Page 6 of Prodigy & Tybalt
“Can we bring our medic in now?” I tried to catch her eye, and earned myself a glare.
“Do I have a say in it, or are you just humouring me?” She cast a glare around the living room, from its red velvet curtains,the matching damask wallpaper that had started peeling at the edges, to the frilly lampshades casting the cosy room in amber shades. Five bookcases lined the opposite wall, stacked edge to edge, and beside them a table was piled with a dozen well-loved board games. This was one of my favourite rooms in the clubhouse, but the omega assessed it with derision. “I can’t help but notice you’ve abducted me to your high-security prison despite me saying,multiple times,I was going home.”
“Home, where you’ll be grabbed off the street again?” Tybalt demanded, stalking closer, waves of aggression pouring off him. I shot him a warning look. His body language read as threatening, his energy dangerous. The omega wouldn’t know he was furious on her behalf, riding a protective edge as he battled his own trauma. It had taken a serious amount of coaxing to get him off his bike, let alone for him to release his arms from around her so she could be set on the couch. “Home, where those bastards are probably watching, waiting to see if you’ll go back?”
Her face lost more colour, panic brightening her eyes. “I need to call my mum. If they get her—”
“She’s more than welcome to come here,” I offered, patting my pockets until I found my phone. “Here, call her.” I unlocked it and handed it over, finding the omega’s eyes narrowed suspiciously.
“My mum’s too headstrong to leave her own home,” she said, her voice tight with the same distrust. “But I’ll call her. Thanks.”
It sounded like it cost her to thank me, so I just nodded and headed for the door to get Giant to check her over. I turned in the doorway and gave Tyb a hard look. “Be nice.”
Before he could respond, the omega snorted. “That’s like asking a fish to fly.”
“Flying fish exist,” Tybalt fired back, his voice a mix of growling alpha rage and usual Tyb smartassery. “Just saying.”
She gave him her middle finger without looking his way.
I left them to it; she could handle him. Might even be more thanhecould handle. I smiled at that. It wasn’t often Tybalt met someone who threw his attitude right back to him.
4
Miraya
The problem with lying was it caught up to you. Usually after days, months, or even years. Mine caught up to me three minutes after I told my mum that I’d been staying with friends after an alpha tried to grab me off the street. They weren’t friends, and the weaselly bastard didn’t justtryto kidnap me, he succeeded. I’d been in hell for weeks.
I parted my lips and unstuck my tongue from the roof of my mouth to tell Mum exactly what happened, but the lie flowed instead.
And now? Now, she said, “I think it’s a good idea to stay with your friends. I’ll invite Sarvesh to stay for a few days, so don’t worry about me. We’ll keep an eye out for any new people in the neighbourhood.”
It took everything I had not to sigh. Heavily. And not just because my mum so readily jumped at an opportunity to inviteher boyfriend to stay. “If Sarvesh is there, I’ll be fine to come home,” I tried.
“No, no, you stay with your friends. It’s best if you don’t come home if that dodgy character is still hanging around.”
Dodgy character was such a nice way of saying prospective kidnapper. I pinched the bridge of my nose, trying to think of a way out of the corner I’d painted myself into. “I don’t want to impose on them for too long, Mum, I’ve already been here for three weeks.”
Definitely not locked in a pristine bedroom at the mercy of an alpha whobought me.Mercy was the wrong word for everything my buyer did. I took a deep breath to calm myself, and even that hurt. Three fuckingweeks.
“I’m disappointed you didn’t call me, Mira,” Mum sighed, like it was normal for me to go missing for weeks without any contact. “I knew you’d be fine, you’re a resourceful girl, but you had everyone worried. Your auntie Teja said we should call the police.” She scoffed. “I said, when have the police ever helped us Kishore women? They were useless when your cousin Riya went missing, and we all know how well they helped your grandma Nidhi.”
I had to clench my jaw to keep the tears back. Yeah, my grandma was assaulted by an alpha on her way home from the market, her injuries so bad that she succumbed to them. My grandfather was never the same after that. None of us were. But there were similar stories every month, and it was ridiculous that it had become so normal, that my family just accepted that something bad would happen and the police would condone it.
Even more ridiculous that my mum had thought me going missing forthree weekswas perfectly fucking normal. An omega, going missing in a world that saw us as a commodity to be stolen, sold, or at best kept as a pretty, prized possession. But that was Mum for you. A rosy outlook on life, and zero cynicism.I bet my auntie Teja was ripping her hair out in frustration; she was a realist like me. I’d call her, too. Tomorrow, when I could come up with a better story. She’d see right through thestaying with friends, so I couldn’t callbullshit.
Friends, my ass. I glared at the tall, scowling bastard hovering four feet away from the sofa I woke up on. I needed to come up with a good reason to go home, because I couldn’t stay here with these strangers. They’d be a thousand times worse than the buyer.
How I managed it through the rest of the phone call with him looming, I didn’t know.
“I reallyshouldcome home,” I tried one last time, trying to push down the constant, acid-burn of pain in my chest. I wondered if it tainted my soul, if Sweetie’s rejection had left a visible mark. I had to clench my jaw to stop my bottom lip caving in, to stop the sob that wanted to burst free.
“Don’t be silly, Mira,” Mum huffed. “Come home when it’s safe, and not a moment before. Have fun with your friends, and call me tomorrow.”
She ended the call. I dropped the phone from my ear and stared at it blankly, my breathing strangely even, slow. I told her some dick tried to abduct me and she saidhave fun with your friends.
“Does she have a single brain cell?" a rough voice asked with a hint of dry humour.
I was on my feet in a second, grabbing the nearest thing—a twisted bronze sculpture of a lion—and swinging it at him. Tybalt jumped back, his eyes flaring in surprise. “One more fucking word about my mum, and I’ll drive this into your skull until your brain splatters the fireplace.”
