This next heat, I’mlockingmyself in that shower.
Because if someone smells me inthissocial climate…
That’ll be the end of my life.
JUDGE
This place has too much fuckingdust in the air after its first frost, every bite gritty. I tilt my head back to the gray sky, catching the smallest fleck of a snowflake drifting down. Already colder this year—just one more reason to lock down New Bunker, with its hidden crops buried safe beneath the earth. It truly was only a matter of time beforesomeonetook them.
I’m doing them a favor, really, by getting it over with.
Soon, the mountains will close with snow, cutting off Titan unless he’s mad enough to plow those roads himself. No one with half a brain risks that anymore, not with how the wasteland winters bury everything in white.
He’s unfortunately just a fucking asshole, not an idiot. So I won’t waste the winters, and secure every border worth taking. The snow will buy me time, so I can hibernate within my thoughts as I mentally stare at the chessboard Titan and I are on.
An abnormally tall beta of mine, who also happens to be one of the old men left from an era before me, makes his way over. His experience is evident in the gray, wiry streaks of his beardand deep wrinkled crow’s feet, his peppered hair hidden behind a black bandana. He’s one of the few who actually know what he’s fucking doing, not just hotheaded and dangerous. The skin surrounding his eyes is smudged black, and I’m surprised the ink hasn’t become a permanent stain by now. The tattoo around his neck looks touched up, the skull with a single dagger through it on the left side indicating he’s got rank. The other dagger would be whatIhave, and onlyoneshould have it in their skin at any given moment.
His limp is worse than it was two weeks ago. Something hehatesto talk about, and needs injections for. His momentum to me is like an ocean’s wake that washes others over here, including a woman strutting up behind him like she’s stuck in his orbit, staring atme.
I’m quite fucking used to that, and don’t make eye contact. Instead, I deeply inhale as I absentmindedly rub my chin with my thumb, eyeing the rings on my fingers. The ones I’ve cut off of others and resized to fit.
Skinner, my direct right hand, looks over his shoulder at the pale brunette, who straightens out her jacket that’s unzipped enough to have her tits nearly hanging out. As she opens her mouth to say something, Skinner rolls his eyes and faces her. “Go on and find someone else to fuck you, doll. You know he ain’t going to,” Skinner says to the woman.
She obeys with lips that curl into a pout as she focuses on me before lowering her head and strutting away. Skinner drops into one of the completely mismatched chairs across from me, kicking one boot up with dirt on the bottom, resting it on a box of what looks like fruit.
My eyes follow the beta as she walks off, her hips trying too hard in case Imightbe watching. She’s been circling me since the day she showed up two months ago. Some alphas are whores to their instincts, and I’m not necessarilybetter. Iwouldbe if people didn’t have an annoying instinct for drama, watching every movement of mine like I’m a fucking saint.
The only ones to remain for more than one night in my den have been omegas in heat, pleading for me to dig my teeth into their scent glands to mark them as my mate, their pussies leaking slick at each growl of mine, the plump softness of their cuntsbeggingfor me to knot deeply inside.
I only ever agree to fuck them into oblivion, never to bite. My reason for abstaining from taking a mate is my own fucking business, and I don’t need any of these road dolls ever thinking they have a chance to be afrequenterof mine. That’s just asking for shit to go wrong, because frequenters always know more than they should.
Still, as I let my gaze slide down to the beta’s ass, I wonder if she might serve a different purpose. Drama has its uses. Sometimes it pays to light a match just to watch the sparks. Could watch her pupils dilate as I tell her to get on her knees, and tell her she’s a good road doll for being so desperate to suck the cum right out of me.
I shift slightly, arching a brow as I’m liking that idea with each passing second.
“Heard a random ass omega was here,” Skinner comments.
A sigh leaves me, trying to refocus. “Desperate for suppressants, surprisingno one.” I lean back, eyeing the walkway beyond the hanging bodies. One sways as the other I stepped on still stands on his pedestal, too chicken shit to get it over with. “Didn’t quite work out. She’s in containment now. Not very happy to be there.”
“Well, at least that one wasn’t hard to snuff out,” Skinner remarks.
Chemicals have fucked our bodies for too long, chemically castrating ourselves. Getting rid of them for public consumption is one of the first steps to truly reclaim order to these wastes. It will force people’s carnal instincts forward, revealingwho is truly a predator and who has morals. I want to stare at each person’s hard truth before restoring order.
Someonehas to bethealpha and make the hard decisions that get it all done.
Half the time, an omegapresentsherself to us.Thoseare the ones I fuck if I want to, unless she’s a scent match to someone among us. Otherwise, a beta road doll gets the job done. Their pussies just never smell or leak like a sweet omega’s does… Either way, that omega we just took won’t go near me after today.
“Maybe we’ll get another scent match. Been on a lucky streak with those,” Skinner comments, as if reading where my mind was.
I shrug, rubbing my chin harder. “Maybe.”
People talk about the scent of an omega as if it’s just about sex. But it’s more. It's an instinctual recollection.Possession. A scent can carve through logic; I’ve seen the strongest alpha lose their ever-loving mind with just a whiff of therightone.
“We need to find a way to sniff out the other omegas thathaveto be out there,” Skinner says. “Before the ass-cunt Titan gets to them. He’s on the move as we speak.”
I shift my gaze to him. “What did you learn?”
“Red told me that Grim’s Reapers are pretty well rooted and won’t move much, which also means they aren’t going after Titan if he claims more land as long as it’s not too close to theirs.”
