Chapter 14
FOURTEEN
Faye
The morning had gone by in a rush, probably because my nerves were so raw. Between fearing the next Selection game and seeing Kurt everywhere I went, I’ve felt strangely weak and unsteady. Now, I’m waiting in the ballroom for whatever fresh hell the council of ultimas have planned for us.
Luckily, I finally have a break from Kurt, having not seen him in the crowd. At least for now. I also haven’t seen Cayson and Ezra either since last night on the lake, which is something I’m not sure how I feel about. On one hand, I feel safer when they’re around. But on the other hand, if I don’t want alphas, the last thing I need is to keep feeling a connection between the two men, one who doesn’t want an omega and the other who seems to want all the omegas.
I’ll only find trouble with those two.
“Faye,” Addilyn says, pushing through the crowd to get next to me. “You look beautiful!”
Today, I’m wearing a pale pink dress that’s made of delicate lace, with long sleeves and a low neck and back. It reaches my ankles and flounces a little when I move. The apparel woman gave me a talking-to about ruining my last dress in the water, no matter how much I tried to tell her it wasn’t my fault, so I would not be getting so much as a crumb on this dress. Apparently, both the apparel lady and my alpha planned on me taking these clothes to “my alpha’s new pack,” and I wasn’t to ruin them.
“Oh, hey,” I say, blinking away my exhaustion.
It was hard to sleep last night. I kept dreaming about Cayson and Ezra, their hands and faces coming and going all night. The weird thing is that what kept startling me awake wasn’t nightmares and cold sweats, it was how warm and safe I felt with them.
Every time the realization came to me, I woke up feeling frightened and confused. I had to remind myself that the two men are alphas. I’m not safe with them… I’m not safe with anyone. The thought kept ringing through my head, making it impossible to sleep, even while my dreams were whispering the complete opposite.
“I saw you didn’t eat at breakfast,” she mutters, holding out a napkin to me that has a scone in it.
I take it and smile at her, though I’m not sure I’ll be able to eat it. When I have a rough night’s sleep, my hunger usually fades away. Pair that with the anxiety currently raging through me, and my stomach might just send back anything I try to eat.
Not that I’m going to tell her that.
“Thank you,” I say.
She smiles. “We didn’t get to talk this morning. Sorry that everyone took the spots around me at the table.”
I return her smile. “No problem at all.”
“You doing okay? I heard you ended up in the lake.”
“It was nothing,” I say, not sure exactly how to explain that weird incident.
“Well, try to stay out of trouble today,” she teases.
“I’m just going to fade into the wallpaper,” I joke.
She’s about to say more when the ultima, Lance, appears at the front of the room. He’s wearing a dark suit that only makes his blond hair stand out more. For a middle aged man, he’s in excellent shape, standing taller and broader than every man in the room, which is no surprise given that he’s an ultima.
“Good morning!” he says, his voice booming through the ballroom, silencing everyone. “Today’s event is all about rhythm and chemistry. Dancing is an excellent metaphor for your connection with someone. How you move on the dancefloor translates to how you move throughout life. Everyone, please grab a partner. Don’t be shy! Try and talk to someone you haven’t yet.”
Music starts playing from a band in one corner. Addilyn squeals as a nearby alpha immediately snatches her for a dance, then she gives me a wink as she spins away. I nervously tuck the scone into my pocket, making a note not to forget it so the apparel lady doesn’t have any additional reason to hate me. Then I slowly creep backward, fully intending to blend in with the wallpaper like I’d planned.
“Hello, Faye,” a cold voice says.
An image flashes of dirty blond hair. Eyes so dark they must be black. Harsh lines of a face filled with cruelty. A chill rolls down my spine as two hands come to my waist, pulling me onto the dance floor. My stomach drops, and it’s like all the blood in my body has turned to cement.
“Kurt,” I breathe, fear making my mouth taste like metal.
He grins down at me, his eyes as cold and calculating as ever. Just the way I remember them. I see it again—that awkward bend of Miles’ neck, his empty eyes, once so full of life, staring across the woods. The pool of blood under his head.
The boot print on his neck.
“You’re looking beautiful in that dress,” he murmurs, his hand tightening on my waist. I have to fight all my instincts not to let out a scream. “It’s almost like someone told the clothing people exactly which color to put you in.”
My brain melts further into horror as I realize I was wearing a pale pink dress, much plainer than this one, but still the same color, the day my brother died. My stomach turns, and I struggle to breathe. This was all his plan. I’ve been falling into it without even knowing it.
Kurt is manipulating me, dressing me how he wants, throwing my worst trauma in my face again and again. I need to get away from him. I need to run.
“What’s wrong?” he asks, his eyes roaming over my face. “Did you catch a cold last night when that buffoon tipped your boat and catapulted you into the water? I didn’t see it, but I heard about it. I almost think a good, well-meaning alpha should scoop you up just to keep you from a life with an absolute moron.”
We continue moving across the ballroom. Around us, other couples are laughing, joking, their faces bright with color and mirth. Inside, I feel like a graveyard.
When will this dance end? When will he stop touching me?
“I’ve never forgotten how beautiful you are, Faye,” Kurt says, lifting a finger to brush a lock of hair out of my face. “Have you been thinking about me?”
“No,” I manage to say, as a shudder runs down my back from his touch.
Bile is rising in my throat, and if it weren’t for the humiliation of vomiting on the dance floor, I would happily ruin his suit. I need to get out of here. I need to get away from this monster. Before he kills me too.
I wish I could summon the courage, the boldness I feel when I’m around Cayson. Going back and forth with him is easy. When Kurt is near me, it feels like my brain leaves my body, floating above me and monitoring the interaction as though it’s happening to someone else.
His hands tighten on me again and I pull away from him as much as I can. I watch the lines of his face sharpening as he pulls me in again, our bodies warring, trying to create and reduce space at the same time.
When Kurt leans close to me and takes a deep breath, the hairs on the back of my neck raise. “Even for an omega,” he says, shaking his head, “you’re so weak. It’s clear to all of us that there’s something broken inside you, something broken in that brain of yours. You know that, right? All the other alphas you’ve been flirting with, they can sense as easily as I can that there’s something fundamentally flawed inside of you.”
I swallow. My throat feels like a knot. I glance around the ballroom, wondering if I can catch Addilyn’s eyes, if I can get her to come to my rescue, but I see no one I know, and no way out of this. My legs tremble, and I realize that if this lasts much longer, I’ll collapse.
“Poor Faye,” Kurt whispers, turning us so we continue dancing, but far enough away from others that they can’t hear what he’s saying to me. “So undesirable. Maybe I’ll choose you as my mate, just to save you. To keep you safe. Would you like that?”
“That will never happen,” I say, my voice coming out foreign to my own ears, and it wouldn’t. As much as he wants to hurt me, an omega is a mate for life. He’d never hurt himself just to hurt me.
I stare at the collar of his shirt, not being able to stand the thought of meeting his eyes. I just pray that the dance will end soon. That my nightmare will end soon.
“Oh, Faye,” he says, hooking an arm around the small of my back and pulling me even closer, so I can feel the bulge in his pants pressing against me. “What you’re forgetting is that I’m an alpha. Anything I want to happen, happens.”
My knees go weak and Kurt laughs, his hands tightening on me to hold me up. I’ll pass out, and Kurt will ferry me away from the ballroom, and when I wake up, I’ll be as dead on the outside as I feel on the inside.
The music shifts, turning to another song, and dancing partners change. Black dots swim in my vision.
“I’ll take the next one.” Ezra is suddenly there, and I have to hold back a sob of relief as he pulls me away from Kurt and into his arms.
I cling to him, trying to get my legs to stop shaking. Trying to take deep breaths to calm the lightness in my head. Ezra is here. Kurt won’t be touching me anymore. I’m free of him.
Serra, to my surprise, also swoops in, hooking her arm around Kurt and pulling him away from us as Kurt glares back at me. I try to look away from the anger in his face, but it’s impossible to, until Serra says something that draws his attention.
As soon as Kurt isn’t close to me, some of the blood returns to my brain, and I’m able to breathe again. Thank the gods for Ezra. I might not want an alpha, but I needed one at that moment.
“Are you okay?” Ezra asks, his scent washing around me, and it feels like wrapping myself in clothes right from the clothesline.
“I am now,” I murmur, embarrassed by how it comes out.
I know he’s not looking for an omega, and I’m not looking for an alpha, but I can’t deny that I feel better when I’m in his arms. Ezra simply radiates a calmness that makes me feel safe even when faced with Kurt, which is something I never imagined would happen. Maybe it’s because he’s an alpha. I don’t know, but it’s something.
We move around the ballroom, and Ezra expertly keeps me away from Kurt, who looks annoyed at the way Serra is chatting to him the brief times I glimpse him. Ezra’s every move is smooth, like he wakes up dancing and doesn’t stop until the night. I don’t have to think when I dance with him; he simply guides me about where to go without a word.
“Thank you… for dancing with me,” I manage.
“It was no problem at all,” he says, but I can’t tell if he means it.
Kurt’s gaze catches mine again, and I flinch. If he wasn’t distracted by Serra, I have a feeling he’d be over here demanding I dance with him again. Not many omegas are brave enough to ask alphas to dance though.
“Was that you?” I ask him, tipping my head in Serra’s direction.
Kurt isn’t exactly the kind of guy that women fight over. He looks like a drawing of a villain. The lines of his face are so harsh and so masculine that he looks like the kind of guy who only knows how to fight and kill. I feel like all omegas naturally stay away from alphas like him.
Ezra lets out a small laugh. “She was pretty thankful that I didn’t leave her to drown, I guess. So when I asked her to distract Kurt for me, she was more than willing.”
I nod, noticing how already Ezra is closer to me, our chests brushing as we continue to dance. Ezra is much smoother at dancing than Kurt, who was moving me around kind of jerkily, but with Ezra, I almost feel like I’m being lulled to sleep. I lay my head on his chest, eyes drooping. The sleepiness leaves my body when he speaks, and I feel the warm rumble of his words against my cheek.
“Faye,” he says, cautiously, like he knows it’s not something I want to discuss. “Is that the man who hurt you? Who gave you those bruises?”
I swallow hard, trying to think of something I can say that won’t give it away. If I say no vehemently, he’ll know the truth, but I also can’t just admit it was Kurt. I can’t even begin to imagine the things Kurt would do to me if he found out I was telling other alphas about what happened.
“I…” But words fail me.
What can I possibly tell him?
“You don’t have to say anything,” Ezra says, his hands tightening on me. “I’ll take care of it.”
My brain is back to that sleepy feeling I get when I’m in Ezra’s arms, and I just nod against his chest, hoping he’ll forget about it. I know that no matter what, I’ll always be grateful to him for saving me from Kurt.
Even if I’m only truly safe until the end of our dance.
After the dance I’d been told there will be a series of games that involves charades and switching partners, lunch, more games, and dinner. All of which are perfect opportunities for Kurt to punish me for accusing him of killing my brother. Because that’s what I know: what all of this is truly about. He doesn’t want me as an omega. He doesn’t feel a connection with me. He wants to drink in my terror like the psychopath he is, knowing full well that I’m completely at his mercy.
My breathing becomes more rapid, and I breathe in the handsome alpha who’s holding me, trying to calm myself. I try to remember that, for now, I’m safe. Strangely enough, in the arms of an alpha.
Which is just about the last place I ever thought I’d feel safe.