Page 16 of Omega Chattel
“Do you try to fix all the strays you bring home?”
“I do what I can. Some make it. Some don’t.”
My heart hitched to hear him say it. The one whose room I had slept in last night hadn’t made it. So far. Tarin had gone out of his way to try to find him. Had the two of them been closer than he was admitting?
Were there many others?
Was I next on his list of hopeless cases?
I wanted to be next on his list of successes. And maybe more. The same feeling and scent that had compelled me to follow him last night, beyond trying to get money from him, was there again, shivering my insides. Making me want to be the least hopeless one. The non-fuck-up.
“I know you said I’m not the type for this, but I am not a complete street brat. I am willing to work. I am willing to try.”
“I didn’t say you weren’t the type for this sort of Omega rehab I do here.”
“Right.” I conceded. “You said I wasn’tyourtype.” I took a deep breath and felt his scent linger all over and inside me. Well, he was certainly my type. A strong disappointment washed over me that he didn’t sense me that way in return.
When he did not reply to my statement, I bowed my head.
“Eat up.” His voice trickled over me, a light caress. My imagination, of course. “Then I’ll show you a few things. We’ll talk more.”
I wanted to talk more now, but he seemed firm about finishing the meal first.
Even if he didn’t want me for some larger future, he was offering me a future nonetheless.
Seeing the other Omegas, the house, and his demeanor, I decided to trust him.
Chapter Six
Tarin
I wanted him. But I didn’t take in lost Omegas to fuck them.
Kee had been one exception, but at the same time I took him in, I had never believed he could be more than the wild boy he was.
Alli was not like Kee at all. Yet something about Alli drew me, not innocence or virginity—I didn’t need to be saddled with all that at my age. But there was a freshness to his eagerness, a sort of clean slate where things could be written, things I might want to read. Alli was the type who could be helped. But not if I allowed feelings to interrupt that.
I had to put all of that emotion off now that I’d decided Alli could stay and learn a trade. He would need focus to succeed. I’d already decided I would sponsor him. I would become his legal financial guardian. He did not need any distraction from that goal.
And neither did I.
But there was a tug in my mind from him, a pull. I need to ignore that.
I kept telling myself as a healthy Alpha I always felt that with Omegas anyway. I loved everything about them, their smaller, mostly hairless physiques, the need in their eyes, their intelligence that could complement an Alpha’s if only they weren’t so meek about it, so pushed back by society and its expectations of them.
So this pull toward Alli was perfectly natural. And for his own good, I simply needed to ignore it.
Kee had been one in a line-up of the hopeless that I’d had hope for only because I’d allowed my attraction to get out of hand. He was not the type, fit for the future I was offering, neither as a student or a lover.
But I’d been so blind to his charms.
Kee had laughed when I tried to create a contract between us; when I asked him about bondings and his feelings after some exquisite Burns we shared together.
Others before Kee, when I’d been very young, had also broken my heart.
I tried to choose my wards carefully. I’d made a lot of mistakes when I was younger. I thought I’d learned, until Kee came along. I’d slipped.
And now this one was making me feel out of control again. Maybe because I was still raw from Kee’s absence. It had been months since I’d last seen him, but it felt like just yesterday he’d looked at me with his big green eyes through frazzled, dark hair and said, “I am not hanging for study group and you know it. Text me on your next Burn.”
