Leda clasped her arms around herself and prayed for it all to end quickly.
"First time?"
She bent to meet the cheerful blue eyes of a blonde-haired girl around her age with a face like a cherub.
"That's obvious?"
The cherub's smile widened. "New girls always look scared. It will be simpler the next time."
Leda made a spontaneous noise deep in her throat. "There won't be a next time."
"Don't be so sure." The other girl's smile receded slightly but then quickly rebounded.
"I'm Larisa, by the way."
Leda had no choice but to return her virulent smile. "Leda."
"Pretty name." Larisa took a wine glass from a nearby table and raised it to her lips. "At least you haven't thrown up yet, that's a good sign."
It was hard for Leda to believe the other girl could be so relaxed about all this.
"How many times have you…been here before?"
"Maybe a dozen." Larisa did a little twirl so the pink skirt of her nightie flared demurely around her slim legs. "It's easy money. All you have to do is act a little Omega for them, wail for their big Alpha knot and move on with your life a few hundred dollars richer."
Leda had never been casual about sex. Not just because of the threat that her biology would overcome the alterants, but because the problems it could effect had never seemed worth it. Even coupling with a Beta seemed to be more trouble than it was worth. Being bred was out of the question and even with hormonal inhibitors, there was still a risk. Omegas were awfully fertile. She swallowed around a large lump in her throat. "How does this all get started, exactly?"
Larisa laughed, the sound like the pealing of little bells. "It's already started, newbie."
Leda gaze followed where Larisa pointed and she saw the small camera mounted in the corner of the room and to the ceiling, it panned back and forth in a small arc. A little red light blinked on one side, constant and hypnotizing. She stared as the camera rotated to face them, wondering who was watching on the other end and what they would expect from her.
"The cameras we're scattered all over the house, except for the bedrooms of course, " Larisa said with a shrug, clearly the thought of strangers viewing their every move didn't faze her in the slightest.
"The Client watches us for a while. If someone likes the look of you, you're then taken upstairs to meet them."
It wasn't until Larisa pointed them out that Leda saw the two Beta guards standing in front of the staircase with their arms crossed over their chests. No justification to worry about that.
Her eyes scanned the room. A small group had gathered near the buffet table, milling and chatting in hushed voices. An elegant Beta male with soft features and liquid eyes played the piano, his fingers whispering over the keys in mimicry of a more sexual workout.
"Is it only Betas that they bring in here?"
Larisa raised her eyebrows. "Always. An unmated Omega would not even make it past the door. They're worth way more than the measly dollars we get."
Leda didn't need to be told that. An unmated Omega was worth her own value in gold. An Alpha mated to an Omega had a high probability of producing the rarer dynamics, usually Alpha sons and Omega daughters.
Not to mention the other advantages of mating an Omega. The thought of it made Leda feel nauseous. Coming here had been criminally stupid, dollars or not. And leaving was no longer an alternative. The Ceres house had its private entrance and the only way down was via skycar.
She was trapped.
Two girls were seated on a love seat near the window. Their heads were close enough together that, at first, Leda thought they were whispering to each other. Until one of the girls slipped her hand under the other's skirt and their lips closed the already scant gap between them for a passionate kiss.
"Playing to their audience. Fantasy toys, you know."
Leda turned back to Larisa with confusion twisting her features. "What?"
"We're all like dolls to them — dolls. And every Client has their type.
Those are fantasy dolls." Larisa flapped her hand in the kissing girls' direction,
dismissing them.
"that is, every man's fantasy — that is if he has no imagination."
"What about you?" Leda asked.
"I'm a baby doll." Larisa whirled the end of one of her blonde pigtails
between her fingers. "For the Alpha that wants to be a Daddy."
There wasn't even a hint of aversion in Larisa's sunny expression.
"That does not feel even a little bit gross?"
"Not really," she responded airily. "Alphas who don't regularly fuck are hazardous. What we are doing is basically, a social service."
Leda fought the impulse to say what she was thinking. Alphas, and a few of their Beta underlings, ran the city. Places like this preyed on the very people already in vulnerable positions within society. But there was nothing any of them could do to change that. She had no option but to live in this world.
Not that it made any of it right.
"What kind of doll am I?" Leda wasn't sure what made her ask, even as the words had already rolled from her lips.
"There's something different about you." Larisa's voice turned skeptical, and she glanced around the room, looking everywhere but at Leda's face. "And it might be better if you figure things out for yourself."
Leda veered away from the writhing girls on the love seat to face Larisa, whose face had gone very carefully blank.
"What is that supposed to mean?"
Before she could answer, a male voice hovered over Leda's shoulder.
"It's time, my dear."
Leda turned to see the Whoremonger standing behind her, flanked by the two Beta guards who were larger up close than they had appeared from across the room. Their faces were as explicit as carved stone. They came to stand close on each side of her, gripping her firmly by the elbows. She had the choice between being accompanied or dragged.
She turned to murmur to Larisa over her shoulder. "Please, just tell me."
The words floated slowly towards her as if carried on the breeze.
"You're the doll that wants to be broken."