Chapter 15
Elm was so focused on his sketch of the mountains, he didn’t notice the cramping until the pangs were strong enough to have his vision swimming and him doubling over. The pencil he’d been holding clattered to the floor and rolled across the cage, slipping beneath the gap under the door.
He cursed and set the sketchpad to the side, stood on shaky feet, and stumbled forward toward the bars.
This heat wasn’t coming on as aggressively, maybe because he was adjusting and had gotten used to the sensations.
Or maybe it was the lingering smell of the alpha still caught in the material of his clothing.
Levi had rubbed the underside of his jaw across Elm’s sleeve, and again over his shoulder, a ritual he’d started the first time he’d brought Elm back down here and left him to take care of business.
Scenting.
Elm never thought anyone would ever scent for him.
As a beta, it wouldn’t have made a difference since he couldn’t smell pheromones, though some alphas and omegas apparently still did it for their beta lovers to warn off others of their proclivity.
They had glands in a few places, beneath their jawlines, at the base of their neck, their wrists, and their inner thighs.
Rubbing these glands on a partner while pushing pheromone would douse them in an almost perfume.
In this case, Levi was using it for comfort. To help keep Elm’s body in check by leaving his scent behind even if he wasn’t there physically.
He was going to have to return though, sooner rather than later, if Elm had any say.
The thought of having to suffer through another mating period on his own had him whining, the sound low and drawn out, as though there was a chance the alpha might hear it.
Actually…
Elm recalled the camera, the tiny flashing red light in the corner on the outside of the cage catching his attention the second he looked for it. The alpha had never tried to hide it, had even pointed it out to him, though Elm had pretended not to hear.
He’d been doing that all week. Icing the Leviathan out.
Admittedly approaching the situation from a sort of childish standpoint.
But it wasn’t like he had other options.
He was powerless here, still unstable and dependent on the man keeping him against his will.
Even when he’d dreamed of waking and magically being an omega, Elm had never fantasized about this.
The darker side of their nature was unavoidable, so of course he’d known about it. Hell, even his best friend had been taken and claimed without his consent. Things had worked out in the end and Sky and Kian were very much in love, but that didn’t change how messed up the beginning had been.
Was that in Elm’s future?
Now that he was omega, did he have to worry about some alpha overpowering him and forcing the bite?
Would Levi eventually gift him away? He kept bringing up how precious a dominant omega like Elm was…and he was the Dominus of a powerful mafia…Trading people like currency was probably something he’d done in the past and wouldn’t hesitate to do in the future.
So far, being Kian’s brother had spared Elm a little. The cell sucked, but the mattress was comfortable, he had a blanket and changes of clothing, and the toilet was at least somewhat private. They’d never withheld meals, and since moving upstairs, he’d even been allowed showers.
Surely giving him away would draw the Eumia’s attention, something Levi and his men had clearly stated they wanted to avoid.
And, thinking on it more, the Leviathan was far too big of a control freak to trust Elm in someone else’s hands, not when there was a chance Elm could escape this third party and make his way to Kian to tattle on the White Frost.
No, Levi wouldn’t—
The door opened and Elm felt a wave of anticipation.
Only for confusion to take its place as soon as three strange men entered.
They were dressed in black suits, clearly guards, but their eyes were glowing and they moved…wrong. Their noses tipped up as soon as they entered, sniffing the air, catching Elm’s scent, and then they growled.
He shot away from the bars, retreating as they stalked forward, eyes catching onto him.
His heat wasn’t something he could control, the pheromones pouring out of him heady and thick in the air.
They were already hard when he dared check, and Elm hissed, covering his nose to try and block out their offending scents.
Even as his body responded to the presence of alphas, heating and preparing by wetting his passage and lengthening his dick.
He felt slick seep through the back of the white shorts he was wearing, causing the material to stick to him uncomfortably.
It also had the added effect of drawing the predators closer, their arousal growing noticeably stronger.
“Omega,” one of them, a tall man with broad shoulders and blond hair, grabbed onto the bars and shook them once. “Let me in.”
Elm shook his head.
“Frightened,” another guard, this one a brunette, reached for the keypad, and Elm’s heart stuttered in his chest. But it became apparent a moment later he didn’t have the code, and he released a frustrated rumble before banging against the lock.
Normally, alphas couldn’t resist an omega in heat. They’d be driven to mount them. It was basic biology. But Elm could see the hints of madness, knew it was his particular brand of pheromones turning them wild.
Wild was dangerous.
According to Levi, he’d had to put a group of them down when he’d taken him from the warehouse.
Elm tried to use aggressive pheromones, but his body wouldn’t cooperate, the primal urge to attract a mate too great. Maybe if he’d had more control over himself, he’d be able to, but try as he might, all he could muster was a tiny twinge of it added to his smell.
“The Leviathan will kill you if you touch me,” he attempted to scare them, but all he seemed to do was make them more desperate.
“The Dominus told us to look out for you.” The third guard pulled his blaster from its holster and aimed it at the lock pad. “We’re following orders.”
Elm jerked and covered his head protectively when the lock was blown, then backed up until he hit the wall as they crowded into the cell. “There’s no way he told you to do this.”
“He left us with an omega in heat,” the blond sneered. “Of course he wanted us to do this. He’s always rewarding the White Frost with flesh. You’re a prisoner.” He started to undo his belt, but stopped there, not yet unzipping his pants. “What’s it matter what happens to you anyway?”
“You don’t know who I am.” Elm debated whether or not using Kian’s name would get him in more trouble or help him out. If they were so sure Levi had set this up for them, they probably wouldn’t hesitate simply because the name of their enemy was mentioned.
Had Levi set this up for them?
Elm glanced at the camera.
The alpha hadn’t rushed out this morning. Everything had gone the same way it usually did when he needed to leave. They followed the same routine, had breakfast at the dining room table before he’d been brought down here. Levi had even asked him if there was anything else he needed before he left.
There’d been nothing to indicate the alpha was planning something like this. Nothing to show he’d been aware Elm would slip into heat.
As far as Elm knew, they still weren’t able to track the mating periods. His body randomly went into heat seemingly on a whim. The alpha couldn’t have known, and if he had…He’d promised he’d be with him.
The guy was a control-freak-psychopathic-nightmare, but he’d never lied about it.
Had been pretty upfront about everything, right from the start, even being honest when he’d viewed Elm as nothing more than an object to be used.
He’d given Elm his word that he wouldn’t leave him empty next heat, but also that he would be there for it, and Good Light, call him crazy, but Elm believed him.
Levi wouldn’t have left if he’d sensed the heat was coming.
Which meant he hadn’t.
And these guys were full of shit.
The brunette reached for him and Elm reacted, going on the defensive as he struggled to summon aggressive pheromones again. If he could just activate them, he could take these fuckers down easy.
Kian had put him in self-defense training when he’d still been in grade school, though Elm admittedly hadn’t taken it as seriously as he probably should have.
If not for Pike, who’d been training him on the side for months, Elm wouldn’t have stood any type of chance against members from the White Frost.
He dropped low, gritting his teeth against the way his hard dick moved awkwardly as he did, and delivered an uppercut right against where the brunette’s kidney should be.
At the sound of the pained howl, Elm managed to gather a little bit of his aggressive pheromones, sending them directly at the man.
It clearly stung, but it wasn’t nearly enough.
The blond was on him in an instant, slapping him hard across the face, so that Elm fell back onto the mattress. He struggled to straddle him, Elm snapping his teeth and hissing like a wild cat, too keyed up on survival instincts to be embarrassed.
The rest of his body still didn’t get the message. These alphas all smelled gross, and Elm’s mind wanted nothing to do with them, but his ass continued to leak slick, and his dick smeared the front of his shorts with enough precome it stained.
He got a knee between them and managed to land a good hit, enough to send the alpha sprawling back.
Their pheromones kept sweeping over him, coming from all sides, trying to lure him into a deeper lust, but Elm didn’t let it get to him.
If he could fight against the Leviathan’s influence, he sure as shit could resist these losers.
Elm took a punch to the face, hard enough it snapped his head to the side and he saw stars. His ankles were captured and he was yanked down the side of the mattress onto his back, seeing spots as he stared up at the high stone ceiling.