The Beta stepped away from me, dropping his hand. His eyes flicked up to the ceiling, towards the corner of the room right of the door. He’d done that a few times. Curiosity finally got the better of me, and I turned around to find what he sometimes stared at.
A camera. Someone was watching us. I rued the day I’d seen the stupid flyer on the shelter’s community board. I still didn't know why I’d responded to the ad.
Join our research pool by giving a noninvasive scent sample. Pay is ahundred dollars, or more depending on sample quality, and a voucher of your choice.
Right. The money and the voucher. It certainly hadn’t been the bold claim above the details that ‘The Cupid Company makes love happen’, because love... I didn’t give a rat’s ass about love anymore.
I’d walked into the sleek corporate building downtown in sneakers held together with duct tape, a long sleeve shirt, a pair of torn jeans from the shelter, and a too-large trench coat that I’m ashamed to admit I stole from a dead body in tent city. I’d been starving, Josie shoved into my messenger bag with my few other belongings, and all I could think about was the promise of one hundred dollars. Real money. Life changing money. Well, maybe not life changing, but certainly... week changing?
I’d signed a piece of paper, let a female Alpha in a lab coat painfully extract pink-tinted fluid from the maximus glands in my neck and the minora glands in my wrists... then I’d let a jerky Beta take endless blood... then I’d let them subject me to a full body exam. After all the pain though, I’d walked out with money that could make all the difference in my life. It was the promise of a real meal at a real restaurant and proper cat food for Josie. The promise of a bed, maybe even for more than a night. Not a box. Not newspaper for warmth. Not a cardboard cut-out window I pushed open for a breeze.
“When you signed the contract, you agreed to abide by the rules, Miss Fortune.” Beta Grouse’s voice was back to professional. He really needed to get some new material.
I was getting so damn sick of rules. Rules had just broken my heart at the shelter. They’d finally had space for me. They’d wanted to help me... in exchange for some good PR, but whatever. And then it had all gone tits up, because of rules. So, fuck rules. I was done with them.
“Oh, gosh. That thing? The print was so small I could barely read the words,” I countered, still trying to sound demure and disarming, butseething under the surface.
“Miss Fortune. You are being deliberately obtuse.” The mask of apathy was slipping. I wondered who was behind the scenes watching us. Who would the Beta disappoint if he failed to force submission?
Miss Fortune.
I still couldn’t fathom why I’d listed my real name on the form before the scent donation. I’d been so dazed, so hungry, that I’d just written the truth without thinking. God, even back then... even when I’d kissed the guy of my literal dreams, I’d withheld my real name.
I hated hearing my name. I used to love it. My biological father would always say‘Fortune favors the bold, baby girl’. I took his surname, just like the others in our pack. He was a gigantic, yet gentle Alpha. He adored my mother, who was the perfect, submissive Omega. They built such a life together. Now they were gone. My Alpha ‘uncles’ were gone, along with their Omega wives and kids. My older brothers too. I never got to meet my little half-sister. She was still a pup in the womb when tragedy struck. I had exactly zero family left, except for Josie.
Fortune favors the bold.
Ha,I thought derisively.Miss Fortune. This Beta had it right; my dad always had it wrong.
If only dad had known... if only he’d had some sort of future sight... he’d have kept those much-loved, often-repeated words to himself. If he had, then they wouldn’t be scarred into my brain, always reminding me that I’m the world’s biggest fuck-up. Ditching my family for a concert. I should have been on that plane. I should have died too.
“Look,” I spoke slowly, clinging for dear life to my own sweet mask, “I really can’t go without her. So, it’s up to you guys. If I have to break the contract, I will. I’ll figure out the fine. I’m sure...” My brain scrambled. What would be intense enough to make them waver? “I’m sure that I can make some money on the streets. An unbound virgin Omega? I mean, there’s money there. And I’m sure your client will easily find a new match.”
I fluttered my lashes, acid trying to creep up my throat at the thought of prostituting myself to cover the fine. Josie yawned, little mouth stretching in the sweet way a newborn pup’s does. My chest felt warm at the sight. I’d sleep with every person who’d pay me, if it meant not losing her. My body was just a commodity. Even here, sitting in this room, I was selling myself. Just in a different way.
Still, scraping up ten thousand dollars was no small feat. How many people would I have to service to get there? Oral for one price. Sex without kissing for another. The whole package could run at least two hundred if I found somewhere to wash and could dumpster dive a decent outfit. I knew more than a few Omegas and Betas who survived that way.
Hell, the agency probably sought out Omegas just like me exactly for that reason. We were willing to subject ourselves to painful needles to make a little money and get a meal. Paying thousands for a fine might as well be millions, either would effectively trap us.
“I... you can’t... why would you... that’s a terrible thing to consider.” He stammered on his words before finally pushing a string of them out in horror.
“You and the agency are the ones forcing me into that corner,” I pointed out. “I didn’t even know what that paper said. I shouldn’t have signed it without reading properly, but I did. So, I understand there are consequences. If I’d ever imagined it would somehow lead to losing the only family I have left, I’d never have walked through the doors to this stupid building in the first place.” The cutesy disguise was gone; the tears were coming now whether I wanted them to or not. They slipped down my cheeks in hot, steaming streaks and fell in fat droplets onto Josie’s fur. They didn’t seem to bother her. She was as steady and soothing as ever.
The phone on the Beta’s desk rang shrilly seconds later, causing him to startle and jump towards it, nearly lying across the desk to pick up the receiver. He shoved it against his face.
All I could hear was murmuring through the line.
“Yes. I understand.” The Beta said in a rushed tone.
More murmuring.
“I can’t believe this client, of all clients, would agree to this.”
The voice on the other end grew louder, and the Beta’s face paled.
“I’m sorry. Of course. I’ll start the official preparations.”
With a shaking hand, the Beta placed the receiver back in its cradle. He stood up slowly, doing a graceless push-up from the desk, and smoothing out the wrinkles in his jacket.
