Lockdown Read online

  Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Omega City

  Chapter One

  Lockdown

  An Omega’s Lie

  By Carmen Hunter

  ©2019 Carmen Hunter

  All rights reserved.

  No part of the book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including a photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the author. The Only Exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author's imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  * this book is intended for adults only and contains scenes of a sexual nature featuring total power exchange which may make some readers uncomfortable. This book handles triggering content including torture, dubcon (consent gained by dubious means), and emotional manipulation. Read at your own discretion.

  It’s been five hundred years since contact between neighboring countries na’Asisrah and Hopelen. After being locked behind two great walls to protect themselves from the Plague of the outside world, first contact came in the form of a betrayal.

  One that only Purslane can pay for. Left behind by her own king, the forbidden allure of their Beta captive has the four Princes of na'Asisrah on edge. With their mate stolen by the traitor Nerium, no one can fulfill their darkest desires. No one except for her.

  And each one of them have their own plan on punishing and shaming Purslane in the most humiliating way possible to make up for the crimes of her king.

  But Purslane has a secret. One that might trap her with these savage Alpha’s forever if they find out. She’s an Omega, one of the only breedable females in the world.

  Which meant she would be the perfect trade for their stolen mate.

  Lockdown: An Omega’s Lie is Book 1 in a sinister, dark Omegaverse Reverse Harem series that takes place in the Lockdown universe. A world with three surviving countries trapped behind grand walls to keep the horrors of the outside world at bay. For those who adore twisted tales and complete power exchange, this book has a dark ending with no light at the end of the tunnel. You’ll have to get to the end of the series for that.

  Chapter One

  13 days without Suppressant

  It hurts.

  The endless drip of icy water on Purslane’s shoulder was a pleasant distraction to the rope chafed wrist, the crudely set in place finger, and swollen feet. But none of it took away from the constant burn of her lungs.

  When the door opened, a small trickle of light fell across her face feeling brighter than the sun when it hit tender eyes used to darkness. Dread sat low in Purslane’s belly, the soft mewl she released unintentional. The thought of what they’d do if it were discovered she’s an Omega… and not the Beta she claimed to be, was petrifying.

  She'd kept her mouth shut and said nothing when Nerium ordered her silence. But this had been going on for so long, and Pur knew her ability to hold out was on a time limit. Not saying a word to a single one of these horrible Alphas was her top priority, but this mission was doomed to failure.

  Purslane lost the struggle to lift her head and gaze at whoever walked in, the ache in her back pounding as her head sagged. When calloused fingers raised her chin, she hissed. Back hands, slapping, the man’s fingers caught on all of those bruises. “This could all be over for you, little lady.”

  Nerium claimed before he fled from na’Asisrah that the men here would not only invade her body, but her country if she broke. Innocent people would suffer if she confessed, and that wasn’t a lie. After all, she knew how these men treated their Omega’s. They were reduced to creatures whose only worth came from the unbridled pleasure they gave and the children they birthed. They were prizes to be mounted. Shown off for sexual prowess.

  Her heart stuttered, swollen eyes dragging open. “Delavar,” she breathed as instinctual approval swelled tight against her ribcage. His face was as terrifying as any First Alpha’s should be. The crook of his nose came from multiple breaks, and the scar that ran down one cheek was from claw marks that pulled his lips into a permanent scowl. But through it all, true savagery was only achieved by the ruffled black curls hanging loose around his shoulders, untamed and the rough beard engulfing his chin.

  Each day Purslane hated the princes of na Asisrah for hurting her, yet recognized it as nothing compared to the inevitable humiliation that awaited. When the suppressant keeping her Omega instincts at bay faded, then a true reckoning would come. Already a mushy understanding of why they were doing this clouded her thoughts: she loathed the empathy coiled tight in her chest more than them. Because it came from it - whatever thing that made her an Omega.

  “Please kill me.” During days spent basking in the sun, Purslane didn’t recognize that Delavar was the most feared man in na’Asisrah other than his father. Instinct deemed him sweet. Strangely - and undeniably likable. Before this began he was dear to her, even while living life as a Beta. A third-class citizen whose greatest treasure was freedom. In that freedom, no Beta was told who to love, let alone that they couldn’t love because their bodies were better used as breeding factories.

  However, she would not forget Delavar was the one to drag her out of bed. The one who left the very first bruise around her arm as he shook and shook. Purslane knew very well he could do what she wanted and lose little sleep. He could, “Kill me.”

  Obsidian eyes held no mercy. “Tell me how to cross the Forest.” They same question as before. He wants to cross a jungle growing beyond the great wall designed to keep those inside it safe. The jungle that killed any, and all who passed through it. The one that only she knew how to cross now that King Nerium escaped na’Asisrah’s grasp.

  A soft bleating sound left her lips as Purslane shook her head, but his grip on her jaw tightened to hold her still. “You wouldn’t-”

  “No, I wouldn’t tell you either.” He agreed. “I would’ve died on my sword before allowing myself to be caught.”

  His words were accusing, as if she had only herself to blame for such a fate. As if it were he, and not his brother Roarke, refusing to take part in the torture of an innocent woman. Had anyone else been so brave, Delavar would have ripped them limb from limb.

  Their other two pack mates participated without qualm. After all, in the end it was Doran and Conall, who had their promised mate stolen. And her King who’d done the stealing. And her lips that kept the secret of where to cross the Forest of Arla.

  When rough hands reached for her wrists, Purslane thought anyone would do the same for family. Except she didn’t know who she meant. Her, for keeping silent… or them for trying to find a mate and a sister.

  Swiftly, she shoved the unwelcome thoughts away, hating the soft heart that still rang with pity for their loss. If it was just selling out King Nerium she wouldn’t hesitate to speak, but they wanted to burn the whole country in vengeance for Delavar and Roarke’s sister -- Conall and Doran’s mate. Her native Hopelen was her family, and like these brutes she would do anything, put up with anything, to protect it.

  Even if it meant facing down the cruelest Alpha’s she’d ever known while the suppressants hiding her Omega scent faded.

  His claws shred apart the thick rope with a sudden snap, and Purslane jerked free. A confused so
und tore from her throat as limp limbs fell worthless at her sides, weak from lack of use. The look in Delavar’s eyes said he despised her, but the tenderness in his arms told another story when he cradled her against his chest.

  It felt almost like being comforted.

  As he took Pur from the dungeon, the lights were so bright it made her eyes water. When she first arrived in na’Asisrah, it was intriguing to see the crumbling architecture of a bygone era fused with copper pipes for steam power.

  After being sealed away and separated from each other behind two great walls five hundred years ago during the Great Plague, na’Asisrah and Hopelen were more or less alien to each other. Without the ability to expand, to trade, it all came down to what was left inside each individual country’s wall to develop through the years.

  In Hopelen’s case, they’d torn everything down through the ages and built it back up in pristine glory. In na’Asisrah, or at least the city of Tel Kharnis, they’d left the infrastructure intact, instead building and adding to it. After months hidden among the beasts as a Beta, Purslane knew old buildings weren’t the only thing left over from hundreds of years ago. Inhabitants held fast to the old barbaric traditions of conquering and domination.

  Maybe it was time for a public execution - an exercise Hopelen had gotten rid of centuries ago. Was she to march in nothing but a soiled nightgown and parade in front of those who saw her in golden fineness two weeks prior? Purslane noticed no blood thirsty cheers echoed through the halls to confirm her theories, only the soft click of Delavar’s shoes on tile.

  A door was thrown open.

  Newfound humidity hit her lungs like a punch to the gut and had her hacking. Unable to resist a peek, Purslane peeled her eyes open. A tub full of steamy beautiful water displayed an image of heaven and hell mixed into one boiling mess. It would hurt so good being scrubbed clean again.

  “Come.” Placed on her feet, Purslane wobbled, gritting her teeth in humiliation when she had to lean against this monster for balance. Had Purslane been born in Tel Kharnis, she wouldn’t be swaying back and forth as she was now, even when the demon left her side to mix bubbles into bath water. She would have ripped his throat out by now, or at least tried to.

  Delavar might not have hit her himself in the beginning, but he’s the one who first ordered it. And he’s the only one who starved her. Who refused to let Purslane sleep until the walls began to move like lungs, collapsing and expanding.

  Thinking hurt both then and now. It’s hard to keep her mind from fading into a blind stutter as he added oils and soap to the water. Even wishing away her captors took too much energy. It’s not until rough hands reached for the torn rags covering her bruised body that her brain fired up again. “No.” Tongue heavy, her slur carried less weight than her pathetic attempt to shove his hands away.

  When Delavar failed in the dungeon, he released his pack mates on her. Driven mad by the loss of their promised mate, Doran and Conall had more incentive to break her than anyone else. And it was this man who’d thrown her to them. Omega’s were more valuable unbonded and usable to all Alpha’s who wanted to stick their dick in something. With so little of them available, even grand Alpha Prince’s were lucky to get one to share between themselves. And they were very unhappy to lose theirs.

  She couldn’t go back to them.

  “Behave Beta,” pointed teeth snapped close to her face and made Purslane tremble, but obey. Delavar stripped her bare, eyes lingering on the soft swell of her breasts and the blonde tuft of hair between her legs. When she hid her shame by forcing leaden arms over bruised flesh, his jaw tightened. He said nothing, only lifting her from the floor and placing her into the scalding bathwater.

  On impact a scream almost escaped Purslane’s throat. Her nails drew blood as she clung to Delavar’s bicep and tried not to buck from the boiling cauldron. Scarlet tear drops swelled and washed into the tub from his arm, but Delavar acted as if it were nothing. Compared to what caused the grime being washed off her skin, fogging the once clear bath water with putrid grey, it wasn’t.

  Soft fabric scrubbed at the blood, sweat and tears crusted to Purslane’s skin. Once it was the color of milk, now it’s a sallow gray. When his hand dipped between her thighs she couldn’t help but cry out, legs clamping down. The resulting growl from Delvar reverberated from him and right through her chest. It was so loud it made her teeth rattle.

  Black eyes said he was being kind by allowing Pur’s refusal to go unpunished, but the twitch of Delavars brow said his charity wouldn’t last. When her legs fell open, Delavar mapped every shameful inch of her through the protection of his rag.

  Behind tan breeches, an unmistakable reaction to her naked body was clear. It’s beneath him her brain tried to rationalize. Beneath every Magen that resided in Tel Kharnis. They ruled over na’Asisrah with plenty of sharable Omega’s to fuck and breed. They were a family who wouldn’t degrade themselves by succumbing to a Beta when no children could ever come of it.

  Delavar didn’t need to disgrace himself by stooping to Purslane’s level. Even while rough hands caressed and tweaked under water, cleaning her to be presentable again for whatever reason, she had to think it meant nothing.

  Yet the memory of Delavar’s dark bangs brushing against her forehead burned hot in her mind. He used to lean in close and smile, uncaring of her ‘lesser’ heritage before this began. It made it harder not to consider the alternative.

  If Purslane acted like one of their penned Omega’s, if she bent over for someone to breed her cunt and mark her neck, it would all be over. If she were an Omega - then Nerium stealing Shira would just be a trade. One bitch for another. Fair even, since Shira was a blood sister to two of the Magen pack mates. Not all of them could breed her, and that would create a rift when they tried.

  But with Purslane…

  No, she was more than that, more than what any Alpha from Tel Kharnis would want her to be. When his fingers reached the cramped muscles of her back to knead the knotted flesh, she couldn’t help mewling in delight. Black eyes snapped to hers, and fear overtook relaxation at the intensity of Delavar’s stare. He continued to work her nape, watching for a reaction. Aggravation began to set in, turning his touch rougher as a soft growl leaked past scowling lips.

  “Make that sound again. I want to hear it.”

  What came out this time was a muffled whine, yet his cock jumped in anticipation anyway. It was then at the sight of further swelling behind Delavar’s trousers that Purslane lurched, trying to scramble out of the tub. He caught her with a roar, water sloshing onto the floor.

  With his grip tight on her throat, the now wet fabric from his shirt clung to Pur’s back while her keens of despair filled delight echoed about the room. Delavar groaned as he began to jerk against her buttocks, lips nibbling at her ear. “I’ll excuse that just this once. But you will learn to do as commanded, Pur.”

  Tears leaked from the corner of her eyes, but still she nodded.

  The revolting sensation of something squishing against her bare skin grounded Purslane to the present with horrid clarity. A heady smell of Alpha cum hit her nose, and oh, it made her belly tight. If that were not awful enough, deep in her bones a horrible call for more created a pounding tempo between her thighs. It was a demand from nature that said she’d oppressed the truth long enough. Purslane wanted that instinct shoved deep down. Buried.

  A mewl of delight left her lips as she stretched eagerly so he could rub against her ass easier. “Delavar~” she pushed back against his hand, and with a wiggle urged him to massage instead of merely finding his own pleasure.

  With a chuckle, Delavar washed soap from her skin before beginning to rub away the tension of her muscles once more. “I heard you have eighteen suitors back in Hopelen. It’s no wonder. Conall said he never tried to fuck you because you look so much like an Omega. A tempting Beta whore like you. Of course you'd be popular.”

  “Your hands,” she moaned, somewhere between bliss and self pity. How was she
supposed to respond when his rough touching felt so good? And why was it her fault men always gave attention where it wasn’t wanted?

  “Some weaker men like him have been asking about you. They wonder if you ever tried taking a knot.” While continuing to rub her body, black eyes narrowed. All as if he desired to form the same question.

  With enormous willpower Purslane leaned her arms on the side of the tub, arching to get away from his touch with a sad sound. If status mattered to an Alpha the way it did to an Omega, only the names of noble, trustworthy men would be on her list of suitors. Instead it’s full of Alpha’s eager to take her suppressants away. Those who want to see her suffer through the heat, a haze that would turn her into a pleasing creature of pure lust.

  How could Purslane refuse the most powerful Alpha’s in Hopelen and end up here? “Please-” the sound of her begging only quickened Delavar’s pace as he wrenched her hops against his, violent snarls ripping from the depths of his throat.

  “Tell me where she is, and it stops.” he groaned, lifting Purslane out of the tub in dark olive toned arms. They bulged with muscle that could break her in half, and her next moan wasn’t confused about whether to be delighted or terrified.

  “I’m beneath you, you promised!”

  “Promised?” his voice sounded like it was mixed with gravel from disuse. “It was something I said to stop a slutty Beta bitch from sniffing around where she didn’t belong.” Tears blossomed in Purslane’s eyes so she pinched them closed to keep the little diamonds from falling.

  “Doran said you weren’t lying,” she cringed at the snap of teeth close to her cheek, but tried again. “He said-” they could never desire a Beta like her. Why did she let them plant such a lovely seed of deception in her heart?

  “Don’t mention another man, little lady. Pay attention to me, just me.”

  Sobs threatened in her throat as Delavar forced the tips of her fingers to press against the head of his cock. Still straining against leather breeches, the leaking organ jumped at the soft touch.