Chapter 06 #2
Shifters were completely unbothered by nakedness, due to the fact we routinely shed our clothes when we shifted and ran in our packs, but I had no desire to freeze to death if the weather changed and a cold change blew through.
In a southerly, blowing in off the Southern Ocean, it would be cold this high up in the mountains, even if it was summer.
I had a feeling my beta friend here wouldn’t hurry to supply me clothes if that were to happen.
There was also the small matter of clothes hiding any unwelcome attraction to the omega I had come for. I didn’t want to scare him off.
“I’ll send some over,” the beta said, then hightailed it out of there before I could ask for anything else. Lazy fucker.
Once he was gone, I occupied myself by exploring my space, which didn’t take long.
I tried the handle of the door between the two parts of the building, but it was locked.
The beds weren’t made up and there were no sheets to do so, but there was a pile of blankets and that would suffice to keep me warm.
There was a lock on the inside of the door so I could sleep in my wolf form if I needed extra warmth, without having to keep alert for intruders.
Zarbius didn’t exactly provide luxurious accommodation for his friends, but it was adequate.
I lay down on the bed and waited for dinner to arrive.
It was dark outside now, according to the single window above the bed.
I caught sight of some magazines under the other bed, and after checking there wasn’t a similar stash under my own, I went over to retrieve them.
Anything to keep myself occupied while I waited.
I picked one up. Looking at the cover, I wrinkled my nose.
There was an omega on the cover, handcuffed to a pole, with an alpha holding a whip behind him.
That might have been okay except the expression on the omega’s face was one of terror, not anticipation.
I flicked to a couple of pages inside the magazine and then hurriedly threw it away.
The images inside were definitely not of consensual play.
It just added to the conclusion I had already formed – that Zarbius and his friends were not very nice people.
I worried some more for my omega and began plotting how I could get him out of here.
It wasn’t long before there was soft knock at the door. I opened it, to find an omega standing there with a bundle of clothes in her arms, along with a couple of towels.
“These are for you, alpha,” she said, keeping her eyes down.
I reached to take the towels from her, then realized she was shaking.
“Are you okay?” I asked as gently as I could.
“I’m fine, thank you for asking,” she whispered but she didn’t look up.
“Are you mistreated here?” I asked her.
“No, no, everything’s fine,” she stammered, shaking even more visibly now. She shifted from foot to foot. Very obviously things were not fine. Maybe she was afraid I was setting a trap for her. It was clear she wanted to get away from me as fast as possible.
“Thank you for the clothes and all,” I said, stepping away from the door, and closing it. Through the closed door, I heard the sound of feet running away.
The omega who brought my dinner was bolder. He was large for an omega, and although he seemed wary, he wasn’t afraid. He gave me my tray, cautiously looked me up and down, and simply said, “If you leave your tray outside the door, someone will come for it later.”
He turned to leave.
“Wait!”
He stopped but didn’t turn around.
“Is there a problem here?” I asked.
He turned around, tipping his head as if he didn’t understand what I meant.
“You mean, why Zarbius wasn’t here to greet you?” he asked, a careful tone to his voice.
“He didn’t know I was coming,” I replied. Then, taking a chance, I added, “I’m not a friend of his.”
“Um, Ok.”
“I was wondering about something,” I went on. “Maybe you can help me.”
“Um, w-what did you want to know?” he stammered, looking a little nervous now. A bead of sweat formed at his temple and trickled down his face. Yeah, he was actually nervous, he’d just been hiding it well.
“I’m a bit curious. Do all the pack omegas live in the one building? Aren’t there any mated omegas here?”
He looked at me worriedly, obviously wondering where I was going with this.
“We all live together, alpha. The omegas, I mean.”
“Even the mated ones?”
“Oh, no, we don’t have any that are mated. There used to be one… our Alpha had a mate but he disappeared. I don’t know what happened to him. He used to live with him, but then one day he was just gone.”
“It’s unusual,” I mused, “not to have any mated pairs in a pack, especially stuck away in the middle of nowhere like this.”
“We’ve only been here a few months,” the omega told me. His voice dropped and he said sadly, “but anyway, if they want an omega they just come and take one from the house.”
He was staring down at the timber doorstep, and I wasn’t sure if it was from embarrassment or because he was suddenly worried he’d said too much.
“Are you happy here?” I asked gently.
“I-I have to get back now,” he stammered. A second later he was running down the path, almost tripping over in his haste to get away.
Clearly, my questions had made him uncomfortable.
I was disappointed. How was I going to find my omega, when every omega I met ran away from me before I could gain their trust?