Page 4 of Alpha's Embrace
But for me, the situation was not clear cut. I still felt that fourteen-year-old, broken half-bond and the residual effects of its pull during my Burns. For fourteen years Mase had been bonded to another. He had been my first and only love. The Omega boy whose parents sold him at age eighteen to a rich Alpha in a foreign land.
My eyes still stung thinking about it.
We’d been best friends since I turned six and Mase was eight. Before I fully understood the meaning of genders and roles in our society, and how much he suffered because of them, I had imprinted on him. He was the home-schooled brother of a school-mate, and we met often at the riverbank behind my house to play the afternoons away.
Two years older than I, Mase was an Omega. To me it meant nothing. He was a person just like I was. He was the smartest boy I’d ever known, and the loveliest, and I looked up to him at every turn, following him about day after day.
But Mase had been promised to another. An arranged marriage, rare but legal. At eighteen he’d been shipped off.
We hadn’t meant to begin a bond. We hadn’t even known it was happening when I hit puberty and we started to fool around. Mase left when I was sixteen.
Though I wouldn’t know the Burn until I was eighteen, those were the best days of my life. The purest of ecstasy ruled when I was with Mase.
Our parents knew we sometimes played together as children, but they never knew how close we really were. When it was discovered that a bond had begun, and we’d been practicing at having sex together as children often do, his parents wanted to sue mine. Mine wanted to sue his.
It got ugly.
They tore us apart and Mase was force-bonded to an Alpha far away. The bond I felt with him was ripped apart by that act, and the pain of it in my mind and heart nearly destroyed me. I didn’t want to live without Mase. For a year I didn’t talk. My parents sent me to the best doctors and therapists who told me I was an overly sensitive child and I was put on mood stabilizers for a year. Those were my darker times.
Eventually, my life resumed.
I never liked to think about that period in my life, or even admit to the pain inside that held me back from finding a full life as an Alpha, and from having a family.
Omegas at chattel farms had serviced me during my Burns, and they were all very sweet and submissive, but none had clicked for me and I knew it was at least partially due to Mase. Even now, I could still feel the ripple of him in my blood and mind. Due to that very devotion and loyalty which I’d admitted to on record for my required psych evaluations to get the job, protocols were eased in my case. My low sex drive was also taken into account. I was considered a non-liability.
Bringing myself out of my thoughts and back to the subject at hand, I glanced up at my assistant to continue our conversation.
“There is a budget allotment for cable, Wifi and game credits, but I see many of the rooms are not equipped. Why?” I asked Tory.
“Because those patients are either babies, or if older, have the mentality of infants. They cannot feed themselves. Music calms some of them, but it’s a waste of resources to have the cable and TVs in those rooms.”
“All right.” My eyes scanned the list.
I knew the majority of Sylphs were born so severely handicapped they would not live past childhood. But I would never make the assumption until visiting them that they would not enjoy some entertainment.
“But you are sure the children who do have higher function are supplied with some outside stimulation?”
“It’s the duty of the nurses to make such reports. I receive them and forward them to you.”
I looked at my computer screen, clicking on my predecessor’s inbox for the past year. It was sparse and did not take long to scroll through.
“I see no updated reports from within the last few months.”
Tory took a deep breath. “Then I would suppose everything is in order.”
“I would like to check on that myself.”
The muscles of Tory’s face hardened. “That might take a while.”
“Why? There are fifty-nine patients. Half are infants. If I decide to interview the non-infants, at even three patients a day that would only take me ten days.”
“Of course, sir. I’ll set up a schedule. When would you like to start?”
“Tomorrow. And I will want another thorough tour of the building with a licensed inspector on hand. Please set that up for me as well.”
“Yes, sir.”
“And the groundskeepers. I would like meetings with each one of them, and afterward, I want a group meeting. I see there are three groundskeepers. That appears to be a very small number considering the acreage. And probably why the back of the estate has gone as wild as an abandoned graveyard. Has it always been this way?”
