Page 26 of Omega Chattel
His focus zoomed in on me as if I owned the world. All my other Omega boys, the ones I’d taught, the ones I’d sponsored and maintained guardianships with didn’t affect me in this way.
I stood and stretched, making my way to the door. Alli followed.
In the living room, Farrell and Tev were already curled up together on the loveseat. Oren sat in a recliner with an iced soft drink in hand. A large bowl of popcorn occupied the center portion of the coffee table, but the boys had little bowls of it on their laps.
“The movie’s all set up.” Oren brandished the remote.
“He won’t give up that remote,” Tev said.
Farrell laughed. “Pretending you’re the Alpha of the house, Oren?”
Oren made a face at him.
Alli trailed behind me. I took a chair for myself. Alli looked around for a place to sit. He could have used any number of other chairs, but instead he plopped on the ground near my chair.
My heart flopped in my chest. He obviously wanted to sit with me.
Oren got up and handed both of us small bowls filled with popcorn. “The fridge is full of drinks,” he said to Alli.
Alli nodded. “Okay. Thanks.”
The lilt of Alli’s young voice thrummed through me.
Oren started the movie, one they’d all picked out beforehand. I didn’t ask the title. I didn’t care. This was their time to relax and reward themselves. To spend time together. Sometimes I didn’t stay long, letting them have the room, letting them be together as Omegas without the influence of an Alpha around.
But tonight I stayed. I wasn’t watching the movie. My senses were overloaded with Alli, fragrance of white hot roses, attar of summer, elegant and rainy Aprils reminding me when I was kid dreaming on my front porch, playing in bright endless afternoons before I knew what Alphas and Omegas were to each other, and believing I would one day own the world. That young me, with no concerns but lining up my toy cars and catching butterflies on the wind made me half-shut my eyelids. I saw him as a tousled kid full of smiles.
My reverie deepened.
As I had grown older, leaving childhood behind, the interruption of adolescent pangs and pains had worried me more than I’d let on to my Alpha and Omega parents. I loved them both equally but when I discovered Omegas had less options for their own futures, and Omega chattel were used to service Alpha Burns, I had nightmares. I wondered how one-half of the population could be treated as if—as if they were slaves.
I found a group of chaste Alphas online who discussed the same concerns. Many weathered their Burns alone, and had advice on sex aids and toys for cooling the Burn without paying for Omega partners.
I tried celibacy during my Burns a few times, but I had hated it. My Omega father was the one who convinced me I wasn’t immoral for using Omega farms. It was the way he and my Alpha dad had met.
Now in my early fifties, still young for an Alpha, I remained single. I’d had very few love affairs in my life. And none that panned out to more.
My gaze remained fixed on Alli, the movie going on unnoticed, background noise only to my thoughts.
Already I’d fantasized about Alli naked, and felt things I wasn’t expecting to experience from a youngster I barely knew.
The movie blared.
The boys laughed.
Once Alli turned to me and said, “Oh gods. Wow!” He was grinning.
I had no idea what he was reacting to on the screen. I merely smiled back, nodding.
“You’ve seen this before,” he accused.
Honestly, I had no idea if I had or not. Whatever they were watching, I had paid it no attention. I shrugged.
Oren frowned. “It’s brand new.”
“Shut up,” said Tev.
“Run it back a few seconds,” Farrell demanded.
