It’s terrifying. I should run. But I’m trapped in the clutches of an Ogsul. Held doubly captive by the creature and the delicious, drenching scent.
“Ulfarri. Alpha,” the Ogsul clutching me mutters, and lets go of my arm to scramble away. And I’m left alone on stage, facing the Alpha with only the huge, quivering Jabba the Hut-like creature between us.
Out flashes the curving swath of metal. The warrior’s sword, wielded with expert force. It blurs and cleaves the Jabba the Hut blob. The blob… bursts. Fluid explodes through the room, searing the air with a gaseous, sulfuric smell. Aliens are shrieking, trying to get away, slipping on the remains of the fallen. The warrior in the cowl flicks his sword, casually beheading a few more creatures as they pass. Then there's no one in his path. Nothing between me and the murdering monolith. Black eyes glitter in his dark hood.
He's looking straight at me.
A terror unlike any I’ve ever known takes over my entire being and I’m no longer able to think. Acting on pure instinct, taking advantage of the fact that I’m no longer being held in place, I spin on my heels and run blindly, shoving my way past the auction host and racing back toward the narrow door that leads to the room I was held in before. There must be a way out of here. Therehasto be.
I cannot let the Brutal One get me. I just can’t.
Strong hands grasp my waist, and I’m falling. I’m off balance, being lifted into the air. I don’t need to look to know what’s happening.
He’s got me.
The Alpha.
This is the alien I heard whispers about after I got the chip and was able to understand my captors. One sentence keeps echoing through my mind, over and over again.
Ulfarri are Brutal Ones.
The scream I’ve been holding in ever since this nightmare began—which already feels like an eternity—bursts out of me, and is swiftly muffled by a huge, hot palm being slapped across my mouth.
I scream anyway. I scream until there is not an ounce of air left in my lungs, and then I sag, exhausted, dangling limply in the Ulfarri’s hold.
My lips are tingling. In fact, my whole body is tingling. My eyes are closed, and have been since he caught me mid-run, so afraid am I of what I’ll see. What he’ll look like up close.
Some things are better if they remain unknown.
But my other senses are still there, and they seem strangely heightened. I can taste his skin, as his hand is still pressed against my mouth. His thick arm threads around my midsection, crushing me against him. He must be immensely strong to lift me with just one arm, as his other hand is muzzling me despite the fact I’ve stopped screaming into it.
But it’s the smell that has the greatest effect on me. Musky, masculine, with a slightly sweet overtone, it’s like a combination of all my favorite scents: rich chocolate, smoky bonfires, cinnamon spice. His fresh scent clashes with the stale air. Everything else smells wrong. He smells right. The fresh cologne fills me as if it were a solid thing, seeping into my every pore and setting my entire body alight with—
Lust.
The most potent, desperate desire I have ever felt clenches me. My body knots with cramps—not in my stomach, but lower down. My womb aches. My mouth is literally watering. The thudding between my thighs is matched by the frantic beating of my heart. There’s a prickle between my legs, and hot liquid seeps into the sexy little thong I put on in anticipation of playing at the club.
What the absolute fuck is going on?
The Ulfarri is shifting me in his arms, turning me around to face him, and then he speaks for the first time. His voice is like a knife scraping over stone as he says a single word.
“Mine.”
Forcing myself to take shallower breaths, trying to breathe through my mouth instead of my nose in case the heavenly smell surrounding me is indeed what’s making me soak my thong and desperate to grind myself up against the nearest available surface, I make myself open my eyes and look at the male who currently has me imprisoned against his huge, hard body.
With his hood thrown back, he looks similar to a human man, aside from his unusual coloring. His eyes are dark, glittering pools, he has a straight, aquiline nose, and a wide mouth framed by a neat beard. A long, thick mane of midnight blue hair tumbles over his broad shoulders.
Shrouded by his cloak, his chest bears faint markings, like tiger stripes on his pale lilac skin. They look like tattoos. I can’t see much of the rest of him, crushed against him as I am, but I can feel his rippling muscles and unquestionable strength.
In slow motion, he lifts his head and his nostrils flare. He’s… scenting me. Do I smell as good to him as he does to me? The decadent, chocolatey scent envelops me. There’s a hint of fresh coffee too.Mmm.
A growl tears from the Alpha, and my body convulses in answer, like I’m reacting to the growl. My inner muscles quiver, liquid dripping from my sex. I shift helplessly, achingly aware of the enormous erection I can feel against my thigh. Even though a prickle of terror travels up my spine at the sheer size of his cock, a bolt of lust shoots through my lower belly and my pussy spasms so hard, I gasp against his palm.
“Hoo-man,” he says again, his chest rumbling. “Omega. Mine.”Then everything goes dark.
FIVE
Emma
