Page 31 of Omega Untamed
“But if he thinks I’m dead, he wouldn’t even be looking.”
Bast gestured toward the kitchen door that led to the living room. “Take your chances, then. Walk through that front door and go. See what happens.”
Now he had me more scared. I frowned. “But you’ll be checking on me, right? Not gone all the time. Bringing in groceries and stuff, right?”
“I’ll be around.” His voice softened. “Do you have any hobbies?”
“Like what?” I sounded dejected, like a child.
“I don’t know. You tell me. Painting. Doing puzzles. Making macaroni pictures. I can get you glue. I can get you bags of pasta tubes.”
Was Bast making a joke? I looked up to see if he had cracked even half a smile. But he was intent on his food, buttering a second roll.
My hobbies were sex and drugs. Drinking. Sleeping during the day and staying up all night. Those were my hobbies. Even now, I craved some steam. My body hadn’t had time to de-tox yet, but I heard that some got the shakes when they quit, or major flu-like symptoms.
“I’ll need something to get me through the steam withdrawal.”
“I’ll see to it.”
“See to what?”
“There’s medication for it. I’ll get it.”
“Don’t you need a prescription?”
“I said I’ll get it.” Bast would not look at me.
If he hated me on sight, I couldn’t blame him. But then, I hadn’t asked him to save my life.
“Why’d you save me anyway?”
“You were innocent for one thing,” he replied a little too quickly.
“How do you know that?”
“Trust me, I just do.”
This was going to be a miserable unspecified time out of my life. And though Bast was attractive to me even with his acerbic tone and dark glares, he didn’t seem the least bit interested in me as a person or an Omega even though I was eating dinner with him mostly naked. It was fairly clear and simple to me: he didn’t like me.
I was stuck. No friends. No life. No steam. No sex. And no future, although my future prospects before all this had already been on the low end of the bar chart.
Add to that, Bast had made a fairly tasty meal, but it wasn’t real cooking. I had learned to cook pretty well as a kid from even the barest available ingredients. Would he even allow me to take over the kitchen? Well, if he was going to be gone half the time, I’d be left to cook for myself, so in a way, I’d be able to take over—somewhat—the entire apartment.
Maybe after I healed, I could do some redecorating as well. It was sort of an Omega thing, nesting, but I had no plans to stay. I was merely looking at how to stave off utter boredom.
*
The front door crashed open and Bast came through laden with bags.
I jerked in surprise, my heart hammering in my chest, but had no strength to get up from the couch. My breaths came faster and faster. I hadn’t seen him in a full day.
Bast put down his groceries on the coffee table and glanced over at me. “Staying out of trouble?”
“Ugh.” I slung an arm over my face as I heard him walk closer to the couch.
“Did you take the pills I brought you?”
“Yeah.” But the heat and clamminess would not go away. My head ached too badly to lift it.
