By the time he got off the train in the slums, he could already feel himself becoming dizzy and nauseous. He’d left his backpack at the junk shop but it wasn’t like he needed his hoverboard. He could just walk from here. The train station for the slums was at the top of a massive wall that had been erected and the stairs that led to it were old and barely managed to hold together. Those in the slums had tried, over the years, to fix it and keep it standing with an eclectic range of bandaids and fixes. 

The slums were lovingly dubbed the garbage dump of the city. And it wasn’t far from the truth. Simple services weren’t offered here. Even the AI tended to avoid the place. Some places didn’t have running water or electricity and heaps of rubble and garbage tended to be higher than the dilapidated houses. But while it was filthy, this was home. August had been born and raised here. He grew up on the streets, knew all the alleyways and secret hideaways. Most of the people living here were the elderly and disposed; Their rejected. 

He made it to the bottom of the stairs but stumbled and had to grab the railing as his stomach heaved and his world spun. Suppressants had once been made specially for an Alpha, using their own DNA so they worked flawlessly. Obviously suppressants were illegal so those that he did manage to get weren’t made for his body. Hence, everytime he took it, they made him violently sick. He managed to get his bearings and head left towards his neighborhood. He just needed to get home and lay down and he could sleep all this off. Then he would be good for another month. 

He took each step carefully, his world continuing to spin but he had been so focused on his feet that he hadn’t realized he’d taken a wrong turn. Suddenly, a wave of hot pain surged through his chest and he groaned, sliding down a crumbling brick wall to sit on the ground. Burning? That didn’t happen. He held his hand up but his eyes couldn’t focus on it. That did though. What was wrong with him? He trusted Collin and London but there was no telling who the new supplier was. What if they had given him something else? 

He couldn’t get to his feet. His heart hammered in his chest, feeling the rush of adrenaline through his veins. He could feel the aggression rising and it was only a moment later that he realized whatever he had taken had triggered his rut. There was a crunching of feet on gravel and a pair of legs stopped before him followed immediately by the overwhelming wave of Omega heat pheromones. He could feel himself slipping, becoming drowned by his rut and animal instincts. He snarled and reached for the other. Pin down, force submission, breed and claim. His inner Alpha repeated the words through his mind and, as the Omega skirted his reach, he shot off the ground with renewed strength. It became an aggravating chase of cat and mouse. The Omega knew the streets of the slums as well as he did and it was only their Omega scent that drove him after them. He didn’t remember any Omegas living in the slums. They had all been collected by Them.

Mine! His instincts screamed and he followed the scent around a corner.

The slam to his head disoriented him and he crashed immediately onto the pavement. Rage rose up instantly and he attempted to get up but he was being grabbed and pinned down. He snarled, and managed to elbow one attacker who gave a cry of pain and fell away. Kill them! Take what’s yours! He grabbed another attacker by their throat and easily tossed them aside. His rut had completely taken over, surging through his veins and increasing his testosterone. The attackers were nothing more than Betas. It would take more than a few of them to stop him. He couldn’t smell the Omega anymore and it was making him erratic. He managed to get to his feet, fighting off the hands attempting to hold him down but it was another blow to his head that had him collapsing onto the pavement once more. 

He saw white, his head pounding and the taste of blood in his mouth. But it had knocked him into a conscious state. Immediately he realized the gravity of his situation. This was much too planned to be a coincidence. His arms were pinned behind his back and he was forced onto his knees. He struggled but they managed to secure his wrists with cuffs. He could hear the whirl and click as they imprinted his captor’s fingerprint and made them impossible to break free from without them. 

His attention was brought immediately to a man standing before him. Bright red hair stood out from the bleak and dark surroundings of the slums and the grin he offered down at him was certainly not friendly. It was his fangs that had August’s blood running cold. They had captured him.

“Imagine my surprise when I discovered an Alpha living in the slums! Do you know just how rare you are? Don’t worry, I won’t hurt you. At least, not too much.” The man crouched down in front of him and August could feel the heavy presence of Them radiating from him. It almost had him shrinking away, had he not been in the throes of rut. “When I began to investigate you, you became a sort of enigma. I couldn’t find traces of you anywhere. I found it strange that the same blood from a person showed up on two different farming days. So I looked into the footage and found you trading blood to keep your own. Crafty but it won’t happen again. That worker you bribed is dead now. And when I went to your place of work, I found it mysteriously empty. So I made sure you couldn’t go back by burning it down.”

August’s eyes widened and his face paled which only seemed to excite the other more. “You did well to hide yourself.” From his pocket, he pulled out an exact copy of the suppressant he had just taken. “I’ve had a man on the streets for a while, scouting out those who take them illegally. You managed to hide for a while until I took out the competition.” He used the end of the pen to lift August’s face so he could see it better. “You’re not too bad to look at either. A little rut inducer and you fell into my hands so easily.”

“What do you want with me?” August demanded, trying to shrug off the hands of the others who held onto him. Humans. And they were working for Them. Disgusting. 

The male tapped the end of the pen on his chin as he contemplated his demanded question. “Hmmm I wonder…” He stood up and the others holding him made him stand to his feet. He swayed, heat rushing through his chest; a reminder that his rut was still very much active. There was a black sedan parked down the alley and it was this direction that he was brought to. He tried to stick his heels in, to refuse to move towards them but he wasn’t as strong as he had been with his wrists cuffed behind him and he was manhandled over to it. The male opened a back door and immediately, the scent of heat pheromones rushed out.

Inside, the Omega he had been chasing had slumped down in the backseat, face flushed and desperately trying to get themselves off, slick wetting the leather seat. The pheromones had his inner Alpha rising immediately as he took in the sight. Take, breed! Mine! However, before he was even given a chance to take what he wanted, there was a stab of a needle into the side of his neck before he was thrown into the backseat. The sedative worked fast and he was only briefly aware of the Omega reaching for him before he was dragged under. He had never felt so stupid in his life.