Page 4 of Slick

“My alpha,” she murmurs, her pupils so dilated it’s like gazing up at a pair of dark moons. “He’s finally come for me.”

CHAPTER THREE

My alpha smells like…paradise.

If paradise was a deep, warm pocket lined with fur and laced with a scent so delicious, I can feel drool gather in my mouth.

It’s like a faded memory peeking out from behind a curtain, of something sweet but tangy, like cherry ice cream or tropical bubblegum. Something frombefore, that kisses its way over my heated skin and makes me hum with anticipation.

As the two guards bring him into the chamber, I can feel my heart hammering in the tight confines of the suit. I’m already in a heightened state, off-kilter about being in a new slick room, having Dex at my side for a deposit, and knowing that this is the last time he’ll care for me before he leaves for good. And now I have areal alphain my midst, his scent leaking through the wall long before they drag him into the room.

I don’t like thatat all. Dex said they might handcuff him, but the reality is a lot more disturbing than I imagined, with two burly guards hauling him around like a slab of meat. He has a black hood over his head, laced as tightly as my slick suit, and I have to wonder if he can breathe. There’s an ugly hook in theceiling, and I smother a yelp when they fasten him to it like they’re spearing a worm.

But the thing that really makes me cringe is that there’s only one reason a naked alpha is dangled in front of an omega.

He's here because of me.

I knew that already, but I didn’t think it would be likethis. The alpha scent they usually pump into me – via a face mask, or occasionally through a diffuser – has an acrid edge. It still smells good – like musk and metal, with a touch of spice – but it’s artificial, like a candle burning in another room. It gets my slick going, especially with the vibrations in the suit lining, but it’s still just a physical reaction. It’s nothing like the wholehearted bliss I feel when Dex pulls me into his arms after a long, hard deposit.

I glance at him now, but his gaze is locked on the glass wall. He’s breathing faster, his hands balled into his fists, and a flush on the back of his neck, and I catch a whiff of his scent. It’s faint, since he’s a beta, but his usual minty flavor is laced with something darker.

Worry, regret… andarousal?

My gaze snaps back to the window, and I can definitely see why. My alpha is aperfectspecimen, with thick thighs, a muscled chest, and a massive erection, pointed right in our direction. He’s delicious, but my appreciation comes with a pinch of shame. Iwanthim, more than anything, but not like this. I don’t want him angry, or hurt, or restrained, and I definitely don’t want him hanging from a hook behind a wall of reinforced glass.

But my distress turns to awe as his biceps bulge, and the cuffs on his wrists snap apart like paper. The guards scatter, snatching for their weapons, but my alpha boots one in the chest and snaps the neck of the other. I should feel sorry for the man whose lifejust ended, but I’ve never liked the guards, and they should know better than to hurt him…

“Myalpha. He’s finally come for me.”

When my alpha roars, a gush of slick pours out of me, an offering to lure him closer.

“Fuck, we have to get out of here!” Dex leaps forward and tries to unzip me from the suit. “If he can snap those cuffs, he can shatter that glass.”

Behind me, the collector squawks. “You can’t let her out! He’ll go into a rut if he smells her like this. We need to drain away her slick and get someone in here to sedate him!”

I can hear the controller’s fingers flying over his tablet a moment before the table tilts alarmingly. My stomach lurches as it slams back into the horizontal position and Dex glares at the controller. “Watch it, you asshole! You nearly gave her whiplash!”

“Better whiplash than luring that monster in here,” he snaps, and there’s an ominous hissing sound from inside my suit. My muscles clench, but there’s no escaping the plastic’s grip as it tightens on my body. As the controller promised, he’s about to squeeze every last drop of moisture out of me.

Dex must read the panic on my face, because he grabs the nearest zipper and tries to yank it open. “Let her out. This has gone too far…”

I grit my teeth and try to brace for the suction, but the plastic tightens so quickly, it makes my head spin. The room flashes white, then the blood red of a fresh wound.

Slick dribbles from between my thighs, but it’s a sour deposit, and I can’t stop the cry that’s torn from my lips. The pain swells until my ribs creak, and I cast a desperate glance in my alpha’s direction.

He doesn’t just unlace the hood; hetearsit from his face, and I whimper as his dark eyes meet mine. It’s like staring into thenight sky, only one churning with winged monsters, and I try to lift my arms to reach for him. I’m silently begging him to do the same to my slick suit, to rip it off my body, but he’s behind a wall of glass.

An alarm screams overhead – not the suit, even though my chest feels like it’s caving in. Someone is yelling over the intercom, ordering reinforcements to the collection wing. Dex is still trying to get the zippers on my suit open, but the collector has backed up to the wall, his fingers flying over the screen. I glare at him, even though I can barely see through the torrent of tears, falling too fast for the suit to absorb. I try to tell Dex to grab the tablet, but the words die on my lips as I surrender to another agonized cry.

It's answered with a deafening thud, and I open my eyes just enough to see my alpha wrench the hook out of the ceiling. It comes free with an ear-splitting whine, an explosion of plaster chunks and tangled wires showering down on his head. I cringe, but he just kicks the destruction aside and swings the metal hook over his shoulder. It takes a moment for my anguished brain to realize what he’s doing, and then the heavy base of the hook smashes into the wall separating us. Fragments of glass slice through the air like claws, Dex ducking under the table just in time to avoid their lethal reach. There’s a tortured scream from the collector in the corner, but it barely registers.

Paradise!

I take my first, gasping breath of his unadulterated scent, and slickpoursfrom my body, so potent I can taste it on the back of my tongue.

It’s not a memory, but a promise, of cozy nights and slick-damp sheets, of a thick knot in my body and sharp teeth in my throat.

“Alpha.” The whine is almost silent, because there’s so little air left in my lungs. The suit is now an agonizing cage, and Iwhimper as the alpha studies me, those wild eyes burning into mine. I would give him my last moment, locked in his gaze, but two guards rush into the room behind him, their weapons up and ready to fire. They’re dressed in black uniforms I’ve never seen before, and they’re carrying guns, not batons. They smell of oil and hot metal, and they don’t blink as they size up the room. “Alpha!”

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