He just opened his mouth and flashed her his fangs. She leaned in and looked, reaching out to touch one fang and yelped when his tongue circled her finger and tugged it into his mouth. It was wet, hot, and surprisingly soft as he sucked on her digit. She gasped and moaned a little, and then she felt it. Her teeth came down.

  She pulled her hand from his mouth with a jerk and covered her mouth with the other hand.

  He chuckled and moved her hand away, lifting her lip to check on her teeth. “Very pretty. A little venom, too.”

  He took a quick sample, shook the vial, and put it in what seemed to be some kind of spectrum analyzer.

  He reached for her skirt with another tiny vial in his free hand and slid his hand up her inner thigh to collect a fluid sample. He was spoiled for choice. He pulled his hand out from under her skirt, and it was gleaming.

  The sample vial had to be wiped clean before being slotted into another analyzer.

  He brought his hand toward his face and then licked at his fingers.

  Lyra was stunned and just stood there, staring.

  Himyana cocked her head. “Are you done, Kresso?”

  “Just one more test. Audio output.” He smiled. “That one can be down on the floor.”

  She nodded and stepped to the edge of the table before jumping down. “Audio output?” She was just pretending that the previous contacts hadn’t happened and part of her core hadn’t melted just because she sniffed him and he sucked her finger.

  Himyana nodded and stroked her belly. “The Su’ath have a very pronounced sense of hearing, and they used to have a type of siren in their omega bloodlines. If you are Su’ath by origin, you might have those skills as well. Audio control or sub-sonic and hyper-sonic signals.”

  “In regular speech?”

  “They sing.”

  “Oh, I am not good at singing.”

  Kresso chuckled. “This isn’t a judgment of your singing voice, just your audio output. If you have the secondary vocal cords, they will be apparent on the sampling.”

  She nodded and scooted closer to Himmy for protection. “How do you know about the voices, Himmy?”

  She grimaced. “That was how they caught us. Sonic attack. We just went down. I looked up the attacks later and found the reference to the sirens calling their mates.”

  “You think I am one of them?”

  “I think we need to know if you are or aren’t.”

  Kresso got more equipment together and rigged a mic that attached to Lyra’s ear and was suspended in front of her lips.

  “Okay. Sing anything.”

  Lyra blushed. “I am really bad at singing.”

  “It doesn’t matter. Yell, scream. Whatever.”

  Lyra closed her eyes, opened her mouth, and sang a scale.

  Kresso said softly. “Do it again.”

  Lyra sang scales up and down until he said, “Got it.”

  She exhaled and took the earpiece off. “So, what passes for music here?”

  Kresso smiled. “Ask Himmy. She used to be in a band before she became a defender on Peltin.”

  Lyra looked at Himmy. “You did?”

  “Thanks, Kresso. Folks have mostly forgotten that.” Himmy sighed.

  “You still have a fan club in the guards.” Kresso was smiling as he went through readouts.

  Himmy narrowed her eyes at him. “Zip it, brother.”

  Imko was standing and entering notes into a tablet. He glanced toward the metal shutters and scowled.

  Lyra caught on. “The research station wants me back in their custody.”

  Himmy clutched her hand and then yanked her in for a hug. Lyra squawked as she was held against the other woman, and she returned the hug.

  Kresso chuckled. “One way or another, Himmy, you can’t keep her.”

  Imko snorted. “You sure about that?”

  “Brother, if I am in rut and she is on the other side of the wall, I am going through it.”

  Lyra rotated Himmy so that she was between her and Kresso.

  Himmy started laughing. “Sorry, sweet. Imko would get me out of the way, and you would be on your own.”

  “Five minutes of letting her body speak to mine, and she wouldn’t be hiding anymore.” Kresso sounded smug.

  Lyra looked around her new friend. Yup. He looked smug. A giant smug elf. He stared at her, and she hid behind Himmy. He laughed.

  Himmy stroked her hair, and Lyra sighed. “You are going to be a good mom.”

  Himmy paused and said, “Thanks, Lyra.”

  Lyra got a hug, and the baby kicked merrily.

  Kresso stood up, amusement danced in his eyes. “How long do you think you can hide behind her, Yten Lyra?”

  Lyra relaxed her grip, but Himmy didn’t. “Well, she’s gonna keep getting bigger for a while, so I can do it for a bit.”

  Imko laughed. Himmy snorted. Kresso sighed.

  He walked over, released Himmy’s arms, and plucked Lyra out, walking to the couch and sitting with her on his lap. “I don’t know if I will be the one you end up with, but I do want to savour the experience of having the first omega in decades on my lap.”

  Imko chuckled. “I guess you are staying for dinner. What did the test results determine?”

  He settled on the couch with one arm around her waist and the other draped over her thighs. “Well, she isn’t Su’ath. She’s Dimorian on the skin, Rai-Shell in the heart and lungs, her scent glands are MaKorith, her voice is Su’ath, and her reproductive and digestive systems are unknown, but I would guess they were Hallovien. The hair and eyes are unknown. The body style is based on MaKorith omegas.”

  Lyra blinked. “Scent glands?”

  Kresso wrapped his hand around her neck and rubbed the side of her throat with his thumb. “Right here. Yours are still developing.”

  “There are more?”

  He chuckled. “Between your thighs, under your arms. Just in case your alpha is completely blind. Well, your alphas. You are set for more than one, which was probably part of the design.”

  She looked into his sparkling green eyes and swallowed. “So, why am I on your lap?”

  “So that when Imko dangles you in front of the generals, I will have a memory of holding our first omega in decades.”

  Imko snorted. “I am going to let her pick the first hundred by scent. Only men without mates will be asked to apply, and they all have to be sufficiently talented enough to defend her when others try to take her.”

  Lyra felt his hands tighten on her and squeaked. Kresso relaxed his grip and exhaled.

  Lyra was fighting a lot of instinct. She wanted to lean against his shoulder and breath him in. There was an urge to squirm against him and another to touch his face and calm him. Touching him anywhere else would not calm him.

  “So, why exactly do I react so violently to... um... you?” She looked at Kresso. “And what is with the copious lubrication?”

  He grinned. “You have two glands inside your sex that provide you with the necessary lubrication. Alphas are larger than betas, and the knot around the base of our cocks can be difficult to manage without sufficient slick.”

  She stared at him and knew her eyes were wide. Her voice was a squeak. “What?”

  Himmy sighed. “I think we need to have the sex talk, Lyra.”

  Imko grinned. “I want to listen in.”

  Himyana swatted him on the arm. “No. Bad president!”

  Himyana grabbed Lyra’s hand and yanked her out of Kresso’s lap. With surprising speed, she bustled Lyra into the bathroom and explained how things worked with betas and alphas and how much lube was necessary in the beginning, and then she explained, “Omegas are built for sex with alphas. You naturally secrete the necessary lubrication, your inner tissues stretch to accept the most awkwardly large of alphas, and your ass also lubes itself when there is a second male and you are in heat.”

  Lyra put her hand on her ass. “But it isn’t connected to any—oh.”

  “Yeah. I looked through the old archives and memoirs of the lost omegas. Imko made me stop. I kept feeding him sexy thoughts through our link and distracting him while he was trying to do political stuff. Omegas are basically walking hormones who keep alphas calm so they can be productive. By taking out their lust on you, they can spend more time with their brains functioning in a more useful manner than focusing on finding something they can fuck.”

  Lyra frowned. “What?”

  “Omegas are horny and cuddly; alphas are horny and hyper-intelligent. With the horny out of the way, the hyper-intelligent can shine.”

  Lyra cocked her head. “How do you and Imko...” She rotated her hand.

  “At first, lots of lube and stretching with his fingers. After a few months, he would purr in my ear, and my body would start getting ready. Now, he just has to say my name a certain way, and things start happening. Add that to pregnancy hormones, and I spend most of my day avoiding him or trying to get him inside me. The bump is making it a challenge, but Imko is creative.”

  Lyra chuckled. “So, why don’t the alphas just all have betas?”

  “They don’t have the patience or self-control for it. Also, the ones who do have betas tend to have more than one. A beta can only have one baby for an alpha, so for a second child, they need a second beta. That is how Imko came into the world. His father and his mother are retired now and living a relaxing life in the southern reaches.”

  “What about Kresso’s mother?”

  “She died birthing him. That happens a lot as well. It’s another reason that the alphas avoid betas as breeding partners. They don’t want to see their partner die.”

  Lyra blinked. “Oh. So, how do you send Imko signals?”

  “Right. Now, after you have found a lover and want to connect permanently, the alpha bites you.” As she spoke, she pulled the neckline of her dress aside and showed the mark on the left side of her neck. “The bite provides the link that helps keep the child alive, and it dampens any pheromones I would normally give off when I am receptive so another alpha can’t consider me available.” She straightened her collar. “I have bitten him, too, but all it does is let him know when he’s going at it too hard.”

  Lyra blushed. “Um, right. Why did they mention multiple partners? It is a strange concept to me, and I want to make sure I am understanding it.”

  “Ah, since omegas are pacifiers by nature, they tend to take more than a single mate. A unit forms around them and is a solid fighting component. They defend their omega, so they are assigned to the outer colonies to act as protectors. If she or he is in danger, they are fierce and deadly, so the omega is the catalyst to defending the colony.”

  “Wait. There are male omegas?”

  “Not anymore. They died with the females.”

  “How did the destruction spread so far?”

  She sighed. “The researchers that were trying to destroy the omegas inoculated the teams first. The alphas infected their own omegas with the destructive variant that killed them. That caused a lot of suicides and left the outer colonies without anchor teams.”

  Lyra crossed her arms and leaned against the sink. “Well, that explains something.”

  “What?”

  “Why they made me from so many species. A series of species would have to be involved in taking out the omegas again. This patchwork system makes for a more resistant immune response.”

  “Oh. That makes sense, but who did it?”

  Lyra grimaced. “Did any Su’ath have MaKorith omegas?”

  “Uh, yeah. They captured a few.”

  “Before or after the inoculation?”

  “Afte—oh. Their omegas died, too.”

  “How much information do you share with the other species? It is entirely likely that this situation eventually became airborne and took out omegas across this whole region. Someone put the bodies together, and I am part of the third wave. The other two weren’t viable, so someone has been mixing and matching with cloned ingredients.”

  “You can’t know that for certain.”

  Lyra tapped her temple. “They pulled a dying consciousness from another world. That is about as cobbled together as you can get.”

  “Oh. Right. And your kind doesn’t have omegas.”

  “Nope. My body knows what it wants to do, but my brain is a little appalled.” She snorted. “Very appalled.”

  “But... you do feel attraction for Kresso, right? He’s a strong male, unattached, and very intelligent.”

  “Yeah. Attraction isn’t the word. I want to jump onto his body and hold on until he fucks me. For me, that is not a normal impulse.” She grimaced. “And I am supposed to help pick out of a hundred or so? What if one is enough or two?”

  “Then they will bribe you into taking on a third or possibly a fifth. Our family gatherings will become large in a hurry.”

  “If I end up with Kresso as my first. If not, I will be someone else’s family.”

  Himyana blinked. “I hadn’t thought of that. I mean, you shot him with a stun bolt. That has to be some kind of foreplay.”

  They giggled and left the restroom. Imko looked up from his tablet. “The scent samples will be here in two days. Clips of you have already been sent out.”

  “Clips?”

  Himmy smiled. “Images generated from the security cameras here and the files at the research facility. They made a three-dimensional model with your original exam specifications.”

  “Wait, so there are holograms zipping around as bait to try and get folks to sign up for the run?”

  Imko snorted. “Of course not. The images are just to taunt folks into sending in scent packs.”

  “What’s a scent pack?” She frowned.

  Kresso smirked, went to the tea trays, got a napkin and wiped it along his neck, hands, armpits and groin. He tossed it to her. “That is a scent pack.”

  She caught the napkin. The scent of male, musk, sex, and heat caught her off guard. She thudded to the ground when her knees gave way. “Oh.”

  She used her fingertips to fold the napkin and put it on the floor. “That’s embarrassing.”

  Kresso crouched in front of her. “That is rather heartening.” He was grinning knowingly.

  “Stop smirking.”

  “Why? This is the most fun I have had in years. Would you like some help to your feet?”

  She gritted her teeth. “No. I will be fine. Shoo!” She flapped her hand at him.

  Himmy started to laugh, and Imko had to hold her up. Her face was red, and she was wheezing with her violent amusement.

  Imko was laughing as well.

  Kresso moved behind Lyra, lifted her to her feet, and settled in a chair with her on his lap. “That was a very telling response.”

  She grumped. “Ya think?”

  “So, I suppose I should go and work on my speed and accuracy.”

  “Well, it did take you an entire hour to get here. You are going to end up being at the bottom of the pile if you don’t speed things up.”

  He stroked her cheek and smiled. “I will speed things up.”

  “Um, okay.”

  She was going to make a move to leave, but he kissed her, and her wits shattered.

  She heard Imko bark an order, but Kresso kept slowly kissing her, his lips gliding against hers. Her body was taking its cues from him, and she leaned up and gripped his head, pulling him closer.

  Imko’s voice got sharp, and hands pulled her away from Kresso. She whimpered and sobbed while Himmy pulled her away. Imko looked at her in astonishment, and Kresso looked at her grimly and got up. “I will be back when she is choosing.”

  He collected his equipment, looked at her one more time, and left the way he had come. Imko lifted the shutters a moment before Kresso looked like he would have punched his way through it.

  Lyra gradually became aware that she was whining and crying, and Himmy was trying to calm her. What the actual fuck just happened?

  Chapter Four

  Lyra sat with Himmy, and she couldn’t stop pouting. Ever since Kresso had left, she had been moping and having tantrums like a toddler. She never pouted, and tantrums were new. Himmy laughed and said she was good practice.

  The samples were in, and there were three hundred eighty-five. Himmy was there to help her through the sniff test, but the electrodes on her head and neck would accurately determine how she responded to the different scents.

  The researchers were eager to see how she responded, and she sat at the table so the cameras could get a look at her while the first batch of samples was brought to her.

  She opened the first one and wrinkled her nose. “This one has a mate.”

  She had four unremarkable samples, and then she laughed. “This is the mate to the first sample.”

  She continued on for fifty more samples before she found one that set her off. “Uh, save this one for the keep pile?”

  Himmy exhaled in relief.

  They kept going, and she found Kresso’s sample with a grin and set him on the keep pile.

  In the end, she had thirty selections that sped up her heartbeat.

  The researchers were grinning and congratulating themselves.

  Lyra was shaking, and Himmy put an arm around her and walked her out.

  “Do you need to spend some time alone?” Himmy asked quietly.

  “Uh. Yeah. I think so. That was... a lot.”

  “Poor baby. Come on. Let’s get you to your collection.”

  Lyra snorted.

  Kresso had begun courting her... from a distance. She had gotten flowers and clothing and her all-time favourite, a dildo that was supposedly equivalent to Kresso. It helped to take the edge off, and she had gotten most of it inside her, but she was pretty sure that the knot was a two-person event.

  Himmy smiled. “Call me when you are ready to have tea.”

  “Give me an hour.”

  Lyra stumbled into her room, stripped, and grabbed the toy before climbing into bed and making herself scream.

  The sex drive had caught her by surprise once it was set off. It didn’t stop. There were moments of a slow simmer, but her body was always ready to climb onto her alpha. Now that she had caught the scents of the other suitables, Kresso was still her favourite, but there were some close seconds. Very close.

 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10