Page 1 of Omega Chattel
Chapter One
Alli
A river of lights cascaded across the Alpha’s body.
Here in the Trenches—which was what the street boys called the gutters of deep Old Town where they worked—the neon never stopped. In the daylight it became visible only in the dark shop windows of establishments like bars, tattoo shops, and massage parlors. But at night the multi-colored signs promising dark distractions sent their quasar-streams across the broken sidewalks and oil-stained asphalt of a world made prettier only by the misty dreams of escaping it.
I was sort of following the Alpha. Sort of. I had my reasons.
Number one: He looked like he had money. Looks were never a guarantee, though this one was handsome, but I had to start somewhere for the night, right?
Number two: He didn’t seem to be sexually interested in the Omega boys peddling themselves on every corner. Most Alphas who came down here wanted that. Or drugs. So maybe, just maybe that meant he’d be less creepy than the fat, older Alphas I’d seen picking up the corner boys and driving them away.
Number three: I was tired and hungry after three nights out. He looked big and strong, not someone I’d have to work hard at to get him going if that’s what he might want. He’d dominate for sure. He’d take. He’d pay—hopefully. I’d never done this before, so what did I know? Afterward, maybe I could afford a burger and a room for the night.
Number four: He smelled like an autumn night when the world is growing colder and the air takes on a pale orange sheen and maybe in the distance you can feel a storm coming, electric, ionizing the air, giving you a feeling of stunned existence. He had the kind of essence that made your soul turn over hard causing the entire universe to tremble for a moment. Yeah. He smelled like that.
I couldn’t resist it.
I’d been on the streets only three days, sleeping in the alcove of a dilapidated warehouse along an alley inhabited by overflowing dumpsters, crushed and stained cardboard boxes and, scurrying through the garbage, the occasional rustle of an antique wind, or a rat. I’d gone through all the water I’d brought in my backpack, as well as the few nutri-bars I’d managed to steal from Zilly’s kitchens the day before I ran away from the chattel farm.
The conditions here were fucked. I granted that. No argument. And I’d been kind of stupid. Okay,andrash. I hadn’t made any plans. I figured things would get tougher before they got easier. But I didn’t care when I ran. I needed to be away from that farm. Far away. I needed to save myself.
My Omega house dad, Gray, who oversaw Section Four of the farm where I grew up, had been a royal pain in my ass since I could remember. Gods, I hated him; he was such a pervy moron! He said such stupid things all the time and would never allow any boy to correct him—called it arguing. He never let us do stuff like the other house dads did in the other Sections. We never got to stay up late, or have extra desserts, or a day off from homework, or anything else. He was never lenient. And he had this thing about coming into our rooms at night and just standing there watching us sleep. I knew this because I would pretend to be asleep but open my eyes just a crack, and there he’d be, silent and watching. Ugh. So gross!
If Gray ever caught any of us doing anything with each other, even just a kiss, he’d smack the shit out of us, then lock us in a closet. Worse, if he caught Omega boys fucking, which of course was forbidden but hell, what did he expect?—we only had each other—he’d make them strip in front of everyone, then force them to wear a special belt that had ties that attached to your dick and forced it back toward your balls. This contraption had a space for the balls, too, keeping them pulled back, and the cords went up over the ass and attached to the belt. He’d fasten that weird belt really tight until kids actually screamed. Then he’d throw them in a closet for a day wearing only that, and they’d have no food or water, either.
How do I know about this? It happened to me a dozen times. Along with more smacks than I could count accompanied by words to the effect of: “You’re no better than a piece of shit scraped off a shoe. Remember that.”
I got in trouble a lot for giving him what he called “sassy looks.” Sometimes I got in trouble for nothing I could figure. I came to believe he simply hated me.
Regarding the punishments for sex, well, I was still a virgin. I never actually fucked my Omega brothers. I just liked to cuddle with them when I was littler. But Gray didn’t care. He’d find us sleeping in the same bed and he’d punish us as if we were the filthiest creatures on the planet.
Cade, my best friend at the farm, brought the abuse to the warden’s attention a couple of times, only to be ignored. Patted on the head. Set aside.
House-dad Gray hated me so much he’d make up reasons for me to go into that closet. Several times he would join me and pinch me all over my naked body, including on my balls, really hard until I cried. He would accuse me of fraternizing, which I honestly never did.
He would say, “You are a very bad boy. This will teach you not to think with your dick.”
When I got older, and bolder, I’d argue, figuring things couldn’t get worse. I’d say to him, “You’re the one with dick on the mind all the time.”
Yeah, that got him really mad and he’d go a bit rougher on me, leaving marks, telling me I would amount to nothing and he’d make sure the warden knew I was not fit for the mating halls when I turned eighteen, repeating that I was worth only doing menial labor jobs around the farm.
Then one day I saw him with a younger Omega. I didn’t know him well, but I knew his name. Sai was about fifteen, and Gray shoved him into a closet while the boy cried and cried.
The door got left a little ajar and I happened to be in the punishment room for yet another infraction, told to sit in a chair and face the wall. Of course I turned my head and saw Gray pinching the boy just like he did me, but he didn’t stop there. He shoved the boy against the wall and pulled up his robe.
I witnessed the rape in a sort of dazed state of shock.
When Gray came out of the closet, adjusting his robe, he glanced at me as if he’d forgotten he’d put me in the punishment room against the corner.
I was staring right at him instead of at the wall as instructed. I did not look away like I should have. I did not act innocent and scared and stupid. Not anymore. I was almost eighteen, almost ready for the mating hall to meet my first Alpha in a Burn. Ready to defy Gray’s negative reports on me and beg the warden for my right to service Alphas and be subject to menial labor for the rest of my life.
But without thinking of the ramifications, I said to Dad-Gray as he left the weeping boy in the closet, “Fucking bastard.”
He merely shrugged and said, “You’re on your way to an institution, Alli. No one will have you after I make my report to the warden about how unfit you are. And about how you’re not even a real virgin.”
“I am a virgin!”
