Chapter 26
DIANA
I wipe the heat from my face, straighten the blanket, and sit with my back tall. The fire eats the last curl of paper, a black petal collapsing into ash. If he finds it, fine. I can’t panic. He’s the one who left his doors unlocked and forgot to take out the trash.
The doorknob turns, and then he fills the doorway.
The room tightens around Judge the way a throat tightens to swallow, his thick frame a reminder of who he is and what he’s capable of. His pale eyes go to the hearth for one second longer than I’d prefer, then to my hands that smell like beef jerky.
“You didn’t eat the food I brought earlier. Grow tired of the bread pudding?”
He even pays attention to the fact that I always eat the bread pudding. “I preferred the jerky,” I counter.
His rough, deep exhale fills the quiet space.
“If you want a change in the menu, all you have to do is ask.” He comes within a few feet of me, his right hand moving the fingers like it’s kinetic energy that hasn’t fully resolved, but his eyes look…
playful? “Did you have fun going through my space?”
“It definitely broke up the monotony of being in here.”
“What would have really broken that up is asking about the note you took… I admit, I didn’t think to take out the trash first.”
My jaw drops, and I look at him like how the teen nurses used to look at us when we found them sneaking out at night.
Or like a raccoon caught rummaging through the bins.
Glancing down, I stare at his legs, then at his forearms that are thick with muscle, a few deep scars lining his flesh. “Of course you noticed.”
“I have cameras in my room as well.”
My face deadpans. Why in the hell did I not think of that? “I don’t want to ask anything about it.”
“Keeping an eye on you is what a good alpha would do to an omega who trusts no one, and is an incredible flight risk.”
“I can’t do the monotony anymore,” I say, almost pleading. “I miss fresh air. All the windows are bolted shut.”
I don’t know if my mind is extra vigilant because I’m incredibly desperate for a break in this, but I swear I can see him considering doing other things than just growling, fucking me, and then making me pass out. “You’re not going to leave these walls without my bite in your neck, Diana.”
“Then just do it already!” I get out.
What’s the difference if it’s Judge or another alpha? If anything, it might feel good to escape and remove his mark.
He looks at me like he’s concerned. “That’s unlike you.”
I laugh. “You don’t know me at all.”
Something in him shifts. His expression softens, barely. The constant hum of dominance he carries seems to fade, and I realize he’s… thinking.
“Fine,” he says. “Then let’s talk.” He squats down in front of me, grabbing my chin as he moves my head side to side, examining me like he might find a head wound somewhere. “What are you trying to get at?” he asks.
I frown. “What do you mean?”
“Your entire demeanor has changed. What’s wrong?”
I move my head to pry myself from his grip, and he lets go.
But the way his brows are furrowed, and how he rests his elbows on his knees like he’s willing to not move until he believes me…
well, it’s confusing. I did not expect this reaction to telling him to bite me.
I lower my gaze, eyeing a silver skull ring on his finger.
“What do you want me to say? I want out of this room. I want to stop being a hidden omega. I know you said there’s a danger, but surely I don’t have to be kept in an attic. ”
“You fled into the mountains at the thought of being taken, and now you just said to bite your neck. That’s quite the leap, even for desperation.” He drops his gaze to look over me more, like maybe he missed something. “You’re the one who jumped three steps ahead.”
“So you’re definitely planning on it then?”
“Obviously.”
My spine gives a little shake at the confidence.
“I’m tired of this stupid omega life, Judge,” I say, feeling good to get that out, his gaze flashing back up to stare at me through furrowed brows, hardly blinking at all.
“I’m tired of being hidden, afraid, of being used and watched over.
I’m tired of—” I nearly say I’m tired of yearning for home, even if it’s for a new one.
“Of what?”
He’s never looked at me so intensely before, like he’s hearing everything I’m saying. “No.”
He tilts his head slightly. “You’re not in a position to say no.”
“Such a big man needing to make fun of an omega,” I say, wanting his fight back. Or maybe a growl again. Anything to make me feel like he’s the colder alpha who doesn’t actually care.
I didn’t make plans for if that ever happened.
“I’m not making fun of you, darling. I’ve told you so many times why you’re here. It’s safe in here. Now, why are you so eager for something you were vehemently against less than a day ago?”
“Does it matter? It’s not like I’m getting out of here on my own.
I just want out!” I can’t believe I’m actually having to nearly beg him to bite my neck.
But it’s clear there’s no way I’m escaping this place anytime soon, and with how cold the windows have been lately, I don’t want to escape and run into a snowstorm.
“I can’t risk a dark bond.”
My stomach flutters like the idiot it is. “You care about that?”
“We don’t allow them in Dominion.”
“You don’t?”
“We need strong mating bonds, or else the alphas don’t have anything to fight for and protect. Dark bonds are a recipe for disaster, and one of the few things I’m morally against.”
I cross my arms. “So, it’s for control.”
He stands with a huff. “You try running a population without some method of control and tell me how it goes.”
I laugh a little at how sassy he said that, and then hate myself because I actually found him funny. Focus, Diana! Okay, bonds. Something about bonds… the dark bond! So he doesn’t want to risk that image for some reason?
“I also have no interest in a mate that’s dark bonded to me, happy?” he says gently, moving to the fire to place wood inside. “What do you want with this freedom you’re so hellbent on getting?”
Should I make something up? Or be strategic? Yes, I should make up something strategic. “I mean, a lot of things,” I say, trying to buy myself time to think of the perfect reply.
“That’s so specific.”
I laugh again and move my head so he can’t see me smile, as of course he darted his gaze my way as if to capture it. I stare back out the window panes that I know are frigid. “I want to know who wrote that letter,” I blurt out, making quite the cringe face when I shouldn’t have said that.
“It doesn’t matter who did it,” he replies, almost as if it really isn’t worth discussing. “She is going through a lot, and it was nothing personal. Don’t feel betrayed for it. I asked her to help and offered her what I could within my control.”
That somehow makes it a little better, but it doesn’t take away from the unsteadiness in my heart that I don’t trust anyone. “Rather than just giving her that space to be kind?”
I can hear his steps near me. “Rules in a gang like Dominion are best not stepped across, sweetheart. One of them is that omegas do not wander outside their wings unmated.”
Okay, drop it! This is getting us off topic. “I want to go to one of the real gatherings,” I say, hoping maybe this can go somewhere.
“You really want to go to those?” he asks, coming into view with his hands now in his pockets.
Good, he likes that. “I watch them all the time out these windows.”
“You can’t do that for a while, Diana,” he quietly replies, almost with a tone of apology. He purrs, my body loosening in all of its tension. “Where else would you want to go?”
“The beach,” I state, almost shy. It’s my first piece of genuine vulnerability I’m giving him, and because he ruined my first two shots, I might as well try to steal a view of the ocean out of this.
“That’s ten hours from here.”
“You didn’t state it had to have a distance limit.”
He huffs out a laugh. He leans over the bed, grabs one of the blankets, and throws it over his shoulder, then moves to the tray of food I haven’t yet touched. “Grab another blanket, and we’re going down those stairs,” he says, motioning to the ones I frequent.
“And do what?”
“You stress your body out by not trusting me. It’s unnecessary,” he chides, like we’re an old couple with annoying habits.
“Don’t get me started on unnecessary,” I say, standing with a fluffy blanket in hand, not wanting to be uncomfortable wherever we’re going, and head down the stairs, not offering to help him at all.
He acts like he’s always rewarding my behavior with Pavlov’s theory, so I’ll do the same and reward his behavior of talking to me by not hesitating. He makes sure I go first, and I do so with my head held high.
He follows behind, barefoot.
I better not regret this.