Page 1 of Welcome to Bone Town

PROLOGUE

The High Priestess shouldn’t have entrusted this to me. I’m just a beta, a servant, nothing compared to the beautiful omegas who have dedicated themselves to Lunara’s service. Yet, here I am, holding Lunara’s most sacred relic.

My body trembles, hands shaking as I stumble away from the chaos of the ceremony. The High Priestess has already forgotten me. She throws her head back in pleasure as she rides an omega’s cock while two others suck on her breasts. Her eyes are glassy and unfocused, like everyone else’s.

The top level of the temple is a cacophony of moans and grunts and skin slapping against skin. Pheromones drench the air, feeding the writhing bodies, heightening their insatiable need. Heightening my own.

The relic feels heavier than it should, the weight a steady reminder of its power. So beautiful, shimmering in the dim light. The gems seem to flicker and blink,drawing me in. It would be so easy to... No. I’ve seen what this relic can do.

I need to get out of here or I’ll never complete my duty.

With heavy steps, I rush down the hall.

Elia, a pretty omega who sought refuge at the temple last year, throws herself at me as I pass. Her naked skin is slick and feverish. Her bare breasts press against mine, making a moan crawl up my throat. Goddess above, she smells good.Feelsgood.

My control snaps as I give in and kiss her. Her lips are swollen and chapped, tasting of sweat and cum.

“More,” she whimpers.

I can feel the power of the relic in my hand humming in agreement. Ancient. Intoxicating. Demanding I listen and give her what she wants. More. Always more. Never satisfied.

A low growl sounds from behind me. I ignore it, lost to the way Elia’s body writhes against mine. My hands glide up her sides, thumbs skimming the edge of her breasts as we kiss.

The sharp pain of teeth in flesh has me jerking away. I look down to see one of the temple jackals. She releases her jaw from my calf, but growls again. A warning.

I push Elia away, scrambling out of reach and running down the hall, swerving around naked bodies, dodging omegas who beg and plead for alphas and knots they won’t find here.

I need to get the relic out of here. I need to save them. It’s already been five days of this insatiable fever, without rest, food, or water. We can’t keep this up much longer.

Running down the stairs, I charge for the inner sanctuary where the relic has lived for the past twelve hundred years, until the High Priestess removed it, donning it for the Ceremony of Moons.

She didn’t know what she was starting. The consequences it would have. Images of the past five days fill my mind, and I have to hold the wall for support as my needy core throbs and aches.

Focus. Must stay focused.

I reset each safety measure as I go, ensuring no one will get through who isn’t supposed to, ensuring this relic never gets out again. I just have to pray it’s enough. That everyone will recover once the relic is safely in the vault.

Even if it means I’m locking myself in forever.

1

“Fuuu-udge!” I catch myself just before cursing in front of my antiquities students. My hip smarts from where I smacked it on the desk while pacing in front of the class. It’s hard to focus on teaching when you’re expecting news on the most important opportunity of your life. Any minute now, the dean of Anthropology could call, email, or even walk through that door to tell me whether my application for the dig in Ekdoti was accepted—my first dig. A dig that could change more than my career, if my speculations are right.

Forcing myself to focus, I flip to a different slide on my computer, then scan the room for someone willing to answer my question about the significance of the goddess Lunara to early civilizations. The projector flickers across the faces of comatose students. Not a single hand raised. Eyes glazed over in the dim light of the lecture hall.

I point to a guy in the back row, an alpha jock who’sclearly only in the class to meet a humanities requirement. He probably thought it would be easy.

He gives me a numb blink. “Um… ‘cause… she’s important?”

The entire class laughs until I fix them with a stern glare, leaning back against the desk in the middle of the lecture hall. “Is that a question?”

“Uh, no?”

I glance at the clock on the wall. It feels like the minutes are crawling by at the speed of a DMV employee. “That’s not an answer either, Matthews.”

A few people snicker quietly, so I point to one of them. “You. What role did the goddess play in society?”

The girl I’ve called on is an omega with perfectly applied makeup and prim posture. Everything I wasn’t at her age. Everything I’m still not. A textbook example of every alpha’s ideal woman.

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