Chapter 10
Cassius
“Didn’t you tell the alpha—” Jonah, the foreman and owner of the ranch, checked his pad screen, then looked up. “Malin, is it? —to give you a star rating?”
“It was my first time off-ranch,” I replied.
“And? Klonis gave you all the rules. After you do whatever is asked, you remind them to give you a star rating. Right?”
“This was different. He tipped to have me leave the party with him. Klonis okayed it.”
“Are you not hearing me, set?”
“The alpha seemed to be all right with me.” I puffed out my chest but inside I did not feel strong. Not at all.
He tapped the frame of his pad hard with his forefinger. “You didn’t follow the rules. Klonis says you tried to attack him. And it doesn’t matter what the alpha might’ve said to you. His response on our site is what matters most.”
Something in my chest started to quiver. “I don’t think he knew that.”
“And why would that be?” Jonah asked.
“Because he doesn’t like set omegas so he’s never rented one before.”
“Wrong!” He shouted in my face. “He didn’t know because you didn’t remind him.”
“I didn’t know….”
“Klonis read the rules to all of you.”
I ducked my head because he looked like he wanted to hit me, and mumbled. “I didn’t remember.”
“Well, now remember this. If he made you pregnant outside a heat and he doesn’t claim it, the child will be adopted.”
They all thought I’d been rented to be fucked. I didn’t deter their thinking. Plus, it was rare to conceive outside of a heat. Almost unheard of.
“I know.”
He threw his head back, hands dropping to his sides. “Follow me.”
The hallway took us to a section of metal doors. I’d been here before. I knew what it was. Jonah stepped in front of me and key-coded the door open.
“Get inside.”
It was a bare white room with a thin mat on a ledge extending from the wall, a white toilet and sink in one corner. That was it, nothing else.
Jonah didn’t tell me how long I’d be here. He didn’t say another word. As I turned, the metal door slammed in my face.
I’d been put in solitary once before. I was given meager meals twice a day.
The lights never went off. It had lasted three days.
The reason? I’d dropped a tray in the cafeteria.
The food, plate and glass splattered everywhere.
A co-prisoner had gotten hit with the tray.
He yelled at the top of his lungs that it had bruised his leg.
His name was Elf and he was the dorm tattler.
I hated him. I might’ve dropped my tray by his leg on purpose but no one had gotten me to admit it.
There had been no court, no trial, just cameras that convinced Jonah and others that I needed to be punished.
Now here I was again. I sat on the mat and hung my head. This was the worst. There was nothing here to distract me from my own self-pity. The mind could be its own worst enemy.
I lay back, my hands folded over my stomach and forced myself to think of anything but where I was, who I was.
Immediately, last night played through my mind.
I thought of Malin and my muscles relaxed.
I started to remember every detail, every word as much as I could.
If I wasn’t sure, my thoughts embellished for me.
From the moment he’d given me his own swim trunks and ordered Klonis to go away, I’d felt safer.
I didn’t know him but I didn’t have to. He was taking me away from the madness of the ranch.
Even if he took me into a different sort of madness, it was a welcome break from what I lived with every day.
The forced regimen, the knowledge that I would live most of the prime of life pregnant, the endless classes on how to please alphas all went away when Malin bought me for the night.
I repeated the story over and over. Maybe I added impressions to it that weren’t real.
Such as a feeling that Malin, who’d made it clear he hated sets, liked me for some other reason.
That somehow I’d been chosen. It wasn’t just a random thing that he’d walked into the room after I’d thrown a glass full of drugged wine.
Maybe him making fun of the white net jock strap and robe made me feel a smidgeon of respect.
Maybe when he’d put his arms around me to show me how to hold a pool cue sent a shiver through me… all the way to my ass.
He wanted to seem like a tough guy. I wasn’t exactly sure how tough he was, but I never felt any fear. I told myself he wouldn’t hurt me. If I was lying to myself, so be it. It was a moment, a night I’d tightly hold onto.
When morning came and he hadn’t raped me, that light in my mind shone even brighter on him. I’d expected something like rape but it never happened. He didn’t want me, but it wasn’t about desire. It was about not taking anyone in that way.
At least, that’s what I told myself. Here. In the white room. Remembering the food we ate together, keeping up with his pace in the video game, amazed at all the sparkling glass items around the house, and how I’d woken at dawn with a fleecy blanket over me not remembering how it had gotten there.
This was my dream. Mine alone. I wasn’t going to share it with anyone.
Time passed quickly in solitary because I had a focus. I napped when I was tired. I ate the servings of bread and runny stew. There had been two meals so far. It didn’t seem as if I’d been there even that long.
Someone in a white lab coat came and took some blood. “Pregnancy test,” was all they said.
They didn’t know we hadn’t had sex.
I laughed when the lab tech left because of course it would be negative. But I’d never say why.
When I needed to move my muscles, I paced the small room. I did stretches. Jumping jacks. Then I went back into my daydreams.
I woke from a nap to sounds at the door. I sat up and watched as it opened. Klonis stood at the threshold, his thick brows almost a single line as he spoke. “You’re wanted.”
“What?”
“Follow and obey.” Distaste dripped from the words.
I walked past him into the hall. The shadows were welcome and gentle as we moved over the slick tile. Even with my eyes closed, the bright lights of solitary had been annoying too, sometimes painful.
I heard a ruckus of talking and laughter as we passed by the cafeteria. Mealtime. It smelled like bacon and eggs which clued me in that it was the morning after I’d been put in solitary.
I expected to be dropped off there, but Klonis never paused. I stretched my legs to keep up. We passed by windowed offices and turned a corner. I knew where we were. The herdsman’s suite. This was where Jonah worked in abject luxury. I’d been in this area of the building twice.
Jonah had a huge room with couches and soft chairs, a fireplace, a huge TV, exercise equipment in a large alcove, an adjoining bathroom and a desk.
A door from the office led to a private bedroom.
He lived here but only sometimes. Word was he had a huge house in a nearby town.
He was single but that was all we knew. Just because he wasn’t married didn’t mean he didn’t have kids or family or lovers.
No one could say for sure and the alpha ranch hands were tight-lipped about it.
Jonah had investors in Brimstone but was technically the owner.
What I thought about it all wasn’t nice. He made his wealth off the subjugation of others. From slaves to selling babies. He was, to say the least, not my favorite guy. He’d thrown me in solitary over nothing.
As we approached his rooms, I slowed my walk. The only words rattling around my brain were: What in hell did he want now?
Klonis swiveled toward me. “Hurry up.”
I ignored him, dragging my feet. As Klonis reached out to yank me forward, I heard voices raised behind the closed door. Voices I recognized.
One was Jonah.
The other sounded like Malin.