The Golden Line (Knotted 1)

It was not like her to use gross language, but, slurring, Morgaine swore, “I’d rather fuck every last disgusting Alpha on this ship than have you so much as look at me.”

Three snaps of calloused fingers came before her blurring vision. “That’s enough, Morgaine. Focus here.” Uriel kneeled so they were at eye level. “Are you hurt?”

Nodding, tears began to fall. “Everything you do here hurts.”

Despite knowing better, Morgaine crumpled, begging over and over for her mother.

“There will be no getting through to her in this state. Hand me another dose. She will be examined after she falls asleep.”

This time the prick came to her shoulder, and shortly after, she lay limp as a fresh corpse.

***

A metallic taste sat heavy on her tongue, arms and legs weighted by the remnants of waning sedatives. She had yet to move or open her eyes, prone on her belly, soft coverings on her back. There were voices in the room—no longer by the door as they had been before, but near the area where the room’s table always lay laden with food.

“How many of his men do you think their Heidron has killed trying to break out?”

The Alphas were laughing, one offering up, “At least he does our work for us. Omari scum coming here with no warning… fresh treaty or no, we do not bow to their whims.”

It didn’t matter what the men at her table boasted or claimed. She herself had seen the commandant bow to the foreigners.

“It is no laughing matter.” Uriel cut off the revelry. “I advise you each to count the friends, brothers, and children you lost in the war. Hold on to that number and keep your silence before I make you silent. To imagine there will be no far-stretching repercussion from what took place in the gallery displays our arrogant blindness the Omari exploited in the first place. We surrendered to them. Remember that.”

Petulant, Esin disagreed. “Had our colonies not been threatened, sir, the outcome would have gone the other way. They do not value Beta life as we do, just as they are known to rape and mutilate their Omegas. They’re animals. He cannot be allowed to have her. She’ll die.”

“You are not pair-bonded to the girl, and unless she enters estrous in the next hour, you have no means to seal a claim. Their warships have already begun to appear around our fleet. The Heidron is going to demand she be handed over once his rut subsides, or he will take her by force. Our commandant will have no choice. He will not risk rekindling a bloody war for one feral Omega.”

So, they were going to hand her over to that raving creature from the pit. Considering their lies thus far of promised safety and love, Morgaine felt no surprise at such news.

Whatever she had done to offend that rabid male, she knew he’d kill her, and then at least it would be over. Considering how fiercely he’d battered the glass, her death would most likely be quick.

It was for the best.

The pleasure chambers would have shredded away her honor. Being mated to Esin would have been a lifetime of misery.

Groaning, she fought the covers and sat up. Rubbing away the crust from her eyes, she heard the males push back their chairs and stand.

Before one of them might give her a command or ask any pointed questions, she mumbled, “My bladder is full.”

Uriel ordered the men away, but he did not leave her to her own devices. In fact, he watched her like a hawk, which made relieving herself difficult. When the act was finished, he ordered her to bathe, ordered her to dress herself, and ordered her to eat.

She went through the motions, still numb, and unsure if it was a lingering effect of the drug or if her spirit had simply flown away.

As if reading her thoughts, Sergeant Uriel sighed. “I imagine it won’t be much longer now.”

He was correct.

The commandant himself entered, a small army waiting in the hall when that shining wall opened up wide. “Come, Omega, you are to go to the Omari Heidron now. May he be merciful.”

Lips stained berry red from the flesh of the fruit she’d forced down, Morgaine stood. Damp hair curling past her waist, life stolen away, she marched where she was bidden.

Though the remnants of sedation still tickled her veins, fear found a way to bloom with each step.

The thing they were giving her to, she remembered the wild look in his eyes. That Alpha was the stuff of nightmares: scarred, barbaric, and brimming with menace.

His people were powerful enough to have subjugated the Alpha soldiers and entered their ship.

Esin claimed they raped and mutilated Omegas.