auction process would be just as humiliating as I wanted it to be. I panted slightly in anticipation of being displayed and prodded, even though I worried that I wasn’t the pretty young thing that the other omega was.
There was no rhyme or reason to how we were taken out for auction. They weren’t taking us by number or going down the row. I didn’t know what to expect until a clack and metallic swing as the door to my cage was opened and a large hand reached in to grab me and drag me out.
“Stand up,” Hamish ordered. “Walk.”
I made it to my feet, and Hamish pushed me forward. The door opened, and the noise from the alphas was suddenly loud in my ears.
“Next up is this piece of trash we picked up off the streets,” Caden’s voice rang all around me. “He’s no spring chicken, but he’s still a luscious bird.”
The alphas laughed.
I was pushed forward even more, and suddenly the hood was yanked off my head.
I caught my breath, my heart beating madly with real fear, as I glanced around quickly. I was on a small stage in a dark room with reddish lighting. There were at least fifty alphas, most of them in suits, looking vicious and lust-filled as I was pushed the rest of the way across the stage. The smell of alpha was so thick in the air that it nearly made me choke.
It also had my cock filling and my hole loosening with need.
“This one is ideally suited for rough play,” Caden went on as Hamish manhandled me to the center of the stage, facing the sea of hungry alphas. “Lean, strong, and feisty, he’ll be fun to break.”
Hamish swung around and stuck two fingers in my mouth, forcing my jaw down.
“Very little gag reflex, even outside of heat,” Caden said. “Some lucky bidder will get a lot of use out of that mouth.”
Hamish pulled me around and shoved me over a black velvet-covered table so that my ass was on display for the muttering, grunting alphas.
“He might be past his prime, but he’s got a juicy ass,” Caden went on. “That hole is just begging for a fist.”
I heard the stretchy snap of Hamish putting on a latex glove before his fingers were at my hole. He shoved one, then two, then three in, prompting my body to naturally make slick to accommodate him.
“Did I mention how juicy he is?” Caden asked.
A lot of the alphas laughed.
“And he’s already hard as iron,” Caden went on.
I was, too. I was naked and bent over on a stage in front of several dozen alphas, having my hole primed so they all could see, and then my cock stroked a few times to extra hardness. I’d never been displayed and used that way before. Not in front of so many alphas.
It was thrilling and humiliating. I hated it and loved it at the same time. They had taken my hood off so I could see just how many alphas were leering at me, too. Especially when Hamish pulled me straight again and made me face the crowded room. He gave my cock a few more strokes, bringing me dangerously close to coming, then slapped my ass hard.
“Let’s start the bidding at a hundred thousand,” Caden called out.
The auction was as fast as lightning. A hundred thousand, two hundred, three. Several alphas started the bidding, but within a few bids, it had narrowed down to four, then three, then just two. One was a terrifying, grizzled alpha who looked to be about fifty, and who had a scar on one cheek. The other looked like a baby, really. He was dressed in a designer suit, though, and looked like some sort of nasty prince who bought and sold omegas like he was doing some candy sale for his high school class.
I focused on the grizzled, older alpha, but to my surprise, the spoiled young prince called out, “One million!” and the rest of the room went quiet.
“One million for this juicy omega?” Caden asked. “That’s all? Any other bidders? You can use this one hard, use him up entirely.”
The rest of the room was silent.
“One million going once, going twice…sold!”
Caden banged his gavel on the podium where he stood. I gaped across the room crowded with alphas at the spoiled prince. Some of the others were thumping him on the back and congratulating him. He grinned cockily.
I’d just been bought by an alpha who looked like he was half my age. What were the organizers thinking?