Chapter 2
Chapter
Two
Thirteen years ago
brIAR
The sound of applause fills the room around me. I grin as I give the audience a little wave before stepping off stage.
Generic music starts playing in the background and the chatter of the club picks up. It’s a Friday night, one of our busiest nights of the week. And one of my favorite nights to sing. I sing most nights, but it’s not as exhilarating when the club is slow.
Not like tonight, where the drinks are flowing and people are excited to let loose for the weekend.
“You sounded amazing, as always,” one of my best friends, Lexi, says from her place at the bar.
“Why, thank you,” I wink. “Are you performing tonight?”
“Maybe,” she shrugs. “My hand is still hurting so I’m not too sure.”
Lexi dances occasionally, but she mostly works as a server. Her thing is mostly the silks but she had a mishap in the kitchen last week and cut her hand. Seeing how she needs them to do what she does, I can understand why she wouldn’t be up for it.
“Rest, get better, they’ll still be there waiting for you,” I wink.
“Are you working anymore or are you done for the night?”
“I think I’m gonna call it a night,” I tell her, giving her a wave. “See you later, babe.”
“Bye!”
It’s been ten years since the girls and I came to Widows Peak. Since the start of our new lives, our second chance. And I’ve loved every single second of it.
We might not have met under the best circumstances, but they quickly became my found family. A family that is a million times better than the one I was born into.
I was young and stupid back then. I had no idea what the outcome of that night would be. All I wanted to do was get as far away from Ryan and his dads as possible. Nothing else mattered as long as I wasn’t Ryan’s omega.
Still, being Gideon's captive was a far better fate in that moment of time because if I were to stay in that house, I’d have been shackled to Ryan’s bed, forced to take him whenever he chose, as he used me as some fucked up omega sex doll.
I knew that in the end, my fate was meant to be sold off to whoever Gideon chose. But at least it wouldn’t have been for a few years. While under his care, no one touched me. At least not in a sexual way.
And with the strength of my five best friends, I was able to not only make it through those years, but the years that came after we escaped that prison and made a life for ourselves.
A safe haven for omegas like us. The ones who have nowhere to go, no one to protect them.
Here they’re able to live a life without fear, to heal, to thrive.
When we first started working on Widows Peak, I was worried that somehow my stepfathers would find out where I was and come get their revenge for what I did to their son, even though I changed my name.
The world thought Ava Black was dead. And I’ve made sure it stayed that way for the past ten years. After a while, once the town started to grow, to thrive, I started to relax a little bit.
Still, I’ll never fully let my guard down. I’ve learned my lesson way too many times to be that stupid again.
Ryan has been dead and gone for years now and while I might not have stayed long enough to confirm that, there’s no way he’d have survived.
Any time I need that push, that will to keep going I think of that look of pure terror in his eyes when I slid that knife into his neck.
The fear of not only me, but the realization he was dying, because of me, and now, the power I held in that moment is my motivation.
The thrilling attention of it gave me a new outlook on life, a new purpose of sorts.
I guess in a way I can thank Ryan for my choice in career path.
To my best friends, I’m just an omega who works at the club, singing for the crowd before serving them.
But in reality, my truth is much darker. I’m not sure if they would approve of how I choose to live my life, so I have no plans on letting them in on this part of it.
Hopping into my old pickup truck, I head out of Widows Peak.
My heat is coming soon and while I might have done my damndest not to let Ryan control any parts of my life, present or future, no matter how much I tried, I’ve never been able to make it past making out with someone before the idea of their hands on my body makes my skin crawl.
I always stop before things go too far. Sometimes I want to push myself to just get past the feeling and go through with it, but it isn’t fair to me, or the person I’m with.
So I’ve just become celibate.
And it fucking sucks because in that moment when all logical thoughts leave and I’m left being nothing but the omega I was designed to be, all I care about is having an alpha to fill me up, to give me everything an omega craves.
But there hasn’t been anyone I’ve felt comfortable enough to trust with my body.
That's not true and you know it.
Atlas doesn’t count. Nothing will come of it. It can’t happen.
The drive to the nearest town is a quiet one. The roads are dead apart from the occasional car.
I pull into the parking lot of The Rusty Pipe, a little strip club I like to come to when I need a moment to decompress, and park near the front door.
It’s busier than normal tonight but I guess that's to be expected on a Friday night.
“Briar!” Lacy, one of the girls, greets me as I walk in through the front door. She’s in a deep red bikini and I bite my lip, trying to be respectful but her body is something to be desired.
“Hey, Lacy.” I give her a friendly smile. “How’s the night going?”
“Busy. Just how we like it,” she winks.
I let out an amused laugh. “I’m glad.”
“You want a table, or are you sitting at the bar tonight?” she asks, giving me a knowing look.
At the mention of the bar, my attention darts over to see who's working tonight. At the sight of Atlas, my heart starts to race, my body flushing with a mix of arousal and excitement. He’s talking to someone at the bar.
A smile stretches over his face as he tosses his head back and laughs, making me shiver at the sound.
“I’ll sit at the bar tonight.” I force myself to pull my eyes away from his ruggedly attractive body.
“Thought so,” she laughs.
“What does that mean?” I ask, lips quirking into a small smile, brow lifting.
“Oh babe.” She gives me a pitying look. “Anyone with eyes can see that the two of you are crazy about one another. The sexual tension between the two of you is thick. What I can’t put my finger on is why the two of you aren't already packed up.”
I can’t deny that I want Atlas. It’s hard not to. He’s an amazing man.
The first time I met him was around two years ago. After years of building up the courage to leave Widows Peak and venture into nearby towns, I wanted to see what else there was to life but didn’t want to risk my stepdads running into me and finding out where I am.
But, I also didn’t like the idea of being too far away from my safe place.
I came into town, went out to grab a bite to eat, did some sightseeing but when I saw the sign for The Rusty Pipe, I thought it was some kind of dive bar.
Boy was I wrong. As soon as I walked in, I was greeted with breasts of all shapes and sizes.
I was about to turn around and leave when Lacy walked up to me with her big welcoming smile and asked what I wanted to drink.
Not wanting to be rude, I let her bring me to a table for that drink. I ended up staying for hours. I left that night with three new friends and the confirmation that I was bisexual, something I wasn’t able to explore in my old life.
While I didn’t have any plans to sleep with any of the girls who worked here, I did enjoy not only the view, but their company. The only thing that made this even better was when I finally met the owner and he took my breath away.
At first glance, he gives off the impression of a scary alpha asshole with his towering size, firm muscles and facial hair. Like an angry lumberjack. But the scowl on his face vanished as soon as one of the girls came over to talk to him, introducing us.
It only took a few minutes of talking to realize he was a human version of a golden retriever. It reminded me that you shouldn’t always judge a book by its cover, or you might just miss out on an amazing story.
Two years later, and I still have no idea what we are. We’re not exactly friends because we both live pretty busy lives. I spend most nights at the club and when I’m not working there, I’m helping wherever I can in Widows Peak.
And Atlas has more than one business. The Rusty Pipe and a construction company, one we started to use with a lot of our expansion of Widows Peak.
Occasionally he’d come to my town, bring me coffee and sit at my club and talk to me for a little while. But nothing during the day, nothing outside our places of work.
I’m not stupid, I can see the spark between us. And as much as I’d love to explore what might be there, I don’t know how to cross that line, to bring it up, to see if that's something he wants as well.
Sometimes, I think that maybe it just wasn't our time. That our lives just don’t link up.
But as of late, I’ve been finding excuses to come here more and more. There's a pull towards him that I’ve stopped trying to deny. That doesn’t mean I’ve allowed myself to give in.
Even though I really, really want to.
It’s not just my past holding me back. It’s the fact that I couldn’t be with someone if that meant keeping secrets.
And I have secrets. At least one really big one. One that if the wrong person knew, it could mean the rest of my life behind bars.
While I don’t allow myself to indulge in those sinful cravings very often, at the end of the day, I have blood on my hands. Of more than just one person.
It’s not fair to the person I’m with if I’m keeping the fact that there’s this dark fucked up part of me who likes to watch the life of a man drain away. Sure, the lives I take are bad people, but still, I’m taking lives.
I’m a killer. There's no other way to put it.
It’s better if I keep to myself. Safer that way.