Page 46 of Collateral Omega

Holi gasped, confused.

For days, he’d been surrounded by drunk and lusty alphas, Holi never once reacted to their lustful gazes.

Why him?

He hated him.

Holi took a step back. Xaine’s eyes narrowed on him.

“Don’t,” he mouthed, his dominating presence demanding submission.

Holi whined resisting.

He turned and ran to the back of the leisure room where their rooms were. He opened the door to the room he shared with two other omegas and pulled out his case from under the bed and surreptitiously slid out his credit account chip from the slit he’d made in the mattress. He jumped to his feet and rushed to the clothing cubicle to pack his clothes. Done, he dragged the case to the war room and opened the back door.

“Holi, are you going somewhere? What’s up with the case?” Olen asked. “What’s going on? Why do you look like you’ve seen a ghost?”

No, not a ghost. The devil, but Holi didn’t say that. He looked at the serving bots and overworked omegas and felt bad. They were going to have to take over his clients on top of their own.

“Tell the manager, I’m sorry,” he said and walked out into the night.

***

Holi

“We don’t admit omegas in the middle of the night,” the mistress of the house said, causing Holi’s heart to fall to his knees.

Damn, that alpha, Holi silently screamed.

“I’m sure you could make an exception. He has nowhere to go,” the officer said. “Let’s not forget why these commune houses are here.”

“You would know,” she said, and then looked over at Holi. “Come in.”

“Thank you,” Holi said, more to the officer than to the mistress. The officer found him walking around the walkways in the middle of the capital disorientated and on the verge of tears.

“Be safe. And don’t run away from your commune again,” he whispered the latter. Holi told him he ran away from his commune because he didn’t like it there, not because there was a massive beast of an alpha after him. The officer winked at him and then left.

“Come in…come in. I was in the middle of the perfect dream when you woke me up,” she said. “Your room is upstairs. The first door. Don’t make noise.”

“Thank you,” Holi said.

“Yeah…. yeah….” She said, walking away. Holi turned to the stairs and made his way to the room. He opened the door gently but seemed he shouldn’t have bothered. The omega inside was awake. He stared at him as he walked in.

“Hi,” Holi said uncomfortably. He was still not used to talking to strangers. “I’m Holi.”

“I’m Lilan,” he said. “I hope you don’t snore.”

“Uhhhh…” How was he supposed to know that? He never shared a room with anyone.

“Joking,” he said, getting under the covers. Holi didn’t laugh. He dropped his case on the empty bed.

“Where is your lab?” he asked.

“Downstairs, next to the cooking station. Are you going to look for a job now?”

Holi nodded. Xaine was too close for comfort. He went downstairs and easily found the lab. He logged into the Omega Placement Agency site and looked for work. He stayed there the whole night applying for every job he could find. When he was done, Holi went upstairs to sleep. But sleep eluded him. He wouldn’t sleep until he was sure he was far away from Xaine. Holi’s heart pounded in his chest at the thought of the alpha finding him.

Shit. If only he could run far. But he couldn’t just go roaming around. Omegas were not allowed to roam around. His movements were restricted. Holi just hoped he could get a job far away from the capital. The next day, he went to the lab to check if he had any messages. There were none.

---