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Dedra filled a glass with water in the ship’s kitchenette and drank it over the sink, a rivulet of water dribbling down her front.

She gasped. It wasn’t enough. She wiped her mouth and tugged at the hem of her tank, trying to gain some semblance of control over herself.

Through the one-way window she could see that the Maltheen lodge’s ship bay was open to the frigid white landscape of icy mountains. It seemed to go on forever. She peered through the window and scanned the dark bay. The other ships were gone except for one. Her jaw clenched. It was a nice ship. Nicer than Partagaz’s.

She leaned against the glass and moaned.

“This is unbearable,” she said to herself.

A surprise heat. It had almost derailed her life. Now it was a nuisance to bear.

At least she’d had spare medication to stave off the scent change and worst effects until she was back in the safety of the ship. She’d had to leave the Ghornan meeting at the start of the smug cocktail networking amongst Krennic’s chosen circle. A miracle she hadn’t been discovered.

She couldn’t bring herself to slip her hand into her panties where her body wanted it the most. Just two hours ago, she’d sat inside the lodge just a few dozen meters away around a granite table with Imperial officers—even ISB colleagues—and come together on a plan that Krennic had decided long before the meeting had commenced. But Partagaz was waiting on her. He was waiting for the coast to clear so he could board the ship and get them back home. With the aid of the medication, it could take a day on her own.

“Make due, Lieutenant Meero,” Partagaz had said tightly, more stiff and formal than he typically was with her. To her shame, she had wanted to hear Dedra on his lips before he’d ordered her away from the room of mingling officers and back on the ship. She told herself that she hadn’t known why.

She began to pace throughout the ship’s quarters and realized that pacing distracted her from bothersome heat. She found herself pacing counterclockwise, pressing her hand to the cool ship walls, doing her best to ignore the rising urge to mate and the slick feeling of her inner thighs rubbing together. On her fifth lap, she paused by the door that led to the rest of the ship and made a rash decision. She hit the button to open it and staggered out into the hallway. Her gums itched like she had taken a stim to work through the night, and she ran her tongue over them.

She didn’t know where she was going until she was leaning with both hands against the narrow coat closet. She knew better. She knew better. She knew better. She knew—

She opened the closet and snatched out Partagaz’s coat. A broken groan ripped its way out of her throat as the smell of his cologne filled her nostrils, followed by a desperate whine as she realized the cologne was the only scent present. No Alpha smell. The full-body shudder that had been building inside her dissipated weakly. Despite his out-of-the-box lecturer approach to running the ISB staff room, Partagaz adhered to imperial norms on scent blockers. In the midst of her mounting heat, she found herself wishing that this were an area he’d bend the rules.

She inhaled again, letting the scent of his cologne wash over her again. She pressed her legs together. It was him. It was the most of him she would get.

She didn’t think about the consequences of him finding his coat defiled. She hugged the coat to her body and made her way back to the sleeping quarters.

Well, let’s get on with it.

——

The fire in the lodge’s conference room was still crackling well after the cocktail hour had come to a close. The remaining hors d'oeuvres were tidily arranged on the buffet in the back of the room and half-drunk caf cups were sat around the conference table. Of course the simple men for the Ministry of Enlightennent had been happy to gulp down the welcome drinks unlike the rest.

The lodge staff would be in long after all the Imperial officers had left the planet, either that night or the next morning, the details weren’t important to him. The quiet was nice after all the squawking, but there was no time to enjoy it.

Krennic swept into the room where he found Lio Partagaz had pulled a chair up to the fire and was staring into it. His sour-mouthed prodigy was nowhere to be seen.

“There you are.”

Lio glanced up at him in mild surprise before turning his attention back to the fire.

“A very productive session. I’m surprised you’re still here.”

Krennic spared a glance out the floor to ceiling windows at the snow capped mountains of the Maltheen Divide. Gorgeous. Pristine. Brutal. They had provided the perfect dramatic backdrop for the Ghorman meeting.

“Lio. You’ll be taking me to Scariff before you return to Coruscant. My ship has a catastrophic computer error apparently, and who knows how long it will take my idiot pilot to fix it.”

“No time for small talk I see,” Lio said with a strained smile, half looking away. He did that whenever someone said something he didn’t want to hear or that he thought was ridiculous. “What about the navy? Captain Maureau? He was going to Scariff wasn’t he?”

“He left before my pilot realized there was a problem. Everyone’s left. You’re the only one here. You and Meero.”

“Isn’t there a backup ship here?”

Krennic scoffed.

“Oh. I didn’t realize I needed permission to commandeer your ship.”

“It’s not that, Director—”

Krennic’s cape rustled as he turned to face Lio. He was too tired to deal with this.

“Is this because you weren’t in the loop on every little detail? It’s not personal, Lio. Everyone here was on a need to know basis. When there’s more to know, you’ll know.”

“Director,” Lio asserted. “The ship is unavailable to board. It’s why I’m in here.”

“And I suppose now is when you’ll tell me why you’re in here instead of on your ship.”

Everyone thought they were so hard to read.

“It’s Lieutenant Meero. I’m afraid she’s suddenly come down as very ill and has quarantined herself on the ship. I thought it prudent to wait for the coast to clear.”

Lio said it all easily enough, but Krennic could sense the man’s unease.

“Is she contagious?”

Lio hesitated.

Now I’m listening, Krennic thought.

“Contagiousness isn’t the problem—”

“Then she can stay confined to quarters while you fly. You still have your pilot’s certification, I gather. I didn’t see a pilot with you.”

“You did not. And I do.”

But Lio stayed seated.

Krennic made an exasperated face and gesture at the older man. Normally, he would want to strangle someone being so resistant (perhaps an instinct developed from his time with Vader), but his curiosity was beginning to get the best of him. And it was Lio. Besides, he was in a residually good mood after pinpointing Meero as his woman on the ground for Ghorman. He hadn’t offered her the job yet, but he was due some gratitude. Once she recovered from the pox or food poisoning or whatever was wrong with her. He glanced at the buffet table in the back of the room. Meero was one of the few who had touched neither the food nor the drinks.

Lio sighed, as if he were backed in a corner.

“My apologies, Director, but I must insist. I’ll have a ship called in for you immediately. I can tell De—Supervisor Meero she’s got the job when she’s back on her feet.”

Krennic was beyond impatience. He squinted at Lio, who, for whatever reason, was putting himself as an obstacle between Krennic and the ship. Krennic and Supervisor Meero.

“I know you understood me when I said nobody was here. You are not authorized to call in anything or anyone to come chauffeur me away.”

Lio was beginning to look exasperated himself.

“And what would you have done if I hadn’t been here?”

Krennic shrugged.

“Doesn’t matter. And now I’m being delayed by your refusal.”

“I—I don’t want to embarrass her, but she’s going through quite the unpleasant cycle.”

Was that all? Lio must have been developing memory loss if he thought Orson Krennic of all people was squeamish.

“I’ve worked with women before, Lio. If female theatrics are the reason I’m delayed, then she must be hunting for a demotion. And here I was about to gift her Ghorman.”

Lio stood, his hands clenched into fists, but it didn’t even look like the man was aware of it. Krennic stood a little straighter, caught off guard by the other man’s behavior.

“We’ll stay here,” Lio said, deepening his voice slightly. “Do you want me to call you a ship or not, Director?”

Krennic looked at Lio in bewilderment. It wasn’t unheard of for Imperial Alphas to throw their weight around in turf wars. It was unheard of for Lio.

“Are you unwell too?”

He turned away to the grand windows in shock, wondering what game was at play. This was about Meero in some way he couldn’t see. Meero had been evasive with him, but she had told him his own answer, just as Lio had promised. She was the right one to run things on the ground, unlike the PR boys from the Ministry of Enlightenment or the politically unsophisticated engineers. They knew how to get kalkite out of the earth, not how to infiltrate and manipulate a rebel cell. He hadn’t noticed anything about any illness or…cycle? She’d been a little big for her britches. Talking around the answer. Walking off without being dismissed. Almost as if she were too good for whatever he had to offer her.

Then here was Lio acting like some puffed up, protective Alpha sop for what? His little upstart Beta—

Krennic froze, the gears in his brain coming to a screeching halt as he turned and fixed the Major with an incredulous look. The two men stared at one another.

“Lio.”

Lio was silent, and looked away.

“Lio.”

“Like I said. She’s ill. The ship is unavailable.”

“You can’t be serious.”

“You’ve deduced the truth of the situation already,” Lio finally said.

Krennic squinted, still not believing what he was hearing.

Lio had been a little too proud to recommend her for the Ghorman meeting. Of course, no one but Krennic would have been able to read the silver-haired man as anything other than an even-keeled professional. But by-the-books Lio harboring an Omega in the ISB ranks?

He thought back again to his conversation with Meero by the windows. She’d smelled better than all the male Alphas and Betas in the conference, but he’d chalked that up to her being the only woman. Not a covert Omega on…on the brink of heat? Then he’d boasted about how easy she’d been to read. He grit his teeth and cradled his jaw in his hand.

“Yours, I presume.”

“You presume wrongly.”

Prickly.

Lio wasn’t lying necessarily, but…

“How did you even—” Krennic cut himself off, laughing and dragging a hand over his face. “Under my nose the entire day,” Krennic said, anger simmering beneath the incredulity. He could hold this over his friend forever.

“There’s no reason why the ISB and the Empire should suffer the loss of her work because of her…condition,” Lio said, trying to gain some control. “We need quality intelligence officers now more than ever. Surely you understand that.”

“And now her condition is interfering with my schedule. And what were you going to do about the situation, Lio, if I weren’t present to interfere?”

“As you can imagine this was unexpected. At the very least it’s not a full on cycle. But she’s been given medication and she will handle it on her own.”

Krennic stopped dead in his tracks.

“On her—on her own? Are you mad?”

“She’s been trained for this.”

“I need her mind intact, Lio.”

“You will. It’s less than optimal, but Dedra’s condition will pass in a day—”

“Enough!”

Krennic clenched his jaw, calling upon every modicum of self-control not to unleash his fury on his old schoolmate. He could have Lio stripped of his rank and Meero stripped of hers too. He could sentence them both to spend five years in an Imperial brig for disloyalty. For keeping secrets that flouted Imperial protocols. For coming inches away from inciting an Omega heat-triggered orgy bloodbath amount the Imperial Alphas who had been present for the Ghorman meeting.

For wasting his time.

But now wasn’t the time to cut off the head of the ISB. And Meero. Oh Meero. She was to be his tool in Ghorman, although she was smarter and more suspicious than she had any right to be as an ISB clerk and Omega to boot.

He caught himself.

Dedra was it?

Krennic scowled. He should have already been in hyperspace. Could he remove Meero from the ship and leave her here in the lodge to ride out her heat without risking a rut himself? The optics and the odds were awful. Despite Lio’s emphatic denial of his involvement with his Lieutenant, Krennic had an inkling that Lio would fight him bloody if he tried to have the heat-addled blonde removed from the ship. He didn’t have the patience to test his theory.

“Well?” He asked, tempering the impatience in his voice. “What are you still doing out here?”

The color drained from Lio’s face. The Major looked truly alarmed.

“What?” The breathless h on the front of his what made him seem lost.

Good gracious. Was the man really not dipping into his own secret honey pot? There was no time to unpack how dire whatever this situation between him and Meero actually was.

“Go in there,” he said, resisting the urge to grit his teeth. “And clean up your mess so we can leave. We can’t both go in there.”

Two Alphas with opposing priorities and one Omega in heat in a confined space? A disaster.

Lio stiffened. Eyes darting around as if he would find an answer in the cavernous conference room or the icy mountain tops outside. There was an unusual look in the man’s eyes.

Panic.

“I can’t.” His response was almost inaudible.

Krennic stared at him.

“You understand, Orson,” Lio continued. “I’d have to transfer her.”

Krennic chewed on the tip of one of his gloves and glared. So Supervisor Meero was Lio’s pet. And Lio couldn’t bear to let his little pet go. Couldn’t truly have her. Couldn’t let her go. Now here the man was: stuck denying himself what he obviously wanted.

“Well, what’s the point of even having one around then?”

Krennic turned to stride out of the lodge and toward the ship, leaving a fretful Lio tongue-tied behind him, hands useless at his sides.

“Wait.”

Krennic paused, already bored with whatever flimsy deterrent Lio was about to throw at him.

“There are anti-rutting tablets in my— the medicine cabinet. In the painkiller bottle.”

Kriffing hell.

Krennic nodded.

“Go to my ship and have the droid bring my spare uniform in several hours,” he threw over his shoulder.

He only felt a little badly for his old friend. Few Alphas would have the same self-restraint. A man of integrity. How rare.

——

Dedra found herself stumbling to the fresher and crumpling under the spray of cold water while still wearing her underthings. She slid to the floor, moaning, shivering, as wave after wave of sickly, consuming heat washed over her. There was nothing on the ship to satisfy her properly. She had use of her hands, she supposed, but that was it. Unless she wanted to fumble around the kitchenette for anything remotely cylindrical. Or better yet, curved.

She thought about Partagaz waiting in the lodge. Pacing and keeping guard for…an entire day? Thankfully, the staff at the lodge had disappeared after setting up for them. She and Partagaz were truly alone on that frozen mountaintop. She whined and buried her face against her arm, rubbing it against the wet skin.

She heard the foosh of the door to her private quarters open and she was seized by a heady clamor of mortification and disturbing relief. No. She squeezed her eyes shut under the spray of water. He was coming to handle her heat himself. She couldn’t believe it.

Her body could, though. And it immediately betrayed her. Her nipples hardened in anticipation. The ache between her thighs became torturous. Needy. Release was so close. Yes. He would take care of her. And then…

And then things would never be the same.

He wouldn’t just be her superior or her mentor anymore. Could she continue to work under him at the ISB? Could she trust her own advancement? And what if another Supervisor found out they slept together? She’d be a woman sleeping her way to the top. Or if they found out about her condition: a desperate Omega spreading her legs for her boss. And he’d be just another Alpha who couldn’t keep it in her pants.

They’d be nothing more. She couldn’t believe how low she was about to sink—

She grit her teeth, holding back sudden, mournful tears, even as her body yearned to be made complete. She braced herself and looked up only to find a blurry Director Krennic staring her down.

The gasp caught in her throat and her body froze as if she were some prey animal. At least Krennic was staring at her like one. She blinked the water out of her eyes. He was still there.

“Director?”

Her voice cracked. She would have thought that he had been totally unaffected if it hadn't been for the way his eyes dilated and then half rolled to the back of his head before he caught himself, the man bouncing slightly on the balls of his feet. The entire ship must have been filled with her scent since she’d ventured into the hallway.

He wrangled back his self control and raised an eyebrow at her.

“Expecting someone else?”

Dedra’s brain short circuited at the gravelly bass in his voice, but then the meaning of his words hit her. She realized in horror that she was practically naked in her wet tank top and panties on the fresher floor in front of the Director. And why was he there at all? Where was Partagaz? She tried desperately to cover herself, as if she could hide anything from him.

“Sir—you can’t be in here. I’m not well—”

Now Krennic fully rolled his eyes.

“You think I’m not fully briefed on your condition?”

Partagaz had given her up. Of course how could he have stood against Krennic and won? Still, the realization stung.

Krennic removed his cape and hung it by the door before stalking toward her. Dedra had the image of a jungle lothcat in her mind as he prowled toward her, pausing in the fresher doorway. Her heart beat wildly in her throat as she envisioned the end of her career. Her fall from grace because the Director sniffed her out and had his way with her. Partagaz might have caught blowback for fraternizing with his direct report, but Krennic was high enough that anything that happened would only blow back on her. She’d be disposable.

“You have quite the devoted mentor, Meero,” he said amiably. “Quite astounding really. Someone else might have taken advantage of the situation.”

Her treacherous body would be more than happy for Krennic to take advantage. She suppressed a whine.

“What did he say?” She asked, closing in on herself.

Krennic reached above her head and shut off the water.

The throbbing heat that had pooled between her legs hadn’t abated at all. In fact, it had only worsened since Krennic had appeared. An Alpha’s Alpha. He cut a menacing figure in his Imperial uniform. She resisted the pull toward him.

“Is that what you're worried about?” Krennic drolled. “Let me share with you a curious detail: he kept your confidence until doing so would have meant putting hands on me.”

Dedra looked up in surprise, failing to stop her mouth from opening, the way it had when Partagaz had praised her in her turf scrap with Blevin all those years ago. Krennic tilted his head so slightly that Dedra almost didn’t notice.

“I can venture a guess as to why,” Krennic continued. “But his denial was uncharacteristically adamant.”

She didn’t answer. Krennic squinted down at her, nostrils flaring as he filled the doorway and boxed her in. He was smelling her.

She could smell him too. His scent had always been heady and masculine. Unexpected in Imperial spaces. Most higher-up Alphas wore scent blockers and thought it crass to parade their pheromones around, and she supposed Krennic has never gotten the memo. They demonstrated power in other ways. But stars, the smell of him. She’d been able to appreciate but ignore his scent when she hadn’t been in heat but now she wanted him to lay down his cape so she could roll all over it like she had with Partagaz’s coat. She wanted to rub her face against his neck until she was covered in his smell. Her mouth watered.

“Tell me now,” Krennic suddenly demanded, his voice steely. “Are you two mated?”

Dedra blinked rapidly, trying to school her expression into something unassuming.

“That’s outrageous.”

But she was in heat and only Partagaz had known until now. Not really the most outrageous assumption.

“Take stock of your circumstances. Now is not the time to be obtuse.”

He was wholly focused on her and the gravitational force of his stare made Dedra want to surrender and let herself be reeled in. Like a fighter ship being pulled in by the gravitational force of the—well. That was still classified.

“No, sir. I am not his…mate.” The word felt clumsy in her mouth.

“Unattached?”

“Yes.”

“More perplexing yet.”

Dedra felt a pang of fear as Krennic studied her.

“And I’m looking to stay that way l,” she added quickly. “I only want to do my job. Find Axis.”

“Oh, stars.” Krennic looked as though he wanted to kill her. “You think far too highly of yourself. At present, I only need you fit to fly. I need my ISB Major to stand to be in the same ship without mindlessly ravaging you.”

Dedra flushed at that and swallowed dryly. It was hard to focus on her honor and her career with Krennic towering over her and telling her how close another Alpha was to ravaging her. She pressed her thighs together subtly, but Krennic’s eyes still dropped to her lap.

“How are you so calm?” She shot at him.

As if to further demonstrate his self control, Krennic only stared at her with that same look.

“He won’t board until this is over,” Dedra added, hating how her voice wavered.

“I know it must be disappointing to you.”

Dedra didn’t legitimize his dig with a reaction.

“I’m handling it on my own.”

Dedra thanked the stars she had taken her medication and was only going through a soft heat. She hated to think that unmedicated, she might have been a sopping, mewling mess tolerating Krennic’s abhorrent way of talking to her and rubbing herself against his leg. Or worse, begging for him to bring Partagaz on board.

“Not fast enough,” Krennic said, drawing himself up. “Since my old schoolmate won’t deign to clean up his own mess, I will be speed-running your heat for you. Congratulations, lieutenant. The honor is all yours.”

The thought of being filled and knotted made Dedra throb and ache between her legs. She whined. And then she leaned her head back against the cool fresher wall and squeezed her eyes shut, trying to gain some modicum of self-control.

“How enticing,” she finally said tersely, as if she hadn’t had a full-body response to the idea of Krennic having his way with her. Her voice, which was high and reedy. “Do I have any say in the matter?”

Krennic sighed.

“Must everything be so difficult with you?”

He turned and fetched a towel.

“We’re not doing this in here. Up.”

What choice did she have? Legs trembling, Dedra tried to get to her feet, only making it halfway before Krennic swooped down and hoisted her up in the towel bridal-style.

Strong.

“Oh.”

She bit her lip. She hadn’t meant stoke the man’s pride. Too late.

To avoid seeing his smirk, Dedra pressed her face into Krennic’s shoulder, but she could still feel it. Pressing her face near his neck was a mistake. She breathed in his heady scent and moaned in the back of her throat, her self control fraying to threads. In response, she felt his mouth and nose press to the top of her wet head in what must have been a moment of indulgence as he inhaled deeply. A growl rumbled deep in his chest and Dedra thought this experience might undo her.

“I’ve never met an Omega in the galaxy who was as dead set in defying biological norms as you,” Krennic said with a little more baritone.

“Of course,” Dedra replied, unable to keep the derision from creeping into her voice. “I should have been made the ward of the younglings in a kinderblock.”

“There’s still time. I can put in a glowing letter for you at one of the many kinderblocks in Coruscant.”

She didn’t respond in case he was serious.

“Quiet again, I see.”

Her thoughts swirled as he carried her to the small sleeping quarters and placed her on the bed with little ceremony. The bed where she had…

“You little scavenger,” Krennic said with feigned scandal.

Dedra flushed with mortification. Partagaz’s coat was crumpled and dampened at the top of the bed where she had rolled and rubbed herself all over it to extract every last hint of his cologne. Evidence of her crime scene. Her entire body went hot.

“It…it was the closest thing I thought might smell like an Alpha.”

“Oh, Lio is too much of a school boy for that. Didn’t stop you though.”

Dedra wished she could be vaporized.

Krennic seemed annoyed by the presence of the coat, and his brow furrowed as if he were still trying to determine the answer to a complex calculation. He walked around the side of the bed and swept the coat onto the floor.

“We can do without that.”

Then he did something that surprised her. He kneeled down by the bed so that he was looking up at her, his face set in a serious expression. She drew back slightly.

“Let me see,” he said.

Two gloves fingers gently tilted her head to the side, exposing her mating gland before she could respond. On her suppressants, it was normally invisible, but in heat, the unbitten gland had reddened and was protruding slightly. An invitation. She flushed as he appraised her. Checking to make sure she hadn’t been lying about being unmated.

He ran his tongue over his teeth, and Dedra’s eyes were drawn toward his mouth. To his full lips which he could use to—

She jerked away from his touch, ignoring what the gloves did for her. For a man behind schedule, he was certainly taking his time.

“Shall we get on with it?”

Krennic pulled back, his face still schooled in an almost unreadable mask, except for the way his eyes had dilated and beads of sweat had formed at his silver brow.

“My old schoolmate has gone through extraordinary lengths to conceal you. Before we leave for Scariff, you’ll tell me why.”

Dedra filed that bit of information away. Surely she had known that about Partagaz and Krennic. And Scariff…

She was about to speak—stars know what she would have actually said—but he lifted a gloved finger to quiet her and she half expected him to press the finger to her lips. She was sorely disappointed.

“Not now,” he said as if she were simple.

It was obvious he had rediscovered the meaning of haste when he lifted the towel and began drying her roughly and expediently. This must have been what a bantha or a prisoner felt like. She’d forgotten that she’d been sitting there in her wet underthings, still damp from the shower, but his roughness still shocked her. Speed run indeed.

She must have flinched or made some noise, because he paused and looked up at her. To his credit, he didn’t roll his eyes. He inhaled deeply through his nose centering himself with her scent, and from there, dried her legs with surprising tenderness. Even a flamboyant brute like Krennic couldn’t fight all natural instincts.

By the time he was drying her torso and arms, Dedra was dizzy and panting, largely unfamiliar with this kind of laser-focused Alpha attention.

He squeezed the towel around her wet hair, letting the dampness soak out. Dedra’s eyes fluttered shut. With a flash of jealousy, she wondered how many Omegas he had done this for. She banished the thought from her head.

Heat brain, she told herself.

When he was done, Dedra turned her face into Krennic’s wrist without thinking and rubbed against the strip of exposed skin in some primal way of thanking him. Krennic huffed and leaned over her so that his mouth was right by her ear.

“You’re going to behave?” His voice was low and gravelly again, sending shivers down her neck and making goose flesh spring up. She was wet and slick down her inner thighs, even through her underwear.

Dedra nodded, eyes half-rolling in the back of her head as she was overcome by Krennic’s scent.

“You’re going to do what you’re told?”

Now that—

A full body shudder rippled through Dedra’s body and she couldn’t resist flicking her tongue across Krennic’s wrist and tasting the scent-rich skin there. His hand flexed against her neck.

“Yes, sir.”

Krennic pressed his nose against her damp hair and inhaled again. He rubbed his thumb across her mating gland, sending a pleasurable spike down her spine.

“Good,” he hissed.

He didn’t even bother undressing. He stood back and undid the belt of his jodhpurs, looking accusingly at Dedra’s damp and certainly see-through Imperial-issued tank top.

“Take that off.”

Dedra was relieved to have orders to obey, even if they were from Krennic. She peeled off the cool, wet shirt. Despite her heat, she had to fight the instinct to cover herself in front of the most powerful man she was likely to ever meet.

The outline of his erection was unmistakable in his pants, as he discarded his belt. She clenched in anticipation. So close.

He knelt in front of her again, his flinty eyes taking her in shamelessly. Her nipples hardened under his gaze. Krennic swallowed audibly and Dedra realized he was salivating. And there she’d been, thinking her state had had little to no effect on him!

He shimmied her wet underwear down her thighs and tossed them aside, making a small noise in the back of his throat as she was exposed to him. Dedra suddenly felt a feverish wave of vertigo.

“The lights,” she said.

“What?”

“The lights. Will you turn them off?”

Krennic raised an eyebrow.

“What are you afraid of, Supervisor?”

She held back whatever sound threatened to wrench itself from her throat, as Krennic slid his gloved hands down her thighs, pushing them open. His movements were methodical, exploratory. His dilated eyes followed. Whatever awkwardness of the situation she was feeling seemed to elude him. Or he had an excellent sabacc face. Except for the cape, he was still fully dressed.

“Yes, you’re better like this, aren’t you?” He said, eyes flickering up to meet hers before he ducked down to kiss her mound directly above her clit. Dedra let out a choked moan and jolted as if she’d been electrocuted. Her toes curled at the smooth, wet feeling of his tongue flickering out.

This was happening.

“Fuck,” he said quietly. His Alpha scent had steadily been becoming more approving and attractive to her since he’d scooped her up from the fresher floor, and now it must have been spiking as he tasted her.

Dedra’s fists bunched up the white sheets of the bed as she tried to comprehend how the Director’s face was pressed between her legs.

He closed his eyes to steady himself, even as he bumped his nose and lips against her folds, scentmarking his own face with her slick.

“After,” he said more to himself than her.

He pulled back with what must have been a monumental effort and started to take off his gloves.

“Wait.”

He raised an eyebrow at her.

“Leave them on.” She hesitated. “Please.” She leaned into her Omega voice uncertainly, but the effect was apparent.

Krennic’s mouth fell open slightly and something heated flashed across his face. He tugged the gloves back on and traced one leather-clad finger from Dedra’s clavicle down to her mound, just barely brushing the hood of her clit. Her hips jerked up.

“Is that how you asked your Major for funding to find Axis?”

She gasped at that, about to retort, when Krennic cupped and squeezed between her legs with his gloved hand. He stood up and yanked down his jodhpurs, allowing his thick cock to spring free.

Oh.

“Oh.”

He was thick, veiny, and curved, and the purpling tip was leaking precum. A feeling of urgency overtook her. Blood rushed in her ears as she fell back on her elbows and opened her legs, whining as he towered over her. She could have only imagined what kind of needy expression she was making, but whatever it was, Krennic seemed to like it. It didn’t matter.

“A good little Omega begging for what she wants?”

Stars, the man loved to talk. But Dedra couldn’t deny the squirmy feeling rising inside of her because of how obviously pleased he was becoming with her. Thank the stars this was a soft heat. Otherwise she might have turned over to present herself and begged him to knot her.

“Yes!”

He stripped off his tunic and undershirt roughly, but left his gloves on. Dedra made a noise unbecoming of an ISB supervisor as he suddenly grabbed her hips and tugged her down to the edge of the bed. Then he was at her entrance, rubbing up and down along her wet folds until she started begging, and she couldn’t believe she was begging this man of all people, but he was so close and she needed it—

He slid into her smoothly, and they groaned in unison. Oh stars, she was so full.

“Kriffing hell, you have no idea what you feel like.” His voice almost cracked as he growled against her ear, and warmth bloomed throughout Dedra’s body.

On instinct she wrapped her legs around his waist, pulling him as deeply into her as possible. Her sense of propriety abandoned her. If she looked back on this moment, it would be in mortification, but in the moment, the only thing she cared about was this man inside her.

He buried his face in her neck where her scent was strong as he fucked her, rocking their bodies together with urgency. The warmth of his chest seeped into her and made her feel safe for the first since he’d boarded the ship. The copious amount of slick made his thrusts smooth and the sound of wet skin slapping on skin filled the room.

Just as Dedra felt a pathetic knot me working its way up her throat, the Director hit her with a few deep, slow thrusts and then stilled, grunting and biting her shoulder near her mating gland as he came inside her. His knot began to swell immediately and her body sang, craving to be used, to be filled, to be taken care of. Dedra clutched at his back, trembling and shaking as she came silently, clenching rhythmically around his knot that was stretching her to her limits. His scent enveloped her and made her feel dizzy. One of her hands had found its way to grip the hair at the nape of Krennic’s neck as she rode her orgasm. Breathless, she went slack.

They stayed like that for longer than Dedra would have expected. She felt his fingers thread up through her blonde hair near the nape of her neck and pull in one slow, confident motion. Dedra’s eyes fluttered closed as he exposed her neck, but then she almost jumped out of her skin when she felt the Director’s mouth at her mating gland. Her entire future flashed before her eyes.

“Wait—!”

“Relax. I won’t bite. You’ll like this.”

She swallowed a panicked whine as Krennic licked a broad stripe over the sensitive gland. She was so exposed. Nothing would stop him from biting and claiming her except his own self-control, and Dedra had witnessed the man losing his temper in the most dramatic ways possible. She squirmed and Krennic growled and pinned her down with his body weight. If Partagaz were here…

He licked another broad stripe over the gland and then another and then…Dedra’s toes curled in mind-tingling pleasure. It was so…wrong.

He licked again. Every other thought was momentarily banished. She whimpered and cursed softly.

“See?” He said against her neck.

The heat Alpha hadn’t dared touch her mating gland when she’d gone to see him. While she understood that gland play wasn’t worth the Alpha risking his profession and reputation with an accidental mating bite, she now knew what she’d been missing.

The squirming turned into writhing and moaning, and her eyes rolled into the back of her head as Krennic alternated between licking and gently skimming his lips over her gland. He sucked on it and her body would have bowed up off the bed if he hadn’t been pinning her down.

“D-Director.”

He stopped and Dedra dazedly worried that she’d said the wrong thing. What could she say to make him continue?

“Call me Orson.” His voice was low and soft against her ear, but Dedra knew an order when she heard one.

She flushed. She couldn’t call him that. It was egregiously intimate. It was—

“We’re past the point of propriety, Meero. Say my name.”

Lio.

“Orson.”

The hand in her hair tightened its grip. Once again, Dedra found herself wanting to die of humiliation, mewing the Imperial Director’s first name. But her primal desire to please the Alpha coiled its way through the humiliation like smoke, creating an entirely new, confusing and consuming emotion. Krennic made a noise in the back of his throat at the sound of his name on her lips, and rewarded her by lightly scraping his teeth over her mating gland.

Dedra shouted as she came, her vision whiting out.

She couldn’t have dreamed up something feeling so good, so taboo. Her interrogation of the dark-haired Ferrix girl—Kaleen—probably came the closest. Now she found herself on the other end of control.

Dedra blinked tears out of her eyes as she came down from the high, and gasped as her orgasm rolled into another. Krennic was moaning and rocking into her again, his knot deflated enough for him to resume thrusting. The sound of his shameless pleasure was strange and alien. He was enjoying in her, even if he would never verbally admit to it.

She felt the pressure inside her build as his knot at the base of his erection swelled inside her again, this time bigger than the first. It was almost too much. Almost. Outside of a heat, she imagined it might have hurt, but in heat, it was exquisite, expanding until it took up all the space inside her, just on the edge of pain.

Dedra bit back a mewl as her muscles clenched and fluttered around the knot. So thick. So perfect. Her continual orgasms ebbed and flowed like waves breaking and rolling into smaller and smaller waves until they were indistinguishable from the ocean of pleasure her quivering body had become. He found her mating gland again, torturing her with his mouth.

They were glued together with sweat and slick, panting heavily. Krennic licked and sucked on her mating gland until she was begging him to stop, tears running down her face and her legs twitching and jerking from oversensitivity. He luxuriated in her begging until he was satisfied with the state of her. Dedra sucked in a breath and held it until her lungs burned. She exhaled, calming herself as Krennic licked the tears from her face.

For a moment she thought he might ask “too much?” or apologize, but he didn’t.

“That’s better isn’t it?”

He pulled back to look at her face. What she must have looked like. Eyes teary, face red from exertion. She tried to blink the last tears out of her eyelashes, gave up, and wiped them away with her hand.

The heat fog in her brain had dissipated slightly. Just enough that she wished she’d been of the mind to turn over on her stomach before they’d started…this. It wasn’t like they could go anywhere until his knot went down, and now they were stuck face to face with their minds beginning to clear. Her jaw tightened.

“This is quite intimate,” she said, unable to bear Krennic’s relentless stare. It was like he was trying to consume and penetrate her all at once.

“Not a romantic, Supervisor?”

Her mind flashed to Syril for a brief moment and she looked away. Not a romantic, indeed.

“And here I was,” Krennic continued. “About to give you a big, wet kiss.”

Dedra’s face warmed in embarrassment at his words, despite the fact that their bodies were plastered together.

“Is this what you normally do? I thought Alphas were supposed to be comforting.”

A naive thing to say. But she couldn’t take it back. Krennic half-rolled his eyes. Too satiated and satisfied to do it fully.

“Is this what you normally do? Self-regulate your own heats?”

She didn’t answer. She shifted under his weight, making Krennic’s breath hitch when she accidentally tugged on his knot. He pressed deeper into her, making her leg jerk.

“Reckless behavior for an ISB Supervisor. It’s in your best interest to tell me the truth.”

He was buried to the hilt inside of her, still throbbing, and still making threats to her career. Dedra could see how he’d risen to becoming Director with this level of dogged focus, even with an Omega in heat.

“I don’t,” she finally admitted, feeling boxed in by the Alpha. She avoided his gaze. “Once every six months I stop my hormone blockers so I can complete a cycle…and hire a heat Alpha. We’re not sure why it happened off schedule this time.”

“And you keep this hidden how?”

He already knew the answer. He already knew! But he seemed to take pleasure in forcing her to say it.

“Partagaz hires him. I take sick leave.”

“Lio hires him.”

Silence.

“How long has this farce been going on?”

“Two years…Sir.”

Krennic’s mouth tightened and Dedra saw the indignant irritation whipping up behind his eyes.

“Why?”

Dedra fumbled for words.

“So I can do my job,” she said.

“That is apparent. Try again.”

The answer bubbled up through Dedra’s muddled heat brain.

“To protect me.”

Another naive thing to say? She’d almost said because he believes in my work, but that wasn’t fully on the mark, even if Partagaz did believe in it. She couldn’t sidestep Krennic here. He was like a Correlian hound with a bone.

“Because you’re just that good.”

Dedra flushed at the double meaning, hating how her pale complexion constantly gave her away.

"How sentimental,” Krennic drolled.

And then like the wind suddenly changing direction, he relented, his whole body going slack. Dedra relaxed in response, she hadn’t realized how much she’d been responding to the man’s mercurial mood, and Krennic’s softening knot slipped out of her. Dedra shivered.

He lay next to her on the bed and tugged her flush against him, spooning her. He sighed.

“It perplexed me to no end that he isn’t harboring you for this.”

“That would be beneath him,” Dedra said before she could stop herself. And to me. “We both know that.”

“It’s a full conspiracy between you two,” he lamented, ignoring her. “As if I don’t have enough to worry about. What else is Lio concealing?”

There was a hand playing in her hair. Dedra stilled. Not trusting it.

“Does he have a harem hidden in the halls of the ISB? Is Grandi still there? Or maybe that new jumpy one. Heert.”

An amused smirk tugged at Dedra’s mouth. She could have snorted at his comment under different circumstances.

“No.”

Krennic’s gloved hand was wandering up and down her body. She shivered.

“You like the gloves?” He said against her ear, his hand coming up to rest on her throat.

“Yes.”

“You’re not hiding anything else, are you?”

Death Star.

There was a playful tone in his voice.

“Nothing, Director. Just me.”

He believed her. He simply liked torturing his playthings, Dedra surmised. Dedra swallowed, feeling the hand on her throat flex.

“Alright, he relented, and nuzzled her neck. “Alright.”

Dedra melted so quickly in relief she didn’t have time to feel embarrassed about it. She made a sound in the back of her throat as he mouthed gently at her mating gland, taking care not to overstimulate her this time.

“What did you say Alphas were supposed to be?” His voice had the same playful tone and she knew he was trying to find a way to embarrass her again.

Hi hand glided down to squeeze her breast. “Comforting?”

Dedra picked up on the subtle lisp in his voice, which was more noticeable when he spoke quietly. She’d first noticed it in the Ghorman meeting, but she had been more focused on walking a fine line: be respectful, avoid scrutiny of Ferrix, give the right answer, monitor her imminent and tragically timed heat, and…evade, evade, evade. Somehow not be singled out for involvement in this Ghorman “energy” project. A project that would take her away from Axis. Of course, she knew it would truly never be up to her. And she understood the true reason for the Emperor’s myopic interest in Ghorman...

“Protective?” Krennic continued, and Dedra snapped back to the present.

The hand slid down her side and over her hip.

“Rewarding?”

“I didn’t say all of that.”

“What? Don’t want your reward anymore?”

Reward?

“Lights!”

Dedra flinched.

The room was plunged into darkness and Dedra shuddered as if her entire body had been dipped into a salve. Krennic’s hand was at work between her legs, drawing easy, little noises from her in the privacy of the darkness. The wet, sticky sound of his fingers circling her clit and spreading her slick up and down her lips was positively vulgar.

“You’re still dripping for me.”

She rolled her hips and felt him hardening again against the curve of her ass. Recovery time during a heat cycle was a miracle within itself.

“Open up.”

Dedra tilted her head back and parted her legs enough for Krennic to press two fingers into her.

Good girl, ” he rumbled against her ear.

Dedra cried out at the praise and bucked her hips as if an electric shock had gone through her. Krennic’s other hand slipped up and around her side to squeeze her breast and tease the hardened nipple.

She felt the vibrato of his chuckle in his chest.

“Oh I see.”

He pressed his fingers inside deeper and Dedra bore down on them, eager for more. More fingers. More praise. More of everything. She could be good for him. She tilted her head back more so she could rub her face against his neck.

“Like Chandrilian putty. I’d love to see how you respond when he calls you that. I bet you melt into a puddle of slick right there in the ISB headquarters.”

“Stop it,” she gasped.

“So many buttons you have, Meero. I don’t think I have time to find them all. I’ll give my notes to Lio.”

Dedra flushed crimson at the thought of Partagaz knowing anything about her being like this. But some needy, deeply submissive part of her craved for him to know. To know and do something about it. Through her heat-addled brain, she remembered what Krennic had said. That Partagaz had kept her confidence until doing so would have meant putting hands on the Director. Of course, Krennic would only torture her further if he had any inkling of what thoughts were roiling in her mind. First, however, he might be insulted that her attention was on another Alpha.

Dedra reached down and tugged his wrist, dislodging his fingers. She almost retorted that he’d promised to be comforting, but he wasn’t that kind of Alpha. She raised the gloved hand and sucked his index and middle fingers into her mouth, tasting herself. Krennic inhaled sharply. The texture of the leather sliding against her tongue made her moan, and her eyes fluttered shut. Krennic pushed his fingers deeper toward the back of her throat. She nipped his fingers on the way out when she pulled on his wrist.

“Kriffing hell. Don’t do that again until I can see you.”

Dedra startled when she felt his mouth press hungrily against hers in the dark. The kiss was wet, deep, and aggressive, although Dedra had little to compare it to. Syril’s tame kisses on the cheek had been nothing like this. And the heat Alpha had been notably skilled, but he hadn’t been so passionate and consuming. She hadn’t expected anything so intimate from Krennic. If they’d rutted without even looking at each other, she wouldn’t have been surprised, but his mouth felt good. Fiery. She moaned into the kiss and sucked on the tongue that poked between her lips and tangled with hers. Her hips rolled up and his gloved hands, now wet with her saliva, found its way between her legs again.

This man…he was so hot and cold, she struggled to intuit when to fully submit the way her instincts wanted her to. At least when he was hot, she could ease into it.

After a long while, he bit her bottom lip and broke away.

“How did that heat Alpha fuck you?”

There was a new urgency in his voice?

“All the ways you’d expect.”

“Show me your favorite.”

Her heat was still far from over, and the bass in his voice was making her ache desperately again. Feeling emboldened, Dedra leaned forward blindly to bump their mouths together and then rub her neck, and therefore her mating gland, across his face. Krennic grunted and tried to nip at it, but missed as Dedra wiggled and turned over onto her stomach. She drew her knees up.

She felt dizzy with the rightness of being on her knees, face down. Presenting herself. It had felt that way with the heat Alpha, even though he’d just been doing his job.

Krennic’s hands were all over her body as she spread her legs, mapping out her position. They squeezed her ass and settled on her hips.

“Well, I think I need to see this. Lights thirty percent.”

Dedra didn’t ask why Partagaz’s ship responded to Krennic’s voice. She hadn’t thought about it at all the first time. The lights were dim enough for Dedra to still feel hidden. Comfortable.

Dedra pressed her face into the bed as she felt Krennic spreading her open with one hand, and startled when she inhaled the faint, lingering scent of Partagaz’s cologne.

The coat…

The response was instantaneous. A shudder went through her as she clenched both hands in the starched sheets. Her mouth watered the way Krennic’s had for her heat scent. It was as if all the neurons in her brain had begun firing at once.

“Look at you being so good,” Krennic crooned, thinking her sudden mewling submissiveness was for him.

She whined and thrust back, realizing the swollen tip of his dick was pressing against her entrance.

“Please!” she begged. “Please. I need it.”

Krennic was too far gone to tease her. He cursed and thrust into her in one. Stars, it was so much better like this. Dedra practically went limp as Krennic fucked her deeply, holding her hips in place.

A delicious jolt of pain bloomed across her ass cheek. He’d spanked her. She bucked back, momentarily forgetting that it was Krennic behind her.

“So well behaved with a cock inside you.”

The sound of his voice snapped her out of her perverse fantasy. Stop talking.

The wet sound of skin slapping against skin filled the room. She inhaled the lingering cologne from the sheets again and felt a gush of slick between her legs.

Partagaz.

She imagined he’d be both gentle and ruthlessly meticulous in taking her apart if he ever willed himself to cross that line. Leave no part of her unturned. She whined and mewled at the thought. He had to be experienced at his age.

He’d only slipped up with her once in the office. It had been at the end of a staff meeting and nearly everyone had gathered their data pads and left. She’d confirmed that her agent had been successfully planted in a suspected rebel supply line of stolen imperial fighters after asking for the Major’s advice on a tricky detail. He’d been pleased with her work. Good girl. Now off you go. And Jung—Jung of all people!—had been the last one leaving the staff meeting. He’d paused for a millisecond in the doorway, and possessed enough wherewithal not to turn and see Dedra’s beet-red face. Dedra was certain that Lagret and Heert had heard the story secondhand.

Partagaz’s pet.

Let them think what they want, she thought recklessly, rubbing her face against the sheets. Nothing had happened.

When Krennic knotted her, she imagined, to her deep shame and gratification, it was her boss’s knot. She came hard, eyes rolling into the back of her head even as Krennic moaned brokenly behind her as she clenched again and again like a vice around his pulsing cock. He all but collapsed on top of her. Something about that position must have triggered something primal in both of them, because her muscles continued to flutter and spasm in soft, almost-orgasms, which in turn milked Krennic for every drop he was worth. He was cursing and making unimaginable noises against her neck. She squeezed tightly and he growled against her mating gland. The wave of shame didn’t stop her from fantasizing Partagaz biting down on it. That was enough. She bore back on Krennic and let another orgasm overtake her.

—-

To her utter shock, Krennic had gotten up multiple times during their rounds of frantic sex to ransack the kitchenette for water and ration bars for her.
Of course, one of the times he returned, he squeezed her thigh directly below her ass with little ceremony and commanded “Up.”

After hours, the scent of Partagaz’s cologne had long faded. The more Dedra rubbed her face against the sheets, the less of him she smelled and more of herself she did. Disappointing.

She shifted over a little and got a deeper whiff of his cologne from a cool part of the sheet. She shivered and melted against the mattress, the warm weight of Kennic on her back a surprising comfort. She closed her eyes and began to purr contentedly before she could stop herself.

“Oh,” Krennic said with his faux curious lilt. “How traditional of you.”

Dedra ignored the ease in his voice. The Alpha was still docked inside her, both his cock and knot completely rigid and twitching, although he’d filled her so many times that his seed was dripping out of her and down her inner thighs. His breath was uneven. The two of them were sticky with sweat. The several water glasses he’d fetched for her cluttered the stark nightstand. And—

Dedra tensed as a low rumble started up in Krennic’s chest. Her eyes widened.

After an uncomfortable pause, Krennic cleared his throat, but it did nothing to stop the rumbling. He sighed.

“Damn.”

“It’s fine,” she said quickly.

The sound reverberated through Dedra’s back. Like a mated pair. Her ears went hot. How humiliating.

She was beginning to feel sleepy. If she were honest, she’d admit that there was something deeply satiating about his rumble. Something right about it. The heat Alpha had done it, but it had seemed as if he’d been pushing it for her benefit as an Omega.

Biology, she reasoned. Just biology.

Krennic was shifting around behind her. He cursed softly again.

“I’m taking these off.”

There was the slapping sound of damp leather hitting the floor. The gloves.

Are you always so dramatic? She wanted to ask. But she knew better. The heat fog that had consumed her mind and body was finally beginning to clear, but she wasn’t out of the woods yet.

She inhaled sharply. Krennic’s bare hand rested in the dip of her waist, then trailed around to cup her breast. His fingers were surprisingly calloused as he teased the nipple—Oh, she thought. The bare hand was far too intimate—

“I think you need one more,” he whispered into her ear.

Where would a man like Krennic get callouses anyway? Digging trenches for the Empire? Digging a trench for Dedra’s career once he was done with her, more likely.

His knot hadn’t gone down at all.

“But it’s still…clearly you’re aware,” Dedra said.

“I’m planning ahead.”

The sudden handsy-ness was alarming. Awkward. Krennic pressed his nose into her neck and breathed in.

“Stars, you feel perfect.”

He was still rumbling in his chest. He had given up on trying to suppress it. She’d read about some Alphas becoming saccharine during an Omega’s heat, but it didn’t last.

Her purring must have flipped some switch, she thought dazedly. Partagaz had always perked up a little whenever she had failed during her suppressant trainings with him. She’d pretended not to notice. Just another Alpha trait.

Krennic rolled his hips, pressing deeper and teasing the sensitive spot inside her until his knot went down. The moment he was stiff again, he hiked her leg into the air so he could thrust inside of her while they lay on their sides. He didn’t knot her that time, and as good as he felt, Dedra was relieved not to be stuck together when he finished inside her.

—-

Dedra woke with Krennic half on top of her in a sticky mess, wondering when she had fallen asleep. He’d stopped making that soothing Alpha noise in his chest.

“Why Lio has denied himself this I’ll never know,” Krennic mused.

Dedra felt her stomach spasm at the backhanded comment.

“You think so little of us?”

Krennic sighed.

“Careful.”

This is Major Partagaz we’re talking about,” she continued. “It would be completely out of the realm of professionalism.”

He looked at her, unimpressed, and Dedra wanted to turn into smoke. She might as well have said that she and Partagaz had formally discussed shagging one another and decided against it. For professionalism.

She straightened up, overcoming the urge to fold under his gaze. To roll over and show her belly like a good Omega. She drew her knees up to her chest and stared at the wall.

“Nothing’s more important to me than my job,” she tried.

Dedra was used to interrogating people. Here she was spilling her guts while Krennic had barely said a word.

“What happens now?” She couldn’t help herself. “To me?”

“The more you talk the more precarious your standing at the ISB becomes.”

Krennic looked like he was on the brink of a nap himself. Dedra chewed on her bottom lip, a trait she thought she had grown out of. Partagaz had warned her about overstepping but she couldn’t help herself.

“You wanted me for the Ghorman assignment.”

Krennic sat up. He took her chin in his hands and turned her face to his.

“I wanted you for the assignment before the meeting began. But due to unfolding circumstances, doubts are becoming to take shape.”

Dedra briefly closed her eyes. You fall here, you fall alone.

“Look at me.”

Dedra opened her eyes. Krennic had that intense, focused look in his eyes again, but they were missing the ardor from when she’d been in the height of her heat.

“I don’t have time for your personal problems. Fix your medication. You either get Ghorman, or you go out the proverbial airlock. Do you understand me.”

Dedra felt tears welling up behind her eyes. She had cried since she was…she couldn’t remember.

“Yes, Director.”

He tsked at her, and she blinked the tears away.

“First Ferrix and now this. How many messes has Partagaz cleaned up for you?”

Dedra’s pursed her lips, hoping to stay neutral, but Krennic had already told her how easy she was to read.

“Let the possibility of Ghorman bring clarity to your priorities. It may be your last chance.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Aren’t you forgetting something?”

“Thank you, sir. For the opportunity.”

“Good girl.”

She flushed despite herself. Despite her predicament.

Dedra had spent her adolescence becoming a master at hiding her true emotions. The kinderblock had taught her at a young age what happened to the weak. She’d been six.

Since Partagaz had discovered her true nature, she’d been slipping. Perhaps his involvement hadn’t helped the way he had intended.

Dedra sat up straight.

“The coat. Partagaz’s coat—”

“I’ll take care of it.” Krennic said, waving his hand dismissively.

He seemed to dislike it when she mentioned the Major.

I can read you as well, she thought, even as her primal Omega mind purred distantly: He'll take care of it.

Dedra lay back down. She thought of Partagaz sitting in the lodge’s conference room for the past half day, waiting while Krennic “took care” of her heat. How would she face him after this, especially now that Krennic had all but given her the Ghorman job? The optics were terrible.

Krennic’s Alpha scent had finally receded, becoming far less enticing, and the man had stopped touching her so much. With her heat quickly fading, she was grateful for it. She could take her final pill to nip the half-heat in the bud.

“We should get going,” she said. “You said I was putting you behind schedule—”

“They’ll wait for me, won’t they.”

For a man who supposedly had places to be, Dedra thought he was being nonchalant about time. However, he got up and went naked to the comms station by the door where he put in a call for a droid from his own ship. “Yes. Fully wiped afterward. Affirm.”

While Dedra showered, the ship droid turned on a special filtering air system to rid the ship of any Omega heat smells. Then it stripped the bed and sanitized the room efficiently. Thank the stars. The bed had looked like something ruptured.

The droid brought Krennic a fresh uniform and fetched Dedra’s spare from the closet in the hallway. The rest of their clothing was to be burned.

Relief washed over her as she was covered from head to toe again. Back to normal. Well. Her legs were still weak and trembling, and she felt residual throbbing between them after so many rounds of sex. Her mating gland had been thoroughly abused, as pleasurable as it had been. And Krennic had threatened her very existence. Maybe normal would come next week.

“Is that everything?” She asked, as she straightened the collar of her tunic.

Krennic grunted in confirmation, thoroughly disinterested in her now that they had done what they’d needed to. Dedra felt a twinge of something at the whiplash of his mood shift, but better to have the Director disinterested in her than interested. He might try to burden her with another assignment. Or worse.

“How much time did we save?”

Dedra stood at attention with her hands behind her back.

“Time?”

“How long does a half-heat typically last?” He had that faux curious lilt again.

“I assume one standard day. Maybe a little longer.”

“So we selected the correct course of action. Good.”

He walked over to her and adjusted the corner of her tunic, even though Dedra knew it was flawless without looking down.

“How are those legs of yours? Difficult to walk?”

She didn’t reply.

Krennic stepped up by her side and leaned down to smell the top of her head like he had after finding her heat-addled in the shower. Dedra felt a prickle go down her spine.

“Hm. Looks like we’re all clear. Fetch him so we can leave.”

Dedra felt a jolt of anxiety, and she suppressed the urge to run a hand over her hair, which was damp and fashioned into her standard bun.

An unhappy Omega whine sounded in the back of her throat before she could stop it. Krennic straightened up, but quickly recovered and fixed her with an annoyed look.

“You think you’ll get your way using that? You need to get over yourself and get it under control.”

“I didn’t—yes, Director.”

She blinked back the shock at the barb in his words. To be used and reprimanded by an Alpha in this way was triggering a raw pain inside of her. There was no use trying to defend herself to Krennic.

She clenched her hands behind her back. She’d shower again and dry her hair properly once she was back in her apartment on Coruscant. All she had to do was get through another awkward half day and then she could deflate in the safety of her own home.

“I’ll get Partagaz now.”

Dedra turned and left the ship. Outside the lodge’s conference room, Dedra shook the nervous energy out of her arms and pushed the door open.

—

Krennic adjusted Lio’s spare coat in the ship’s closet, after Meero left, the woman looking as close to “not a hair out of place” as he supposed she could. He’d certainly seen another side of her that day.

He admitted he had a history of boundary crossing. His father had caught him more than once in his youth stealing a classmate’s girlfriend or surreptitiously backstabbing a contemporary for favor or a promotion. To his credit, his father hadn’t punished him, but had schooled him in the importance of being judicious of when he would subvert the rules for his own entertainment versus his professional and social ascension. He’d learned and behaved for the most part.

There was no need to punish Lio and Meero yet, but perhaps he only felt that way because of how deliciously hollowed out he felt. It had been too long.

Knowing the Supervisor’s secret, and knowing that she and Lio were holding themselves back from the brink of something wholly inappropriate was a beautiful kind of leverage. Maybe today would make them think twice about their distractions and focus on their work. He could always pay her a visit on Ghorman to remind her of her priorities if she secured the role.

He felt the lump in the pocket of Lio’s coat. As a final touch, he’d had the droid find Dedra’s heat-soaked panties and shove them to the bottom of the pocket for his old friend to find. The gloves on top would obscure them a little longer. Perhaps he was punishing them after all.

He smirked to himself.

Poor Lio.