“That’s impossible,” I said, panic slicing through the haze of arousal. “I triple-checked everything before I left. It was in the inside pocket, sealed tight. I’m not an amateur—I don’t go anywhere without emergency suppressants.” My hands shook as I reached for the pack. “Let me look.”
Matteo handed it over, and I frantically searched every compartment, my fingers growing more desperate with eachempty pocket. The case was gone—either lost in the forest during my escape attempt or dislodged in the pond when I’d nearly drowned. Because apparently the universe hadn’t finished making my day a spectacular shit show. Why stop at kidnapping when you could add a premature heat cycle to really drive home the “universe hates Leo Yamamoto” message?
“Fuck,” I whispered, genuine fear replacing defiance. “This can’t be happening.”
The implications hit me like a physical blow. No emergency suppressants. No way to contact anyone for help. Three alphas already responding to my changing scent if their dilated pupils and tense postures were any indication. And my body still thrumming with unwanted arousal from that damned spanking. This wasn’t just a worst-case scenario—this was the apocalypse of worst-case scenarios, complete with the four horsemen of omega humiliation.
The only way this could get worse was if I spontaneously combusted. Though honestly, that might be preferable to what my biology had in store for me.
“Please,” I said, the word feeling like broken glass in my throat. “You have to take me back to the cottage. Aunt Akiko will have extras.” I never begged, but the prospect of going into full heat surrounded by three alphas overrode every scrap of pride I had left.
“You’re not going anywhere,” Stefano said, his voice gentle but implacable. “Not in this condition. Especially not through the forest at night. The scent you’re already producing would attract every alpha within miles. It would be like painting a target on your back and sending you out with a bullhorn.”
“You don’t understand,” I insisted, another wave of heat making me gasp. My cock twitched painfully against the sweatpants as my body temperature spiked again. “If this continues…”
“We have suppressants,” Matteo said. “For emergencies.”
My head snapped up, hope flaring briefly. “You do?”
“Yes,” Stefano confirmed, crouching before me so our eyes were level. “But they come with a price.”
Of course they did. Nothing was ever simple or free, especially not when it involved alphas and an omega in pre-heat. I swallowed hard, trying to think clearly through the growing fog of hormones that was making rational thought increasingly difficult.
“What price?” I asked, dreading the answer but knowing I had no choice. “My firstborn child? My eternal servitude? Or is there a more immediate payment you have in mind?” I couldn’t keep the bitter edge from my voice, even as another wave of heat made it quiver.
Stefano’s smile was slow and predatory, a wolf who knew his prey was cornered. “Just a taste, Leo. A small demonstration of submission.”
My mouth went dry. “What exactly do you mean by ‘a taste’? Because that could cover a wide range of activities, and I’m not signing a blank check for whatever alpha fantasy you’ve been harboring.”
“A kiss,” he said simply. “One for each of us, freely given, in exchange for the suppressants that will keep you safe tonight.”
A kiss. Just a kiss. It should have been nothing—a small price to pay for the medication I desperately needed. But my omega instincts were screaming that it wouldn’t stop there, that these alphas who had been watching me, tracking me, capturing me, wouldn’t be satisfied with just a taste. That once I opened that door, I wouldn’t be able to close it again.
“And if I refuse?” I asked, needing to understand all my options, limited as they were. “What’s behind door number two in this coercive game show?”
“Then we’ll still help you,” Stefano said, surprising me. “We’ll take you back to the cottage immediately. But the journey will be… difficult. For all of us. The forest at night is dangerous even without an omega in pre-heat. With your scent calling to every alpha for miles? I wouldn’t bet on our safe arrival.”
Another wave of heat rolled through me, stronger this time, making me whimper despite my best efforts to remain silent. My skin felt too tight, too sensitive, every nerve ending alight with awareness. I could feel slick beginning to form, my body preparing itself in ways I didn’t want to acknowledge. Already my inner thighs felt damp, and the back of the sweatpants would soon show evidence of my body’s betrayal.
“You’re enjoying this,” I accused, my voice cracking with the effort of maintaining control. “My discomfort. My helplessness. My complete lack of viable options. This is all just a power trip for you three, isn’t it?”
“I’m not enjoying your distress,” Stefano corrected, his hand coming to rest on my knee. Even through the sweatpants, the contact sent electricity racing up my thigh, straight to my already-aching cock. “But I won’t pretend I’m not affected by your scent or that watching you fight your nature isn’t… fascinating. You’re like a force of nature battling against itself—beautiful and doomed to eventual surrender.”
“My nature,” I repeated bitterly. “You mean the defective biology that’s betraying me right now? First getting aroused from being spanked like a child, and now this? Gotta love the omega package deal—humiliation with a side of hormonal meltdown. The gift that keeps on giving, courtesy of genetics I never asked for.”
“There’s nothing defective about you,” Marco interjected, his voice rougher than before. “Quite the opposite. What you’re experiencing is the peak of evolutionary perfection—the compatibility between your biology and ours. Fighting it is likefighting gravity—you might delay the inevitable, but you can’t change the fundamental laws governing your existence.”
“Thank you for that enlightening talk on omega biology,” I snapped. “I’ll be sure to remember how ‘evolutionarily perfect’ I am when I’m begging for an alpha knot like a mindless breeding machine in about an hour.”
I closed my eyes briefly, weighing my options. A kiss for each of them in exchange for suppressants that would prevent full heat. Or a risky journey back to the cottage while fighting increasing symptoms, with no guarantee of relief. When faced with the choice between humiliation and potential disaster, humiliation started to look like the rational option.
When I opened my eyes, Stefano was watching me with an intensity that made my breath catch. “Fine,” I said, the word feeling like surrender. “Three kisses. Then suppressants. Immediately. And this doesn’t mean anything beyond biological necessity, understand?”
Stefano’s smile was triumphant. “Who’s first, little wildcat? Or should we decide for you?” The way he said it made it clear that removing even this small choice would give him satisfaction—another demonstration of who held the power here.
The thought sparked a flare of defiance through the haze of pre-heat. “I’ll decide,” I snapped, my gaze settling on Matteo. “Him first.”
I chose the quiet one deliberately, hoping his reserve might make this ordeal less intense. Not that I had any real basis for comparison—unless you counted fumbling attempts at spin the bottle when I was thirteen, before my presentation had made me a liability to be hidden away. Those innocent pecks had nothing to do with whatever storm I was about to walk into. And considering my cock was already throbbing painfully from that humiliating spanking, I needed all the help I could get.
