27. Opal
Chapter twenty-seven
Opal
L ife is good.
A sentiment I thought I would never hear myself say, but my head has been a peaceful haven these last few days.
I haven’t heard a peep from the warden, and perhaps he truly has given up on me.
He has deemed me a lost cause just as he deemed Belle and Ella, and perhaps I can finally be happy.
Maybe I am free at long last.
Still, I can’t get too complacent.
This could merely be the calm before the storm.
So, I will remain on my best guard.
But there is no denying that I am in love with Zayden and that he loves me in return.
When he told me so in the shower, I felt it with every fiber of my being.
We truly are meant for each other.
And no puppet strings can come between us.
It’s fate.
For once, I don’t don my sunglasses as I enjoy an afternoon brunch with Belle and Ella in a quaint little café.
Our Alphas watch nearby on their own table, and there I spy Magnus with Belle's Alpha, Leo, and Ella’s Alpha, Kellen.
It looks like the three of them are about to order something to eat as I spy Kellen giving a waitress a huge order, and I hope he gives her an equally large tip for all that.
They’re a lot like us right now in terms of their hair coloring—one redhead, one brunet, and one blond—and I have to fight the smile on my face as I recall that crude Beta male’s words from the mall.
“A redhead, a blonde, and a brunette? This is my lucky day…”
“And what are you smiling about?”
I look up to find Belle’s sparkling ocean eyes behind her menu, and I give her a shrug, taking a gander of my own.
A cappuccino would be nice.
“Nothing…”
Now, I use the menu to hide my even bigger grin.
“You got fucked, didn’t you.”
That question came from Ella, and it wasn’t even really a question.
It was a statement and a true one at that.
Belle whacks Ella with her menu playfully, but Ella throws her head back and cackles at the sky.
Kellen joins her over on the Alpha table, and has she just told him what we were talking about?
This is embarrassing.
Still, I bask in the moment.
I have never talked about my sex life with a girlfriend before.
It’s freeing.
Ella meets my eyes. “We were there that night, Opal. We saw the state Zayden was in. I really hope you took our word to heart and were there for him. Omegas in heat…”
Yeah, I know.
I’m dreading my own.
I’m still curious as to why Zayden’s heat came before mine. I was displaying all the signs according to the apt nose of Reed, but maybe he was wrong.
Ella places her menu down, crossing her arms on the table. “So, how was he?”
She's genuinely concerned since Zayden is her friend and comrade.
I sigh. “He was…”
How do I describe Zayden?
There are no words…
Ella nods, understanding written all over her face, and then she smirks. “You know, Brody and I gave him a few pointers. So, you’re welcome, Opal.”
Oh, dear lord.
Belle shoves Ella’s shoulder again. “Stop taking all the credit.”
Yet Ella is relentless, and again, Kellen mimics her chuckle over on the Alpha table as they both laugh at my expense.
Titans.
Our hot drinks arrive, and now we talk about mundane things that I never had the luxury of ever having to discuss, and it’s nice.
Liberating.
I want this life.
Afternoon coffee with my girls and then nights with Zayden in his nest.
And I don’t want to be alone for my heat.
Zayden was barely all there. His eyes were glazed, and I couldn’t imagine being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
It's not even worth thinking about.
When we finish our coffees, we head toward one of Belle’s favorite haunts.
A bookshop.
Apparently, she just loves books, and the smuttier, the better.
It's hard to believe that the sweet, doe-eyed Omega would be into some of the things that she waved in front of my face.
All books with man chest and seriously…
Does she not have enough man chest in her own life?
Elle doesn’t look so fussed about books, and she’s just a little pissy that we didn’t go to look at some knives.
At least they have hobbies.
I’m not even sure what I like.
Maybe I will get to find out soon.
I’m just perusing some shelves, spying what looks like tentacled monster porn when the pain shoots through my skull.
I grip my forehead, hissing through my teeth as the ache almost blinds me, lingering on a patch just along my brain stem.
And then, he speaks…
“Hello, puppet.”
My body seizes with fear, and I can’t move.
No breath escapes me as I stand as still as a deer confronted with the headlights of an oncoming vehicle—headlights that resemble the burning eyes of a large predator as it races up the highway.
Poor deer.
No wonder they succumb to road traffic accidents every year if that’s the last thing they see before they die.
That was the last thing I saw before it all went black.
Before I woke up in the Facility and found out that my freedom had been taken from me.
Hopefully, I just imagined his voice, and that the memory of the approaching car's headlights was just a fever dream.
“Miss me?”
No. He is real, and so is the memory of the car and the stink of fuel as I freeze on the road, and just like that, I pee my pants.
Thankfully, I only peed my pants in the memory, for my underwear is dry.
Thank God.
My hand shakes as I try to find purchase, gripping the shelves with all the monster smut.
Fuck. Can he see me? Feel me?
Does he see what I feel? Sense what I do?
Did he feel everything Zayden did to me? Every bite of pleasure, every glorious snap of his hips as he fucked me wanton?
“I did, Opal. And you put on quite the show.”
Breath escapes me at last, and now they seesaw from my lips as I white-knuckle the shelf.
“W-what do you want?”
“You know what I want. I grow tired , Opal. At first, I was amused, but the time has come. No more playing house. You have a duty to do.”
My eyes shutter, and then I fight the urge to cry.
“Don’t cry.” The words are far from comforting. “In the end, Opal, you are mine . Mine to do as I see fit. So, you will perform this task, or I will make you kill him .”
My whole body shakes.
“Yeah, the brown-eyed Omega. What’s his name? Zayden? I see why you like him… very handsome…”
My eyes sting as the tears threaten to escape.
“And what handsome babies you would have had, but such is life. If the governor isn't dead by nine pm, Opal, then it’s Zayden’s life I will make you take. And then Magnus’s, Levi’s, and even your friends…”
He means Belle and Ella, and it looks like they never really escaped him after all.
“Kill the governor, Opal. And then return to me. That is an order.”
He barks the last, and just like that, my body snaps into position.
I no longer clutch the bookshelf for dear life as I fix my hair, blowing a sigh from my lips as I meet Belle and Ella at the till.
“There you are!” Belle exclaims.
My eyes glance over the pile of books on the counter as the Beta woman gives her a curious, disapproving look when she sees all the man chest.
Belle grins. “Look at all the books I bought. I can’t wait! Maybe I will find something new for me and the pack to do in the nest.”
The Beta serving her almost drops a book in shock, and Ella looks at her angrily.
Yet Belle barely notices.
“Oh, I see now. Maybe I should get some books, too,” Ella laughs.
Belle smiles. “You should, Ella. I’m sure you can find a stabby FMC somewhere with your level of snark.”
Ella shrugs, spinning her knife. “Or I could just borrow one of your books.”
Belle rolls her eyes, meeting my gaze. “Did you find any books you like?”
My mind is running a mile a second as I barely pay attention to anything they say. “There was a book with tentacles…”
Belle nods in understanding, and I spy no judgment.
“Brody writes fanfiction,” Ella announces next. “So, unless it's written by the hand of Brody, then I'm not interested.”
Fair enough.
Once we’re done, we leave the shop, and Leo is more than eager to take Belle’s books from her hands.
However, there's no missing the jealous growl when he spies one of the men on her book covers.
But Belle reaches up and kisses him on the cheek, and then the Alpha soon feels better.
Kellen comes up to Ella. “No books?”
Ella smirks, creeping closer to slip her hands under his shirt. “What need do I have of fiction when I have the real thing?”
The Alpha purrs in satisfaction, then scoops her up, tossing her over his shoulder.
Now he smacks her ass, making her yelp, and someone needs to get a room.
Or a nest, to be more precise.
Kellen turns, and now we meet Ella’s blown eyes as she hangs from his shoulder.
“See you bitches later. I’ve got a meeting with Kellen’s knot.”
“Ella!” Belle scolds.
She laughs, and Kellen chuckles right along with her as they both disappear down the street.
Belle rolls her eyes, then meets mine.
It’s obvious she wants to go home and try out some of the scenes in her books with her own pack, and I envy her. I do.
I envy them both.
I could have what they have, too.
But alas, I never will.
“See you soon, Opal,” she says.
We won’t.
We will probably never see each other again.
“See you soon, Belle.”
She grins, leaning in to give me a hug. Then she steps back and takes Leo’s hand as they bid us both a farewell.
Now it’s just me and Magnus.
“Are you all right?” he asks.
No.
That’s what I want to say.
But if I don’t do what the warden says, then he will make me kill him.
Poor Magnus won’t even see the knife coming.
Because I am pretty sure he is falling for me, too.
I know because I feel that way about him and Levi.
Hell, I’m even crazy for Reed.
But I will never have them.
“I’m fine, Magnus. Let’s go home.”
Magnus gives me one of his golden smiles, and I die a little inside.
Then when he takes my hand, I ignore the butterflies that flutter in my chest as he finally takes me home.
Home.
It will never be home.
For I don’t have one.
A jail cell is where I belong.