“Estrous?”
He nodded. “An uncontrolled estrous was the reason Esmeralda and all the settlers died. Her body’s pheromones instigated a rut Beta males could not resist. She died. They died. Everyone suffered. Yet in a controlled environment, in the care of an experienced Alpha, estrous brings great pleasure.”
Staring, glassy-eyed, Morgaine unknowingly licked her lips, yet openly disagreed. “I would not beg.”
The corner of Uriel’s mouth turned up, the fine lines beside his eyes charming. “Your pride is something to be seen, girl. It has caught the attention of several Alphas and complicated arbitration. Many desire you for a mate.”
Mate?
Like the male on the wall? The one holding her down and making the loud Omega squeal?
Just the thought had her breasts grow heavy and sore. Unthinking, she reached up to soothe them. Once her palms were full of flesh, the outrageousness of her behavior began to register. Caught mindlessly groping herself in front of this…Alpha, she blinked once, snapped out of it, and put a hand over her mouth in shame.
Uriel attempted to placate. “I am not offended by your interest. You responded to the exercise exactly as you should have. And if you wish to partake, I can send a suitable Alpha in to guide you through sexual stimulation to orgasm.”
To be pushed down and entered as the Omega on the screen had been? Just the thought made her pussy clench with such power, fluid rushed from between her legs to splatter on the floor.
Never had a Beta’s attentions inspired her lust.
And lust is all this was.
Lust was an empty, hollow emotion that, when indulged in, left a person sullied. Love was what was required.
Love was the reason women in her settlement went to great lengths to keep their modesty intact. Suitors were not to be tempted by their bodies, but by their deeds and their minds.
Yet she was very much caught in the tempting throes of lust. All of this from watching one pair grunting on the screen.
And she had not even seen them fucking... she’d only seen the Alpha’s back and the Omega’s face.
Perhaps her horrid neighbor had been right. She was a harlot.
Her eyes left the Alpha, traveling to feast upon the fur scraps in the sunken bed. A whisper of so much softness against her skin; that would cool this heat. She could sprawl about that nest, roll around and luxuriate like a cat. Find what she needed.
Uriel purred temptation with a voice of pure velvet. “An experienced Alpha is waiting right outside the door, Morgaine. Shall I let him in?”
A stranger in a strange room who would touch her in an odd sunken bed saturated by the scent of many males. Why that sounded delicious, she could not say.
“It could be more than one Alpha. Do you wish to sample those with the greatest stake in claiming you as theirs? They would spoil you.”
Multiple males?
Esmeralda had died horribly being savaged by multiple males. Her murder had been a sad, frightening thing.
Fear sobered her.
As if he saw the change, Uriel increased the sound of his purr. “They would be gentle, Morgaine. Exceedingly careful.”
Esin had not been gentle when he’d grabbed her arm and forced it from her breasts. He had not been gentle when he’d wrapped her fingers around his cock and jerked her fist up and down.
Had they been exceedingly careful when they’d held her mother against the wall by her neck? How about when they branded that sweet woman’s face? Were the Alphas careful in that?
This whole situation was absurd.
In one day, she’d woken in fear, watched a gruesome death, been pawed by a male she despised, ordered around, and covered in semen. Her life was in the hands of Alpha soldiers she could not see—men who manipulated the very room they had trapped her in so she might bend to their will. She had no say. Instead, she was told that she would want everything they had planned for her. And then she had become aroused to the point of insanity by nothing more than images on a wall.
This was not who she was. Her reputation in the settlement was excellent. Morgaine was a steady girl, one who could weave cloth almost as fine as her mother’s.
Her mother... who was alone in their cottage. And she would never see her again. One outlandish projection on the wall could not take away that heartache.