Page 10 of Trust No Alpha
“Do I give off an Omega scent?”
“I have never noticed,” he replied.
“But you’ve never been around any of us when you’re feeling the Burn. You hide it from us. You go away for days at a time. Maybe you didn’t notice anything about me because of that. Maybe—“
Father held his hand up for me to stop talking. “I have not neglected you. Or your brothers. No one, not even Doctor Poe detected your Omega status until now. It’s dormant in you. Maybe it will never awaken. Maybe your Omega organs are dead. But the law is the law. You have Omega attributes. It marks you. Forever, I’m afraid.”
“But--”
Father held up his hand. “I’m sorry, son. There is nothing to be done. You will be treated with kindness here. But you will obey all my rules. You will never sully the name of Vandergale and though your status will be public record, you will speak of it to no one. Not online. Not to guests if you see them within this house. Your brothers already suspect something is wrong. I will inform them myself, and they will keep our secret or be cut off from me permanently. But I think they love you enough to obey my will and not expose you. If public record does expose you, I will do everything in my power to staunch rumors and make the story quickly run stale. Keep your mouth shut and your door locked, and you will have a comfortable life.”
My breathing grew more rapid. A comfortable life? Was he fucking kidding? What he meant was he wasn’t going to throw me away to one of the chattel farms. He wasn’t going to stand by and watch me raped by Alphas in rut. Howniceof him! HowAlphaof him!
Comfortable meant I wouldn’t be raped. Fine. But it also meant I would be alone forever. I would not have a career. Own nothing. Inherit nothing. I would have no status. I would never find a mate. Essentially, I’d be a non-person in the wealthy home of a man who was ashamed of me, who wanted me hidden away, who never wanted me to drag his thoroughbred name through the mud.
I would remain the property of Father. I would remain a child forever.
The room spun in blues and whites. The lights of my Swarovski chandelier flashed in my eyes. The top of my head tingled. Something caught me as I swayed forward.
Father’s arms. I felt six years old again. I wanted to scream. To sob.
Strong muscles lifted me. I felt my bed encase me with a soft embrace. The leaf-soap scent of Father surrounded me. His warm breath skirted the skin of my forehead.
“Kris,” he whispered. “My Kris. You don’t know how sorry I am.” Lips brushed against the center between my eyebrows.
My breath caught. My eyes were tight shut. “Father--”
“I will visit you once a day. That is all I can do for you.”
The sobs piled up in my throat, swelling it, but I wouldn’t let them out. Not for Father. Not for myself.
I knew he would monitor all my activity, physical, online. Everything. I would be cut off from the world. This room, and this house when I was allowed out of my room, would be the entire universe for me.
Already I was suffocating.
Already I felt dead.
My life as I knew it was over. I was only just beginning to grieve.
Chapter Five
Thorne
In the shadows there was lamplight. On hard, concrete flooring sat a soft mattress with a foam topper, clean sheets, and lots of pillows. Beside that, Thorne had a computer, a TV and a fridge stocked with water, soda, snacks.
There was no reason to suffer in darkness and discomfort when an Alpha experienced the Burn. But for Thorne, though he had made himself a nice nest in the corner of his basement, some discomfort was necessary. He bound himself with enough length of chain to function, but not to run away and wreak havoc if he blacked out.
He did not trust himself not to sleepwalk his way to find an Omega during his Burn. Since he blacked out during his Burns, he knew his mating nature and urge had to be extreme, off the charts. There was no medication for his condition. No help. Since he refused the special chattel farms for his kind, this was his solution. Hole up for a couple days and let the Burn simmer and slide away.
Masturbation helped his symptoms wane a little at first, so he kept plenty of lube nearby to keep from chafing his genitals. During a Burn, he could orgasm as many as fifteen times a day. From the literature he’d read on the subject over the years, he knew that was excessive even for the wildest of Alphas.
He never wanted to be responsible for another’s death ever again. To wake and find his lover expired beneath him… It was the worst of nightmares, and he vowed he’d never put himself in that position again.
Now he sat on his mattress in the corner and fastened the cold, metal cuffs about his wrists. Over the years he had thought about lining the cuffs so they wouldn’t chafe, but he never did it. Deep inside, he felt he didn’t deserve cuffs with soft linings. If he suffered a bit, after Ian, it seemed only right. It had taken him two years to even allow himself a soft mattress down here. And another two before he bought the topper and extra pillows.
One day, maybe, he’d get around to lining the cuffs with something soft like sheepskin.
Already the Burn was making his skin hot. Cold seeped in through the underground basement walls but he didn’t feel it. His skin flamed. His hair stuck to his neck in thick strands, and itched where it found its way under his t-shirt. His bangs had grown long this fall, and hung in his eyes.
