Chapter 7 #2
My eyes widen, and I feel cornered. Like the doorway is blocked, and maybe I need to jump out the window—“You weren’t supposed to know.”
“And how many more are there?” He doesn’t miss a second to reply.
“Use the rocks in your brain,” I say under my breath.
His laugh makes me stiffen and nearly fall out of my seat, the sound loud compared to the binding silence. The smile fades as if it never existed. “You going to clean my wounds or what?”
I don’t want to fucking go near him. He smells good, sounds good, is psycho, kidnaps women, and he knows I’m an omega. “That seems like the last thing I want to do.” No point in hiding myself anymore, my mind shifting to thinking about the one escape plan I have, even if it means risking my life.
If I inject him with benz, then I can maybe have an hour’s head start.
“Do it, and I won’t hurt the one that came in before you.”
My breathing deepens from anger, my eyes flitting around as I consider what to do. I wish this were a dream so the consequences wouldn’t matter. “I’m not coming near you with that other hand free.”
“Your choice, nurse. I’ll let your friend know you were too chicken shit to come near me.”
My jaw drops. I almost start to plead and whine to him, maybe appealing to the alpha side of his soul, the one that would be as inherently weak to an omega as I am to his kind. But that disturbs me, so I scoot near him as if I’m approaching a demon, like I’m about to polish my own coffin.
I won’t let Judge tell Selene I’m chicken shit.
I start wiping down his wounded chest, which tenses at the sudden contact.
There are gash marks all over like he got into a fight with a monster.
I wonder how many people are allowed this close to Judge without dying.
Or unless he’s fucking them, probably—don’t think about that.
His bicep alone is fucking huge, and the hair of his underarm reeks of alpha.
No freaking wonder he’s in charge.
He breathes slowly, intentionally. “Once you’re done, there’s another thing I want from you,” he says.
Oh, absolutely not. “What?”
“You remain in here, no meds, until that chemical trace wears off.”
Now I’m the one that laughs with incredulity. “You’re delusional.”
Those unnaturally pale eyes seem like they’re burning into my soul, as if a single look could command. He tests the chains, to which I jump back in fear, now on my feet instead of sitting down.
“Jumpy?”
“I know what your kind would do to me.”
“Ah-ah,” he reprimands. “You don’t understand what’s out there. Your cunt will be torn to shreds if anyone other than Dominion gets a hold of you. You’re just lucky you’ve been holed up in here with suppressants, but that won’t work for much longer.”
Chills sweep through like I’m an abandoned cathedral, the insinuation echoing endlessly. This is a man who just mentioned my whole ass vagina would be torn to shreds.
My stomach cramps, and I know I need more meds. The double dose isn’t enough when an alpha’s musk mixes with my anxiety.
“I have to go,” I say, still considering my one last option. But it’s such a final one, and I’m—shit, but I am too chicken shit.
“You do not.” He makes that command as if he isn't literally chained to the bed, his voice dripping with that low growl. There have been a few times Maggie has growled at us, a deep feral sound that’s like a quiet bark.
Sometimes it can come out like an actual bark, to which anyone in the room will stop, like a leash being yanked tight.
I sit and glare at him. “Why the show?” I ask, looking over his body, putting this all on him. “Couldn't just come in and steal me for your men like you stole the other omega? Why did you go into the blight?”
“Politics, sweetheart. Sometimes, more effective and less work than by brutal force. Never injure your infantry if you don’t have to. And my business in there is none of yours.”
Oh, he’s such a twat for thinking my body and freedom are just politics. “You’re greedy and want to ruin lives.”
“Your kind sends feral alphas into murdering sprees, and then your belly swells with the babes of men who haven’t earned the right to a family. You’re risking the lives of many by wandering around, unmated. The things that will be done to omegas are worse than any story that circulates here.”
“By who?” I nearly answer by saying it’s him, but I hesitate when I see how intensely he can glare at me.
“Those in the southern bayous are expanding, and they make me look like a knight in armor.”
A sound escapes my lips that almost sounds like a bird. “You’re protecting us? Is that how you’re trying to spin this?”
He tilts his head like I’ve finally gotten the lesson. “Like an alpha should.”
I stare at the trolley, at the tools, then immediately avert my attention so as not to be obvious. That needle I’d need is still there, taped orange. I could end him. A single puncture to the carotid with the right compound, and he’d be gone before he could call out.
It’s an option.
“Do you really want to know why I’m here?” he asks after a pause.
“Because my luck was bound to run out,” I bluntly reply.
A flicker of amusement crosses his face. “You need to come to terms with the fact that you are leaving with Dominion after this so you can properly integrate. I’m here to make that transition official.”
I nearly laugh out loud again, but I’m too paralyzed.
It’s not the idea of being in Dominion that terrifies me.
I’d grow used to their crazy ways, I’m certain of it.
It’s knowing that a damn tether with one of his alphas would be formed without my permission that makes my skin literally crawl. “Integrating my ass.”
His eyes narrow slightly, and I nearly bow my head in apology. “I have a feeling your days unmated are rapidly dwindling, nurse. You need a good knotting to cull that attitude.”
I shift so much in my stance that I nearly trip. “I doubt any one of your men can give me what I need. It’s this thing called respect.”
“We live and die by respect, or disrespect.”
“You’re,” I sputter, my lips moving rapidly as I feel this carnal rage. “You’re a pig!”
He laughs, which confuses the fuck out of me. I’m pretty sure people who talk like this to him are killed, but these are proclamations I’ve been living by my whole life, and they’re desperate to get out.
“Tell me your name,” he demands.
“No.”
Fuck this fucker. I glare at the door, like maybe I should bolt. What do I do? Should I try the sedation? Run. Cramping again. He won’t know if I take one. I dip my hand into my pocket. “I need to leave.”
“You will do no such thing. You came in last because you will be here for a while. And you will not be taking those fucking pills.”
My gaze slices to meet his. “How do you know I even have them on me?”
“I have a brain. Context clues and a strong nose, sweetheart. Those rocks rub together quite nicely.”
Now I’m just mad, because he can’t actually make funny jokes. “Has it ever occurred to you that omegas are people, too? With hopes? Dreams?”
“Your body is designed for an alpha.”
Oh, now I’m just going to let it all out. “Okay, wild idea, I know, but imagine where I get to live my life and have an alpha I choose. Bizarre, right?”
“And what if you like none of the choices?”
“Okay, really rub those rocks in your head together for this one—then leave me out of it.”
He snarls slightly. “Your kind calms and tames the alphas. Only when mated. You are essential for a world functioning better.”
I pace a little. “You’re not my alpha. Stop acting like just because you smell like one, doesn’t mean you can just tell anyone what to do.”
“I am the alpha of Dominion. I have a say over all.” He spins his finger in the air.
“And this little Enclave will form an alliance where they give me any omegas they find, or else lose everything. Omegas require a tightly controlled society to exist freely. Not because that’s what I want, but because I’ve seen how one can be torn apart.
Being forced into a life one did not choose, especially when that life binds them in chains of their own will, is a special kind of cruel.
The current and only solution is to put as many of these omegas under the control of someone who can protect them. ”
“And that’s you?”
“That’s Dominion. And in that, yes, that’s me. On the rare occasion an omega is absolutely inconsolable, she is held deep within the center of an area where only mated alphas and omegas congregate.”
I hate him. I stare at him as he breathes, and he leans his head back on the bed.
His chest slowly rises and falls, and I drink in being this close to an alpha.
It has an undeniable effect on me, and the medical side of my brain finds that fascinating.
It’s easy to tell myself he’s dangerous, but that doesn’t sink in.
Especially when a part of my omega side finds comfort in such a capable alpha, wanting to learn more about how Dominion can keep me safe.
But who is to say they’d have any emotional capability? Judge can fit his empathy in a teaspoon. Surely, his men are no better. But he mentioned that the inconsolable ones don’t have to mate…
Fuck.
The pills are wearing off.
These thoughts are terrible, dangerous, and embarrassing. A slave to my DNA. I sit back down to be near the injection, shifting frequently in position, and his stupid head moves to watch me. My stomach cramps again.
“Uncomfortable?”
Can he smell that? “No, this is exactly how I wanted to spend my time.”
He smirks. I don’t reply.