But, as all the omegas experienced back at the facility, strong prayers went to the dead and came back as empty. The women found themselves on their kneecaps every night, whispering away the demons and chirping for the light that never came.
The world was more rigid than she knew. It still ran in the same way as before. Only, now, alphas felt less of their shame. Business was cutthroat. Instability ravaged economies. Cities were held together by the quality of their industries. Sex, violence, and voyeuristic needs for glamour bathed them in ravenous poverty and unappeasable thirst.
But some people existed to survive.
“Got it?” Vash was too dazed to pay attention, but he was sure he saw it on her tongue. The serpent choking on its own asshole. There was no mistaking it.
That was the world.
He jerked his hand into a drawer and pulled out a small glass vial. Hands shaking, he bit into the cap and choked back the drops of health that remained inside. He shivered and let out an exasperated cry of regeneration.
Lucas shuddered. “Will you manage? This could take weeks.”
Vash quickly nodded, but the writhing, gnawing sensation coming from his leaky gut arched his body against the wall. With a sharp inhale, he laughed. “With her, I can make my own serum.”
“Myths,” Killian warned.
“I believe they are real. An omega’s filth is our vitality. From the moment they give their cunt to the world, it’s our burden to cowl and ride them into the womb of the earth,” Lucas said, neck inching forward.
The other two alphas looked about as uncomfortable as he felt. The city was bustling with people, and they’d just blown the shit out of one of the breeding domes. The crime was huge. The omegas inside would go to waste, like spoiled produce. Their owners would post the bounty. They’d hunt for their whores like a toolpusher drills for oil.
Feeling quick exuberance take over his body, Vash took the swab and inserted it into a glass ampoule. Forcefully, he took Wren’s hand and poked her finger with a sharp needle, collecting the thin blood.
Wren shuddered back. “Ouch!”
Lucas squeezed her cheek and bent to lick her all the way to the temple. “Precious. We’re almost done here.”
Vash towered above her with new strength. He could have broken her if he only wanted to break a woman, but he had more important worries than forcing an omega to submit. The wounds that covered his body had faded into small markings, only hints of something devastating.
He held the needle and made sure to wait for the tip to heat up. Wren backed, scurrying across the cement floor until the base of her spine hit the drywall.
“W-what is that?”
Vash grinned and knelt toward her. She rolled into a ball. “Oh, come now. Don’t tell me you’ve never been scented before.”
Killian rolled his fingers into a fist. “You’re taking her scent for your own pleasure?”
Vash swiped the hot needle away from his sight but clicked the vacuum on. “Stay put.”
Lucas looked betrayed. He took her tongue once more to inspect.
Curiously, Vash observed as the hood above her clit swelled. Beneath her nest of pubic hair, her lips were closed, but a drop of liquid dripped down the hanging flesh. Vash reached down and swabbed her to collect.
That’s when he arched the hollow needle against her neck. The prick dug inside her skin, latching into neighboring pores. Her scent flowed through the tube underneath until it sat enclosed in a plastic bin below.
“Sometimes, it feels like my heart has ripped in half,” she said, falling across the floor like an angel with broken wings. The gold that fragmented her hair sparkled against the faulty lighting of the room.
Vash had to let the samples sit before he could make use of their contents. If he could. There was always that possibility, even if he didn’t want to acknowledge it.
“It’s over,” he said.
When he drank the tonic, all of his tensions eased.. The alpha inside of him washed away into a sea of weakness.
Vash eyed Lucas and Killian curiously. “I’ll be in bed shortly. We may need to filter out the negative swabs.”
They left the room, but Killian kept his eyes on Vash until he passed the doorway.
“All of what I did is to your benefit,” Vash explained. He waited for a response, but when she stayed silent, he noted her resilience. It would be a problem for him, he decided. Still, he continued.