Alta. Froze. 

It was too soon. 

His hand stayed on the cold metal of the lock, but the dread, the heaviest feeling in his chest settled so suddenly it felt like his lungs had stopped moving. He didn’t turn around. Not yet. The name wasn’t shouted, wasn’t even spoken loudly. It was said in a tone so calm it twisted in the air like a knife poised at the edge of skin, waiting to draw blood. 

Alta barely registered the pain in his abdomen, the all too familiar tell that the curse was taking its hold. His body shaped into something it wasn’t, the pheromones he had just stopped being able to smell, filling his nose as if they’d never left as his NPP reactivated. The wave hit so hard it bent him forward with a choked sound, his hand scraping the frame of the door as he gripped it to stay upright. 

This wasn't supposed to be happening yet.

“Khezen.” The voice again, steady, low, unfurling like smoke from an extinguished fire. Feminine, but not hers. “Turn around.”

Alta gripped the door frame, his nails dragging as he body turned against his will. In one moment, his name, his magic, his will was no longer his. He clenched his jaw and forced breath into his lungs, but it came in staggered, shallow bursts. 

He didn’t need to see her to know she was there. But he saw her anyway. 

Standing in a flowing blue dress, blond perfect curls framing a sweet face. Glowing pink eyes that had haunted Alta for more than a thousand years. A smile that screamed they both knew what this was. 

She was supposed to give him more time.

A woman next to her. Tall. Muscular, with sickly yellow eyes as she stared at him. Alta’s heart sank even further into his stomach.  

“You looked so happy with Beth and Rosa, Altaiah The Radiant.” Allssaai spoke with a joyful tone, a voice that curled around his bones like silk laced with poison. Her smile was soft, cruel in its softness, and the cadence of her words landed with the weight of ritual.

“You always did have a taste for the gentle ones, your soft little goldens. But Beth wasn’t enough, was she?” Her hand waved carelessly, as though brushing aside a cobweb. “It’s all right. It wasn’t her fault. We both know who you need.”

“Allssa–”

“No, it’s Yna right now. Make sure you remember,” she corrected and Alta flinched as the alpha moved. The woman was fast, and Alta didn’t even have time to try and move before his head was slammed into his front door. Resin and ash, thick and musky, coiling through his nose and lodging itself in his skull like smoke through broken glass. It clung to his skin, a scent that screamed dominance, inevitability, and ruin.

He tried to hold his breath, but he knew there was no avoiding this. Knew there was no fighting the heat that was about to be triggered in his freshly changed body. Knew there was no stopping what she had planned for him. 

“Fuc–” But Alta’s words were cut off as the alpha kissed him forcefully and he felt his body light up. The fog rolled over his mind, his legs trembled and his hands clung to the woman forcing him against the door. His mind screamed against the invasion as the alpha pulled back, a moan escaping his lips from the lack of contact. 

He was supposed to have more time.

“What was that, Altaiah? I don’t believe your new master heard you.”

“F…Fu…” Altra struggled to form the words, but he knew his voice wouldn’t hold. Not now. Not with the heat ripping through his body like oil poured over fire, igniting everything he’d fought so hard to quiet. His mouth hung open, soundless, while tears tracked down his cheeks. Not just from the pain, but the helplessness. The knowledge. The shame that always followed.

He hadn’t even had a full day. A full morning.

A full goddamn sunrise with his name being his.

And now here he was. Bent. Shaking. His pulse thundering in his ears, not from fear, not even rage anymore, but from that terrible, treacherous craving that had been coaxed out of him again with a single command, a single touch from another Alpha she controlled. His heat surged under his skin, vicious and invasive, and the worst part was that it was familiar.

Like coming home to a house that had burned down years ago, only to find the ruins rebuilt exactly the same.

And this wasn't Beth. Not a sweet alpha he chose that would treat him with kindness, that would calm his fire with care and respect. This was Yna's brainwashed toy. One that would follow her every word, who only had one command from the woman behind them. 

Hurt Alta. Break Khezen.

“Don’t worry,” Yna appeared next to the alpha and Alta’s eyes drifted to meet hers. He hated what he saw through his tears. Her joy. Her triumph. “I think there will be plenty of fucking for a while. For you at least. Your new master seems very eager to enjoy her toy.

“Let’s take him to the bed so you can mark your new omega,” Yna commanded and Alta moaned as the alpha continued to manhandle him. He wanted to fight, to pull away, but the heat rampaging through his body, the primal demand that wanted what the alpha was about to do, made fight impossible. His muscles betrayed him. Every inch of him screamed for contact, for relief, for a release that he didn’t want but couldn’t stop craving. His fingers clawed at the door frame, useless against the strength dragging him away from it, and the last shred of his dignity clung to the splinters caught under his nails.

He staggered as the alpha shoved him forward, his knees hitting the mattress. He bit down on a cry, breathing hard through his nose, trying to anchor himself in anything, anything real. The pain in his joints was manageable. The heat wasn’t. It gnawed at him from the inside out. He arched involuntarily, muscles coiling, betraying him again. A whimper escaped him before he could stop it, raw and humiliating. 

Yna grabbed his face, forcing his eyes up to hers even as he felt the alpha’s hand start to rip away his clothing. 

“Oh Khezen,” Yna, no Allssaai, cooed. “My perfect omega. You’re almost ready to be mine.”

Alta didn’t bother to glare. He just closed his eyes. He didn’t want to see her face, didn’t want to look at her as she used him as her little doll, and indulged in his suffering. 

He just prayed it would end quickly.