Page 1 of Ensnaring Their Rabbit

CHAPTER1

BRYNN

“Sorry,boy, I can’t help you anymore.” The former doctor turned street dealer said with a shrug, like he didn’t just stop my fucking world with those words.

“What? Why not?” I asked, desperately trying to keep calm and keep my heart rate down. The last thing I needed was extra stress kickstarting my heat early. Especially since I ran out of fucking heat-blockers.

Doc, which was his really unoriginal street name, just snorted. “Just not enough money in heat-blockers. Not worth the trouble with the new government breathing down our necks. Needed to stock up on other supplies, surely you understand.” His slimy voice sounded even slimier as he flashed a predatory grin, checking me up and down.

Doc used to be a real medical doctor, way before my time, or at least that was the rumor anyway. But there was more money in selling prescriptions on the street than giving them to his patients. He got caught, obviously, and now stood on the corner with dealers more than half his age, high out of his mind and ripping off those of us who have no choice but to go to assholes like him to get our needs met.

I suppressed my scent the best I could. I didn’t want this asshole to smell how much he was upsetting me. Of course, the beta fox shifter could scent fear a mile away, especially the fear of an omega rabbit shifter. He caressed the side of my cheek with a greasy finger, and I tried really hard not to vomit. I hadn’t eaten anything today, since I was saving my money to buy the heat-blockers. Doc already smelled like rotting fruit, and I worked hard not to puke the whole time I was near him. But him touching me? Gag.

“Of course, I’m sure I could work something out.”

I didn’t want to ask. I knew it would be bad. But my options were limited. It was hard out here on the streets for anyone, but it was doubly hard for omegas. Between our sweet scent and bi-annual heats, plus our small stature, we were more vulnerable. Many omegas choose to join one of the pimps that ran the underground in our city. It wasn’t an easy life, but at least they got an endless supply of birth control, and with the exception of the ones who were there to serve heat kinks, blockers as well. Not to mention food and a roof. Actually, why didn’t I want that?

The doctor ran his thumb across my cheek again and bile filled my throat. Oh yeah, that. I wasn’t getting on my back for every rotting fruit alpha in the city just so I didn’t have to worry about anything. I could take care of myself. I’ve been doing it since I was ten years old and would continue doing it.

I backed away from the creepy asshole’s hold, causing him to sneer.

I should just leave. This wasn’t going to work. Maybe I could find another dealer, or check some of the clinics further away in the city. It used to be easy to get free birth control and blockers, but with the change of government came a change in free programs, especially for omegas. Now it was nearly impossible to get any kind of care for free, which was how I resorted to going to a fucking dealer. But I couldn’t go through my heat. Not out on the streets, and all the shelters with a heat room were already full. This was my only option.

“What can we work out?”

He flashed that slimy fucking smile again that sent a chill all the way down to my toes.

“I have a buddy. He has access to that new blocker shot, the one that stops your heat for a year with one dose. I bet he would be happy to give it to you, for a price.”

For a price. I knew exactly what that meant, and it wasn’t money. I fucking hated that I was contemplating it, but a whole year where I didn’t have to worry about my heats? It would be a luxury. Maybe I could save the money I spent on blockers and even manage to get an apartment, or at least a room somewhere. As long as his buddy didn’t smell like rotting pears, because I couldn’t fucking deal.

“Where can I meet him?” I asked, knowing I was probably making the biggest mistake of my life, but not sure what other options I had.

The doctor grinned before rattling off a name and address. He tried to box me in, demand ‘payment’, but rabbits were good at two things, making babies and running. So I did the latter and fucking bolted.

* * *

Did I mention this was a bad idea? Well, it was. Probably one of the worst decisions in a line of terrible decisions. The building Doc sent me to reeked of fear. And sex. That was a terrible fucking combo if you asked me. I had no illusions on what his friend would want from me in exchange for the shot. There was no damn way I could afford it, but even living on the streets all these years, I was still pretty, and from what most alphas told me, my smell was stronger and sweeter than most omegas. While I might not want to be beholden to a pimp, I wasn’t against using my body to get what I needed, I just liked to do it on my own terms. I had a feeling if I stepped into this building, it wouldn’t be that way.

There was another scent, a little stale but still prominent under the fear and cum. It took me a moment to place it, but once I did, it filled my nostrils, blocking out every other scent. Death.

Fuck this. I’d find somewhere to ride out my heat. This wasn’t worth it. I turned on my heel, ready to go.

“Where do you think you’re going, little omega?”

I froze, the alpha’s voice keeping me locked in place. He didn’t even use his Alpha Command, but the power coming off him was so strong, I couldn’t move. I never met an alpha so powerful that their scent was suffocating like this. All I could do was watch him and put all my energy into staying on my feet and breathing.

The alpha’s nostrils flared as he scented the air. “Fuck, you smell good. I guess Doc isn’t useless after all.”

My blood curdled. Had Doc talked to him about me? Was this a fucking set up? I tried to ask the questions, but no sound escaped me. I clawed at my throat, terror building every second I was in this alpha’s presence, but I couldn’t find a way to escape it.

“Oh you poor thing. You smell terrified. Why don’t you run, little rabbit?” He laughed cruelly, “Oh that’s right, you can’t.”

What was he doing to me? Why was I paralyzed like this? It wasn’t just fear holding me in place, because he was right, when I was afraid, I ran. It was what kept me alive on the streets all this time. But no matter how hard I tried, no matter how hard I fought his hold, I couldn’t move an inch. I hadn’t heard him use his Command, that would force me to obey, but even that wouldn’t feel like this. An Alpha Command strongly influenced your decisions, but it wasn’t infallible. If you actively fought against it, it could be broken. Whatever he was doing was much more powerful than that. It felt like Magic. The dark insidious kind that fed on your insides like sludge and slowly tore you apart from the inside out. It was the kind of magic that all parents warned their children to avoid, and even abandoned homeless kids like me heard the stories and learned to avoid dark Magic users.

It had never really been an issue with me before. Magic users, dark or light, were rare in my part of the city–if you were able to use it, you didn’t need to live on the streets or in the government issued hovels that passed for apartments for the city’s poor. It was almost like one of those childhood tall tales we were always told. We were all sufficiently scared of dark Magic, but it almost didn’t feel real. I never expected to know what it felt like to be in the hold of it like I was now.

My shoulders shook, and I desperately tried to heave air into my lungs, but every breath was labored and physically painful as the Alpha’s power wove deeper into my bones.

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