Chapter 3 #2
Lucas moaned and sagged. I took that as a sign that he wanted me to pick him up and carry him up to the room we’d been assigned. I bent down and scooped him up over my shoulders, clamping my arms around his legs and giving his round, pert backside a small slap.
“Come on, omega. Let’s see if I can’t jump-start your heat so we can have some fun,” I said as I turned to walk over to the exit, where one of the hotel staff was waiting to hold the door.
Lucas whimpered, and once we got out into the hallway, he started to squirm, like he would make a last-ditch attempt to get away. I clamped him harder and picked up speed as I searched for signs that would lead me to suite fifteen.
“Where do you think you’re going?” I asked Lucas when his squirming started to make it harder for me to hold onto him.
“Please, please help me. Please!” Lucas wept. “Help!”
A burst of self-consciousness raced through me and I looked around to see if anyone had overheard Lucas’s shouts. The lodge was quiet, though. Most of its inhabitants were either in their rooms already, playing out their scenes, or still down in the conference rooms.
I had to put Lucas down to reach for the door key that Mads had handed me when I’d given him my bag. As soon as his feet touched the ground, Lucas tried to run.
“Where are you going?” I asked, tapping the key against the electronic lock to open the door, then lunging to the side to catch Lucas by his arm and pull him into the room.
As soon as the two of us were alone in the rather beautiful suite, Lucas broke down entirely. “Please! Please help me,” he sobbed. “I don’t know what’s going on. I don’t want this!”
The alarm bells from earlier came back in full force.
Something was desperately wrong. As I took off my suit jacket and tossed it aside, Lucas tried to bolt for the door.
When I stepped into his path to block him, he wheeled back and started to run the other way, but tripped over his own feet and fell awkwardly to the carpet.
His arms were still zip-tied behind his back, and I was worried he would hurt himself by struggling against them.
Hadn’t someone told him not to fight too hard against the ties?
There was a pair of scissors on the bureau, along with the floggers, clamps, and other toys I’d requested, so I stepped to the side to grab those.
As soon as Lucas saw me coming toward him with those scissors, he started screaming. “Please, no! No! Please!”
He wasn’t acting. It didn’t make any sense, but I was one hundred percent certain Lucas was genuinely terrified.
“Do you have safe words?” I asked, trying to remember what I’d read in his file. “Do you want to stop the scene?”
“Please don’t hurt me, please!” Lucas screamed.
“Lucas,” I said his name as calmly as I could, resting a hand on his arm as he squirmed and struggled, trying to sit up and get away, but not getting anywhere with his arms trapped as they were. “Lucas, calm down. Tell me what’s wrong.”
“Please! Help me! I’m not Lucas. Help me!”
Something sharp and cold sliced through me with those words. This wasn’t a scene at all. I didn’t know what it was, but something had gone terribly, terribly wrong.
“Okay, okay. It’s okay,” I said softly, keeping a steadying hand on him, even though I wanted to give the omega, whoever he was, space. “Let me just cut the ties holding your wrists, okay? Roll to your stomach.”
The omega’s sobs increased, but he went limp as he rolled to his stomach.
I worked as fast as I could to cut the zip-tie and free his arms. His strong, bubblegum scent was a huge distraction and my erection just wouldn’t go down, but I wasn’t about to do anything with it.
Not when this omega was out of his mind with fear.
“There,” I said, easing his arms to his sides as he groaned.
It probably hurt to have them released after being restrained so long.
I’d been Domming long enough to know how to rub him to ease that pain, but I was super wary of touching him too much while he was in such a panic.
“Breathe, sweetheart,” I reminded him as I reached for the thick blanket on the foot of the bed next to where we were. “It’s alright. You’re safe, I swear.”
Clearly, he didn’t believe a damn thing I said.
With the scene that might have been pushed way out of my head, I gathered the omega up and swaddled him tightly in the blanket.
I wanted to get him covered and put that physical barrier between us as quickly as I could, but mostly I wanted to get to the bottom of things.
Once he was wrapped up and covered, the omega pulled himself into a ball, sitting with his back against the foot of the bed, shaking like a leaf. Tears continued to stream down his face, and it was obvious that he was still terrified.
“You’re not Lucas,” I said, sitting a good distance away from him.
Every instinct within me wanted to wrap him in my arms and whisper words of reassurance to him until he calmed down.
I’d never felt that instinct so powerfully with any of my clients, even though I’d been called into a few emergency situations that, sadly, weren’t all that dissimilar to the one this omega believed he was in now.
“Can you tell me your name?” I asked, hands twitching to hold him and make everything better.
He seemed to work moisture back into his mouth and to at least attempt to quiet his sobbing before answering, “Li-Linus. Lucas is my brother.”
A story exploded in my brain with that revelation. Brothers. Very possibly identical twins. But the wrong twin had ended up at the omega auction, and apparently, he didn’t know what was going on.
“Do you know where you are and what’s happening?” I asked, even though I knew the answer.
“No,” Linus wailed and started sobbing again.
“Shh, shh, you’re okay,” I said, moving forward before I could stop myself.
I felt so bad for Linus, but it was more than that. I was drawn to him. Fiercely. I’d gathered him up into my arms and cradled him like a baby before I could stop myself. Linus didn’t stop me or struggle, but that could have been terror instead of comfort-seeking.
“It’s okay,” I insisted. “You’re safe. None of this is real. You’re at Kincade Slopes, in a safe, secure hotel room. The auction going on downstairs is staged. It’s a kink event hosted by the Dark Fantasies Club. Do you know if your brother is a member of the club?”
Linus went rigid in my arms. His body had felt limp and uncontrolled before, but now it was as tense as a tiger. I could have sworn he grew hotter, too. My guess was that he’d just put a few things together in his head.
“Yes,” he hissed at last. “He…he told me he had a job interview that he needed me to go to in his place.” He was still half-panicked and gasping for breath, but the more he spoke, the more I could hear fury replace fear in his voice.
“I knew it. I knew it was another prank. He said I would thank him for this, that I’d have fun. I should have known.”
He burst into tears again, but this time they weren’t panic. I had enough experience with trauma to know that all sorts of emotions brought tears.
I felt better about holding Linus then. I even rubbed his back and adjusted him so he could bury his face against my shoulder as he wept out his anger.
No wonder Lucas had worn such a shit-eating grin in his profile pic.
What sort of nasty bastard sent his twin brother to an omega auction kink event without knowing it was all staged.
“I’m going to take care of this,” I said, holding him just a bit tighter.
Sometimes restraint actually helped the overflow of emotion that came with dealing with trauma.
“You don’t have to worry about a thing. I’ve got you, and I’m not going to let anything or anyone hurt you. You’re absolutely safe with me.”
I paused to see if Linus wanted to say something, but he was still beyond words. He seemed focused on getting his breathing and crying under control, and I didn’t blame him one bit.
“I don’t know why your brother would do this to you, and I don’t know why the DFC organizers would let it happen, but I’m going to find out,” I said, standing using the bed for leverage and lifting Linus into my arms with me.
I carried him to the chair near the window and made sure he was settled there, even bringing him another blanket so he felt protected.
“There is no way this should have happened. Caden and Hamish know better than this. They should have checked when you arrived. They should have vetted and debriefed everyone in advance. You could sue them to the moon and back for this.”
I hated that thought, though. Caden and Hamish were actually great guys who donated a shit-ton of money to anti-trafficking causes. I’d met them when my work and theirs crossed paths, and I’d been impressed with them from the start.
“I’m going to go speak to someone,” I told Linus as I started for the door. “This should never have happened.”
“Wait!” Linus called out as I reached the door. I turned back to see him watching me with the most heartrending look of misery and panic I’d ever seen. “Don’t leave me,” he gasped. “I’m still scared.”
My heart completely melted. I wasn’t sure I’d ever be able to leave this omega.