Page 6 of Rage

If I didn’t know better…

…But no. Even though we never knewwhenit was coming, we knew at least when the wardens had induced a heat cycle. They made a whole show of it, lining us up naked, one by one, and injecting us with Friedum while the guards watched. No one had injected me with anything. Besides, I was fully conscious, not lost to omega brain at all. This had to just be my fear and worry and excitement.

It wasn’t excitement over letting Owen, Alec, and Liam fuck me. Rather, it was excitement over finally escaping Hell. The image of my little cottage appeared in my mind, and I held it tight.Soon, I promised myself. Soon. Soon I’d be free. Soon I’d be home.

Home, that voice—which I now thought of as my inner omega—giggled with joy.Home is close!

My inner voice was a boy crazy idiot.

I glared at the walls of my small cell as I started to pace again. In the corner, my one blanket sat, folded carefully on the hard prison mattress. Striding over to it, I picked it up, shook it out, and then refolded it. And then refolded it again.

It was wrong. It smelled wrong. It felt wrong. There wasn’t enough. I neededmore.I needed…

What the fuck was wrong with me?!

There was a knock on the wall outside my cell. I peered through the slats.

Liam, Owen, and Alec stood there, Alec holding a folded pile of bedding and clothes.

Oh, shit.

My senses pinged, and I immediately beat myself up for trusting these alphas, even for a goddamned second.

“You tricked me,” I accused, and I hated how betrayed, howhurt, I sounded.

“Let us in, kitten,” Owen said.

“We didn’t trick you, Emma,” Alec said. “Did no one ever teach you about how true heats work?”

I knew the fairytales, the ones my omega grandmother had told me. Your first heat was supposed to happen naturally, a scientific reaction to being around your true mates for the first time.Thoseheats happened with full consciousness and agency.

But my alpha, the dead one, the one I’d killed…he hadn’t brought on a heat. It was a lie. Every heat I’d ever had had been medically induced.

“You’re lying,” I told him.

Alec’s face was grave. “I’m not, sweet girl. Let us in.”

“And if I don’t?” I challenged.

I didn’t want this. Didn’t want to lose myself to these alphas. Didn’t want mates. I’d fought—hard—and lost—harder—to avoid being owned by powerful men who would hurt me. I refused to become nothing more than a desperate set of holes for their cocks. Men…These men, with their intoxicating scents and the sympathy and tenderness in their eyes, could hurt me—badly.

Liam’s face was hard, but his eyes were not. “You don’t have a choice, little omega. None of us do. We’re fated. Soon, you’llbe begging for us, for our cocks, writhing on the floor and screaming from the pain of being empty. And you’ll be conscious for all of it. You need us, and we’re here to give you what you need. Let. Us. In.”

The stubborn part of me wanted to resist. The sane part of me knew he was right. Regardless of what had caused it, it was too late.

Besides,that little voice asked,wouldn’t it be better to experience pleasure instead of only pain?

Liam held up a key, waiting for my agreement. After a moment, I nodded. And as the key turned in the lock to my cell and the door slowly swung open…

…I hoped I wasn’t making a mistake.

Chapter 4

Emma

They filled my cell, their large bodies and the energy and heat they gave off, making my “home” feel suddenly smaller. It wasn’t a home at all, just four-square feet of floor space with a small metal cot in the corner. Grey and sad. The exact opposite of my grandmother’s cottage, filled with browns and whites and gold accents, a hodgepodge of dainty and gaudy, with sunlight streaming in through the windows and a view of huge poplar trees. That was home.

So are they,my inner omega insisted.

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