Page 21 of Surviving Hallow Hill
“What’s yourrealname, Styx?”
“Styx,” he says with a smirk I can hear.
The obedient asshole.
“Tell me,” I whisper on a plea.
The scratching pauses a brief second, then resumes. “Lucas Colt.” He says it almost reluctantly, like he’s worried what I might think about his real name, like he’sembarrassed.
“Lucas.” I taste the name on my tongue. Such a simple name for someone so unique. “Do you want me to call you that?”
“I like Styx. You can call me whatever you want, alpha.”
And that reply... it’s so telling. I don’t need my Lady’s guidance to recognize the sorrow in the tone. Like it’s something he’strainedto say.
Despite his protests, I turn fully and grab his hand. “Hey...” His eyes meet mine. “I know I’ve said this before, but just because I’m your alpha, it doesn’t mean you’re my slave. You don’t always have to be submissive if that’s not who you are.”
Despite what people may think about omegas, they aren’t just slaves to an alpha’s pleasure. I may not be an expert on them, but I hate thinking that he sees me as some type of slaver, as someone who just bosses him around for my own pleasure.
His hand squeezes mine, and he lets the smallest of breaths loose. “Thank you.” There’s genuine gratitude shining in his bright eyes. “I’m... I’m the only omega in a family of alphas.” His breath catches, and he shakes his head back and forth, as if that can somehow dispel the sadness I instinctively know he’s feeling. “My parents weren’t mates in the traditional sense, but they wanted to strengthen their bloodlines, create a strong pack. I was the runt of the litter. In all ways. Smallest, quietest... and an omega.”
Him? A runt? My eyes take in his massive body. He pushes past six feet and stands taller and broader than Rue does. If he’s the runt of the litter, I’d hate to see what sasquatch abominations his siblings look like.
“It goes without saying that they pushed me around a lot, forced me to obey. Because omegas are so rare, and omega males even rarer, they kept me hidden like a shameful secret.” The word breaks on a pain-filled whisper. My heart aches, but I don’t reach in to hug him. Not yet. He doesn’t need more than the touch of my hand just yet, and that’s what I’ll give him until he’s ready. “They were going to sell me off. I thought it would be to another pack for an alliance. All alphas want an omega, you know.”
I can read the haunted look in his eyes, and the more silence pulses between us, the heavier the weight of the dread that settles in my stomach.
“But they didn’t do that, did they?”
He swallows and meets my gaze. Ever brave. “No. They didn’t.”
And it’s in those words that I know the truth.
“They sold you to the academy, didn’t they?”
He doesn’t look away, and I love him for it. For his bravery and the fear that seem to overwhelm him and the raw honesty in a single word.
“Yes.”
“Oh, Lucas...”
He shakes his head. “Call me Styx. Lucas was the nametheygave me, and I just...” A low growl emits from his chest, and for a moment, his eyes spark with well-deserved rage. “They beat me before turning me in to Dr. Hyde, and he didn’t even bother healing me before he collared me.”
“When I found you in the bathroom—”
“I lied.” A single tear tracks down the curve of his cheek, and I hate it. I hate the fuckers that did this to him. I hate that they’ve made this despairdrownsuch a sweet man, and I want nothing more than to shove my blade through their worthless bodies. “I’m sorry I lied to you, alpha. It’s true that I don’t remember much of what happened after Dr. Hyde collared me. I woke up in the showers, and I saw you, and then you saved me, and Iknew.”
A sob crawls its way up my throat. I’ve never been one for vulnerability. Fuck, the most vulnerable I’ve ever been had been when I told Sia I love him. This is different. Styx was my pet before he was a man and became something more to me.
This intimacy is different, just like my men are different.
“I knew you were my alpha the moment I saw you. I won’t lie. It’shardto forget everything they did to me, but with you, it’s different. You aren’t like them.”
He tugs my hand, hard enough that I fall forward and land in his lap, pressed chest to chest. His hands reach up to cup my face, and in a move that’s so tender it breaks my heart, he leans forward and presses his lips softly to mine. Then, his mouth curls in the slowest of smiles.
“Besides,” he purrs, “I rather like submitting to you.”
Those words send a jolt straight to my clit, causing a moan to rise in the back of my throat.
