21. Escape
Chapter twenty-one
Escape
I n the morning, I waited until I was sure everyone had gone to work before I emerged from my room. I didn't want to face any of them. I didn't want the lies or the pretending that they wanted me.
I had my laptop and a couple of changes of clothes in a backpack. They probably wouldn't let me keep my own stuff at the heat dens, but I was almost finished my book and I wanted to try and get it done before I gave up entirely. Maybe they let omegas have a couple of things to keep for when they weren't servicing the alphas.
"Melody, I was thinking of baking . . ." Miriam's voice trailed off when she saw me pulling on my shoes. "What are you doing?"
"Did you hear what they said yesterday?" I asked her. "Zeke called them. He called the pack that ripped my heart out and threw me in the trash."
"I'm sure he didn't mean for you to leave," she assured me. "Why don't you wait just a bit? I'll call Angel. He can come home and talk to you."
"No. You know Zeke wouldn't do something that big without consulting with him."
She looked so sad, I went and gave her a hug. "You've been a lot of fun, Miriam, but these men . . . I'm not letting another man fuck with my head or my heart."
"Just wait, please?" she begged.
"I can't give them any more chances to hurt me."
I'd ordered an Uber on the computer and it honked outside now, impatient with waiting for me.
"You can have my lamp," I told her. Then I hurried out the door, knowing she'd be calling Angel the second my back was turned.
When the Uber pulled up outside the heat den I'd spent all those heats at, a shiver of fear ran through me. Maybe I should try to make it on my own. It was frowned upon, but the thought of being here permanently for men to use made me shudder. Surely I could figure something out for a while? Maybe my book would sell and I could actually survive.
The reality was that I had no money and no way to make money. That hit hard and I bit my lip, stiffened my spine, and marched into the heat den.
It took all of ten minutes for the secretary to find my information on the system and log me in as a resident. She passed me off to a beta male who looked like all the attendants I'd seen here.
"I'm Henry. I'll be your handler," he told me in a bland voice. "Come on, let's get you set up."
The omegas had rooms on the three floors above the ground floor. It was laid out like a hotel and Henry took me up to the second floor. "You're in room 210." He unlocked the door and handed me the key, following me into the space.
It was very basic, a single bed against the far wall, under a window, a dresser and a nightstand. There was a bathroom to my left, but the rest of the space was pretty basic.
"You can decorate it if you want, just nothing too permanent," Henry said, seeing me wince. "You'll be assigned a cubicle in the regular rutting area and you'll have shifts assigned to you. Most omegas do 8-hour shifts four times a week. That's the minimum to pay for your room and board. If you do extras, you get $50 per additional shift."
I nodded, barely listening.
"During your heat, you'll be in the heat room and you'll be there for the duration of your heat, with no extra pay."
"Okay."
"Dining room is at the end of this hall. Meals are at 7 am, noon, and 5 pm, no food in the rooms. Any questions? There's a booklet on the nightstand."
"I'm good."
"Very well. Don't forget to have lunch at noon. I'll take you for a doctor's checkup at two and then you'll be on your own until tomorrow."
Henry left and I sank down on my bed. I was glad they hadn't taken my things, but at the same time, I had nothing.
The room was cool and there was only a thin, scratchy blanket on the bed, but I wrapped it around myself anyway. Curled up on the bed, I didn't even want to think about the future that lay ahead of me, until I became a useless old woman. I also didn't want to think about the past, so I forced myself to stay in the now.
My eyes traced a spiderweb above the bed and then followed the silvery thread down the wall to . . . was that blood? Dark reddish brown splatters were visible under a coat of white paint. Something unpleasant must have happened here.
At noon, I trudged to the cafeteria and ate a bland chicken salad before returning to my room until Henry showed up to take me to the doctor. There, I was poked and prodded, tested, and weighed until the doctor declared me healthy and fit for service.
"You'll start tomorrow," Henry told me. He handed me a schedule and left again.
The rest of the day was spent staring out the window and counting cars and people to try and keep my mind occupied.
As the sun set, the bell rang for dinner, but I wasn't hungry. My entire body just felt empty and hollow. I missed my men. I missed Angel's chocolate smell and Ali's silly jokes. I missed Tiago's warm arms and his accent. Max's friendly smile and his calming manner. Micah's sharp humor. I even missed Zeke a tiny bit.
"Where is she?" Someone yelled in the hallway. I heard them pounding on doors. "MEL!"
It was Tiago's voice that sounded next, calling my name. Shit.
I'd left when they were gone because I didn't want this to happen. Confrontations were not my thing. I curled up on my bed and faced the wall, plugging my ears. Their shouts were still loud enough to work through my protection, as well as the shouted threats from security.
All fell silent again and I peeked out the window to see a dozen security guards hauling the guys out of the building. They were angry. Furious. I saw Tiago throw a punch and knock one of the guards down.
Zeke was walking beside the others, not fighting, with his head down. His blond hair hung around his face, obscuring it. He almost looked guilty. Probably because they were so pissed at him.
Then he turned and looked up and our eyes met. His blue ones widened and he mouthed, "I'm sorry."
Turning away, I drew the curtain and flopped back down on the bed. Sure, he was sorry now that his brothers were mad. I guess they'd wanted me, at least. It must have just been him and Angel, but even so, two out of six meant there was no way I was going back. How could I live in a household where the head alpha, the pack leader didn't want me?
My shift started at eight in the morning and I stumbled downstairs wearing the robe the den provided. Henry met me at the door to the rutting room and showed me to my cubicle. It was a bit nicer than the one I'd spent my heats in. Here, there was a proper bed and a sink to wash up in. There was even a blanket on the bed.
My first alpha didn't show until half an hour later. I was sitting on the bed when he came in, a tall, virile man in his fifties. He smiled at me and introduced himself as Joe. Apparently, working regular shifts instead of heat shifts meant they treated you slightly more humanely.
Joe didn't waste time. He stripped off his pants, leaving his shirt on. He had me bend over the sink while he rutted me from behind. When he finished, he thanked me and left me to clean myself up for the next customer.
There were six alphas in total. I was almost relieved as I headed back up to my room after my shift. I'd had bathroom breaks, a lunch break, and considerably fewer alphas than during my heats. Still, I kept my head down and didn't talk to the other omegas, too depressed to make any friends.
The next three weeks went by in a flash. I worked two extra shifts each week after the first one and received my weekly pay of $100. It was nothing, but at least I could save up a bit. On my day off, I wrote, more determined than ever to finish my book and make a living outside of the heat dens.
It was my last shift of the week when I smelled the familiar hazelnut scent. Automatically, I pressed myself against the wall, hoping he wouldn't look into the cubicle.
When Tiago exclaimed, "Melody!" I realized my eyes had been squeezed shut.
He stepped into the cubicle and pulled the curtain closed. "God, I can't believe I finally found you."
"You have forty-five minutes," I told him, dropping the robe. "How do you want me?"
"Stop that," he snapped in his alpha voice.
I shivered and stared at him. "This is a heat den. You come to heat dens to fuck, Tiago."
"No, I don't." He glared at me, then stepped forward, blocking me against the wall, his tattooed hands on either side of my head. "We've been coming here for the past three weeks, trying to find you. None of us has been with any of the omegas, got that? We just sit and talk until the session is up. Then we come back the next day to try again."
"Why?"
His dark eyes narrowed. "Seriously, carino? We told you we wanted you. We tried to woo you. We helped you through your heat. We did everything we could to convince you to stay with us and then you just took off?"
"Ask Angel and Zeke if they really wanted me," I said bitterly.
Tiago frowned. "What are you talking about?"
He didn't know?
"Zeke called my old pack. They showed up that day while you were all at work. They wanted me back."
Tiago reared back. "I knew those assholes had come by, we could smell them and Miriam said they'd been there . . . Zeke and Angel would never have done that."
"Well, they did. How else would they have known where I was?" Something struck me. "How did YOU know where I was?"
"We used tracking to find your computer."
When he stepped back, I moved to sit on the bed, feeling weak. Tiago moved to sit beside me.
"Baby, come home with me, please. I swear, if Angel and Zeke don't want you, I'll start my own pack just for you."
I snorted. "You can't do that."
"I can and I will. You are more important to me than my brothers." He considered for a second. "But I think they will come with us."
"Are they really all here?"
"Even Zeke," he promised.
"I bet he is fucking someone," I told him sadly.
"He's not," Tiago said fiercely. "And if I find out he is, you can rely on me to beat him to a pulp."
I laughed through the tears. "Okay."
"Yes? You'll come with me?"
"I have to sign out and stuff, but yeah."
He swept me up in a hug. "Thank you, carino. Thank you."