I was an omega. Fated to spread my legs and be used by an alpha.
If the suppressant was ever destroyed, I’d be weak to my own powerful urges. Even if I didn’t want to, my body would force me to obey. In the presence of an alpha, I would go into heat. I’d be soaking wet and begging for him to knot me, to fill me with his cum, and to breed me. I would become a creature obsessed with primal needs, powered by potent pheromones and overwhelming urges to be mated.
I’d seen it happen.
Two distinct individuals, resistant to the suppressant. Almost as if by fate, the male was an alpha, and she, an omega. He’d torn through a packed day market to get to her. People had been injured, some even killed in the ensuing disaster.
Our urges were dangerous.
I closed my eyes and tried to focus on something else.
“You alright there, Raven?” Alix pressed. His brow furrowed with concern as his dark blue eyes studied mine. I imagined the color of his eyes looked much like the ocean, but I’d never seen it. No one living in the cities had.
“I’m fine. Just trying to remember if I forgot anything back in the city,” I lied. His eyes narrowed just slightly, but he didn’t push me for answers. Instead, he offered me a reprieve by mentioning our agenda for the next few days. The two of us busied ourselves by looking over our notes and assessing the exact area where we were likely to find the purple flower we needed. We aimed to collect both the petals of the plant and its roots, so that we’d be able to cultivate it back in Tharia without delay.
After several hours, though, the steam engines started to sputter sporadically.
“Fuck. Already?” I scoffed.
Steam-powered air technology was positively ancient, but we hadn’t had much of a choice. There weren’t many aircraft available, because they weren’t required for city life. Public transit trains got you wherever you wanted to go within the city, but that made planning my expedition difficult. Not a single train ventured outside the walls.
So, that meant our aircraft was really old, developed before the time of the Great War. I’d found it in a museum, for spirits’ sake.
The engines seized and the vessel shook violently. I lurched forward in my seat, but Alix’s arm shot forward, catching me from falling, and I thanked him quietly.
“Dammit. I think the steam amplifier is malfunctioning,” Alix shouted over the loud clunking. In the chamber behind ours, I could hear my security team scrambling to get to work. The airship began to slow until it finally lowered to the ground and skidded to a stop.
The whoosh of steam sounded loud to my ears and the door to our cabin sprang open. With a sigh, I descended the stairs and ventured outside in order to assess the damage.
Breathing in deep, I sighed contentedly. The fresh air was as wonderful as I could have imagined it would be.
I turned, watching as smoke rose from the aircraft that I had bought to facilitate our journey. My security detail surrounded the vessel, trying to figure out what was wrong, but even I knew it was useless. None of us knew how to repair steam technology.
The time of long-distance travel was long past.
I looked up into the cloudless blue sky, feeling the last tendrils of sunlight pass across my cheeks. I’d never felt or seen anything like it before. Such things were muted by the walls of the dome. A warm breeze tickled my nose and the scent of a thousand sweet smells pervaded my senses. The stale air inside Tharia was nothing compared to this. Out here, it was pure bliss.
Alix placed a steady hand on my shoulder as I observed everything that the wilds had to offer. Brilliant oranges and pinks painted the sky as the sun set on the horizon. I’d never seen so many shades of color in one single moment. It burned like fire on the horizon, slowly fading to a smoldering pink as night took hold. The two of us watched the men work on the aircraft in silence for the next half hour, until the darkness reigned king in the sky.
Several twinkling lights came into view and I gasped. The darker it got, the more I began to see.
“Stars,” I murmured in wonder.
Alix’s fingers squeezed my skin and I gasped as a single shooting star streaked across the sky. I set my mouth in a tight line, suddenly feeling a strong sense of determination. Every human deserved to witness such beauty. I would allow everyone access to it, once my experimental drug was complete. I breathed in the wild air deeply, hopeful for the future as Alix stood at my side.
A very long time ago, I would have called such a thing romantic, but those urges had been minimized into nothingness. Now, I wasn’t burdened with such distracting nonsense. I was focused on my mission and so was Alix.
Now that the sun was down though, it was really dark. My eyes only adjusted a little bit in the shadows, the trees rising impossibly high in the star-filled sky above.
“Well, we may as well prepare camp for the night, since the airship doesn’t seem to be going anywhere for the time being,” I said, and Alix grunted in agreement. Together, we ventured back inside our cabin and gathered supplies for the night. Blankets, pillows, lighters for a fire. Jasper went off and gathered some wood while Alix and I set up camp under the light of the rising moon.
Everything was quiet, and before long, the twelve of us surrounded a crackling fire. The entire experience was tranquil and all I could think about was bringing the same thing to the thousands of people living under the dome, to give them freedom in the truest sense.
Humanity deserved to know what this felt like.
The warmth of the fire drew me in, and I found it hard to focus on anything else. I watched each flame flicker and crackle before me, the myriad colors intoxicating to see. Alix sat beside me, quiet and observant but good company all the same. I was glad he had come along. His presence comforted me.
“Any word on the steam amplifier?” I eventually asked, and Jasper shook his head.