“I don't know, man. Her ID said beta, and the fucking thing scanned, but I'm telling you when I pulled her out of the car, blood shot right into my dick. I’ve never been so fucking hard in my life. Even just looking at her picture made it hard,” he said, pointing to his dick, which he often referred to as his “star player.”
I groaned. Was he capable of finishing a story coherently? Most of the time I tuned out his endless chatter, but right now I actually needed this information.
“Continue, Ryker.”
“Thanks for your concern about my star player, Tally. He was all squished up in those uniform pants. It was painful. Anyway, I tried to scent her, but she smelled horrible. She was wearing a nasty lotion that made me feel sick. It was like she was trying to hide something, so I tried to smell her natural scent underneath, but it was so faint and my nose isn’t as good as yours. Maybe I’m wrong, but even if she isn’t an omega, we can still fuck her. She’s here at the bar. Just have your wolf give it a good sniff and see what the beast thinks.”
“For the millionth time, stop calling me Tally.”
“Jeez, you're fucking touchy tonight, Tally! Just smell the fucking string.”
"I will. If you stop talking, Ryker."
He fell silent for a second... then started humming.
I shot him a glare. "And no humming."
That finally shut him up.
I dangled the string in front of my nose. I hadn’t tried scenting an item quite so small, but a shifter’s sense of smell was stronger and more accurate than even an alpha’s. If I couldn’t smell her natural scent, it couldn’t be done. Our olfactory receptors were 100,000 times more accurate than beta receptors. We could smell things from miles away and track targets better than the military hounds. That’s what made shifters so valuable to Arca. I regularly led search and recovery missions for high-value targets because of my tracking skills.
When I first enlisted, Arca had also used me for a shocking amount of experiments and testing. I’d sit in the sterile science lab, the smell of antiseptic thick in the air, my arm outstretched as they drew vial after vial of blood. Every week, without fail, they forced me to take part in shifting tests. I was monitored, measured, and pushed to my limits like some kind of lab rat. They poked, prodded, and observed, jotting down notes on their stupid clipboards as if I weren’t even human.
The process was always the same: needles, questions, cold metal instruments, and the low hum of machines that seemed to watch me as closely as the scientists did. Repeatedly, like I was just a specimen instead of a person. I suppose that's where I developed my sexual preference for pain and inflicting pain. That, and the familiar pain I felt during a shift of course.
A decade later of working my way through the ranks, I was valuable enough that I was no longer at the mercy of the Arca scientists' never-ending experiments and testing. Shifters were harder to come by when I had first enlisted, and now there were newer, younger shifters more than willing to fill the test subject role in exchange for comfortable postings, luxury Arca housing,and extra privileges. Only a few of us existed, but it was enough to keep me off the science department’s radar.
My wolf was rabid. It was howling, clawing at the inside of my skin. The second Ryker mentioned an omega, it started pacing, desperate to break free and scent her for itself.
I lifted the string to my nose and inhaled deeply. Instantly, I recoiled. The stench hit me like a slap. A grotesque, floral smell, sharp and chemical, so overpowering it burned my nostrils and turned my stomach. I shot Ryker a pissed-look, but he just motioned for me to try again.
Reluctantly, I brought the string back to my nose and this time I let my wolf rise a little closer to the surface. Its senses were sharper than mine. I inhaled, and sure enough, beneath that thick layer of perfume, something else was faintly present.
There it was.
Warm. Sweet. Barely there.
But real.
A subtle hint of almond, vanilla, and honey, delicate enough to miss unless you knew what you were looking for. There was no way it was detectable by anyone other than a shifter.
At first, I thought the smell was too faint to be an omega scent, unless she was taking suppressants. Weeping violet had unusual properties and could alter scent, hence why Arca had made it illegal. I had no idea how the hell Ryker figured it out, but I was pretty sure he was right.
Beneath it all, she smelled like an omega.
A hidden one.
A suppressed one.
“Well,shit, I guess we aren’t going to The Rusty Tap. Let’s go recover this omega,” I said, confirming Ryker’s suspicion.
He grinned from ear to ear, and my wolf howled with excitement, reciting the same word over and over in my head: Mate.
Chapter 7: Ryker
Iwas fucking giddy. I knew there was something different about the feisty kitten from the checkpoint. She was like a siren calling out to my cock. My star player knew right away and had been painfully erect ever since seeing her.
Tally suspected she was taking suppressants, which is why her natural scent was so faint. Suppressants were illegal, and so were most of the ingredients used to make them. Still, people had ways of getting their hands on them, just like everything else outlawed by Arca.