Page 16 of Omega Untamed
Voices came from the other side of the suite, outside the bars of my cage. They must have been what woke me.
I did not want to open my eyes. I didn’t want to see the metal bars or the red couch, or the marble topped kitchen counters. I didn’t want to see the long curtains in case they were lighter, in case dawn approached.
The door to my cell clanged loudly as it swung open, the hinges making a slow reverberating moan. Hands grabbed my upper arm, tugging.
“Up, Omega!”
I tried to turn away, but whoever it was was too strong. I nearly fell as my body was yanked to the edge of the bed. I got my feet under me, gasping in pain from my toe, holding my sore hand close to my chest. My usually perfect hair hung in tangled strands, tickling my face.
With one guy holding me up on the side, I limped forward, unseeing.
Dawn had arrived. Next would come the drive. Myre’s parting words chilled me to the core. They weren’t taking me to a viewpoint to watch the sunrise, that I knew for sure.
“Well that’s just perfect now, isn’t it? He can’t even walk.” A voice hissed the words. It sounded like Bast.
“Who cares?” said another. “It’s private elevators all the way down.”
“People get lost. People wander where they’re not supposed to be. If he’s seen--”
“They’ll just think he’s another drunk fuck. An Omega hired for an all-nighter.”
“Right.” The sound of Bast’s voice was flat and firm. Truly pissed.
I wanted to smile because he’d been the only guy who’d showed me any true kindness even if it was behind a glacier façade. Where was he in the room? I couldn’t see. Maybe I could look into his face as I died and it wouldn’t be so awful. He’d given me the soda against the boss’s orders. I’d argue to my last breath that at least some part of him cared. If anyone cared that I died, it would be one more than existed less than twelve hours ago, for I had no true and real friends, not even Tarin, one of my repeat Alpha customers who’d tried so hard to tame me, who thought he even loved me. I’d laughed in his face too many times to count.
Now, I wished I was with him in the posh guest room he’d always set aside for me, letting him cook for me, letting him fuck me through his Burns. He’d told me he wanted a bond with me.
I’d felt no spark of it on my end. Besides, we were opposites in too many ways. I was no good for him. I’d never be what he wanted, so I’d laughed at that, too, and left him over and over. Poor Tarin, always so worried for the little Omegas who had no homes or high educations, the Omegas who had no rights in his Alpha-ruled world.
But even now as I thought of Tarin, my heart cracked wide open, and a pain lanced my chest with needle precision. What a stupid boy I’d been. Thankless at best, rude and condescending in my worst states.
Alphas, for the most part, infuriated me. I bent over and I took their money, but as for my feelings for them? They fueled my hate for the world, and for my life.
Steam took care of my anxieties, and fucking. Add alcohol to the mix and I lost days at a time. The rare times I was sober, I worked out hard to kick up the endorphins. Being high was my medicine for the disease called life.
Yeah, Tarin was a fool, but a nice fool. If I’d simply stayed on with him, letting him take care of me, I wouldn’t be here now facing the dawn.
I stumbled from the cage and blinked to steady my vision, a black form in front of me coalescing into Bast.
Strong arms caught me. My good hand brushed his side, the dark shirt beneath my palm silken, warm. He smelled of soap, clean and windswept, but with something bitter-burnt beneath, like pain, like a strictness I needed, like someone who might stay me with a look and a firm hand. Someone who might not be afraid to tell me the truth, that I was a lost, lost boy who’d fucked up real bad.
It was too late for all that now.
But hell, if I was dying, I could fantasize about Bast if I wanted. Hey, I got a pass.
“Steady now,” came the low, almost too-deep voice.
I closed my eyes and breathed in.
“You got him?” said another voice. It sounded like Stone.
“Yep. I got him.” Bast sounded all too bored, but with my head against his chest, I felt his heart thrumming fast and high-strung.
The Alpha’s head leaned toward mine and he said into my ear, “Come along.”
I limped, then stumbled again.
“Up.” Bast held me up with both hands.
