Chapter 11 11
RANDOM FACT: At a wolf gathering, an Omega in pre-heat or early heat is a trigger. The combined pheromones of multiple Alphas can accelerate their cycle violently, turning a social event into a desperate hunt in a matter of minutes.
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“Claire, Claire,” I don’t bother speaking as I sign due to the loud music playing in the background while shaking my head, “I know I said not too cute but you really can’t keep doing this to me, cutey,”
Claire stares at me for a few seconds before she looks down at her dress. It’s a simple sunflower dress with a white cardigan and… cowboy boots? Probably Ariadne’s. That woman has no idea of what looks good. “I told her I was coming to stay with you to read for a while,”
My face goes deadpan. “And she believed you?”
Claire shakes her head slowly then signs, “But she trusts me so… it’s okay,” Then her eyes move all over my body before her hands start moving, “Your grandfather let you go out like this?”
‘Like this’ in her words means looking like a cheap slut, I’m assuming.
Which is unfair since I tried to look reasonable.
All I have on is a cropped black turtle neck, leather pants that stick to my skin so it accentuates my ass while my hair falls to my shoulders. My makeup is sharper today, more dark femme ish. And I have on leather heeled boots.
And maybe… just maybe, I have on more silver piercings than normal… one of these being my nipple piercings that I have not exactly put on in a while because no one really sees it anyway though it’s poking out of my top now.
“He looked fine,” Which was me putting it calmly.
The second he saw me leaving, all he had said was for me to take care of myself with the kindest smile I’d ever seen. But I know what a real smile looks like because I look at Claire’s angelic face almost all the time. And Rowan, is full of shit. “And I don’t care, okay? It's not my business what I do,”
Claire makes a face. A sad face. She doesn’t like how I talk about him. I don’t like seeing her sad.
I grab her cheeks and quickly place a kiss on the top of her head, “I love you. Don’t let go of my hands. Drink nothing. And stay by my side no matter what, okay?”
She nods.
I smile in return.
The moment we go inside Aaron Voss’s house, the loud music instantly irritates my ears which is just bewildering to think about because wolves have sharper ears which means Alphas have sharper hearing but it’s clear no one cares about that.
The lighting is low, and hazy… and the whole house smells of some type of drugs. Which wasn’t recommended for wolves in the first place because of how fast it could hit and how feral it could make them become.
But of course, no one cares what the Voss’s do.
After the war, the idea of ‘packs’ were abolished. Things like that brought disunity so everyone was told they were equals. Even though Alphas made 15%, Betas made 60% and Omegas made 25%, they were all told to stay together and what not.
But some families… decided to keep their bloodlines as pure as possible to ensure that they had more Alphas in their families. And having more Alphas… meant having more power.
The Voss’s were one of them.
Each generation had at least one Alpha and Betas. No Omegas.
So they were assumed to have a very strong bloodline.
They were other families trying to achieve that but it was… hard. To know for certain who would produce what until it was too late.
But it was also why Aaron was so respected.
Anyone who was crazy enough to have his boring seed would have an Alpha, and would be respected like crazy.
Which made every party he had a literal audition for people who were trying to get themselves impregnated by him or someone in his friend group just so they could feel high class or something. Which is crazy. Turning into a professional breeding machine and losing your autonomy.
I can’t smell their pheromones but from the crazed way everyone is behaving. Every male looks like they’ve lost their minds— Alphas I presume, the Betas are watching… as they mostly always are. And the Omegas…
They have Alpha’s circling them like sharks.
This whole place is a whole fucking breeding ground.
“Ouu, never thought I’d see someone this cute here,” I hear the voice before I see the person.
I turn, pulling Claire into my body as I snap back, “That’s how you know she ain’t for you, you ugly looking donkey,”
The male— an Alpha, which I can tell by his height and the scar on his face. Also by the way he’s staring at me like he’s minutes away from ripping my head off my body.
His friends around him— Betas I’m assuming by their absolute ugliness ‘oohhh’ in the background.
Claire’s holding me tighter. She’s scared. She’s had every reason to be.
But I know Alphas.
They don’t like getting their shit mixed with people they believe are beneath them which would be me this time.
“Riven.” He draws out my name with a disgusting smile while his eyes linger down to my shirt. To my chest. “I was told I would know you when I see you. Didn’t think it’d be so soon. I heard about what happened some days ago at your school with Aaron. Don’t you think you’re a little too unsafe to be acting so… proud?”
I look him in the eye. “Why should I be scared of a mommy’s boy? And before you ask how I know, I can literally smell your miserable desire for attention and genuinely. You can just ask nicely and maybe I’d be kind enough to give you a blowjob,”
He grins there. “Really?”
“Yeah. A quick punch to the nuts which I’m sure your mother gave you because of how pathetic you are,”
He doesn’t like that.
He starts to lunge, and at that moment, I’m already pushing Claire behind so nothing happens to her but even as I brace myself, nothing happens.
And that’s because there’s now a tall wall of a man standing in front of me.
I slowly look up, knowing instinctively that it is not anyone I have met before I feel someone turn me around and I’m suddenly facing another unfamiliar person who’s bent forward slightly so he can be face level with me as he waves, “Hello, love. My name is Cain. The gentleman in front of you is Aidan. Are you alright?”
Am I alright?
Now that he’s asking me that question, I suddenly realize that I can smell pheromones again.
But not just one.
Every pheromone hits me at once. And not just the Alphas but the Omegas and Betas as well.
It’s as if I’m them, sharing whatever experiences they’re having.
And my body… It's heating up. My head throbs, and so does every nerve in my body.
My skin starts to itch, the need to breathe suddenly crashing into me as the thought to curl into the floor so that the dizziness I’m beginning to feel will stop swelling inside me.
“Who the fuck are you guys?”
Cain’s voice, even with how close he is, sounds distant as he says, “The ones you owe your life. Or possibly not. You little kids have no respect. Pouring all of your pheromones on him like that. Shame on you.”
Claire’s holding me and for a moment, I can tell she’s panicking because she doesn’t know what to do. And I can’t open my eyes clearly enough for me to see if she’s signing or not so I can tell her that everything is okay.
And that I’m sorry. That I’m so sorry I brought her here and I wasn’t thinking and I love her.
Pain shoots up my spine, my hands itching to hold someone. Anyone. To bury my face into the only scent that I know will calm me down.
“Easy does it, princess. You gotta stand on your own feet. I’m not sure I can touch you,”
Why?
“Why?” I hear Cain chuckle. “You know why,”
I didn’t even think I said that out loud but my confusion worsens there.
Another wave of pain hits me, and I’m gripping Claire, my brain instantly mouthing out the words, “Leave. Please.”
She’s shaking her head. She’s not listening. But that’s because she can’t hear it.
Even with all of the pain I’m feeling, I can hear the low growling sounds rumbling in the background. It’s sweeping through every inch of my body, sending tremors that I don’t want up my spine that has me growing wetter with every second.
“How many heads do you think you can get off while you’re holding the Beta? I think six. I’ll go with eight?”
No. No.
The thoughts are swimming through my head and it’s all too much. It’s all too much.
I want it to stop.
And there’s only one person I know that can make it all go away.
“No. No, don’t do it, sweetheart. He’s going to—”
“Kael.”
His name falls out of my lips like a breath from my lungs and that is all it takes.
The music suddenly stops, so does all the noises in the background. My eyes move to Claire, my hands reaching out to her face so I can feel her… but she’s not saying anything because she’s frozen.
Everybody is frozen.
“Ah!” Pain shoots up my scalp, transferring straight to my dick as my head is suddenly yanked backwards, forcing me to look upwards into blazing gold eyes lit up with three clear emotions in them.
Desire. Possession.
And rage.
“You.” He says, the word vibrating through my body from the pure wrath it carries. “Kneel.”