Page 1 of His Prize
CHAPTER ONE
Darby
People could have died because of me, because I’d cracked for just a moment.
You couldn’t crack as an air traffic controller. All those planes and all those people relied on you to guide them and keep everything sorted in the air. But it was also one of the most stressful jobs in the world, and in the end, that was what had gotten the best of me.
“Darby Austen?” the handsome, young beta facilitating things in the omega waiting area of the Grand Hotel asked, glancing up from his clipboard.
I almost didn’t raise my hand and call out, “Here.” I wasn’t entirely certain I deserved the privilege of beta-testing the new auction format that the Dark Fantasies Club was trying out. I’d received an exclusive invitation to help prove the concept last month and had jumped on the opportunity, but now? After a meltdown that nearly caused two planes to collide on the runway at Barrington International Airport?
The only thing that had stopped me from calling the organizers of the Dark Fantasies Club back and canceling on them was the hope that I could be paired up with a sadistic alpha Dom who would give me exactly what I deserved.
“Nice to see you, Mr. Austen,” the beta, Denny, who I’d met before at the Dark Fantasies Club home office in Norwalk, shook my hand when I got up and met him at the door. “Exciting day, isn’t it?”
“Um, yeah,” I said, trying to summon up some false enthusiasm as Denny led me out of the waiting room and a few feet down the hall to a different conference room.
“Congratulations on being selected to pilot the new program,” Denny said.
I tensed.
Denny cringed.
“Sorry,” Denny said. “Maybe we won’t use that word.”
A fresh wave of guilt and shame curled through me. Obviously, Denny had seen the news report about the near collision at the airport. Anyone who had been watching the news last week had heard about it. The press hadn’t been shy about sharing my name in their reports.
Denny’s smile was back in seconds as we stepped into the second room. The omega auction trial was being held at the Grand Hotel, one of Barrington’s finest luxury hotels, which stood just off the beach in the heart of the city. The hotel was large enough to host multiple events at the same time, but I’d heard from an omega friend who was also a member of the Dark Fantasies Club that the entire hotel had been booked and secured for this event.
It was a big deal.
The room where Denny asked me to sit on the other side of a plain desk was just an ordinary conference room that had been sectioned off using the movable walls hotels had to make theirevent spaces larger or smaller. Whoever had decorated it had done an amazing job of making it feel like a seedy office in some remote, secret warehouse.
“Mr. Kuhl will be in to interview you in just a moment,” Denny said, smiling reassuringly at me. He paused before walking away to ask, “You got the packet about how the auction is going to work?”
“Yes.” I nodded. “I’ll be interviewed about what I’m looking for in an alpha play partner, and my CV will be passed around to the alphas who have been invited to the event. Then I’ll be marched out on a stage during the actual auction and they’ll bid on me based on compatibility.”
“More or less,” Denny said, then nodded. “I envy you all. I kind of wish they were testing the program with betas, but Mr. Kuhl and Mr. Farrow want to limit this test to omega subs and alpha Doms. I’m going to pay attention and hope I get a chance to be auctioned in the future, though,” he added with a wink, then turned to go.
I smiled weakly. I hoped Denny did get a chance to play someday. He was young, gorgeous, and had a lot of omega-like tendencies. He was a surprisingly hard player, too, as I’d seen at an open party event once. And he was one of the nicest guys I’d ever met.
Me, on the other hand…. I was in my mid-thirties, well past the age when most alphas wanted to play with me. I was stressed out most of the time, except when I was being flogged or fucked by a brutal alpha, and I didn’t have any of the traditional, sweet, supple omega good looks. Well, not anymore.
I didn’t have to wait long for Caden Kuhl, one of the co-founders of the Dark Fantasies Club, to enter the room. For someone who had co-invented a club and app that allowed alphas and omegas to play out some incredibly dark, beyondkinky fantasies, Caden was one of the most cheerful and easy-going alphas I’d ever met. When he wasn’t in his Dom persona.
“Hey, Darby,” he said, coming over to shake my hand heartily. “It’s great to see you. I’m so happy you accepted the invitation to test the program. Hamish and I have high hopes for this whole auction format. We’re so eager for this test, and for your feedback.”
I tried not to wince visibly as I shook his hand. Knowing how important this was to Caden made me feel even less worthy of the honor of being asked to test the program.
“I’ll do whatever you want,” I said, working to match his level of enthusiasm.
“My hope is that this format will give you the best experience as well,” he said, letting go of my hand, then walking around to sit at the desk. “Have a seat.”
It was a sign of how ready I was to play that I dropped immediately back into my seat at his command. The part of me that wanted to give up control and just obey started to unfurl.
“So the way this is going to work is that I’ll ask you a few questions about the experience you’re looking for, and using this and what I know about your tastes and preferences already, I’ll pre-match you with one of our alpha volunteers.”
My brow went up. “So it won’t be a real auction?”
