He’d had so many questions during that human biology course. But he was new on campus, and lonely. He hadn’t wanted to rock the boat or let anyone know how out of place he felt being at university after all the years of his father’s religious teachings, so he’d kept most of his questions to himself.

Besides, at the time, his first season had seemed forever and a day away.

He’d filled the time since that long ago class with deep studies into artistic techniques, fabric skills, and the science of materials, allowing himself to almost forget how little he knew about the ins and outs of human reproduction. But now the reality of his ignorance had all come down upon him at once.

What Adrien wouldn’t do now to sit in on just one of those alpha reproduction classes to better understand what he should expect to endure?

A knock came at his dorm room door. After quickly closing the auction tab, Adrien slid out of his chair and peered through the peephole to see who was waiting outside. He groaned when he recognized Lance’s dark skin and fuzzy black hair. Dammit, he supposed there was no avoiding it any longer.

He opened the door and forced a smile. “Hey, Lance. How can I help you?”

Lance lifted a brow and pushed his way past Adrien into his dorm room.

“Why have you been hiding in here for the last week? You passed your contribution to Professor Urgil’s new article off to me, and you didn’t even come sit in on the interview of the Hontu artist he brought in. You’ve been waiting to hear what that guy had to say all year!”

Adrien sat down on his mattress and motioned for Lance to take a seat in the chair by his desk. He’d completely forgotten about the interview with the Hontu artist. He’d been planning his questions for weeks: What does the blue

dye made from Hontutua berries mean to your tribe? Is there a symbolism in its use? And other curiosities he’d hoped to satisfy in person since the Hontu were notoriously superstitious about written communications. Adrien cursed softly under his breath. How had he let that get past him? Shame. That’s how.

Lance dropped into the chair and went on, “I thought you might be sick, but clearly you’re not.” He crossed his arms over his chest and tipped back so that the front legs of the chair came up off the floor recklessly. “Is this about the auction?”

Adrien’s throat went dry. Of course it was about the auction! Whenever he even left his room to creep down the hall to use the communal showers and bathrooms, he felt the eyes of the other students all over him. They knew what he looked like naked now. The size of his dick, the way his asshole crinkled, and the horrible vulnerability of his expression in his headshot.

Everyone knew.

“Wow, look at you blush. It’s like a full body thing. I bet even your thighs are red right now.”

Adrien’s glasses slipped down his nose as sweat popped up on his skin.

Lance huffed. “You’re embarrassed? Dude, you should be proud. I don’t know the last time an auction went this high. That’s the only reason I even know about it.” He clucked his tongue. “Some alpha in class was talking about how guys like him never stand a chance when the wealthy elite can outbid them by astronomical amounts. So I had to grab a look this uber-desirable omega, and hell, friend, it was you!”

“Yeah. Well.” Adrien rubbed the back of his neck. “Me.”

“Why are you so miserable?”

“It’s all really…” Sordid? Frightening? “Strange. I don’t know who’s going to win me, and it’s a little creepy, you know?”

“No. I don’t know. What do you mean ‘creepy’? It’s just the way it is.

How it’s always been.”

Adrien squirmed but held back his questions about why, and who invented the system, and who really benefited in the end.

Lance took pity on him and didn’t push about his feelings, instead directing his questions to the auction itself. “So you really have no idea who the guy driving the price up is? H. Battershell is all it says. I bet it’s a screen name. Some of these guys are private about their love for handling heats.

Like it’s something to be ashamed of.” He rolled his eyes. “Whatever.

Anyway, who is this guy?”

“No idea.” Adrien waved off the question.

Lance’s eyebrows drew low. “What’s that mean? You don’t care who he is?”

“I thought it wasn’t supposed to matter. That it’s ‘the way it is’ so…”

“So you’re basically dying of curiosity, then.”

“Of course I am! But they don’t give you any information about the alpha until the bidding is over, and then it’s only what he wants to share!”

Lance stared at him, cocked his head, and asked gently, “C’mon, Adrien.

What’s the real problem here? You should be happy. Excited. Eager.”

Adrien flopped back on his bed, exhaustion weighing him down like a pallet of bricks on his chest. “Sometimes I am, but other times I’m just plain scared. Don’t tell me I shouldn’t be.”

“Okay, I won’t.” Lance sounded sympathetic. “I forget you didn’t have an omega parent. Right? Just your alpha dad raised you, and he never took on another omega after you were born?”

Adrien shook his head.

“No close omega cousins or uncles?”

“No.” Adrien sighed. “No one. We lived way out in the country, and the only time I saw other folks was when we went to church. There were other omegas there, obviously. But I’ve never even seen a pregnant one.”

“Wow. I guess this would all be really overwhelming to you then.

Especially since your father isn’t here to help guide you through it all.”

Adrien made a face at the thought of his father guiding him through this situation. Their church saw heats as the punishment omegas endured for daring to be like God and create something from nothing—to make life in their wombs. Adrien’s father hadn’t been as conservative as some, but he’d kept his lips tightly closed when it came to any discussion of sex. “Yeah.

Overwhelming is a good word for it. And when I leave my dorm room, I feel like everyone’s staring at me.”

Lance cracked a smile and dropped the chair’s front legs down to the floor. “Because your hot little bod is racking up the dough!”

“Yeah, but they all know what my asshole looks like.”

“Dude, it’s an asshole.” Lance laughed. “We all have one. Mine is darker than yours, like the rest of me, but it’s not exactly different. Take heart.”

Adrien refrained from pointing out that a dozen alphas were competing at

astronomical prices for access to his asshole, so it must be pretty special, even if neither of them could see a reason why.

“I’m nervous,” Adrien said. “I don’t know who this guy is, or what he looks like, or how old he is, or if he’s rough or sweet or kind?”

“There are protections in place. A vetting process,” Lance explained.

“The alphas bidding for access to you aren’t all gorgeous, but none of them are going to hurt you, either.” Lance smirked. “Not unless you’re selling that, too. Some omegas do.”

“No!” Adrien’s eyes bugged.

“I know, I know.” Lance laughed again and put out a calming hand. “I saw your listing.”

“Alphas won’t try to convince me to do that during my heat, will they?”

Adrien asked, remembering how Ron had said that alphas would sometimes try to convince omegas in the throes of heat to add on breeding at a reduced rate.

“No. There are rules about that. Breeding can be added if an omega consents”—Lance shifted uncomfortably as if even he doubted consent mid-heat—“but pain and all of that has to be negotiated up front.” He leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees. “I admit I was surprised to see breeding since I know you’re in so deep with the Hontu project. You’ve been so dedicated to seeing it through. But it was a good choice financially, obviously.”

“How do you know so much about how it all works?”

“My father’s omegas and I talk. They knew I wouldn’t get the information I needed in that stupid class they make us take. Traditionally, it falls to the omega parent to pass this information on, or, if you don’t have an omega parent, to the omega friends of the family or your father’s new omegas”