Omega's Capture (Omegas of Pandora Book 2) Read online

  Omega’s Capture

  Lillian Sable

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter One

  Ianthe floated in a haze of agony. It felt like she’d jumped from a skycar hovering at the top of the Astropolis and fallen the hundred of miles to the ground below. Every muscle in her body burned and a deep ache seemed to emanate from every part of her.

  She felt as if someone had torn her apart.

  Eyes crusted with dried fluids cracked open, only to confront more deep darkness. She shifted against the soft surface underneath her and an answering shock of pain burst from the wound on her shoulder.

  Nothing stirred in the surrounding air, blind and deaf as she was. Perhaps this is what death felt like, to be only a consciousness trapped in a silent darkness with only an awareness of constant pain.

  Her body reacted like one gigantic bruise as she curled tighter into a ball, hugging herself around the ball of despair inside her.

  “Vitals are getting unstable. She’s coming awake.”

  Blazing light flared in her vision, turning black into white with the only difference a sparking pain in her eyes. The light burned and was just as blinding.

  A keening sound, like something created by a dying animal, filled the room. She was only distantly aware that it came from her. Each breath she took rattled in her chest until it sounded like she was drowning.

  Her vision had not cleared but she could make out the large dark shape that loomed over her. She instinctively flinched away, and the movement sent another spasm of pain rocketing through her.

  Fingers brushed across her forehead, each touch a flare of heat on her skin. She wanted to push them away but when she tried to lift her hand, she found that it was tightly bound to her side. When she tested the other man, she discovered it to be caught as well.

  Panic rose to choke her, her mind spinning through worst-case scenarios.

  Words floated over her, each one like a spike of pain to her eardrums. “Be still, prettie. We have something for the pain.” The voice changed, becoming harsh and more guttural as it was turned on someone else in the room. “What is happening to her?”

  She felt additional hands on her body, these smaller and lighter, their effect clinical rather than oppressive. “The heat cycle has been tainted by the alterants. As the high has faded, her body will need additional time to recover. Fertility is out the question at this point.”

  “I didn’t bring the most expensive doctor in the Astropolis here to tell me what I already know. What do I do for her?”

  A heavy sigh accompanied the unrecognizable voice — feminine, but demanding of respect. “I have told you multiple times already, Legion. Her hormonal profile is completely off the charts. We must wait for the drugs to wear off before it will be possible to assess her true state. The mixture of suppressants and stimulants, combined with the many years that have passed since her last heat cycle have overwhelmed her nervous system. She’s being flayed alive from the inside by conflicting hormonal signals. It is possible that she will not recover.”

  A low growl filled the air and Ianthe felt her body clench in response. “If she is not long for this world then neither of you.”

  The female seemed unruffled by the threat. “I will do all that I can. But this display of temper will not help her. You can see her physical reaction to your mood in the display. Calm yourself before you do additional damage.”

  With a clear effort, the heavy hand eased its pressure on her brow. The worst of the haze had already cleared from Ianthe’s vision and Legion’s scowling face floated before her eyes. The rest of the room faded in and out but she could make out what appeared to be in a makeshift hospital room. A steady beeping that she initially thought was a hallucination actually came from the machines surrounding the bed.

  She tried to make sense of the words spoken around her, but her mind had difficulty processing anything more complicated than pain.

  Cracked lips slowly formed the words as Ianthe attempted to speak. “Where am I?”

  Golden eyes seemed to shift as a small smile twisted his lips. “It is a pleasure to hear your voice, dear one. But hush now, you need your rest.”

  An answering burst of pleasure shot through her, centered on her chest. It was a feeling that she recognized was not her own.

  Her mouth stumbled over the words, her mouth thick like it was full of cotton. “What have you done?”

  His smile turned feral as the monstrous Alpha loomed over her, positively gleeful in his self-satisfaction. “I have finally found my Omega.”

  Already she could feel the burrowing presence inside of her chest, physically close to her heart but so far removed in reality that it was a laughable comparison. He had forced a bond on her, robbed her in a single moment of the freedom that she had only won through extreme sacrifice.

  A conduit between his being and hers coiled inside of her like a snake digging its den underground. He had bound them together in a way that could never be undone, short of death.

  In that moment, death was the one thing that she wanted most.

  “No!” Hot tears burned down her cheeks, irritating the already inflamed skin.

  “Calm yourself, darling. We’ve already had to tie you down to keep you from hurting yourself. It will be better soon.”

  As if Ianthe would believe a word that he said.

  The doctor approached with a long syringe in her hand. “I’ve prepared the narcoleptic. It’s best to keep her sedated.”

  Legion moved over her, pressing closer to her until the bond clanged with a discordant rhythm behind her ribs. He intended the rumbling purr that emanated from his chest to be a comfort but she wanted nothing more than to be far away from him.

  A needle pierced the skin of her arm, the sharp stab barely noticeable past the agony corroding every nerve. A cool rush followed as the narcoleptic entered her veins, soothing the tense set of her body. The edges of her vision faded into darkness as the sedative took effect.

  Her captor stroked thick fingers across her cheek and she responded with a groggy shake of her head.

  “These hormonal alterations were deliberate. The girl will face charges if her deception is brought to light.” The doctor stood across from Legion at the head of the bed, her words floating in the air above her as Ianthe fought to stay conscious. “You’ve paid for my silence but I can’t ensure that this won’t eventually come to light.”

  “That isn’t any of your concern,” Legion growled, his hands continuously coasting over the nearly unconscious girl lying the hospital bed as if he couldn’t bear even a moment of physical separation. Each time he touched her, the skin beneath his hand burned in response. “Your attention should remain only on keeping her alive. Once she is stable enough to move, I plan to take her to a place where the Central Command cannot reach her.”

  “Her endocrine system will not return to normal functioning for some time, even once she is otherwise stable. I’ll provide you with instructions.”

  The Alpha’s voice grew cold enough to freeze the very air around them. “I’m not paying you to get her stable, but returned to full health. You will continue to treat my Omega until I am satisfied that she has completely recovered.”

  “You can’t possibly expect me to take on that sort of risk,” the doctor protested
, voice laced with fear. “The consequences if I were to be found aiding in this…”

  “Are nothing compared to the consequences of my displeasure.” Legion did not change his tone, but the threat was clear in his words. “You are not the only physician in the Astropolis. You can be replaced.”

  The woman bristled but eventually agreed. “Of course, Legion.”

  Ianthe fought to keep her eyes open as his fingers tangled in her hair, pulling softly. His very existence made her sick to her stomach, but even in delirium her body responded to his touch and a low moan escaped her lips.

  “Your presence is making her overwrought. She’s fighting the narcoleptic,” the doctor said, sounding exasperated. “I suggest you ease off her until her condition has improved.”

  “Do not tell me how to handle my mate!” He snatched the supine girl in his arms and roared. It was a biological instinct to protect his bonded Omega against any threat, even an imagined one. The haze of the rut had not completely faded, making it more difficult to control his aggression.

  Ianthe shrieked in pain at the jolting movement as the restraints pulled at her bound wrists.

  The doctor maintained an admirable calm in the face of the bellowing Alpha. “You are bound. Her body responds to you by inducing a hormonal response. Look at her how her vitals continue to spike. If you want the Omega to settle, then your presence is counterproductive.”

  Seeming to realize that the doctor spoke truth, Legion reluctantly allowed his quivering mate to fall back against the sheets. “I will be back. Alert me if anything changes. And remember that if she dies, so do you.”

  Eyes full of heat like molten gold flashed around the room before the Alpha turned on his heel, the door slamming shut behind him.

  A passive face filled Ianthe’s vision as the doctor leaned over her. Gentle hands moved over her body, assessing the damage. The doctor’s touch was in sharp contrast to the pawing of the Alpha male who had stalked out of the room, but Ianthe still shied away as each bruise was prodded.

  “The amount that I have to give you won’t be enough to ease the pain without knocking you out again.” The doctor tapped something into a beeping terminal just above Ianthe’s head. “Although in your current situation, you may consider unconsciousness a blessing.”

  Flashes of memory were already coming back to her. The Alpha had done unspeakable things to her body, things that she wouldn’t have been able to survive if she were not Omega. It was a wonder she was still alive.

  After claiming her in that dark metal corridor, Legion had made quick work of spiriting her away. Broken and bleeding, she had been carried in his arms to a private skycar, a fully automated model that could self-navigate, with none of the guests or workers at all aware of their departure.

  Legion had taken her again in the back of the skycar, wringing more pleasure from her body as the delirium of estrous turned her into a willing participant of her own degradation. He had continued to growl through that second and less frantic coupling, forcing her body to produce more and more slick until it gushed down her thighs and soaked the seat beneath them.

  He had caught the spilled fluid into his hands and pressed it to her lips so her own taste burst like a berry in her mouth. Or he rubbed it into her skin until her frenzy rose to the same heights as his. She had come again and again as he forced her to take his knot.

  And then he had kissed her as if he wanted to eat her alive, swallowing her screams. Every part of them had commingled — their breath, their bodies and their souls — until it was impossible to know where one ended and the other began.

  This was what it meant to be Omega. She was a slave to twisted biology and trapped by a desire completely outside of her control.

  She could still smell him in the room, a heady mix of pheromones and aggression. Her body tightened in response.

  “You’ve soaked through the sheets again,” the doctor said with an annoyed sigh. “You’ll expire from dehydration before anything else if we don’t put a stop to this. What I told the Alpha applies to you as well. Your body won‘t heal if you continue to stress it like this.”

  Ianthe had a moment of sick amusement at the doctor’s words. As if any of her body’s responses were under her control. If they were, she wouldn’t be here in the first place. She wanted to scream at the woman that she had held no blame in this.

  But all she could manage was, “Please…”

  “I’m administering more sedative.”

  One arm brushed against her hand as the woman turned so Ianthe gripped it with all of her limited strength. “Please help me…”

  “The only help that I can offer you lies in keeping you alive, though I don’t expect you to thank me for it.”

  Tears inched down her cheeks but she could not wipe them away with her hands bound as they were. Her mind refused to accept the reality of where she was. There had to be a way to escape. Mental clarity was an illusive thing with the cocktail of narcotics and misfiring hormone signals swimming through her, but she had to convince this woman. “You can let me go.”

  “There is no escape for you, not now. You’ve been bonded to an Alpha, and he will follow you anywhere you attempt to flee. Your disappearance would send him into a frenzy that would leave unimaginable damage in its wake. He would kill anyone in his way without remorse to get to you, including me. And you wouldn’t survive a day without medical attention.” The doctor said none of it as she were sorry, but as if she simply stated obvious facts to someone too stupid to understand them. “Submit to him. It’s the only path available to you now.”

  The doctor administered another injection, but Ianthe was so lost to despair that she barely felt the prick of a needle in her thigh. This dose must have been more potent than the last because a wave of somnolence immediately over took her and her eyes slipped closed.

  And she had one final coherent thought as she sank into unconsciousness. She had brought all of this on herself, thinking that she could stumble like a wounded animal into the lion’s den and expect not to end up mauled to death. Alphas were predators and Omega were prey. This outcome was inevitable, if only she hadn’t been so blinded by desperation and naïveté to see it.

  She was in a hell of her own making.

  Chapter Two

  When Ianthe woke again, she was alone and in an unfamiliar bed. Consciousness returned more quickly than it had the last time she had regained consciousness, but it was impossible to know how much time had passed. She felt trapped in that disorienting moment between sleep and wakefulness, barely aware of even herself.

  Ianthe groaned, the sound low as if the surrounding walls had absorbed it. The room was different. It had to be somewhere in the upper levels because sumptuous did not begin to describe the room.

  Heavy damask curtains covered the walls and all the furniture was in the style of pre-destruction eras, built of precious wood and upholstery made from natural fibers. She assumed the furnishings were reproductions, as the expense of any pieces truly originating from the historical periods would be unimaginable. Even for a man of Legion’s apparent wealth, the cost of it would be astronomical.

  And then she wondered why she was thinking about furniture instead of focusing on figuring out where the hell she was.

  The silk sheets might as well have been sandpaper against her skin as she shifted onto her back, joints groaning in protest. She lifted a corner of the twisted bedding to find that she was naked with dark purple bruises painted across her skin. Had she been dressed at all since that night at the pavilion? Likely not.

  She wondered how many cycles had passed since that night when fate turned so completely against her. And she thought about her family, what they must think about her disappearance. She couldn’t imagine that Legion would be considerate enough to leave a note before kidnapping her.

  Because that’s exactly what this was. A kidnapping.

  Ianthe pushed to a sitting position with a low groan as abused muscles resisted the movement. Her shoulder a
ched most of all. When she turned to look, the entire area was covered with a heavy bandage. She hesitated to peek under the edge, afraid of what she would find, but when she finally pulled up the gauze, she was met with a sight more horrific than what she had imagined.

  The wound was still raw, blood red with white around the edges from where teeth had torn into the flesh. She wanted to gag and quickly covered the wound back up so she wouldn’t have to continue looking at it.

  It would scar terribly, but that was clearly the point. Her memories were still hazy but she could almost feel the sharp press of teeth into her tender skin and hear the crunch of bone and tendon as he tore deeply enough to take a chunk right out of her. And she also remembered how pleased he had been to see her maimed, to have a mark left permanently on her body.

  She’d been claimed by a monster.

  Even now, alone in this prison of a room, she knew that Legion was close by. Some awareness of him whispered along the edges of her mind in a way that she didn’t fully understand, but completely detested.

  And the connection went both ways. Eventually he would realize that she was awake and come for her, all Alpha demands and posturing. She hated him more than she had hated anything or anyone in the universe. But even so, she still felt the pull of the invisible cord binding them together. And a seductive voice still whispered through her mind that she should trust her mate, that everything he did was only to protect her.

  Complete and utter nonsense.

  Her mind was still muddled. Everything she saw or felt had a filmy quality to it, as if she weren’t yet fully back in reality. But one thing was clear, she had to escape this place. She had to escape him.

  She could even smell him, as strongly as if he was in the room and laying right next to her. Gathering a handful of the sheet, she lifted it to her face and deeply inhaled. His scent saturated the bed linen. This was his room and his bed. Or he had slept here in the time that she had been lost to unconsciousness. The acrid stench of Alpha permeated the entire room.