Alpha's Temptation Read online

  That wave inside of her peaked as Aura opened her mouth in a silent scream. Even more of the already copious amount of fluid spilled from her to soak the weave of the Alpha’s glove. The scent of it was sharp in the air, sweet and earthy like something alive.

  It was a release and yet unsatisfying. Her insides continued to clench and shiver as if something critical to her satisfaction had been kept from her. The empty space inside of her needed to be filled.

  “How long until the heat suppressant wears off?”

  “An hour, maybe more.”

  Confused, Aura stared up into the dark facemask of the oversized Sotiri soldier. The fear still left her gasping, but a deep fascination warred with it for dominance inside of her.

  What was this?

  He waved his fingers under her nose and the sickly sweet scent rose to twirl through her nostrils, shameful and intoxicating.

  The whimpering sound that escaped her lips was something she barely recognized.

  “Would like you a true taste, Omega? I can provide it for you.” He reached for the catch of his mask, obviously intending to remove it.

  But the smaller male made a sound of protest. “The penalty is severe for mounting an Omega without proper clearance.”

  “And who will report me? You?” They exchanged a meaningful glance before the larger Sotiri spoke again. “Fine, I don’t have to scent her.”

  There was no response as he worked at the waist of his suit. It had appeared to be constructed of a single piece of fabric but as his hands touched invisible fastenings, the panel at his middle separated from the rest.

  Aura’s eyes widened when she caught her first sight of an Alpha cock. She had no frame of reference for what could have been a steel rod covered in flesh. But the fear lasted only as long as it took for the overpowering scent to reach her. It was darkness and sweetness and everything in between. Another gush of fluid spilled from inside of her, enough that she could hear tiny splashes as droplets hitting the floor.

  “I just want a taste of that pretty little mouth. Hold her.”

  Before the Beta could respond, a sonic boom shook the ship and set a disoriented Aura rocking in the harness.

  “What the hell…”

  The Beta rushed back to the panel of controls and out of Aura’s line of sight. But she could hear the frantic flick of switches and turn of dials.

  “We’re passing over the Forbidden Zone.”

  “Is the engine failing?” A note of what sounded like fear colored the Alpha’s voice through his re-breather, surprising Aura. How quickly he had moved from would-be rapist to scared passenger.

  “Some sort of projectile hit us. I’m rerouting power.”

  “How close are we to the boundary?”

  “Not close enough.”

  Both of them were at the controls, as if they’d forgotten that Aura still hung suspended in the air with her jumpsuit torn open.

  The ship banked sharply to the side. Aura slammed hard against the metal wall of the ship as the harness swung through the air. She let out an involuntary gasp of pain that was ignored by the Sotiri.

  One of them shouted something unintelligible and then she experienced a feeling of weightlessness, as if she were falling down and up at the same time. Blood rushed up to her head too fast, silencing the scream that tried to escape her lips.

  Aura swayed with all the purposeless energy of a rock on a string being swung by a child. She struggled against the bindings, desperate to be free, but the material would not give even the smallest amount.

  “Brace for impact!”

  But nothing could have prepared her for the force of a hurtling ship meeting the unyielding surface of a forest floor. The harness swung wide and her vision filled with the dull metal of the nearest wall.

  There was a flashing moment of pain and then everything went black.

  The painful heat blooming on her face only barely eclipsed the furnace that burned deep in her belly. Groaning, Aura tried to turn her head and agony bloomed inside of her skull, so sharp that she nearly passed out all over again.

  A strange noise, that she realized only at that moment had been going on for quite some time, grated on her ears. She lifted her head a fraction and saw the Beta soldier frantically sawing at the bindings of the harness nearest her feet.

  “You have to run,” he harshly gasped, movements quickening as she watched him in confusion. “I can’t protect you.”

  Her gaze flitted away and stopped at the hulking figure of the Alpha Sotiri. He still wore the mask even though he was impaled on a jagged beam which must have broken free during the crash. His exposed cock hung limply against the fabric covering his thigh. She could not see his expression through the mask but wondered if he had been surprised. Had he been prepared at all for death?

  Even shrunken from blood loss, his member hung to a length nearly as great as her forearm. She shuddered to think of the damage that a thing that size could do if he’d been given the chance to use it.

  The crash had ripped a gaping hole in the side of the ship. Through it, Aura saw the dark green of forest trees rising high above them. She had seen vids of this sort of vegetation but hadn’t believed it actually existed.

  With a wrenching sound, the harness gave way. Aura’s body would have crashed to the ground had the Beta not been there to catch her. He absorbed the worst of the impact before letting her fall completely to the floor as if the very touch of her skin burned him.

  “You are moments from entering your heat cycle, girl. The feral males who inhabit this region will discover us at any moment. You must go now.”

  She lay sprawled on the floor as he strode back to the control panel, his words slowly filtering through the haze that had descended over her mind.

  A dull roar rent the air and practically shook the treetops just barely visible through the jagged tear in the ship. The sound was enough to startle her into action, even if that only meant climbing to her feet.

  “Please…help me.”

  The Beta glanced back at her for only the smallest moment before returning his attention to the console. “I sent up a distress beacon. That is all the help that I can offer you.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  He grunted in impatience. “You are an Omega in heat, likely broadcasting enough pheromones to attract any male in a ten klick radius. This mask protects me from becoming susceptible, but the same cannot be said for whatever is heading straight for us. The Alphas here lack all self-control, which is why they were banished to the Forbidden Zone in the first place. They will tear you apart in their violence, but not before they have violated you in every way that can be imagined. And you are running out of time.”

  Aura pulled at her torn jumpsuit, though it was much too badly ripped to cover her properly. “Where am I supposed to go?”

  “Find a place to hide.” The rasp of the re-breather concealed any emotion in his voice, but the Beta sounded almost sympathetic. “The Protectorate will send a squad in response to the distress signal within a few hours.”

  A second roar filled the air, raising the tiny hairs along her skin. It couldn’t possibly be safer for her out there than in the disabled ship. “Why can’t I stay here?”

  “The crash will attract attention. In mere moments, feral Alphas will descend on this site. If they find you, you have no hope of surviving.”

  Aura was frozen in place, too overwhelmed and fearful to manage something as complicated as coordinated movement.

  Heavy footsteps crashing through the underbrush finally got her moving. The gap in the ship’s hull created by the crash was just large enough for her to squeeze through. A ragged bit of metal caught the fragile skin of her upper arm and she stifled a gasp of pain. What was a little bloodshed compared to everything that had already happened?

  She had never encountered breathable air that was untouched by chemical interference or toxin. Heat from the low sun sparked along her skin, but the smell that assaulted her nostrils immed
iately squashed that brief flash of joy.

  Males, too many of them to count. It made no sense that the acrid scent of unwashed male body was so clear to her, but Aura did not question it. This awareness of them was unexpected, but she trusted her newfound instincts. Men were near to her and closing in. Now was the time for survival, she could worry about the answers to her questions later.

  A large specimen of wild man came crashing from a copse of trees. He was the largest creature that she had ever seen, his size so completely out of the ordinary that she could not think of him as human even if he undoubtedly was.

  The man was also completely naked, which was more intimidating than if he bore a full suit of armor. Heart pounding in her chest, she did not bother to wait and see if the creature had caught sight of her.

  Aura took off running and did not look back.

  Roars and growls, so close that they shivered along her skin, assaulted her ears. The fever that had only so recently abated returned full force. A fire burned within her, slowing her steps and clouding her vision. It wouldn’t be long before her body failed her completely.

  The spasms still clenched her insides, leaving her gasping. But Aura forced herself to continue forward. The crash of heavy footfalls and heavier breathing seemed to come from all around her.

  Aura saw nothing but the streaks of trees flying past her. She did not need to look back to understand that she was being chased down like an animal.

  Dry leaves crunched under her boots, but the crashing noise coming from behind her drowned out her footfalls. Whoever, or whatever, was coming for her hit the ground on each step with much more force than she could ever produce.

  Her vision had already doubled and the stitch in her side was becoming almost too painful to ignore. She could feel her body slowing down and knew that it would be only moments before they caught her. A life spent on a space station had not prepared her for this sort of exertion. If the touch of the Sotiri Alpha had been unwelcome, then she could only imagine what a “feral” Alpha would do to her.

  Until that moment, Aura had refused to engage with the explanations of the Sotiri males. Nothing they’d said about Alphas, Omegas and heat cycles had made any sense. She had no framework for comprehending the dark reality she found herself in.

  Gasping from exhaustion and pain, Aura mounted a slight rise and came face to face with a new nightmare.

  This man, if that was even a word she could use for him, towered over her by multiple hand spans, too many to calculate at a glance. He remained unnaturally still even though he must have heard her coming, which accounted for her nearly running into him, and surveyed her with cold eyes.

  Unlike the men rapidly approaching behind her, he was clothed in simple pants and a leather vest that appeared to have been torn and mended many times over. But that did nothing to lessen the intimidating figure he posed.

  Whip-thin burns covered the skin of his upper arms, too intricate to be anything but purposefully done. The raised scars gleamed slightly in the sunlight and she found it difficult to tear her gaze away from them, despite the danger she was in.

  Eyes the color of the bright sky above them glared down at her. He seemed frozen in place as if every muscle in his body was tense in preparation for action.

  Even through her fear, Aura was aware of his scent. The smell was so potent that it nearly bowled her, and yet she remained unable to do anything but continue to stare up at him. She wanted to run, but couldn’t. The sounds of pursuit grew louder behind her but she was unable to tear her gaze away from the massive creature before her, even to flee.

  Aura gazed up into his cool eyes, head craned back to accomplish the act. He was more massive than she had ever imagined a human could be. Visions of what he might do to her danced through her head, but she still didn't run from him.

  And Gods above, what was that smell?

  With perfect timing, another cramp clenched her middle. A wave of that same mysterious fluid, what she now recognized could not possibly be urine, gushed from the hidden space between her legs and soaked the already stiffened gusset of her jumpsuit.

  The air between them shifted, becoming so thick she could barely breathe through it.

  His lip curled, the Alpha’s face filling with a violence that sent shivers twitching down her spine. She wanted to throw herself at his feet and beg for things that she didn’t understand.

  If she ran now, he would chase her. She understood that truth to her very bones. The man’s eyes had narrowed as he continued to regard her. But then he tilted his head to the side, still not breaking eye contact, and lifted his chin as if scenting the wind.

  Heavy bodies crashed through the trees, coming from so close that she could practically feel fetid breath on the back of her neck.

  The motionless male in front of her finally broke his gaze from hers to glare over her shoulder. A look of rage descended over his features, so terrifying that Aura dropped to her knees on instinct, unable to remain standing in the face of it.

  But his fury was not directed at her. Instead, his attention focused on the three men who had entered the clearing behind her. The blue-eyed Alpha rushed past her, the force of his movement bowling her over even though he had barely brushed her side as he moved.

  And then everything descended into chaos.

  Aura was not prepared for the sound of muscled flesh smashing together in violence, of broken bones and rending flesh. She could not bring herself to watch as the Alphas tore into each other. The largest Alpha was outnumbered, but regardless of the outcome of this contest, she would be the loser.

  The snarling growls and howls of pain had a surprising effect on her, as the clench of muscles deep in her belly nearly bolwed her over. Why did that soaked space inside her feel so empty and grasping, as if desperate to be filled? Why were dizzying thoughts of being shoved to the ground, her face pressed to the dirt and brush as the large male rose behind her, filling her head?

  She attempted to crawl away, naively hoping that the thick line of trees a few yards away would serve as some sort of protection from the snarling males around her. But her hormone ravaged body could not make it more than a few creeping feet before collapsing back in on itself. Bone-deep exhaustion overwhelmed her as she hung on the edge of passing out completely.

  It surprised her how much fighting sounded like the desperate mating she had encountered in the tunnels of the station. The slap of flesh against flesh, howls and screams were reminiscent of something very different from a fight.

  The clearing grew silent, save for the whistling of wind through the treetops. Aura had her face buried between her knees, the rough fabric of her jumpsuit overly abrasive against the heated skin of her cheek. Her every nerve ending was alive and on fire. She prayed for death, if just to make it all end.

  Aura felt herself lifted effortlessly against an unyielding chest that was as broad as a tree trunk. The scent of the blue-eyed Alpha enveloped her as his arms surrounded her small body. Her eyes nearly rolled into the back of her head.

  As her vision cleared, she saw the bodies that littered the ground, forms contorted and broken with faces frozen in agony. The other men were clearly dead. The surviving Alpha did not appear to be injured although the scent of blood and sweat on him stung her nostrils.

  Nausea rose to burn the back of her throat. As if sensing her discomfort, the Alpha shifted her position until her forehead rested against one of his broad shoulders. His bare skin was a cool relief against hers, although anything would have soothed the raging fire radiating off of her body.

  Aura sagged against this stranger. Not because she trusted him, but because her body gave her no other choice. She would have fallen to his feet in a heap if not for the strong arms supporting her weight. There was no capability left within her to resist either the sickness that ravaged her body or the irresistible force of this Alpha’s presence.

  Her nose pressed against the fragrant skin of his neck, inhaling gently. With each deep breath, the tense
muscles of her body seemed to slightly unclench. Unable to recognize the urge that drove her, Aura poked her tongue slightly through her lips so she could lick at his skin.

  The hulking Alpha growled in response and the sound sent her stomach to clenching, but not in pain. Another sensation was worming its way over her senses, a want so deep that it set her entire body to aching.

  The man had yet to even speak, but Aura wasn’t a complete idiot. She understood what it was the male must want from her. What was impossible for her to understand was why he had not already fallen on her like the raving monster the Sotiri soldiers had described. What was he waiting for?

  Chapter Three

  The Alpha could have carried her for miles as Aura slipped in and out of consciousness. Her entire awareness was centered on the bit of sharply scented skin at his neck that she occasionally sniffed and licked. She had become almost mindless, little more than a collection of impulses and conflicting emotion.

  If he noticed the shifting movements of the girl in his arms, the male didn't respond to it. Though his scent seemed to evolve with each passing moment, morphing into something darker and deeper.

  Her eyes snapped open when she was unceremoniously dumped on a soft surface. Animal furs of unknown origin lay under her cheek and filled her vision. She waited for a beat but felt nothing more than cool air blowing over her skin.

  Aura lifted her head only to find herself in a tiny one-roomed cabin, clearly built of wood from the surrounding trees. When her eyes flicked downward, they were arrested by the large form crouched in one corner. The Alpha silently watched her.

  Once her attention again focused on him, the man rose more gracefully than a creature his size rightfully should. He moved to the chest against one wall and produced a small bundle. As he slowly approached, Aura shrank back in fear against the furs. But he simply dropped whatever he held at her feet. Then he retreated to the far wall as if making a point of not touching her.