Page 1 of Prodigy & Tybalt
1
Miraya
The impact of the punch ricocheted up my arm as I drove my fist into the door, immediately drawing back to slam it into the solid wood again. And again. And again.
I’d given myself so many bruises in the past three weeks, since some mangy bastard grabbed me off the street, stuffed a drugged cloth over my nose, and sold me. You really could not make this shit up.Soldme. All because of my prized omega biology.
Being an omega wasn’t all it was cracked up to be, trust me. We were sweet and submissive by nature, easily controlled by an alpha’s growl, a purr, or the worst of all three—a bark. The mangy dick who grabbed me hadn’t barked, and neither had any of the staff who got me ready to stand on an auction block and be bid on. The prick who bought me had. Multiple times a day. Each one hit me like a whip to my skin, making my soul recoil.
A day will come,I reminded myself, hammering at the door, refusing to be broken. It was something my mum said whenever we had a bad day, usually because of her deteriorating health or my volatile hormones or the house falling apart around us.A day will come when there will be no clouds, only sunshine, no darkness, only light, no unhappiness, only joy.She was a dreamer, my mum, and so was I.
So I kept pounding at the door my buyer had locked me into. He’d bought me, then trapped me in this frilly meringue of a room with its silk, ribbons, and four-poster bed, and I hadn’t seen any other room in weeks. I didn’t have much strength—all he fed me were green shakes I didn’t want to know the contents of—but that didn’t stop me hitting the door.
Whenever the door opened, he made me undress and then stroked his hand from my shoulder all the way down my arm, over the shape of my ribs to where my hips flared, mapping the blank canvas he would turn purple and blue and green. Right when I thought he’d spare me, he grabbed a fistful of my curls, drove his closed fist into my ribs, then my stomach, and my side, until a rainbow of pain exploded through me, until I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t stop the sobs tearing apart my chest.
Then he pressed his lips to mine in closed-mouth kisses, and left.
I’d scoured my face, my body, my lips with hot water and soap so often in the en-suite bathroom that my lips were permanently chapped, as bruised as my body, but my buyer didn’t seem to care when he let himself into my room using the padlock on the other side of the block of wood.
“A day will come,” I reminded myself, making the door shake as I rained blows upon it. I’d tried to unscrew the light fitting above so I could use exposed wires to electrocute the fucker, or at least rip off the switch on the wall, but my fingernails werethe only screwdriver I had, and each attempt failed. And here I’d thought being an engineer was a valuable skill.
“Let me out, you piece of shit,” I yelled. “Let me out!”
Alphas weren’t known for their patience, and if I caused too much trouble he’d grow tired of me or replace me. Ireallydidn’t want to know how much worse my life could get if he sold me to someone else, someone whose abuse took a different shape. But I couldn’t stop fighting.
The truth was I was a dreamer and fighter in equal measure. And no amount of bruises or tender muscles were going to stop me fighting.
That didn’t prevent ice cold fear deluging my whole body when I heard the padlock rattle on the other side of the door.
“Are you alright in there? We’re here to get you out. Stand back from the door.”
Shock glued my feet to the plush carpet. That wasn’t my buyer’s voice. It was deeper, richer, but with a softness. I’d hesitate to label it concern, but it was close. This wasn’t the mangy fucker who abducted me, or any of the auction’s handler’s either. I’d made sure to memorise their faces, their voices, their names if they made the mistake of letting them slip around me.
We’re here to get you out. Stand back from the door.
This couldn’t be genuine, but the dreamer in me was vibrating, crying, praising the gods.
“What the fuck…?” I took three steps back, cold brushing over my skin until I shuddered. The buyer gave me a single white button shirt, and nothing else to wear. All the better to beat you with, my dear. (I knew I was delusional, and losing it, but humour was the only thing keeping me from the edge of insanity.)
When the door flung open and I swayedtowardsit subconsciously. A scent of bliss and safety and true, finalhappiness danced through all my senses. My shoulders slumped, my breathing calmed.What the actual fuck was happening?
Vanilla bean and leather overwhelmed every other scent, and I stumbled forward in a daze.There was no fucking way…
But the tightness in my chest eased, my heart slowed from its frantic race, and I knew, beyond a doubt, that I was safe. Because my mate had found me.
A day will come…and it had. My mum was never wrong.
I covered my mouth as my bottom lip quivered, and took another step towards the door, only now noticing the huge man who stood on the other side, his features rough, his aura full of the dominance of an alpha. An attempt had been made to soften the impact of that aura, and he smiled in gentle encouragement, an expression meant to put me at ease. It worked, but only because of thatscent,and for a moment I thought he was my mate, but it didn’t feel right.Hedidn’t feel right.
Where was he? Or she? Where was my mate?
I clutched the shirt tighter around myself and stumbled into the hallway beyond my pretty prison when the huge guy moved back. “Who the fuckareyou people?”
That delusion was returning, but I tried to hold back the hope he was here to rescue me. I knew what sort of world I lived in, and I knew exactly how it treated women like me. I had bruises to prove it, simply because an alpha enjoyed smacking his fists into someone smaller and more vulnerable than him. This man was an alpha; I didn’t let my guard down.
But when I sucked in a breath to demand to know who he was, what he wanted, and what his price to leave me the fuck alone was, Ithatscent eddied into my lungs. Soft, buttery leather and fresh vanilla sponge cake. Heaven.
My body moved before I’d even formed the desire to follow the scent, instincts taking over my body, urging me towards the promise of safety, that dream come true.
