Page 32 of The Alpha's Fake Mate
I felt a hand on my shoulder, gentle and heavy, and blinked upward, the blackness fading to reveal Chirl’s face. He was bent a little at the waist, leaning in toward me.
“I am doing what I can to delay him. Extra paperwork. And I have contacted all my sources for advice on how to fight this and make him go away.”
But I knew. Bosk wanted me. He wanted to finish what he thought he’d started. A bonding. So I would be his to abuse forever to his heart’s content.
Bosk was an Alpha. The law favored him. Bosk would win.
“I have been in meetings all morning discussing this situation with Sen and others. Sen can have you committed.”
“Committed?”
“Declared mentally unfit to bond. But you would be sent to an institution for the rest of your life.”
My breath caught. A sudden pain rolled up through my stomach and into my chest. A voice in my head began a litany.Your life is over. Your life is over.
The hand on my shoulder gripped. Tight. “I will not turn you over to that man.” Chirl’s tone did not rise, but his every word seemed to punch the air. “I promise.”
I knew he spoke his heart. He was strict but never mean.
I opened my mouth to speak but couldn’t find my sound. Nothing but air came from my throat.
“There are some institutions that are very well-kept and comfortable. The more expensive ones. We don’t have funds here, but I’m sure if Orion were to be informed, he’d pay. You have been a valued employee of his. He likes you.”
Orion.I’d cleanly forgotten about him in these last moments.
The wordsinstitution, Orionandhe likes youwhirled about my brain. But more, the flashbacks nearly whited out my thoughts. That Alpha, that man who tried to tear me apart from the inside out wanted to claim me?
I would kill myself first.
Chirl’s promise held no weight. He could not stand against Alpha laws. Not if the Alphas involved were rich and powerful enough. They could grab me right out of any institution if they decided Chirl lied to get me in one.
Did I even want a life inside one of those prisons? Zilly’s was bad enough, but at least the Omegas I grew up with were sane.
Orion owed me nothing. I felt a fury rise up in me to think of begging any Alpha to pay for me to be safe in an institution under a pretense of any sort of altruism.
I couldn’t think straight. I could barely see Chirl as he left my side and approached his desk and computer. The light all around him was white. My own hands were ice.
Chirl said, “We need to take care of this right away.”
“When?” I managed to croak out.
“Today. Bosk comes at five to make his claim.”
I could barely see the clock on the wall with the big black hands and the slow-moving second hand. But I knew it was around noon. Five hours. That was all the time I had. And it was nothing. Not even so much as a blink.
I don’t know how long I sat in Chirl’s office, my breath shallow and shaking in my chest.
“I have to go.”
“Please wait.” Chirl sat at his desk. I heard the wheels of his chair squeak as he moved. The tapping of a keyboard echoed about the room. Too loud. Everything was bright and confusing and loud.
“I have to—to do something. Pack, I guess.” Far away, I heard my words make the reality of a sentence. But I wasn’t really sure what it meant.
“Hold on,” Chirl said. “I’m getting a response right now from Orion.”
“What?”
“Orion says he’s pulling up the claim right now and looking it over. Just wait.”
