Alphas in the Mansion

For the first time in her life, Cecilia had found herself in someone else’s bed.

Not only a bed, but a room of pure splendor. Diamonds glinted from the elegant limbs of a chandelier, washing the velvet curtains on the walls in shards of light. Gourmet food had been arranged delicately on platters, which sat atop a long, cloth-draped table. The sound of smooth piano music floated gently in the air.

Though mostly dark and lit by candles and that single lovely chandelier in the distance, the reflections of the diamonds speckled the room in stars. The piano music, sweet as it sounded, felt ominous. Intoxicating. The world had long gone to sleep, but the mansion was awake with the sounds and smells of temptation.

Someone watched her from a chair, his eyes low and calculative. His fingers wrapped around the filter of a cigarette. He was naked, muscled, beautiful. The cherry of his cigarette glowed alight as he breathed it in.

An Alpha.

As she took in her surroundings, Cecilia saw only bare flesh. The carnal muscles and handsome faces of four more Alphas, tangled around her. One curled her hair between his fingers. One held her hand to his mouth, brushing a feather-light kiss against her knuckles. She rested against the chests of two of them, their laughter soft in her ears and their bodies pressed warm against her shoulders.

The Alphas’ fingers moved down her naked flesh, casting chills where they went. Hot, gentle lines were drawn on the insides of her thighs, her chest, her stomach.

“What mood are you in tonight, Cecelia?” whispered one of the men into her ear. His voice was smooth, low and pleasant as his lips brushed her skin.

“Do you want to play rough?”

“You’re too selfish with her,” said another. This one seemed younger, rested behind her where she leaned against his naked chest. He tilted her head up sweetly beneath this chin and kissed the corner of her mouth, saying against her lips, “Let us hear you.”

For some reason, she began to sing, her voice trembling with want.

A hot mouth pressed roughly to her neck and she gave a small gasp, clutching onto the stranger’s hair.

“Keep singing,” whispered the boy, his lips grazing her cheek.

A hand clasped her chin and turned it roughly the other way, where she found herself gazing into the eyes of another alpha—this one older, stronger. “I’ll make her sing like a bell,” he said, a sexy grin crossing his face.

She took to singing again, as hands moved over her breasts, her nipples, between her legs—teasing her with tickles and gentle touches. She held onto her song, moaning helplessly between the uneven words.

Was this a dream, Cecilia thought?

Then the man from the chair rose and flicked his cigarette to the floor.

“Move,” he said, his voice a low mutter that did not fail to command the room. The hands left Cecilia in reluctant forfeit as the Alpha approached the bed, his dark eyes biting into her. She felt him coming, like a storm looming on the horizon. An air of threat around him, his presence overpowering.

He took her hand and brought it to his stomach, splaying her fingers against the firm, disciplined muscles. She could feel his heartbeat, the sheer fire radiating from his skin. Then he reached down and touched her lips with his thumb, admiring the look of desperation on her face.

“There are other sounds I’d rather hear from you,” he said. Then he leaned in and kissed her, his tongue like fire against her own, his large hand grabbing fiercely at her thigh.

An Alpha, Cecilia realized once more. She was kissing an Alpha.

This was no dream. It was a nightmare.

“No!!!”

Cecilia shot up, gasping for breath. Her hair stuck to her face with sweat and she shoved it away in a panic, heaving a large sigh of relief at the sight of her bedroom. The morning light came in through her tattered curtains, leaving golden streaks on the dusty floors and the old bookshelf across from her bed, which proudly displayed her textbooks on hotel management.

Another jolt of fear ran through her as she snatched her alarm clock from her nightstand table. 10:01 blinked back at her and she gave another deep sigh of relief. She had slept in, but only by half-an-hour. She still had plenty of time to prepare for her interview.

Cecilia laid back to let her heart settle.

Housekeeping at a mansion, she thought. A mix of thrill and fear trilled through her. She had never known luxury like that, and the pay was too good to pass up. But a mansion could mean one thing and one thing only. She would be working under the same roof as an Alpha.

No one else could ever afford that.

She packed her bags as she’d been instructed to do and left her apartment, the slums where she lived. She walked past the degrading complex units, and on the entire bus ride out of town. When she was close enough to the outskirts of the city where the mansion awaited her, Cecilia stumbled off of the filthy bus.

Here, no one knew her as anything more than Cecilia—a future hotel manager with determination up her sleeves and ferocity under her belt. That’s right, she told herself. You’re confident and smart and definitely overqualified. You’re going to nail this interview.

But as she approached the address, her confidence wore thin at the sight of the large wrought iron gates. The tall, vertical bars wrapped the distant mansion, which sat large and lustrous at the end of the gravel drive. She had never seen such a thing in her life—tall, castle-like towers made of brick, where vines and moss grew whimsically up the edges. Large, stain-glassed windows and giant rose bushes reaching for them from the ground below.

A sense of wrong rocked through her. She wasn’t meant to be here.

Someone like her was never meant to leave the filthy Omega slums she was born in.

She gripped the bars of the gate and peered through them at the lovely mansion with its tall, wisteria trees and its lush garden. Sadness overcame her. Her mother would have loved to see flowers like these in real life.

But there were no flowers in the slum.

Like Cecilia, her mother was an Omega—but a beautiful one. She was so beautiful in fact, her beauty had garnered the attention of an Alpha, who claimed her at the young age of eighteen. A despicable man who impregnated her and tossed her aside like trash.

To most, that was all Omegas ever were. Slutty Trash.

Her mother raised her alone, facing the adversity all Omegas were cursed to face. She worked herself to the bone to afford an education for her child. Omegas were lesser people to the eyes of Betas and Alphas. Without a college degree, they were uneducated scum, tossed aside by employers for a better breed.

She felt ashamed of herself as she gazed upon the mansion in the distance. Her mother had such hopes for her and yet here she was, walking in her heavy footsteps. Cleaning up someone else’s filth—an Alpha at that. Just like the one that had ruined her mother’s life. The disgusting creatin she would never call a father.

And here she was, serving them like a slave.

But she need that money The pay was beyond her expectations, and Cecilia had learned from her mother’s mistakes and taken every approach to avoid them herself. Certain she never wanted to be used and disposed of by an Alpha as her mother had, she began taking inhibitors the moment she turned sixteen. So long as she took them, she could avoid going into estrus as the slightest exposure to an Alpha’s pheromones—something only Omegas had to endure.

There were negative side effects to inhibitors, surely, but they allowed her to go on living her life under the guise of a Beta. Her mother had worked too hard to provide her the means of a life beyond the slum for her to be trapped there with an Alpha’s child. No. She wouldn’t allow the cycle to continue.

“You must be here for the interview,” came a voice over the gate speakers. Cecilia jumped, quickly releasing the bars, as if she wasn’t meant to touch the gate.

“Ah—uh, yes.”

“Wonderful,” said the voice again. “If you’ll make your way to the front doors, please.”

The gates cracked open and Cecilia wandered past them, taking in her surroundings as she walked the gravel drive. The world within was alive with birds and bees and the sweet smell of wildflowers. Plants grew wide and vibrant from gardens that stretched high against the gate walls.

The mansion nearly swallowed her whole as she approached it, the large wooden doors opening wide as she touched the first step. A bald-headed servant stood there, looking bored as he waited for her to climb the veranda.

“Welcome,” he said, gesturing her in. “Allow me to give you a tour.”

He led her through a world of rich wood and vibrant tungsten lights. Of rich smells and faint music. The mansion was much more modern than it appeared on the outside, with large, pane glass windows and luxurious leather furniture, and vases with flowers on nearly every table and alcove. He led her down a corridor with doors on either side, and as he did, a sudden smell touched the air.

She stopped walking.

Pheromones.

Cecilia reached for the pocket in her bag where she kept her inhibitors, ensuring the case was still there.

It’ll be okay, she told herself. Nothing will happen so long as I’ve got these.

Still, it was strange to be recruited to such a luxurious building. She had never stepped foot in a place like this and now she would be spending every day here? The possibility of failing the interview made her stomach turn. Inhibitors weren’t cheap and she was barely making ends meet since college. She would never find an opportunity like this anywhere else.

She recalled her last conversation with Mia, her cheery, effervescent voice still tickling her eardrums. “Everything will be fine,” she said, “my parents have connections. One of their lawyer friends knows the landlord. I talked you up a lot—and come on, a degree in hotel management? You know everything there is to know, already.”

Mia was her best friend. She wouldn’t let her down.

As the tour came to an end, the servant led Cecilia to a vacant room on the first floor and opened the door for her. “Unfortunately, news came just before your arrival. The owners won’t be returning until tomorrow. I apologize for the inconvenience, but we’ll have to delay your interview. This will be your room for the night. The bathroom is located across the hall—feel free to call upon any of the servants for whatever you may need.”

Despite her unease, Cecilia enjoyed the hearty dinner and comfortable bed that the mansion supplied. A free vacation, she figured, with a television that actually worked and a bed that wasn’t broken and slumped in the middle. And when night fell, she showered in luxurious soaps, wrapped up in plush cotton towels, and dressed in the pajamas Mia had advised her to bring just incase something like this came up.

It was not long before the downy pillows and rich duvet cradled her into a sleepy bliss. She fell into a kind of sleep she couldn’t drag herself away from—even when a fire began to take over her body, and a terrible thirst quenched her throat.

Something was wrong. A thread within her was being pulled. A nagging, almost painful sensation began to build within her. The feeling was vaguely familiar, like something she’d felt long ago. Something she hadn’t felt in years.

Estrus.