“Fuck you,” She almost snarled, her fight or flight mode activated in an instant. Her fingers slapped his feathery tentacles, the individual strands sentient as they tried to dig into her skin and pump her full of the change. Her horror growing as she realised how close he’d been from discovering her truth. And she flinched back, angry and afraid.

Too afraid, she was frightened the way a stray little cat would in the dark of an alley. Because Altair was a new sort of danger one that she couldn’t afford to have sitting around her and eager to eat up all her secrets. And the fear grew within her, turned cheeks ashen and hands clammy.

He hissed, the strands waving back to stand tight against his skin; they were ropes and snakes of glowing watery light reacting in vibrant colours, like a jellyfish’s own tentacles. The feathers were splitting into millions of individual angry spikes that aimed at her face, no longer peacock like and friendly.

They were now nothing like the pretty feathers she’d seen on an alien she once called an angel. And she knew without a doubt that the now separated strands would be just as toxic, and just as dangerous as a jellyfish’s poison. Perhaps it would be dripping with the most potent of aphrodisiac.

“Try it,” she threatened with a deepening glare, “try it and we’ll see who’s getting a new hole in their body. And I promise you it won’t be pretty. You’ll lose a couple of these little tails.” Her eyes narrowed. “Maybe even your dick.” She had to be strong, couldn’t allow him to feast on her emotions and taste her truth. And so she fought to stay with the strength, stay with Alpha Rue. Alpha Rue. Alpha Rue.

The anger spread across his face as he curled his fingers around a few, rubbing at them with a hiss. Altair was pissed, and he made that clear with a wince. He couldn’t use his powers on her, not when her hands were dripping with Seraphim’s orgasm. “Using Seraphimie’s cum on me, you’ve got the fucking nerve.”

“For the last time, I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she answered, feigned a shrug. The poseidon was proving to be a bigger problem than she thought, but at the same time her biggest weapon. And that gave her a flutter of confidence. “And you’re making a fool of yourself, because everyone’s watching you go batshit crazy.” Her eyes moved to Theo then froze, grew confused at the blank expression in his eyes, at the quiet from the crowd.

“Who said they were?” Altair smiled, let out a low chuckle at her reaction, his voice dipping into a sweet little tease. A song singing from a too pretty voice. “Stupid little mouse caught in a trap. Oh, what will you do now?”

“Move.” She rose, tugged him aside with a quick snatch of his wrist. He stumbled forward, his tentacles fluttering and rippling, a gasp wrenched free from his lips as he curled around her arm. But she didn’t give a damn, distracted by the view, distracted by his power. The horror that surged through her throat, boiled in her belly was a tsunami of fear.

She stood and stared at the Espers, clad in their uniforms and stoic, unmoving. The Guides held in time and space within their own capsule of animated talking, unable to continue speaking. He’d stopped time. Her eyes went straight to Valentino, and the eros remained, breathing and silent, quiet in his own irritated space upon the seat. His eyes darted lazily back to them with a scoff on his lip.

She saw him mouth the word ’fool’.

And now even Rue had to laugh at the absurdity of the situation, of his appearance in the equation. But she couldn’t deny the panic now rolling through her skin, the trepidation that burst free from her slightly shaking limbs now that she knew Altair could keep her within time forever. She turned back to him now, to the strange glaze in his eyes as she pulled her hands back from his sticky tentacles, wincing at the smack of each tiny little suction as they left her skin, at the thrum of heat that vanished the moment they were gone.

“You make him wait like your security? Listen in to every fuck?” she sat back down with a chuckle, but inside she was almost shitting herself. Her blinks growing rapid, but she held on, held tightly to the rush of adrenaline. “Dude, you’re sick.”

“Valentino’s always immune to my time stop,” Altair answered for her with a grin, his blinks a little slower, feigned an adorable innocent look. “He was so mad at me for a while, always had to wait patiently until I came. And I take a long time to cum,” he assured with a haughty laugh. “I can take as long as you want, baby.”

“Is this how you pick up your flings?” she rolled her eyes, sat back down with her arms crossed. “Hostage in time until they’re starving and sobbing, and the only way out is sucking your dick. No wonder you’ve had such a low success rate outside of time.” Her expression fell, and she shot him a look, serious and angry. “You can’t be fucking serious.”

His eyes widened, head tilting, eyes growing wide and innocent. He pouted, pursed adorable red lips, tutting with a shake of his head. “What do you think?”

She snarled, hands pushing to his throat, an action she’d done far too many times in Hakon. Her fingers wrapping around the delicate skin, and Altair threw his head back as she slammed him against the table with newfound strength. And somehow his back still arched, a moan still left his lips, whispery and porn-worthy, his body splayed out for her with a sweep of tentacles.

But a blink, and there was only darkness before her eyes. She gasped at the whistle of tentacles sharp against her skin, each pulling against her flesh— all hissing shards of pure energy. And before her desk now stood an enraged Valentino, billowing with endless storms behind his back. The air escaped from her lungs at the sight of an eros with eyes so dark and filled with rage it tore at her heart.

His tentacles were nothing like the velvety, friendly sapphire she was once used to.

Now ghostly apparitions of themselves, they were coils of airy, dark red energy that tore and flayed the tips of her skin where they hovered, creating a million paper cuts on her flesh. They didn’t exist as solid planes of velvet but were rippling of wind. And they were aimed at her wrist where her hands curved around Altair’s throat. Blood began to flow free from her hands, staining the white of Altair’s shirt crimson.

Fuck. She was cursing in her head, tasted her death on her tongue. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Only wit would allow her to live now. The sweat that beaded on her skin began to spill, dripping down the valley between her breasts.

“Valentino,” she blinked, decided on humour, because bullies could never stand someone confident. Could they? Fuck, but she surged forth, betting on their old ties as friends. “What happened to your penises?”

“Penises?” Altair let lose a bark of giggly laughter under her fingers, his legs pulling out to wrap around her hips. She growled, her fingers digging in against his throat, but he didn’t seem to care, and Valentino’s tornado of a tentacle dug deeper into her wrist, tearing flesh. “Did he always call your tentacles penises, Val? For fuck’s sake, this is exactly why—”

“Altair,” Valentino warned, a grouchy crazed hiss spilling free. His eyes darted back to hers, thick brows dipping lower, lips pulled into a thin angry, agonized line. God, she had never seen him so mad before. It was an odd expression on him. “Let go.”

“You have the upper hand here,” she answered with narrowed eyes, she nudged her chin towards Altair, a brow raised. “Let me leave.”

“Noooo,” the aphrodite whined, knees clamped around her waist, ass pressed tight against her crotch. The annoying little thing began to grind his hips against hers, giggles cute as he seemed to grow breathless with each shaky twist of his hips. His arms flailing around his sides. Altair was actually getting hard. Her eyes widened and he seemed to twitch, a little needy, his tongue flicking out to wet his lips.

Fuck, the brothers were the same. Exactly the same, and her mind darted to Valentino when she first met him, when he’d been just as crazy and just as horny. She bit her lips, held back the need to laugh, as Altair tried his best to entice her fake cock to stand. She didn’t know how she could find humour in the situation but she did, because he seemed that fucking stupid despite the knives practically ripping into her skin.

“D-do you like that?” Altair began to moan, and she’d think that he was just lying through the skin of his teeth if not for the hot, heavy bulge that began to grow between his legs. The ripple of his tendrils that seemed to flop around him, watery and slippery with his juices, flowed around her desk like a waterfall. The shades shifting from lilacs towards a sweet baby pink.

“Fucking hell,” she sighed, there was nothing he was doing that could get her sock cock to stand. “You didn’t tell him?” she smirked to Valentino, who didn’t seem quite as amused, but there was a spark in his eyes. And the snarl of his ghostly tentacles shifted into a whispery hum, the shards not quite as sharp nor as blood thirsty. “About my detachable dick.”

Altair blinked, seemed dazed, mouth struggling to form words. He was being weird. The Alphas everywhere on Hakon were weird. Rue decided then that every elite Alpha in Hakon had a screw loose in their heads. “D-detachable?” he blinked rapidly, breathes escaping into sweet little pants. He was prettier than she liked him to be, and her heart raced for an entirely different reason, her clit throbbing between her legs.

“Which means I felt nothing dumbass,” she sighed, eyes darting up to Valentino. “If you let me go, I’ll let you go. So, what’s your problem man?” She had to be strong, had to so that they couldn’t push her down, couldn’t find out the truth, couldn’t discover her biological sex, her status as an Omega. She bit down, jaw taut.

“Rue,” he snarled, teeth sharp, glinting in the light.

“Valentino,” she sighed, “we could have just ignored each other you know that, right?”

“I didn’t know they allowed prostitutes to attend Hakon.” And this time Valentino’s true feelings spilled free, a dangerous smirk brimming on his lips. “But they don’t care do they? Because you’re just learning to become a glorified whore.” Asshole, her lips pulled, and she sneered.

“So much anger,” Rue commented, thumbs digging into Altair’s skin as Valentino’s tentacles only trailed up her flesh, drenched in her blood. But the pain was nothing, adrenaline pumping through her skin. Faced with death, she was never afraid, or maybe she was too afraid. There was too much in the world to be afraid of, especially so for a tiny, weak human Omega like Rue. And perhaps Alpha Rue was a mask so strong that it could calm her heart. “Was a blocked number that big of a deal? Did I hurt your feelings? Emasculate you?”

Valentino barred his teeth, a hiss snarling free. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.”

His snarl was toxic, dripping with so much hatred it had her flinching in confusion. His body growing closer his tentacles rearing their heads behind him, slicing her cheek as they drew close. His eyes glowing with his hatred, radiating with his wrath. Madness traced the gaunt of his cheeks, the sharpness of his bones.

“You knew how much I wanted you,” Valentino hissed. “You fucking knew, and you spat in my face. You knew how much I needed you, and still you gave yourself away to everyone else but me. And for that I was punished by Eros. I was fucking punished. And you think it’s my pride that you broke? You broke everything. You ruined everything. You’re a sick son of a bitch that only cares about himself and I hate you. I hate you. I hate you so much I wish you were dead—”

There was a strangled gasp, a blank look in his eyes. A splutter through his lips as he seemed to grow dazed and lost, his eyes unseeing as he stood staring into hers. Even his tentacles seemed to recoil, hissing with a renewed frequency, drawing closer to her flesh, tearing at her skin. And she flinched at the almost chainsaw like screech of each writhing tendril, and now they were slashing at her skin, going deeper and deeper, vibrating as if they could touch bone. Each tendril swaying in the air, growing closer to her face, to her body, to her heart.

She could die.

Altair choked beneath her, hips twisting, breath catching in his throat. “Fuck, he’s in Rampa—”

Rue scoffed, hands pulled free from Altair’s throat, ignoring the slice of Valentino’s crazed tendrils as they writhed upon her skin, turning her arms bloody with cuts. But she fisted his shirt and pulled him down close. The tips of her fingers digging into his chest. He blinked, broke from whatever fucked up spell he’d been stuck in, gasping wildly for air. The tentacles fell, the hum grew soft.

“Valentino,” she said, solemn and careful. She searched his face, found the tremble of something raw in his eyes. A break of his walls as he focused upon her, no longer lost as he leaned into her touch, his tentacles now barely a whisper of energy. “You’re blaming me for things I did not do.”

“Rue—”

“I never once agreed to be your thing, and I told you that so many times. No means no. Don’t you get it? No. I will not be your boyfriend. No, I will not fuck you. My answer will not change. My answer will never change. You were mad because of that, and I blocked you because you were becoming too desperate, too needy. You didn’t want to listen to what I needed, you didn’t even care about my feelings. We could have been friends, we were friends. But you ruined that too,” she said, too soft, too calm, too honest. And the two Alphas seemed confused, their tentacles freezing, their bodies stiff. “I’m just so disappointed in what you’ve become.”

This had a spark that flashed through Valentino’s eyes, the golden rims disappearing into floods of something that glistened wet in his pupils. The oxygen that escaped his lips almost sounded like an ‘oh’.

And he faltered, curled into himself with a soft grunt, stumbling back as if she’d just kneed him in the nuts. The look in his eyes was strange, seemed as if his soul were dripping from the depths of his eyes that only grew wetter with each passing second. And suddenly, his tentacles were quiet, gone with the soft breeze.

“Wow,” Altair mumbled, hushed, and staring, a third party in the strange situation. “Oh fuck, wow.” Then his eyes were rolling back, toes curling, his feet kicking around her hips. His back arched, as his neck was revealed, scent gland exposed, pink lips parting. A throaty moan began from his chest and spilled free from bubble-gum pink lips.

And then she was left alone, the rush of air spilling around her as time began. The rise of sound from the voices of an ongoing class. The two were no longer by her side. Her desk was empty, but her arms remained flayed and bloodied with paper cuts, dripping crimson upon the wood.

She blinked, then stared at the space where they should be. But they were gone, had fled the lecture hall with the restart of time, and she was alone with her blood spilling across the wood. Theo stared at her, eye wide open and confused. And the relief was tremendous, the exhale seeping from her throat in a rush of almost tears. A dizziness returned, and she faltered unable to speak, almost unable to stand. Her chest burning with tension she didn’t know she had.

“What happened?” Theo asked, blinked twice as he glanced around. His single eye was trained upon the blood that she spilled across the desk. “Where did they—”

“I’m just going to go to the nurse’s office, that poison did a number on me,” she said, stood with a gesture towards her arm as Professor Ryu shot her a look of confusion. The wild surprise when he caught sight of the blood was expected, but she simply shrugged pointed to some books as if the edge of an illusionary paper could rip her skin into shreds like he had. “Books these days are so dangerous.”

“Those books aren’t even real,” Theo mumbled seemed confused. “I’ll text you, don’t worry about homework. I’ll take down notes.” But Rue was out of the door, heading off with her bag slung over her shoulders.

If she turned the right corner, had gone to the nurse’s office, maybe she would have found two aliens huddled in a corner. One with cum all over the front of his pants and blood all over his shirt, and the other sobbing his heart out into his hands, wailing so hard the dry sobs had him heaving and nauseas. Each breath was a struggle, and each whimper filled with the muffled plea for Altair to tell him that everything would be okay and things would be better.

But Rue didn’t turn that way, hadn’t bothered to go to any medical facility because that would be a risk to her place in the University. And so, she left the building with blood crusting on the sleeves of her coat, had sat outside in the snow lost in the wind.

Her blood was dripping, red and vibrant into powdery white snow. She’d hissed, pulled out ten band aids (the last of her stash), taping up the deeper gashes with a hasty curse. The sticky parts were glued to some cuts, and that had her wincing when her injuries pulled with the stretch of her fingers.

Rue knew that this wouldn’t be easy, that living with a bunch of crazy Alphas wouldn’t be an effortless, fun ride. But a flood of emotions burned through her chest, filled her with a begging need to quit and run. And she was full of a sudden strange need to cry. Because that had been too scary, way too fucking scary for her Omega to take. She exhaled, and even that came out shaky.

Rue sighed, felt for once the stress of being alone in a big bad world.

“I guess,” she decided with a soft laugh, and even that was wet and horribly weak. “I really need more band aids.” Her mood was horrible when she walked back to the dormitory with blood trailing down her skin, her head hung low. Her belly empty, her coat doing nothing to protect her from the snow. And when she strode to the dormitory wanting nothing more than to cry, she almost lost her will to live when two of the Alphas that she didn’t want to see stood at the doorway peering at her.