Chapter 8
EIGHT
ELENA
Elena groaned as she was jerked into consciousness, hands fluttering at her sides. Confusion swelled on a green, sticky tide and sucked her into fathomless depths. Her body twisted, a hiss slipping over her lips as a thin line burned the skin of her hip before her entire body jerked once again.
Prying her eyes open left them feeling dry and gritty, so heavy she struggled for the tiny amount they parted.
It was so very dark. Darker than any moonless night, and especially for the vibrant city still alive and awake outside her window.
She whimpered as her body was jostled once more, her stomach doing an uneasy somersault at the violent motion.
The shades were closed, every light snuffed out.
Something was wrong, but her syrupy thoughts wouldn’t make sense of any of it.
Cheap cotton clung to her skin as she slid over the bed, pushed this way and that by some unseen force. A warm maelstrom that moved over her, hard gusts of air feathering over her shoulder and neck.
Then there was nothing but pain. Ratcheting through every cell, every fiber. A scream worked its way up through her throat, a garbled whimper as it escaped her lips. Blood molasses thick, her limbs refused her demands to move, to shove away the thing causing such agony.
Taking in a long breath to let out the wail ripping its way through her chest, she smelled it.
Evergreens and smoke.
Tears gathered at the corners of her lashes as her body moved in hard, short bursts.
She felt she was being split in two, her hips cracking open as her thighs were shoved wide.
Too weak to protect herself from the stinging bites he peppered her neck and chest with, she wept to the ceiling and the Gods beyond.
A single thought coalesced on a heavy tide of piercing agony that cleared the confusion and sludgy thickness from her mind for an all too brief moment.
He’d said she needed to be taught a lesson.
It seemed Leon Marchetti had taken it upon himself to teach her it. Elena’s sob caught in her throat, a mangled sound as she was flipped to her stomach. The pain receding before he shunted back inside of her unwilling body, taking what wasn’t his. Stealing the one thing she had to offer a mate.
Shallow breaths suffocated in the rumpled spread, she prayed for a swift end to her life.
Was granted no such mercy as he growled at her ear, wrenching the blankets away.
His hands slipped around her throat, pinning her to the bed as he choked her by degrees.
Holding her still for each brutal thrust as he tightened his hold upon her until instinct kicked in.
Hands scrabbling over the sheets for some purchase, she bucked and jostled to be free. Twisting within his implacable grip for a single sip of air.
His hushed roar at her shoulder brought her to stillness, the erratic pace of his hips slamming into her foreboding. Elena shook her head, fists beating out a feeble tempo against the bed.
Not that. Anything but that.
He ground in deep, locking in behind her pelvic bone. The knot expanding, forcing her insides to rearrange to accommodate it.
His grip never faltering from her neck, her vision began to swim. Splotches of red and green danced around a graying outline of her arm in profile. A darker darkness in the shadowed room.
She wanted to die.
He wasn’t going to let her as his hands suddenly released.
Elena had no idea how long it went on. She only knew that by the end of it, his scent was firmly ingrained into her skin, and she would never be clean of it.
When he stumbled from the bed with a quiet laugh, she curled onto her side. Protecting herself as best she could despite the power she knew he held over her. It would take nothing for him to pull her flat once more. He’d proven it as much.
With a slap to her hip in parting, he left. The door clicked softly behind him.
Elena staggered from the bed at once, gagging as fluids she would not name dripped down her body. Throwing the locks and turning on the light, she moved around the room on legs that were watery and refused to hold her upright for long.
She needed to be clean. To get his vile scent off of her.
Diving into the shower, she cranked the taps.
Didn’t even flinch as an icy blast needled her skin until the water began to warm.
Then she shivered under the scalding spray as she scoured every inch of her body.
Bit back her scream at the smears of bright red on her fingers when she dared to touch the space that throbbed with blinding pain.
The water had turned cold again before she abandoned her efforts, all of her soap long gone now. Even the small bottle the hotel provided was used to try and cleanse away his every touch.
She stumbled into the bedroom as she tugged the heavy cotton robe on, breaths coming in hard, gasping pants. Chest heaving, she ripped the linens from the bed. Stuffed them into the tub under the still running shower to dampen the stench of evergreens and sex.
Nothing would make it better. It was ingrained in her every fiber. In every whorl of her mind.
Shaking hands picked up the receiver, having to try three times to dial the number right. It barely rang before Jamie was on the line, asking what was wrong.
“H-He came,” was all she could get out before she collapsed to the floor in a puddle of misery and tears.
Jamie shouted something she couldn’t understand. It seemed mere moments before he was pounding on her door, yelling her name. Gone was the honorific as he cried for her to open the door.
Crawling across the stiff carpet, she used the knob and wall for leverage to gain her feet. Fumbling with the locks, she managed to get them open.
She screamed when Jamie burst in, too much violence and Beta musk assaulting her. Falling back into the room, she held up her hands to hold him off. Fear dumping adrenaline into her thick witted limbs, making them move with jerky imprecision as she tried to get away.
“It’s okay, Elena,” Jamie ground out, slamming the door behind him and throwing all of the locks.
His lip curled as he made a cautious sniff.
His roughhewn features fell into a cool mask as he turned his attention to her.
Kneeling several paces away, he pushed at the air to calm her airy sounds of panic.
“Take a breath, kid. It’s only me. You’re safe now. ”
“He was here. I’m not safe. I was never safe,” Elena stammered out as she wedged her back into the small corner between bed and nightstand.
“Who was here, Elena,” Jamie asked, the gruff sounds grinding from his throat attempting to be a calming purr.
“Marchetti.”
“You’re sure?”
“Yes, I’m sure! I can still smell him on me and I—”
“Okay, okay. I believe you, Elena.” Jamie sidled closer, running a callused hand over her bare feet. Only when she stopped flinching, the low whine dissipating, did he try to get closer. “Let’s get you to my room, okay? Can you do that for me?”
“I can’t go out there like this. Everyone will know,” Elena wailed, realizing that the staff at the very least would grasp what had happened here. They’d smell it, see the blood on the sheets. People talked.
“I’m going to need you to get dressed. We’ll figure it out from there.” Jamie slowly rose, his hand out to help Elena up to her feet.
With Jamie’s gentle encouragements, Elena was able to dress and make herself look more presentable, despite the fact she shivered so hard her teeth chattered.
Amidst his promises to make everything all right, he guided Elena to the second room that smelled strongly of gun oil and the flat herbal scent of Beta male.
He situated Elena in the uncomfortable chair, chafing her hands to bring some warmth back into them as she stared off into the ether.
“I’m going to go fix the other room, okay?”
Elena nodded her head, though she didn’t really understand him. She sat where he put her as Jamie left the room, too caught up in her worries and the nightmare to note his exit.
Her life was ruined. What little hope she’d had gone now. Her body was in excruciating pain, between her legs throbbing with the stuttering beat of her heart. He’d hurt her. Badly. It wasn’t enough for him to have taken such a thing from her, but he had to damage her.
He’d taught her a lesson, by Gods.
She had nowhere to go, no one to count on save Jamie.
Perhaps he was right, and she could learn a trade.
Omegas did it every day, going to work and earning a living.
It would be difficult at first, her pampered life having never prepared her for any of it, but she was a quick study. It was possible.
What would she do? Live in a squalid apartment in some seedy neighborhood as she waited tables? Worked in some factory? Elena shuddered at the thought. Not for the hard work and discomfort she would surely endure, but for what dangers lay for her down that path.
Omegas out in the world had no real protection.
She’d read the papers. Seen the articles of what happened when an Alpha got it in their head to take one of them.
The only thing that stood between her and a vicious fiend was a thin layer of civility that all too often crumpled at the slightest provocation.
This night alone proved even her circles of society weren’t above such things.
“Jamie,” she whispered, voice tremulous as the door opened slowly. Not paying attention, Elena failed to note the knock he always performed when entering a room.
“It’s me, kid,” came his gruff voice seconds before he appeared at the corner of the short hallway where the bathroom was. “It’s just me.”
“I need,” Elena started, having to pause to take another shaky breath as she steeled her nerves before being able to continue, “I need you to tell me what all it takes. Out there.”
“That can wait, miss.”
“No, it can’t. How much does an apartment cost? Food, electricity? I… I don’t know any of that.”
“Miss Costanzo, now’s not the time. Let’s get you seen to and then we’ll worry about tomorrow.” Jamie rocked back and forth, lips pulling down into a thin grimace.
“I can’t afford a doctor,” Elena whispered, fingers ghosting over the points of red hued throbbing staining her chest and arm. Refusing to acknowledge all the other many hurts. “There’s nothing they could do anyways. Omegas heal fast.”
“Miss, I… I saw the sheets…” Jamie wouldn’t look at her, gaze sliding over her hunched form.
“Omegas heal fast, Jamie,” Elena said, putting more force into her voice as she dredged up some measure of strength she wasn’t sure she had.
“All right, miss. If you say so.”
“Tell me what it takes.”
Jamie sat on the corner of the bed, the only other place in the small room.
Wringing his hands, he glanced at Elena the once with a furrowed brow and mouth still set in a thin line.
He wasn’t happy about it, but he began talking in quiet tones.
Waited for Elena to scribble down sums and the very many things she would be solely responsible for out there on her own.
“It’s impossible,” Elena murmured as she went over the list once more, adding up the amounts Jamie suggested were reasonable.
“It can be less, but the living conditions would be far less than ideal, miss.”
“I don’t need to live in a palace, Jamie.”
“I’m talking little better than squalor, Elena,” Jamie bit out, lunging to his feet to begin pacing the short breadth of carpet from the bed to the window.
“I don’t need all the creature comforts,” Elena whispered, tracing the swoops and whorls of her script on the page. What was she willing to give up, exactly, in the list of necessities?
“That’s a dangerous road for an Omega to go down, miss. You listen to me, you start giving things up, and you’re going to find yourself in a situation where you can’t even keep that up.”
“What do you mean?”
“You think someone wants to hire an Omega living on the wrong side of town? No, they won’t, so the only place you’ll be able to find work is in the same area you live in, and they won’t pay good wages.”
“That doesn’t make sense.”
“It’s the way it is. People look at where you’re from, what you look like, long before what your accomplishments are. You could be the very best at what you do, and it won’t matter one bit if your address is in the wrong sort of area.”
Elena threw the pen aside with a quiet growl that stuttered into a gasp as she sat back too fast. Her back a ruin of scrapes and bites, she lurched forward to relieve the pressure.
“If you won’t let me find a doctor, at least let me patch you up. We’re going to have to find someone to deal with your cast as it is.” Jamie held his hand out towards the sopping mess of the hard cast that still squished and dripped from her frantic shower.
“Fine. Okay.” Elena bent forward, folding her arms over the tabletop before resting her forehead on them. She didn’t dare close her eyes despite the murky quality of her thoughts now that the adrenaline had begun to fade, her limbs still feeling sluggish and thoughts syrupy.
Elena had no idea why she felt that way. Too much wine perhaps. She never had liked the stuff.
Hours later found them in a waiting area full of people. Dangerous Alphas mixed with Betas and even Omegas cowering in corners. The free clinic. A far cry from the soothing sterileness of her doctor, babies screamed their outrage as huge males growled and blustered.
Jamie remained at her side during the whole ordeal.
Kept her hand tight in his grip as he led her into the back where she was shown into a room made up of nothing but gauzy curtains.
The doctor tsked and made perturbed noises about the state of her cast, but after they performed an x-ray, he announced it could stay off.
A welcome respite in the middle of everything else going on.
The man leered at the bruises decorating her arms, giving Jamie a broad smile as if they shared in some inside joke. One that Jamie returned despite the way he clenched Elena’s free hand so hard it hurt.
She knew what the doctor thought. Bowed her head and seethed as she cursed Leon Marchetti to his grave, praying the Gods would listen to one Omega when she hoped for his death.
But not before she had her due. She wanted him to suffer as she would suffer.
Wanted him to know the pain he inflicted upon her, both physical and mental as he ruined every last hope she’d ever had.
The bastard needed to pay.