Chapter 16 #2
My eyes narrowed. Trust? No. You couldn’t trust anyone down here—sometimes not even your own pack.
His smirk grew, and he shoved the items into my hands forcibly. “I trust that you don’t need anymore enemies right now. ‘Specially not me. And if you die before you get me my side of the deal, I’ll take the pills off your corpse.”
It took every fucking ounce of self control I had, dredged up from the silt of my very being, to stop myself from breaking his goddamn nose.
But I didn’t.
That was progress, right?
Maybe I wouldn’t be the one keeping my pack down here after all.
Ozias almost seemed surprised that I didn’t rise to the bait, his smirk dropping ever so slightly.
The cafeteria worker cleared his throat, and I looked over my shoulder to see Bug and Rick waiting impatiently beside my three heaping plates.
Finnian was waiting at the mouth of the hall that led to our cells, absently picking off dried pieces of spray paint from his arms, half ready to sprint back if a fight broke out.
“You’ll get your painkillers tomorrow,” I muttered, putting the pencils and sketchbook in my other pocket and picking up the plates with one balanced on my arm.
Bug tried to take one, but I growled at him. This was my task for my pack, and I didn’t need help.
I could take care of my omegas all on my own.
I could balance myself.
I needed to, because if I couldn’t I’d be dooming us all.
Without another word, I stalked back toward the cell to my waiting, hungry omega.
After returning to the room, I thrust a plate into Vandle’s waiting hands, then Phantom’s, keeping the last one for myself.
“Why’d you only get three plates?” Sin narrowed his eyes at me.
“You and Crescent can eat off ours.”
I needed to do fucking something. Maybe a little caretaking would remind my brain what mattered. Not ruts or fights or the thrill I got from bloodshed.
Omegas. My omegas.
“Like hell.” Sin pushed to his feet. “Try and feed me, and I’ll stab you in the eye with a fork.”
Crescent looked wide-eyed up from her place on the bed. Vandle whispered something in her ear, and her panicked expression softened into a little giggle.
Probably told her Sin was joking.
Well, he wasn’t.
My grip tightened on the plate, and I shifted it slightly away from him so he couldn’t steal it from me. “I got you your own fork. I’m not going to shovel it into your mouth for you, asshole,” I muttered.
Maybe I’d considered it. I hadn’t brought Crescent her own fork. But Sin… I needed this little instinct experiment.
“Then share a plate with fucking Phantom.”
He had to let me do this.
But I wouldn’t beg—plus I doubted begging my omega would do anything to help with my instincts.
SIN
Oh, for fuck’s sake.
Crescent looked so pleased. Between her forkfuls of mashed potatoes, Vandle would pick up a piece of chicken and she’d snatch it between her teeth.
It was really cute.
But couldn’t they both just leave me out of it?
Karma was looking at me with his jaw clenched, and our bond echoed with a special sort of desperation. He’d always been a little feral, but it had never been so obvious how much.
He clearly needed to do that ridiculous alpha caretaking thing. Normally I would still tell him to fuck off, but we needed every possible leg up for our appeal.
Karma was trying to figure out how to stabilize himself, and this was like… a tester, I guessed. To see if doing something other than relying on the rut cages might help.
Phantom begged me with his eyes to just cave, and I wondered if he actually thought it would work.
Would caring for an omega who hated every second of being coddled actually help?
But I huffed and snatched my fork from Karma’s hand, scooping up some box stuffing from his plate and shoving it in my mouth.
All I had to do was eat from the same plate.
Karma grinned broadly, his side of the bond settling enough that I could completely block it out again. He sat down on the edge of the bed, grabbing his own piece of Crescent bait from our plate despite Vandle’s possessive glare.
I sat beside him, barely enough room for my ass on the tiny bottom bunk, eating slowly while watching as they took turns feeding our delicate little omega. Phantom didn’t bother to fight for the honour himself—he sat on the opposite bunk, eating with a little smile on his face.
Karma would occasionally pause in feeding Crescent to watch me take a few bites, a rumble rising in his chest.
I repressed every single feeling that bubbled up as a reaction to that.
Did I like it?
Maybe. But there was something else, a seething irritation that grew every time someone else fed Crescent.
I nearly growled as she nipped Karma’s arm when he tried to snatch it away.
She was half feral, I swear.
Would she bite me like that?
Just because I was an omega didn’t mean I couldn’t take care of her.
Her growling stomach had been soothed by the time my control snapped and I grabbed Karma’s hand before he could give her another.
“My turn,” I muttered.
He blinked. “You want me to—”
“No!” I snapped. “I feed her.”
Colour warmed his cheeks and he huffed. I could tell she liked the stuffing the best, so I piled it high on my fork and lifted it to her lips. She smiled shyly, then opened her mouth to take the offered bite.
Some primal part of me soothed as she hummed and swallowed.
The alphas all watched with rapt attention, Vandle and Karma even giving up on their competition into who could feed her the most. When she let out a little burp, her cheeks flushing pink, I put the fork down on the plate Karma still held.
“Done?” I asked.
She nodded, eyes glittering in a way that made me wonder if she was considering biting me, food or not. “Thank you.” She looked between the two alphas on the bed. “You’re probably hungry, you should eat, too?”
Crescent squirmed her way up from Vandle’s arms and reached out to grab my hand. “You can’t eat and hold me at the same time. Sin can lay with me instead.”
I gave her hand a tight squeeze, trying to hide my smirk as I wedged myself between her and Vandle. His scent was sharp with annoyance, but I couldn’t fucking care less.
Take that, alpha pricks.
Their coddling may have made her blush, but I was getting the real benefits. I shoved back the momentary imaginings of claiming her right now in front of all our alphas.
Reign it in, you horny maniac.
She was a virgin, and I was literally the biggest slut of an omega in all of Anarchy. She wasn’t like me. I was going to do this right.
We needed to go slow—she was having a hard enough time adjusting as it was.
But I wouldn’t be giving our omega back to them for the rest of the fucking night.