Chapter 16
Five months later
The tall Orgon trees were in full bloom, their flowers scenting the air with a rich sweetness. Huge, pink petals drifted down like feathers, painting the pavement below in vibrant hues. Ehlian craned his neck to admire the colourful canopies, the trees towering as high as some skyscrapers.
He had always appreciated the beauty of his planet, but after staring into the darkness of space for far too long, he drank in the sights more greedily than ever.
He often found himself stopping to gaze at the blooming flowers lining the roads, even the flesh-eating ones most people avoided, though in towns and cities they were smaller and domesticated.
In the wild, they could grow as tall as bushes.
An alarm blaring on his holowatch jolted him back to reality. He swiped it away with a sigh, his gaze catching on the curling C etched into the silver frame.
“If you don’t want to be late, you’d better get ready,” Willian’s voice boomed. “I hear your boss is an asshole who wouldn’t think twice about firing you.”
Ehlian stepped back inside from the terrace, giving Willian a pointed look. “You are my boss.”
“Yeah, well,” Willian spread his arms wide. “Welcome to the company.”
Ehlian let out a small laugh and went to his room to get dressed for work.
He had moved into Willian’s flat three months ago.
He needed an alpha’s presence, some sense of safety.
After spending plenty of sleepless nights in his old family home, he had to face the fact that he couldn’t be alone.
He couldn’t do it alone. The silence, the empty bed, sounds coming from outside were still alien and unsettling.
The worst part, though, was the memories.
Regaining his full power was like coming alive again, but it came with a downside. The memories of Hayce haunted him, vivid and sharp. Too sharp. At times, he relived them as if watching short scenes from a movie, brief glimpses into the past. Sometimes it really sucked to be a telepath.
“Are you ready?” Willian called out. “I’d really hate to have to look for a new assistant. Too much work.”
“I’m coming, I’m coming.” Ehlian grabbed his bag and followed his friend out the door.
Ten minutes later, they were in Willian’s airship. Once the engines ignited, the vehicle lifted off the ground, quickly joining the long line of airships flying over Alkrion.
The city was robust, a dense forest of skyscrapers casting long shadows over a sprawling web of roads below. The roads were all pedestrian areas, and Ehlian liked it best when the sunlight broke through the gaps between the tall buildings.
Willian owned a small holowatch repair shop on the other side of the city. Fortunately for Ehlian, Willian had recently fired his previous assistant and offered him the job.
It was good. Familiarity. Someone grounding him. Supporting him.
Not like his uncle, who had filed a restraining order the moment Ehlian returned to Arox. Well, he’d better.
Not like Geald, who had messaged him only to probe about Hayce and those convenient connections. Ehlian blocked his number.
Both of them were dark smears from his life before prison, and he was more than glad to be rid of them.
The airship touched down twenty minutes later beneath the high-rises.
Ehlian hated nothing more than the walk to the shop from the parking lot.
The alphas passing by, their occasional fleeting glances at him.
Just like nearly every day, he grabbed Willian’s arm to ground himself.
He felt like he was missing a limb, someone strong and safe beside him, someone who would look out for him, protect him.
He would eventually bounce back to normal. He just needed time.
Technically, he knew it was a lingering fear from prison life. Most alphas were civilised, respected omegas, and suppressed their allure in public. They weren’t savages or criminals who sought to satisfy their needs selfishly.
Communicating with customers who came to pick up their repaired holowatches helped shake Ehlian back into everyday life.
A real assistant would help Willian repair the devices.
Ehlian on the other hand couldn’t name any of the tiny tools his friend used, let alone understand how the mechanics worked.
“Damn it!” Willian’s loud cursing echoed from the back room. Ehlian rushed in, catching a fleeting glimpse of a few projected, naked photos before Willian quickly swiped them away. “I didn’t want to see that. The shit they have on these watches sometimes… Fuck, I think I just went blind.”
Ehlian snickered under his breath. “I forgot how dramatic you can be.”
Willian blinked at him, his expression comically exaggerated by his magnifying glasses. “You have no clue what I put up with sometimes. Pity me.”
“Pity you, my ass.” Ehlian dragged a chair closer to Willian and watched him work for a while.
He was really the only alpha Ehlian felt comfortable being around.
Not just now, but ever. Willian was attractive, sure, but Ehlian had never been drawn to him, maybe because they had grown up together and their bond felt more like family.
“You know, I was thinking,” Willian said as he fidgeted with the tiny circuit board of the holowatch, “we could reschedule that trip. I didn’t expect you to be released so soon. Not that I’m not happy you were—you know I am—but I think we both need a holiday. Me especially, after what I just saw.”
“Poor you.” Ehlian said, but he saw through his friend’s joking tone.
Willian had never made a big deal out of Ehlian seeking comfort from him when other alphas were around, but it probably concerned him.
Ehlian had told him everything about Hayce and Grasson, and he had reassured him that nothing bad had happened to him in prison.
“I’m fine. We don’t need to change the date.”
“Too late. I already did.”
Ehlian frowned. “When are we leaving?”
“Next week,” Willian said. “Got anywhere else to be?”
“No,” Ehlian said, a smile breaking through. “Let’s go.”
*
The sandy beach of Silstone stretched out for what seemed like miles, buzzing with life.
It was never quiet. Not even at night. The buzz of conversations drifting on the breeze and the music spilling from bars somehow found a perfect balance.
It wasn’t unpleasant, not like the constant murmurs in the prison lounge had been.
Still, during the first couple of days Ehlian struggled to find comfort.
There were too many alphas, topless and flaunting their toned bodies.
He should enjoy that, he really should, but if one of them looked at him for longer than a second, he immediately thought of Grasson and the missing someone who should be by his side to protect him.
By the third day the unsettling feeling started to ease.
Being surrounded by a buzzing crowd of people who had come here to relax and have fun was strangely therapeutic.
It felt like facing a fear and realising he wasn’t in any danger.
For the first time there was hope that he was on the slow path to returning to normal.
The beauty of the beach stood in stark contrast to the too-artificial city behind it. The holographic trees did little to compensate for the lack of greenery, and the flashing advertisement boards stretched as high as some of the buildings.
Apart from a few boat rides, they spent their days on the beach, talking and sunbathing. Ehlian had long, relaxing naps under the shade or spent his time digging for the famous silver coins in the sand: shells that shimmered with a silvery gleam under the sunlight.
He shared the same room with Willian, their beds separated by a nightstand.
They stayed out late tonight and Ehlian hoped it would exhaust him enough to fall asleep.
But like many other nights, he was struggling.
Damn his stupid mind and body. He had perfectly pleasant naps on the beach, but when it came to bedtime the past reared its ugly head.
He clenched his pillow as a memory began to emerge, bubbling up and breaking through to the surface. He fought to suppress it—the vivid images of Hayce towering over him, loud slaps and moans filling the room, and then a rough whisper, “He’ll never lay a hand on you.”
Ehlian forced the memory back until the images faded away.
As if on cue, his holowatch beeped quietly. He sighed, got out of bed, and tried to move as silently as possible to avoid waking Willian.
He stepped out onto the terrace. The flashing lights of the city nearly blinded him, obscuring the stars and making the sky seem brighter than it truly was.
He tapped his holowatch and a map of stars and constellations projected before him.
Raising it to the sky, he aligned it carefully, and there it was, the floating prison passing overhead hundreds of miles away.
What was Hayce doing now? Looking down at Arox the same way Ehlian was looking up at the prison? Or was he pouring himself a drink, sitting at his pack’s table in the lounge, taking a shower—or worse, fucking his new little omega?
“It’s time to stop, Ehlian.”
Willian’s voice startled him.
As if caught red-handed, Ehlian quickly closed the map. “It’s just—you can’t see the stars here. Too many lights.”
“Ehlian.” Willian gave him a pleading, tired look. “Don’t do this. I know you sneak out most nights, even during the day sometimes, to catch the prison passing by.”
Ehlian couldn’t quite meet Willian’s eyes.
He had started doing this not long after his release.
It was pathetic, humiliating even. It didn’t make sense.
Hayce had used him for his selfish needs and discarded him like useless trash.
There shouldn’t be this aching longing he felt deep down to his core.
“Hayce wouldn’t care what I do,” Ehlian spat, angry with himself for being so weak and irrational. “He never cared. The joke’s on me—I actually thought I’d found someone better than Geald in a fucking prison.”
“He was your best choice up there, I admit it. We both know it. But that’s where it ends.
” Willian walked to the railing and leaned against it.
“I know you're still struggling to adjust to having full access to your power again, but you’re putting too much energy into focusing on him. Your power amplifies those feelings and thoughts. That’s why you’re still clinging to the idea of him, not who he really is. ”
Another reason it sucked to be a telepath.
“I can’t just…” Ehlian ran a frustrated hand through his hair. “I can’t just erase these memories.”
“Well, you could, but I wouldn’t advise it,” Willian said calmly. “Nobody does. Your memories make you who you are.”
Well, Ehlian and his mind didn’t want to be made up of these stupid memories. Sometimes it was really tempting to wipe all of them, even the distant ones of Hayce from before prison when he had only known him through the lens of articles.
“What if you start by removing that alarm from your holowatch and stop watching the prison float by?” Willian suggested. “Take it slow… step by step.”
Ehlian sighed, hoping he could follow through. “That might be a good start.”
Willian waited, as though expecting Ehlian to do it immediately and delete the alarm, but instead, Ehlian instinctively casted another glance at the sky.
“This is worse than I thought.” Willian said, cursing under his breath. “You need to see the High Sage when we get back to Alkrion.”
“It’s not that bad,” Ehlian argued. What was wrong with him? Hayce had cast him aside cruelly, so emotionlessly, Ehlian could still feel the coldness of it. And here he was, hesitating? Unable to take such a small step?
“Didn’t you say Hayce had full access to his power?” Willian asked. “He could’ve tampered with your mind.”
“He had no reason to do that.” Ehlian scoffed at the idea. “He wanted to get rid of me. He got bored. Couldn’t even sit out one week before moving on to his next omega. My early release gave him the perfect excuse. Even without that, I probably wouldn’t be his omega anymore.”
“I shouldn’t have listened to you,” Willian said after a moment of silence, the brilliance of his brown eyes dimmed. “I should’ve visited you more often.”
“It’s fine. I asked you not to.” Ehlian reassured him. “I was mostly aware of what was real and what wasn’t. It’s not like I fell in—”
Love? No. That was a step too far. Ehlian didn’t love Hayce. That would’ve been idiotic. Pathetic. He was just confused. Just a little emotionally attached. But there was nothing more to it. Nothing.
Blissfully, Willian ignored Ehlian’s half-finished sentence and pushed himself away from the railing. “What do you say to a walk? It’s nearly sunrise. I bet the view is spectacular from the beach.”
Ehlian nodded, his voice a little weak. “Okay.”
Later on the beach, he tried not to look up at the sky, focusing only on the horizon.