Page 14 of Alpha's Embrace
My arousal from being around him remained a mild distraction and I used the walk back to my office to control it.
When I arrived, Tory was at his desk in the outer office, typing away on his keyboard. I motioned him to follow me inside.
He came in and plopped himself in the chair before my desk, sprawling a little.
I decided not to say a word about him abandoning me upstairs.
“The case of Misha needs to be updated. He is isolated and he’s an adult male with no mental illness and no physical limitations.”
“But he has the Burn,” Tory replied as if I were a child who knew nothing.
“So do lots of Alphas walking around in public right now.”
“Well, they don’t usually walk around in full Burns. They’re busy fucking their mates, or buying an Omega’s service,” he argued.
“I understand he can’t be outside in public. But he needs to gradually be allowed out within this institution. Not locked away. In fact, this institution is for extreme cases. I was thinking he might be able to be moved to a less strict facility.”
“But he’s a Sylph. All Sylphs are restricted to Sylph institutions.”
“There are never exceptions?”
“None that I have ever heard of.”
“Research this for me, will you? I want to know if there are rare cases like Misha. He is a citizen and he should have rights.”
“Sylphs are less than Omegas. They have no rights.”
“Omegas do have some rights. And Sylphs have the right to government care for the duration of their lives. The care should be compassionate. After all, we’re not completely uncivilized,” I said.
Tory smirked. “Not completely.”
I didn’t like his attitude, but I continued as if he’d not spoken. “Misha needs more mental stimulation than he’s getting. He’s smart and he has self-taught himself to read, to write, and converse. It’s amazing, actually, and we are not serving him well by confining him.”
“But it’s a fact that Sylphs can’t be trusted.”
“That’s a broad statement encompassing most Sylphs. But Misha--” I broke off and glanced at my window where I could see the muck of the pond Misha had called the Green Sea. “Misha is different than any Sylph I’ve ever heard or read about. Why wasn’t this of any importance to my predecessor?”
“He usually didn’t see patients. I believe he had met with Misha once, though.”
“Well, I do see the patients, and I’m not going to ignore details that are inconvenient. For Misha, I want us to eventually get to a point where he’s not locked away. He can care for himself. He should have an ability to move about, interact, and even help with the colony in some ways if he wishes.”
“I think it’s a bad idea.”
“Why? We’d move forward slowly. We’d make rules.”
Tory’s mouth turned down. He sprawled a little in his chair, looking distinctly uncomfortable. “A lot of Alphas, despite their perfect mate-bonds, still have trouble. Not with most Sylphs, but with him. He’s very alluring. It’s a problem.”
“So that is the reason to keep him locked up?”
“It is a very good reason. It’s how we’re trained to deal with any and all Sylphs.”
“Well, I’m telling you, alluring or not, Misha deserves some freedom. When was it a crime to be pretty? Or in the Burn, for that matter?”
“If a Burn is unable to be controlled, Alphas lock themselves away until it’s over.”
“But Misha controls himself from what I’ve seen.”
“From what you’ve seen.”
