Chapter Text
The fact that I could smell him behind three steel doors assured me of what Hanji had said earlier that morning. We weren’t dealing with a normal alpha. This one was lethal. And out of all the people they could have sent to come talk to him, they chose me, one of the few remaining omegas. They were either crazy, or confident that the serum running through my veins would hold even in the presence of an alpha of this magnitude. Already I could feel some primal instinct within me responding to his scent, submitting to it, but I beat that part of me down and signaled to Mike to open the doors.
“Are you sure, Levi?” he asked.
“No, but what other choice do I have?”
After a brief moment of hesitation, he flipped the switch, and the first door began to rise. It only took seconds for the aroma permeating the air to become potent. The omega inside me writhed in submission, eager to please the alpha creating that delicious scent that promised me hours of pleasure, but I fought back my instincts as best I could. I refused to crawl into this alpha’s confinement chamber on my hands and knees, begging to be mated. I never submitted to anyone, alpha or otherwise, and I wasn’t about to start now. If Hanji trusted that the suppressants she created would see me through this, then I would trust in them too. They had never failed me before.
When all three doors were raised, I stood outside the entrance with my hands clenched by my sides. I couldn’t move. If I did, I had no doubt that I would sink to my knees and let this alpha take me. His scent was everywhere at once, invading all my senses, and fuck did it feel good.
“Levi?” Mike questioned in concern, no doubt smelling my arousal. “Say the word and I’ll shut the doors.”
I lifted my hand to keep him from doing that. “No, I’m fine. Just give me a minute.” I took a deep breath and exhaled on a moan. Despite the way my body responded to this elite alpha’s scent, I wasn’t going into heat. The suppressants were doing their job. All that was left to do was resist my instincts, which I would do no matter what, because I belonged to no one.
With that thought in mind, I found my bearings and walked into the brick corridor. I followed it down to the doorway of the chamber, then I jerked to a stop. They had the alpha chained in the middle of the room in nothing but a pair of trousers. Yet even down on his knees, his arms outstretched to either side of him and held in place by shackles, he was still a powerful, menacing presence. My body shook with it as the omega inside of me recognized the threat. My instincts screamed out and I began to whimper, showing submission in the most basic form.
His head snapped up at the sound, phthalo green eyes locking onto mine. “Omega,” he growled, tilting his head back to sniff the air. He groaned deep in his throat and began rocking his hips in search of friction. “It’s been so long since I’ve smelt an omega. Is that the reason I’ve been brought here? To mate with you?”
For a long moment, I couldn’t find my voice to answer him. Beads of sweat had formed on his sculpted chest, and I followed them with my eyes as they ran down tan, touchable skin. There were faint scars on his abdomen from wounds that had healed years ago, but they would’ve hurt like hell when he got them. This alpha had seen his fair share of battles, and that brought me back to why we had brought him here to begin with.
“I’d never mate with you,” I bit out through gritted teeth, hoping against all odds that he wouldn’t hear the arousal in my voice. He sniffed the air again. “I know what you smell, but that doesn’t mean anything. I will never mate with you, or any other alpha.”
“Then why have I been brought here?” He tugged on the shackles holding him in place and the chains rattled in protest.
I didn’t dare get any closer to him, so I leaned up against the brick wall, feigning indifference. “I’m sure you’re aware that our kind is going extinct. Many alphas made the mistake of mating with humans, and in doing so, they created halflings. Those halflings went on to follow in their parent’s footsteps, thus our race began to dwindle down. Now our kind is hunted and killed like animals. This place you’re at is a sanctuary. We can keep you safe.”
“I don’t need protection!” His outburst caused me to whimper once again. I hated how I cowered before this alpha.
“That may be so,” I began when I recovered, “but you’re reaching the age where your body is in need of a mate. If you keep going through ruts without assuaging the lust, your body will weaken. The people who hunt our kind will take advantage of your weakened state. There’s no doubt about that. They’ve been searching for you for quite a long time.”
He lowered his hips to the cement slab beneath him and kept his eyes on me as he started grinding his erection against it. He was in the midst of a rut, so his behavior didn’t surprise me. What surprised me was how much my body responded to seeing him lose control of himself. When his trousers rode down on his waist, exposing the tip of his member, I wanted to take it into my mouth and taste the pre-come that glistened under the dim lighting. I wanted it so bad that it took everything in me to stay in the spot I was in.
Fuck. He smelt delicious.
“If I stay here, you’ll provide me with an omega?” he asked in a gruff voice. “Is that what you’re offering?”
I licked my lip, my eyes still on the bulge in his pants. “No. There are only three omegas here, myself included, and they’ve been marked by their mate.”
“You haven’t been marked. Your neck is unblemished.”
“I already told you that I won’t mate with any alpha.”
“Then tell me why I’m here, because I am in no need of protection. I can take care of myself.”
The pheromones he was releasing were far too tempting for me to keep a clear head for much longer. I’d been around many alphas throughout my life, but none of them affected me the way this one did. Even with my system full of high quality suppressants, I could feel my body wanting to go into heat. I wanted to be spread out beneath this alpha, and that frightened me more than anything. Maybe it would be best for him to go back out into the world on his own. If he stayed here in the sanctuary, I would end up giving in to this desire. I was certain of that.
Releasing a shaky breath, I said, “There is a scientist here by the name of Hanji Zoe, she’s created a serum that will trick your body into believing you’ve mated with an omega. Your rut will end and you’ll no longer be in danger of weakening. I, as well as many others, can vouch for this.”
“And what is expected of me in return for receiving this miraculous serum?” His eyebrows pulled together as the movement of his hips became erratic and he yanked on the chains again. Right before my eyes, a crack formed in the brick wall behind him. What kind of strength did this alpha possess? “This isn’t enough. Not when you’re right here in front of me. Shit. You smell so good. I want to taste you.”
I bit the inside of my cheek to keep myself from moaning. “The serum will—”
“Why was this serum even created?” he demanded, interrupting me.
“As I’m sure you know, omegas were the first among our kind to be hunted out. Due to our genetic makeup, we made easy targets in comparison to alphas and betas. When we’re in heat, we’re rendered useless, and that’s when they attacked us. And with omegas low in numbers, alphas could no longer mate, therefore they were weakened and taken down with ease by our enemies. Hanji created the serum so alphas wouldn’t suffer the consequences of being without a mate. It has helped our kind substantially.”
“Does this serum work on omegas, as well?”
“No,” I said.
“Then why have you been injected with it? Everything in your body is telling you to go into heat, yet you haven’t. Normal suppressants wouldn’t be able to prevent that from happening. Especially when confronted with an alpha in rut. It goes against our nature.”
I folded my arms over my chest. “I’m a special case. I requested a unique serum to be made specifically for omegas, because I don’t wish to be mated.”
“Why?”
“That doesn’t concern you.”
He smiled in an impish way and I realized just how gorgeous he was. “You haven’t answered my question. What is expected of me in return for taking shelter here?”
“Nothing you probably haven’t already guessed. You lend us your strength. Devote your heart to the cause of keeping this sanctuary safe from harm. That shouldn’t be too hard for you. From what I’ve heard, you’ve taken down plenty of humans fighting against our kind, even when you were outnumbered.”
“Do I get to stay by you?” he asked, ignoring everything else I’d told him.
Now I smiled. Oh yes, this alpha was dangerous in more ways than one. If I wasn’t careful, he would snatch me right up. “I live here, so you’ll see me around, but you won’t have any hopes of getting near me.”
“We’ll see about that. I can be very persuasive when I want something badly enough. And trust me when I say that I want you quite badly.”
“I’m not easily swayed,” I said in a rush, “but can I take that as a yes to our offer?”
“As long as I get to stay by you, then yes.”
I turned my back to him, needing to get out of here now that I received an answer. “I’ll go get Hanji. She’ll inject you with the serum right away. It’ll take about fifteen minutes for it to take effect, but after that the symptoms of rut should subside. Then you’ll be back on your feet.”
“Wait,” he said. I glanced at him over my shoulder. “What’s your name?”
“Levi.”
“Levi,” he repeated in a deep, irresistible voice. “I’ll make you mine.”
I smiled. “Not a chance…”
“Eren. My name’s Eren.”
“Not a chance, Eren. Now sit tight. I’ll be back with Hanji in a minute.”
I walked out of the confinement chamber and kept going until I was out of his line of sight. Only then did I allow my legs to give out from beneath me. I fell to the ground in a heap of dead weight, shaking violently. My body ached in an unfamiliar way and I was producing slick. I could smell it, but why was my body readying itself for mating when I wasn’t in heat? This wasn’t normal. Were my hormones overriding the suppressants? If that were the case, then I really would have to stay away from Eren.
Far away.
“Levi!” Hanji called as she came running up to me. I curled in on myself and groaned. “I knew it. You’re going into heat. I could smell you from outside. Mike! Bring me my briefcase!”
I tried to look up at her as she knelt down next to me, but my vision was going in and out of focus. She was nothing but a blurry spot of color. “How is that even possible? I was injected two days ago. This shouldn’t be happening.”
“You have no idea how powerful this alpha is,” she said, sounding excited. “He could’ve broken those chains with ease, but he didn’t. He kept himself under control. Even the smell of an omega couldn’t make him lose himself. He’s destined for great things, that one.”
“You mean that was a test?” I snapped. “You put me at risk in order to see whether or not he would lose control?”
“Of course not, silly. There are cameras installed in there. We were watching everything. If he would’ve showed the slightest sign of becoming unstable, we would’ve gassed him without question. I will admit that I wasn’t expecting you to go into heat, though. Oh, but it’s wonderful!”
Mike reached us then and handed Hanji her metal briefcase without comment. I watched as she popped it open beside her, revealing rows of medical vials that were filled with blue liquid that glowed in the dark corridor. Before grabbing a needle, she snapped on a pair of latex gloves. I’d been through this process enough times to know what she was doing, but I couldn’t believe that I was in need of another dose this soon. The serum she made for me was one of the strongest suppressants created. How did my hormones override it? It was supposed to mimic mating, to trick my body into believing it’d been sated, yet here I lay, in desperate need of an alpha I didn’t know.
“How the fuck is this wonderful?” I said as my body shook. “This hurts.”
She flicked the syringe she held to expel any air bubbles at the top. “It’s wonderful because you want him. Your body wouldn’t have responded so strongly otherwise. Leave it to you to want one of the most powerful alphas we’ve come across. Swab his arm for me, will you Mike?”
“I don’t want him,” I snarled.
Hanji and Mike exchanged a look. They were smelling me, the pheromones that gave away my evident arousal. Oh, I wanted him all right. That much was obvious. But would I give into him? Never. I’d made myself a promise long ago, to never allow myself to be ruled by what I was, and some sinful brunette wasn’t going to change that.
After Mike swabbed a spot on my inner elbow, Hanji slid the needle in and dispensed the serum directly into a vein. It fought the omega within me, quelling the heat. I sighed in relief as my body cooled down.
“I’ll have to up your dosage from here on out,” Hanji said, discarding the used needle. “That is, unless you want that alpha to fuck you into next week.”
I glared at her. “He won’t be fucking me. Ever.”
“Whatever you say, munchkin.” She closed her briefcase and then stood up. After giving the air an experimental sniff, she bellowed, “Whoo! Do you smell that? That alpha will bring all the omegas to the yard.”
I chose to ignore her. Right now I needed to get as far away from Eren as possible, so I attempted to stand up on legs that refused to stop shaking. I swayed on my feet once I was upright, and muttered a string of curses as I sidestepped several times before I found my grounding. My limbs were weak and unresponsive, the aftermath of having been in heat. I hated it more than I could possibly ever explain, hated what I was and what it did to me. All my life I’d been resisting my instincts, fighting everything that made me an omega, and now I would be forced to fight twice as hard.
Damn Eren to hell. Why did he have this effect on me?
“You okay?” Mike asked when I leaned up against the brick wall to keep myself from falling over.
I looked up at him. “I’m fine.”
“Help him to his room,” Hanji said. “I need to go inject Eren. After smelling Levi, he’s probably in a heap of pain.”
Mike grabbed her wrist, keeping her in place. “You shouldn’t go alone.”
She shook him off with an enormous smile on her face. “I’ll be fine. I’m a beta. Plus, it’s not me he wants.” She waggled her fingers at me. “He wants you, very much.”
“Take me to my room,” I ordered Mike. He picked me up like I weighed nothing and carried me in the opposite direction of the confinement chamber. Eren’s scent became weaker the farther we got from him. I relaxed, relieved, but it was short lived, because I knew that this was just a temporary respite. Eren would be staying here in the sanctuary from here on out, so I was going to have to avoid him at all costs. Otherwise I was sure that I would go into heat again, and that’s the last thing I wanted or needed.
I didn’t speak to Mike as he climbed the steps up to the main living area, or when he made his way down various empty corridors. I didn’t know what to say, and silence was better than small talk. At least to me it was.
“You should rest,” Mike told me when he reached my room. “Let your body recover from the shock it went through.”
“I will.” Grabbing the badge that hung from a lanyard around my neck, I leaned to the side to scan the barcode and punch in a four-digit code into the access control machine that was mounted by my front door. The red light shut off and the green light flicked on, the door unlocking. “You can put me down now. I’m fine.”
Mike knew better than to question me, so he set me on my feet. “I’ll send someone over to check on you in a couple of hours. Sound all right to you?”
“Yeah, I guess.”
He shifted from foot to foot, looking unsure of what he was about to do. Then he sighed and said, “You know I’m not one to meddle in anyone’s affairs, but if you are attracted to this new alpha, then why are you still resisting? It would be better for you if you mated. The suppressants you’re on are slowly destroying your body. It’s unnatural for an omega to go unmated for so long.”
I pushed open my front door and stepped inside. He wasn’t saying anything that I hadn’t already heard. “My reasons are my own.”
“How did I know that you were going to say that?” He sighed again and turned his back to me. “Fine. I said my piece. If you need anything, be sure to page me. I’ll come right away.”
“Thank you,” I said. I waited until he was down the hall to shut my door. Then I pressed my back against it and shut my eyes.
Of course it would be easier for me to mate and give into the instincts I was born with, but then I would belong to an alpha and I would never let that happen. I would rather deal with the drawbacks of taking strong suppressants, even when those drawbacks included permanent damage to my body. That wasn’t new information. Hanji had told me that from the beginning, and the reason I accepted it was because there was no point in living a long life in a world going to shit for my kind. If I stepped out of this sanctuary without protection, I would be hunted down and killed like an animal. That’s what I was to humans, an animal, no more, no less.
Suppressing a groan of pain, I walked to my bed at a slow pace. It had been a long time since I’d dealt with the aches that came from going into heat. My body wasn’t used to it anymore.
I was almost to my bed when the phone on my nightstand rang. I glared at it as I picked it up and cradled it between my cheek and shoulder. “Hello?”
“Do you have a minute to talk, Levi?” Erwin’s voice. Of all the people that could’ve been on the other line, it had to be him.
“Considering you’re my boss, then sure, I have a minute to talk.”
There was no humor in his voice when he spoke again. “Dr. Zoe informed me that you were able to persuade Eren into staying with us here at the sanctuary. I can’t tell you how grateful I am for that. We’re in desperate need of alphas with his strength. His assistance will do us a lot of good. I’m sure you know that. Things have been rough lately.”
“If you called to thank me, save it.”
“Well, that was one of the reasons I called, but the main reason is because he’s going to need a tour of the grounds tomorrow morning and I am appointing you as his guide.”
“Erwin—”
“Also,” he continued without pause, “he needs hand to hand combat training. I’m appointing you to that, as well. Along with some sniper training. You’re the best of the best, Levi. I’m sure he’ll excel under your guidance.”
I clenched my teeth. Erwin wasn’t going to let me out of this, which meant my plan to stay away from Eren would never be put into motion. How the hell could I confront him again after what happened today?
“I heard about your reaction to him,” Erwin said after I stayed silent for a long while. “Dr. Zoe assured me that that wouldn’t occur again. I approved of her wanting to up your serum dosage. Eren will also receive a high quantity, so you have no need to worry about going into heat the next time you’re around him.”
“Of course. No need to worry.”
“If a problem should arise, you know where to reach me. I expect to see you at breakfast tomorrow morning at six a.m. sharp.” He hung up without another word.
I slammed the phone down on the nightstand and squeezed my eyes shut. How could Erwin put me in this position when there was a possibility that I could go into heat the moment I smelled Eren? If that happened, I would be injected with a considerable amount of serum two days in a row. My body wouldn’t be able to handle that much suppressants at once, which meant that Hanji would most likely let me ride out the heat until it subsided on its own. The pain would be enormous, unthinkable. My body would crave the only alpha it ever craved, and since he would be in close proximity, denying my instincts would hurt even more.
I had to find a way to get out of this.
I had to find a way to never see Eren again.