Alpha's Promise: A Reverse Harem Omegaverse Story (The Clarity Series Book 2) Read online

  Alpha’s Promise

  The Clarity Series, Book 2

  Ivana B. Kinkee

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  About the Author

  Tentacle Press

  Other Books from Tentacle Press

  ALPHA’S PROMISE

  THE CLARITY SERIES BOOK 2

  A REVERSE HAREM OMEGAVERSE STORY

  Text copyright © 2018 Ivana B. Kinkee

  Published with Tentacle Press. http://www.thetentaclepress.com/

  All Rights Reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Cover design by Ivana B. Kinkee

  Created with Vellum

  Chapter One

  “I know you’re awake,” Tinves whispered against her ear, running his large hand down her side, but Karissa simply burrowed her face deeper into the blankets. They reeked of sex. Of sweat, her slick, and the males… the Alphas. In the haze of them worshipping her body the night before she had felt it. The connection, the need to be near them, to feel their purrs, to taste their skin, their cum. It felt insane. It was insane. She should be running for the door of this giant concrete room and calling the cops, not reaching for them in the night, or burying her teeth in the shoulder of the male who seemed to rule them all.

  Mordek.

  The male who she could sense somewhere inside the massive space they lived in, like a low thrum of pleasure in her chest that felt like him. Told her he was close. As if he’d left a piece of himself inside her when he’d fucked her for hours, locked deep thanks to the thick knot of flesh that had formed at the base of his cock. That? That wasn’t normal. The way her body responded to them wasn’t normal. The all-consuming, desperate hunger she felt whenever they purred and stroked and touched — that was so abnormal she felt insane.

  Abnormal, insane, completely and utterly fucked up. Yes, all of those things.

  But the worst part was how right it all felt. Mordek had confirmed what her instincts had already told her was true. All seven of them were Alphas, some sort of side-step in evolution that had clearly tainted a variety of races regardless of their home planet — and she was an Omega, the matching set of distorted DNA that turned her into a mindless set of hungry holes desperate for even a taste of them. All thanks to the Clarity she’d taken. A drug that was supposed to have made her best friend’s birthday even more fun, but instead it had brought her to her knees with pain and brought no clarity to speak of.

  Grumbling, she hid her face under the edge of a blanket and unconsciously took a long inhale. Heady spice, warm earth, and a masculine undercurrent that had her mouth watering and her thighs pressing together. It was frustrating how comforting the scents were, irritating that Tinves’ arm wrapped around her waist made her feel safe.

  The last thing she should feel in this moment was safe.

  Shifting in the strange pile of bedding and clothing that existed in the very center of what she could only describe as a warehouse, she fought the urge to push Tinves away and hide from them all. She didn’t want him touching her, she didn’t want to be touched at all. She just wanted to be alone.

  “You have to be hungry, Karissa.” Tinves nuzzled into her hair, breathing deeply before his lips brushed her shoulder, tongue gently tracing the bite mark that had scabbed over. It still hurt, like everything did, but when one of them was with her things hurt… less.

  Another reason to be angry, another reason she wanted to shove him back, but… she was hungry.

  “I want a shower first,” she mumbled into the blankets, and Tinves left her side so fast she peeked out from under the blanket just to verify that he had actually leapt up. A broad smile stretched his blue lips, and he offered his hand like some gentleman that had not recently fucked her until she’d screamed on the ground in a filthy alley with six other Alphas. Sneering at his hand, she turned away from the offer to help her up.

  “Come now, little one. We have warm water for you.” There was an excited edge to his voice that made her bristle.

  “I must smell terrible for you to be this thrilled about me taking a shower.”

  “Don’t be ridiculous.” Tinves crouched down, scooping her off the bedding as she yelped in surprise. She snapped her teeth at him as he settled her against his chest, but he wasn’t afraid. He grinned down at her as he started to walk across the room. Bending his head down, nose buried in her mangled hair, he breathed deeply. “You’re the best thing I’ve ever smelled.”

  Huffing, she tried to get out of his arms, but he just held tighter as she struggled. “I can walk,” she hissed, trying to summon a growl in her chest.

  “I’d rather carry you, Omega. Especially since I get to bathe you.”

  Bathe me? Irritation bloomed, and she was about to snap at him again when he stopped suddenly. A low growl hummed in his chest, eyes focused past her, and she turned to see Jeden leaning against the doorframe of what she could only guess was the bathroom in the strange, massive room they had brought her to.

  The big male didn’t move, he just stared at Tinves over her head, their gazes locked. For a moment she wondered what was going on, but then she heard it. Jeden may not be moving, but he was growling. Her body reacted, the wetness summoned by their presence and the feral rumble in their chests. She caught her own scent a moment before Tinves did, his whole body stiffening as he inhaled deeply. Fuck.

  “Tinves?” she prompted, and his hands tightened on her, digging into arm and thigh as he bared his teeth. Ruining the normally gentle expression on his sky blue face. Jeden’s growl grew louder, more menacing, and Karissa felt a frisson of fear as the two stared each other down.

  “Brother, I don’t want to hurt you, but I will.” The words rumbled out as Jeden shifted off the door frame, rolling his shoulders as if he were really planning to fight Tinves. Over her.

  “Our Omega wants to shower,” Tinves replied, still not releasing her even when Jeden moved forward.

  “I heard. Give her to me,” Jeden commanded, and Karissa could feel the indecision in Tinves as his muscles trembled, the growl still a living thing in his chest. Jeden stopped an arm’s length away, dark and threatening. “Now, brother.”

  Nose against her hair again, Tinves breathed deep and then placed a soft kiss to her temple. Without another word he stepped forward and transferred her into Jeden’s arms. The big male pulled her close, not moving until Tinves finally tore his eyes from her and walked away.

  Jeden’s growl softened, blending seamlessly into a purr that erased the fear and nervous energy inside. Brushing his cheek against her hair, he turned to walk into the bathroom with her.

  “Why did you do that?” she asked, almost a mumble thanks to the lulling effect of the purr.

  “Because I wanted to be the one to bathe you,” he answered, lifting her higher on his chest to breathe in her hair just like Tinves had. “Although I do love our scents covering you, Omega.”

  Swallowing, she fought the urge to breathe i
n against his shoulder, knowing it would all go downhill if she did, and so she held her breath until he finally set her down in front of the shower stall. The size of it answered part of the question on the tip of her tongue — there was no way two males would fit in there, much less with her inside as well. But that didn’t explain the rest of why Tinves, and the others, obeyed him and Mordek without question.

  “Jeden?” she said his name softly, nervous to push the male that had just threatened to hurt another.

  “Wait,” he commanded, brushing his fingers down her stomach before he turned away.

  Chewing on her bottom lip, Karissa stayed where he put her. Watching in silence as he grabbed two towels from a basket and returned to hang them over the top of the grime-covered shower glass. His shirt came off next, and she swallowed as dark, carved muscles were revealed. Black ink weaving over his skin in elegant patterns. Flowers and vines and other things. Skulls, the gaping maw of some beast. When he unbuttoned his jeans, tucking his thumbs in the waist to shift them off his hips, she felt the tingling urge to drop to her knees so she could taste him. Irrational, ridiculous, but saliva was already pooling under her tongue. As soon as the jeans dropped, he kicked them away and stepped closer.

  Naked, so fucking naked.

  Her own nudity had faded into the background, but she’d never seen any of them completely undressed. His cock rested against his thigh, growing hard as she stared, and she dug her nails into her palms to fight the urge to touch. “I-I have a question.”

  “Okay, ask.” His tongue slipped out to brush his bottom lip, and she had to swallow the saliva pooling in her mouth so she could focus.

  “Why did Tinves let you take me? He wanted to bathe me, and—”

  “Because I told him to.” Jeden’s pupils were dilated, and she knew it was the slick affecting him, just as his scent tormented her. Still, the last thing she needed to do right now was end up in another hours-long sex fest where her mind turned to mush.

  No, she needed to fucking think. She needed answers.

  “But why did he actually do it?”

  “Because I outrank him.” There was hunger in his voice, power, and she felt her self-control slipping as the deep purr in his chest summoned another surge of liquid heat between her thighs.

  “And Mordek?” she asked, struggling to stay on task.

  “He leads us. I am his second.” Pupils obliterating his iris, Jeden shifted his weight from one foot to the other, and she knew she didn’t have long before he grabbed her and she let him have her.

  “But you’re all… Alphas… right?”

  “Yes,” he purred. “They are my brothers, and while I would have hurt Tinves to remind him of his place, I would not have injured him badly. It can be… difficult to remember our place sometimes. Pain serves as a reminder.”

  Wrinkling her nose at the casual violence, she shook her head. “That’s not right.”

  “It is better than being alone, little one.” The raw honesty of his words struck her, and she searched his face, trying to understand what they were, what this all was, but she didn’t even know how to ask that question. His eyes were tracing her curves, lingering on her thighs for a moment before he met her gaze again. “What else do you want to know?”

  “Why?” she squeaked, desperate to keep him at bay a little longer. “Why do you and Mordek outrank the others?”

  “Because Mordek is the strongest of us, and I am the next.” There was no bravado in his tone, just a statement of fact, but it left her with a million other questions. Halyrion seemed to be larger than Jeden, but the male had obeyed Jeden without question.

  And all of them obeyed Mordek.

  Her chest hummed as she thought of the male, and she rubbed at her sternum, confused by the odd feelings there. The weird sense that if she looked over her right shoulder, she would find him. Mordek. That way.

  “Karissa.” Her name rumbled on Jeden’s lips, pulling her attention back. He was beautiful. Dark and densely muscled, carved and powerful. She tried to fight the impact that his body, his scent, his fucking purr had on her, but slick still leaked down to taint the inside of her thighs. Breathing deep, Jeden tilted his head to the side and let his eyes wander. Focusing on the place where her muscles clenched, ached, craved. Fuck.

  “I want to shower,” she reminded him, and Jeden seemed to waver before he eventually nodded in acknowledgement, his movements stiff and mechanical as he pulled himself back a half-step.

  “Of course. I’ll bathe you.” Leaning past her, he opened the shower door and she stepped to the side to give him room, but his arm shot out to catch her. Gripping painfully tight, he bared his teeth and a single word made it out. “Don’t.”

  “Wha—” Karissa started to ask a question, tugging at his grip on her, but the growl was suddenly loud, dangerous, and she couldn’t help the urge to cower, to make herself smaller. The male was huge, his chest expanding and contracting as he closed his eyes for a long moment. Fear sat like a rock in her stomach as Karissa pressed her thighs together, watching carefully as he took a slow breath and then pinned her with his gaze. Unnecessary with his massive hand circling her forearm.

  “Don’t… do that. Don’t run from one of us. Ever.” Looking down at where he held on, she saw the effort it took him to let go as he pried his fingers away. The imprint of his hand was still there, like a ghost image on her skin, and she was tempted to explain that she hadn’t been trying to run. But the pained expression on his face as he pulled back made her keep her mouth shut. His movements remained stiff as he leaned into the shower to crank the water on, and then he pressed his back to the edge of the glass, swallowing as he looked her over. “You have to understand. It’s instinct to keep you close. It’s the same reason Tinves struggled to hand you to me despite my order, and it is why you cannot run. Ever. There is no controlling our response, do you understand?”

  “Yes,” she whispered, and she did, even though the idea of being trapped here like a prisoner made her stomach churn. Watching him, she could sense the effort it was taking him to stay back, but she knew that there was no way in hell he’d let her shower alone. It was pointless to even ask. He would be in there with her, touching her, bathing her. Half of her wanted it, craved it, but there was still a part of her that was tempted to run at her first opportunity despite his warnings.

  Karissa couldn’t deny the lingering fear even as his growl quieted. He was huge, like the rest of them, but she’d watched them, felt the way they responded to her, and the memory of Mordek’s words flashed in her mind — we are yours.

  Mine, her mind echoed. Lips parting, she took a deep breath of his scent, the controlled power coming off him in waves, and she inched forward. It was more than a little intoxicating to watch as he pressed himself harder against the shower, trying to keep his hands from her. A crease forming between his brows as she took a full step closer to him.

  “Stop,” he growled, eyes black as he breathed in the slick coating the tops of her thighs. “I don’t want to frighten you, Omega.”

  Karissa froze, not even a full arm’s length away as the steam of the shower rolled out against their legs. “Then stop growling,” she replied, keeping her eyes on his as he studied her face.

  It was a moment longer before Jeden’s growl trailed off, but he didn’t move from his tense position against the edge of the shower. Instead, he jerked his head to the inside. “Get under the water. Now.”

  The command made her bristle, her temper spiking through the haze of lust. “I’m not one of your brothers, you don’t get to command me.”

  His growl returned, voice low and dangerous. “No, you are ours, Omega, which means you will serve.”

  “I’m not yours!” she shouted, taking a step back, and Jeden lunged for her. Fingers digging into her upper arms to shove her into the shower, holding her under the stream as she sputtered and cursed. Karissa felt the growl spark in her chest, teeth bared as she reached up to grab onto his wrists. “Let go of me.�
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  His grip tightened, likely bruising her, but he stayed back even when she clawed her nails over his forearms hard enough to draw blood. The coppery scent faded quickly under the rushing water, her harsh breaths only tasting it on the air for a moment.

  “You said you didn’t want to frighten me,” she hissed, still growling, and she wanted to hurt him again. To rage at him, to scream, but instinct told her that would bring the others and she wasn’t even handling one of the males well.

  Jeden’s jaw twitched, his grip on her arms easing a little. Her words had affected him, although he wasn’t letting her move away. He was still the one with all the power, the one that was definitely not using all of his strength against her, which was even more infuriating. She hated feeling weak, hated him, hated all of them for doing this to her. “Breathe, Karissa.”

  “Fuck off,” she snapped. Ignoring him, she closed her eyes, balled her hands into fists, and tried to pretend he wasn’t there. Tried to pretend she couldn’t feel his hands on her. They had all chosen to be together, but she’d never had a choice. They’d never given her a choice, they had simply taken. Clenching her jaw, she tried to keep her rage burning, but the water washed away more than just his blood. It drained the scent of him from the air, dulled the lingering scents of the rest of them after a time, gave her mental space to think, and that was what made her finally take a deep breath. Testing the air on her tongue, she was relieved to taste nothing except the slightly metallic hint in the water. Probably the result of old pipes.

  Karissa was completely drenched by the time Jeden’s purr burrowed into her ears, forcing a calmness inside her as the heat finally sank into sore muscles. Shoulders relaxing, she tilted her face up to the water and swallowed a mouthful, and then another. Her thirst took over, and she drank deeply, wondering why she hadn’t realized the need before.