THE HOUSE WAS a cabin in the woods. Small for a man with so much money to burn, but what did Adrien really know about that? Maybe H. Battershell liked to keep things simple despite his immense wealth. Adrien’s father would have admired that.

The cabin was definitely isolated. If Adrien got spooked and wanted to run, he wouldn’t get very far on foot. Perhaps that was why Battershell had chosen it. He slid his hand over the steering wheel to reassure himself that at least he had his car.

Putting it in park, he turned off the engine and straightened his glasses. In the trunk, he had his luggage. Enough clothes for a week of heat and a few days of recovery time, as well as the usual toiletries one needed on a trip away from home. His insides tangled like a burning, writhing, seething pile

of snakes, making him squirm. He’d sported an erection and endured a slick, wet asshole since before he’d even left the dorm that morning. The evidence that his heat was coming on strong was indisputable, but he wasn’t suffering from the mindless need to rut that he’d heard so much about. He supposed that was still ahead of him.

Adrien opened the car door and stretched. His asshole released another rush of slick, and he trembled. Not knowing how long he had before he lost reason and sanity in the primal irrationality of heat, he hoped he was able to meet Battershell and feel safe before that happened. Right now, everything about his current situation left him weak-kneed and nauseous with nerves.

The door to the cabin opened, and a darkly bearded man came onto the porch, where he stood and stared hungrily at Adrien. His eyes appeared gray beneath thick brows, and he was taller than Adrien by at least four inches.

His body was well-honed, with strong thighs and muscular arms. He stood barefoot and wore dark jeans and a tight black T-shirt that gripped his pecs and biceps. Not exactly the vision of a man of extraordinary means, but Adrien didn’t know what he’d been expecting when he’d input the address into his GPS that morning. A mansion and a suit, perhaps? Servants holding the door of his car open and showing him into a glittering, mammoth home?

Possibly.

Not this small cabin for sure.

“My name’s Heath,” the man said, and his voice was a low rumble that wrapped around Adrien and gripped him by the balls. “But you’ll call me

‘sir’ until I say otherwise.”

Adrien swallowed the sudden lump of fear in his throat. “Yes, okay.”

“Yes, okay, what?”

“Yes, okay, sir?”

“That’s right, Adrien.”

It didn’t go unnoticed that Heath had assumed full permission to use Adrien’s name, but he didn’t think it was wise to bring up the double standard. Not when his anus was starting to burn and his cock was throbbing in his own soft jeans. He moaned as Heath stepped toward him, walking down the short set of stairs between the cabin’s porch and the pine-needle-strewn ground.

Heath stopped in front of him, raised a thick, dark brow and said, “Your profile pictures didn’t show glasses.”

Adrien touched the stems and said, “I can take them off, sir.”

Heath nodded and put out his hand. Adrien removed his glasses, the world around him immediately going fuzzy and less defined. He put the glasses in Heath’s hand, feeling even more vulnerable without being able to make out the crisp lines of Heath’s face.

“Strip,” Heath ordered. “You won’t need your clothes from this point forward.” He motioned toward the luggage in the back seat of Adrien’s car.

“Or any of those other things, either. I paid for your heat and for breeding you. That means these next few days, or however long it takes for your heat to pass, are mine to command.”

Adrien squinted, trying to make out if Heath was joking. He wasn’t sure if that was how it worked, actually. He’d never asked anyone who’d been through a heat what was expected. He wished he’d asked Lance more about it. Even though he’d never had his own first heat, he seemed to know a lot about it. Adrien didn’t move for a long moment, considering Heath’s words.

But Heath stared at him so confidently, with so much intensity, that he could make it out even with his blurred vision, and he eventually found himself unbuttoning his shirt with shaking fingers.

“That’s good,” Heath said as Adrien slipped his shirt from his shoulders and let it flutter to the ground. “Kick off your shoes. Good. The pants now.

Everything.”

Adrien glanced around the clearing in front of the house, uncertain of being naked outside. Due to his religious upbringing and natural shyness, he’d never been one for public displays of his body, even preferring to wear a swim shirt when at the pool. But there was no one in these deep, shadowy, silent woods but him and Heath. He took in the swaying and creaking of the trees around him, the gray depth of the shadows stretching into the dark forest, and felt the cool breeze flowing over his now-exposed skin. His nipples peaked, and he shuddered as he undid his jeans quickly and shoved them down.

Heath crossed his arms over his chest, glasses still clutched in one hand, when Adrien stood up straight after removing his socks. His gaze crawled over Adrien’s body, head to toe, in a slow, assessing way. “Fold the clothes.

Put them and your glasses back in the car for safe keeping.”

Adrien did as he was told, slick sliding down his legs, and his hands trembling madly.

“Turn around,” Heath said, when he was done.

Trembling, Adrien complied. With his back to Heath, he faced the long, twisted driveway through the forest. He peered down it wondering what he’d sold, exactly, when he agreed to do the online auction. His dignity? His soul?

“Bend over. Spread your cheeks. I want to see what I paid for.”

Adrien’s throat clicked as he swallowed, and some part of him thought of protesting. But his cock ached against his stomach, pre-cum welling up and slipping down the sides, and his asshole leaked lubricating slick relentlessly, leaving his thighs a wet mess. His hole clenched and released with restless need. Taking a deep breath, he did as he was ordered.

A breeze fluttered over his hot, wet anus, and he moaned at the touch of nature on his most private place. He squeezed his eyes closed and waited, and then he felt a dam break inside. Lust flooded him. He fought it for a moment, fear and disorientation mounting.

“Shh, steady,” Heath whispered.

Adrien moaned and arched into the brush of Heath’s hand down his back, around his buttocks.

“I’ve got you now.” With no hesitation, Heath’s solid, firm fingers invaded his aching hole. He moaned as two of them slipped in deep, found his heat-swollen prostate, and massaged it while Adrien struggled for balance. He pushed his hands into his thighs and groaned as another obliterating wave of lust swallowed him up.

Just as Adrien’s knees started to give out, lost to uncompromising need and humping back against Heath’s intruding digits, Heath yanked his fingers free. “Stand up,” he ordered. “Turn around to face me.”

Panting like a slut, he was dizzy and begging for—something. He didn’t know what. An end, a start? A climax? He was wild with it now and pleading sounds spilled out of his mouth. Nothing mattered but being touched and reaching satisfaction. It was exactly as Lance had warned him.

Adrien turned. His entire body jittered with the rising heat, and he gave in to the strange eroticism of this man commanding him in such an intimate way.

“Please,” Adrien whispered. “Hurry. I want, I need, please.”

Heath stepped back from Adrien, provoking a cry, and gave him another long once-over before undoing his own jeans and shoving them down to bring out his enormous cock. Adrien’s breath stuttered as he took in the vast

width and length, and his asshole ran with slick, preparing itself for the mammoth intrusion. He’d always known that alpha cocks were larger than omegas’ or betas’; they’d covered that even in omega sex education classes in school. He’d seen plenty of porn in his life, too, but he’d never imagined a cock could be the size of Heath’s.