6. Chapter Six
Chapter Six
Beckett
I can't decide how I feel about the past two days. I really can't.
On one hand, these Alphas are still here and don't seem very inclined to leave. They haven't exactly harmed me, but they haven't treated me carefully, either. I like a good, hard fuck as well as anyone else; but I need the gentle ones, too. After the last couple of days, I'm fairly sure I prefer gentleness.
On the other hand, I am very sexually satisfied. I have had several spikes and these two Alphas have thoroughly handled them. My body is sore, but not abused.
The issue is consent. I haven't exactly told them no or to stop, but I have hinted and bluntly asked them to leave. They have obviously refused. They aren't exactly being abusive, but they aren't respecting my space, my time, or me for that matter. I have no interest in continuing this arrangement and I have been vocal about it; it just doesn't seem to matter to them. They have been very vocal about keeping me here until either I go into heat naturally or their presence and treatment of me throws me into heat. If that happens, one of them will try to mark me. I am absolutely sure of it, and I don't want it.
“Listen guys, it's been fun; but I have a meeting this afternoon,” I lie. “I need to get cleaned up and prepared.”
Kyle regards me with a yawn. “I don't think you need to be going anywhere this close to going into heat. Anything could happen to you, especially if you're out and about all alone.”
Josh smirks. “You can reschedule your meeting for after your heat. It's going to come on anytime now. After that's over, I'll escort you there myself. We'll make a day of it. We can grab dinner, see a movie. Whatever you want.”
“Or I will,” Kyle cuts in dryly.
“Or,” I try to force calm nonchalance into my voice, “I'll just lock the door behind you when you leave and maybe call you when I go into heat. On my own. When it happens.”
“I'm not going anywhere, Omega.” Kyle pins me with a look, daring me to hold his gaze. “I'm staying right here. You need a strong Alpha to take care of you.”
“I'm not going anywhere, either,” Josh snarls.
Anxiety slams into me for several reasons, and the way their nostrils flare at the scent of it only makes it worse. I can't have two Alphas fighting in here. Everything will be destroyed, even me. They aren't part of a pack or interested in forming one, so the two of them fighting for dominance would probably turn into a bloodbath and I would be in the middle of it. More importantly, I do not want to be claimed by either of them. I need more than either of them have to offer. Neither of them are my scent match, they only have scents that I was interested in. Was, being the operative word. I am no longer interested in anything or anyone who smells like someone set a cherry pie on fire.
I keep two kinds of heat suppressants on hand. There is a bottle of fast-acting drops in the fridge and a packet of tablets in my nightstand drawer. The drops would be easier for me to get to and take, but they have a very obvious scent which would alert these prickly Alphas; and I don't think that would be such a great thing. In order to get to the tablets, I have to go near the bed. I've been trying to stay as far from the bed as I can because one or both of them have been spread all over it since they got here.
Then there's the fact that I don't want to take the suppressants. I'm still holding onto hope that I'll go into heat at the Selection. Maybe if I mention the Selection...
“No offense to either of you,” I say lightly, despite the urgency in my pulse, “but I do have to get to that meeting. And I have a few other responsibilities before the Selection, so...”
Kyle laughs. “The Selection?”
“Yes,” I say. “I'm going this time around. I need to get some things in order and I only have a few days to do it. So, if you don't mind, I would appreciate it if you –”
“I've already told you, Omega,” he growls, “I'm not going anywhere. And I don't think you'll need to go to the Selection.” He glares over at Josh, who is sitting at my desk. “Before your heat is over, you'll have an Alpha and you won't need to go to any more Selections.”
Josh tilts his head, the corner of his mouth lifting in a sneer. “Yeah, you'll have an Alpha. Don't worry about that.”
It was a mistake to invite two Alphas. It was a mistake to try something that I've never tried before. It was a mistake to expect Alphas with the temperaments these two have to do anything other than stake their claim on an Omega nearing heat. I'll spend the rest of my life berating myself about it, I'm sure. My only saving grace is the safeguards I put into place when I registered with the heat service.
Omegas oftentimes call for the service in the throws of their need and they can ask for more than they can handle; which is definitely the situation I've put myself into. The heat service takes that into consideration and gives you the option to have someone check in on you after a certain amount of time. When I checked the little box and put in the number of days, I never thought I'd be dumb enough to have to use them. Here I am, though, sitting in my stupidity and glad I put four days instead of six. If I don't message the service operator by midnight on the fourth day, they will send a team of enforcers and at least one official here to assess the situation. They will have to speak to me directly and put eyes on me, regardless of my state of heat, or dress. If I am anything other than deliriously and emphatically consenting, they will remove whatever Alpha is present and take me immediately to the infirmary. I just need to make it two more days without Kyle and Josh fighting and possibly killing each other.
Or me.
“Do you go to all the Selections?” Josh asks, seemingly at ease regardless of the tension between the three of us.
I shake my head. “Not all of them, but I've been to more than I've missed.”
“Huh.”
I look at him, raising my brows.
“Omegas don't usually need to go to more than one, or maybe two. That's all. You just weren't ready to commit, or something?”
I shrug. “I haven't found my match. I want to, though. I came here because CCOE has such a high rate of pairings.”
“You won't have to worry about that any more,” Kyle reminds me. “Your match is in this room, just waiting for the next round.”
“I don't think so,” I counter. God, this is a mistake. I should just let him say whatever he wants. “I picked your scent because I've always been intrigued by similar scents, but not curious enough to meet the Alpha that goes with it. I don't usually go for such a dominant scent.”
That offends him, but not for the reason I think it will. “How many Alphas have you had? How many times has your body been used by someone else?”
“I'm old enough to have gone through plenty of heats,” I explain. “There have been others. I just prefer gentler scents. I was curious and figured, why not?”
“What?” he scoffs. “You don't like it? You certainly seem to like it just fine, doesn't he?” he directs the question to Josh.
“He definitely likes it,” Josh purrs. The timbre of it causes an involuntary reaction in my body. I can't help it. I'm too close to going into heat. “See? Smell that? That's the scent of you liking it.”
This was such a mistake. “I think you had better go.”
“Which of us?” Josh asks. “Just me?” He gives me an exaggerated pout.
“Both of you, if you please.”
“I'm not going anywhere,” Kyle growls. “I already told you. But you can keep begging. I like that.”
“Mmm,” Josh purrs, causing another involuntary clenching in my traitorous body. “I like that, too.”
~
My phone is on the desk. I put it on the charging port because I didn't want it to be dead when the service called. For some idiotic reason, I thought I would be able to answer it. All I can do is watch it ring while Josh slides himself inside of me. He still isn't hurting me, not quite. But I don't want him. I don't want him inside me. I don't want him touching me. I don't want his scent in my nose.
Kyle has dragged the chair from my desk to sit right beside the bed. He's there now, leaning forward with his elbows braced on his knees, watching my face while Josh fucks me. “Do you like that, Omega? His cock isn't as thick as mine. Does it feel better than mine does?”
I don't answer. If I open my mouth, he'll put his dick inside it and I don't want his taste anymore than I want anything else of his. I don't care that I'm trying to fight through a violent heat spike. I would rather be curled in on myself and shivering on the floor, alone in my need, than in the situation I'm in. My body is spent, but it aches for more. This is the hell that is being an Omega.
The Alphas know it, too. They know I want them to leave. They know I don't want them anymore. I've told them over and over. But they also know that my body craves them and sometimes that's all that matters to an Alpha. Especially a bad one.
Josh tilts his hips so that his cock rubs against the place inside me that makes pleasure zing up my spine, whether I want it to or not, and I grit my teeth against the moan that threatens to come pouring from my mouth. If it were just the sex, this kind of sex, I might be able to handle him; but there's more to it than sex. He isn't my match. He feels wrong, no matter how well he fucks me.
“How much longer are you going to fight it, Omega?” Kyle purrs. His purr is different from Josh's. His purr is deep and gravely. It forces a rough path of heat through me that makes Josh grunt when I tighten around him. “Just let go. Give yourself to the heat so we can decide which of us you belong to. Stop fighting. It will be so much easier.”
I reach up and close my hands over my neck as well as I can. I'm not letting go of anything. I refuse to give myself to either of these men.
After days of fucking, neither of them have used my name. They only call me Omega. Usually, that wouldn't bother me. I wouldn't care because the Alpha would leave. He wouldn't spend days in my space. He wouldn't threaten to claim me as his own when I go into heat. He'd fuck me and then leave like a normal person. These Alphas aren't normal. They've decided I'm going to belong to one of the two of them no matter what.
I can feel Josh's knot just beginning to swell when there's a sudden pounding on my door.
“Beckett Rhodes. This is Captain Ophrey. My team has been sent here to assess your situation. Please open the door.”
I open my mouth to call out, but Josh leans over me and covers it. “I'm almost finished, Omega. Be still and quiet.” Then he fucks me faster, grunting as he tries to force his release and his knot.
“Beckett Rhodes!” the Captain shouts. “Are you alright?”
Josh's hand clamps down harder on my face, nearly covering my nose as well as my mouth. Kyle gets up from the chair and rolls his shoulders as he glares down at me. “Don't worry, Omega. I'll be at the Selection. You're mine.” Then he snarls at Josh. “Enjoy that. It's your last.” He turns toward the door.
“Beckett Rhodes!” the Captain yells my name again. I listen to him barking orders when I remain silent.
Warmth fills me as Josh growls his release against my shoulder. “There you go, Omega. So good.”
I shove my hand between his mouth and my skin. He can't mark me outside of me being in heat, but I don't even want the temptation of it. I whimper as his knot stretches inside me, locking us together. It feels so good. I can't help that it feels good. My body needs his knot. But it also feels horrible. Wrong. Disgusting at a much deeper level.
Kyle snorts, but goes to the door and unlocks it. He throws it wide open, enabling the entire team of enforcers, officers, heat service representatives, and whoever else is in the hall to see my disgrace. “There he is, Captain. All knotted up, but perfectly safe.”
The Captain looks from him to Josh to me. I blink at him, shaking my head as much as I'm able to with Josh's restraining hand still covering my mouth.
“Take that one,” the Captain orders and steps around Kyle and moves toward me. “Are you tied?”
“Yes,” Josh answers, smiling.
The Captain sighs. “There aren't many ways to deal with this delicately, Mr. Rhodes. There is only the long way and the short way, and the short way will probably hurt.”
Josh laughs and pulls his hand away. He grabs my hips and pulls me back as he shuffles into a more comfortable position. “We can wait it out. I don't mind.”
“Nobody cares what you mind,” a female Beta hisses as she comes to kneel down beside the bed. “Are you alright, Beckett?”
“I don't know,” I croak. That's the stark truth.
“That's alright,” she says. She reaches over my head for one of my pillows and puts it on my chest so that it covers most of my stomach, too. “Do you want to wait for him to shrivel up, or do you want this to be over.”
I don't want him inside me for another second and I don't care how much it's going to hurt to get him out. “Over.”
She nods and reaches into her bag for a syringe. Several enforcers come up to surround the bed and Josh. “Put out your hands, Alpha.”
Josh obediently puts his hands out in front of him, but laughs the whole time they're putting the cuffs on him.
“This will sting,” the Beta says flatly. I hope it does more than that. I hope it hurts for days. Like I'm sure I'm going to. Without waiting for a response, she jabs the tip of the needle into the skin at the base of Josh's dick. He stops laughing the second it makes contact with his body.
I've heard of these shots, but I've never seen one in person. They don't do any permanent damage, but whatever drug they administer causes an Alpha knot to shrink almost immediately. You would think just the needle stabbing into flesh would be enough to deflate a knot, but some Alphas aren't bothered by that.
An ungodly amount of slick and cum pours from me and onto my sticky sheets as soon as his knot is small enough for my body to release it. It's embarrassing. Incredibly embarrassing. But I'm grateful. I clutch the pillow and turn onto my side with my back facing the door. I don't want to see the team of people here to help me. I just want to disappear.
“Get him out of here,” she snips. “Do you want me to cover you with these blankets, Beckett? Or do you want to put on some clothes and go to the infirmary? Are you hurt?”
I don't know what I want. I'm still coming down from a spike and I'm covered in the remains of the past few days. I want their scents off of me and out of my room more than anything else. “I'm not hurt. Really. Just … embarrassed.”
There is no commotion when Kyle and Josh are escorted out of my room. They get dressed in the hallway and Tiffany, the Beta official, goes with me into my bathroom to support me if I need it while I'm in the shower. By the time I come back out into my room, there is no trace of either Kyle's or Josh's scent. Everything smells pleasantly neutral and I could cry in relief.
“Do you want to file a report?” Tiffany asks.
“A report?” I ask quietly.
“Yes. You could possibly have those Alphas charged with a number of things.”
I consider that for a moment. “And then what?”
“It would go to court.”
Which would take forever. I know how the system works in this city. These sorts of things rarely get the justice they deserve. And besides, I invited them here. I called for them. And I didn't tell them to stop. I just told them to leave. But that's another thing entirely.
“Don't stress yourself, Beckett. You have time to change your mind. I left my card on your desk. Your phone is fully charged. There will be two enforcers outside your door for the next few days. Sometimes, overly determined Alphas try to come back. For all the good that comes of the heat service, there are a few bad things that we haven't figured out how to get around just yet. Do you want me to stay with you? Or do you have someone else who could come stay with you?”
“No,” I shake my head. “I don't have anyone.”
“How soon until your heat?”
I sigh. “It was supposed to be in a couple weeks, but after they were here for so long, I don't know. It could happen sooner or be delayed.”
“So anytime?”
I sigh again and slump down on my bed. “Probably.”
“I'll stay with you if you want,” she offers again. “I can tag out with another Beta so you aren't alone. What about suppressants? Would that be a better option?”
Would it? Probably. But regardless of what's happened, I'm still determined to find my Alpha. If I end up not going into heat at the Selection, then at the very least I'll be putting out enough pheromones that it will attract the right one for me. If they're there, that is. If not, I'm going to take the suppressants as soon as I get home from the ball.
“I don't know,” I tell her. “I'll think about it.”