Chapter 6 #2
I thought that Rosa would eat Mars alive. Maybe Seventy-one will eat me alive because he’s bolder than most of the assassins I have faced, while also being the sunniest person I have met.
My brother would love him.
My heart aches at that thought.
“You do know that you’re locked up?” I reply. “This is an experiment facility. You were gifted to me as long as I could save you with my pheromones. And I’m a strange Alpha.”
“Strange Alphas are just scent matches waiting to happen. Looks like we’re living proof.” Bird settles more comfortably onto my lap. “And honestly, I’ve known I was dying for months. I’ve been preparing for it. So, waking up anywhere is like a second chance.”
He’s the Holy Grail.
I’ve finally found an Omega who is more optimistic than my brother.
Or more deluded.
I narrow my eyes. “What if I’m a bad, bad Alpha?”
“Are you?” Bird’s eyes are twinkling like he doesn’t believe it for a second.
Wait, does he think that this is all just dirty talk?
I narrow my eyes. “Little Bird, I belong to the Adonis pack.”
For the first time, Bird’s expression becomes more guarded. “Huh, I’ve been used by some of those at the hotel. They were Alphaholes.”
Shit, which ones?
I can’t ask.
“They are Alphaholes,” I agree. “Because I was born as a Rogue, they refused to acknowledge me. I was forbidden to bond as an Alpha, or to nest and be rutted as an Omega. I grew up alone in a basement, trained outwardly as a bodyguard. Secretly, to be an enforcer and assassin. I have no idea how to love or be loved. I’ve been forged into nothing but a weapon all my life. I’m a criminal. A killer.”
I could have lied. I’m good at that.
But this isn’t any Omega.
It’s shattering my heart that I am forcing Bird to reject me. But it would hurt me even more for him to learn the truth about me when I had grown closer to him, innocent and trusting, only to find out just the type of Alpha he was nuzzling.
He doesn’t scramble off my lap.
He doesn’t flinch in terror.
Instead, he gently cups my cheeks. “I’m sorry that you’ve been treated like that. You’re no one’s property to be forged into anything. I know how that feels. I want to show you what it’s like to be loved, if you’re okay with that?”
I feel like I’m falling.
Why isn’t he rejecting me?
“Am I the one who is dreaming?” I whisper.
Bird smirks. “Maybe I’m the angel.”
“I’m the one who is magic.” I use sleight of hand to make the white cloth appear like a dove flying from behind Bird’s ear.
He chuckles in delight.
The sound warms my chest. I want to draw that sound from him again. It’s better than the sound of a bullet hitting its mark and ripping through flesh.
I never thought that I would find a sound that I preferred.
Bird claps. “My niece would love you.” Then his expression falls. “I miss her.”
“I miss my brother,” I say without meaning to.
“Are you close to him?”
I’m not sure how to answer.
“I wasn’t raised alongside him,” I reply, “but I would die for him.”
Bird’s eyes flash with an understanding that I’m not expecting.
“I have half-brothers and sisters. I get it. I love them so fucking much, and it doesn’t matter how differently we were raised and treated, I would have done anything for all of them.
My sis was kicked out of her promised pack when she was pregnant because her Chief Alpha found his scent match.
When I tried to protect her, Mom marked me as a rebellious Reject.
She owns the hotel and punished me by making me a Hotel Omega. ”
“Your own mom condemned you to become a Hotel Omega…?”
Bird ducks his head. “She also made my sister a housekeeper. The funny thing is that I had more friends amongst the staff than I ever had when I was an elite Omega trapped in the penthouse. I was happier there, I mean, even though I knew that I was going to die. No one judged me, despite me being a…” He bites his lip, and I brush his damp hair out of his face.
He peers up at me, before asking quietly, “Do you judge me?”
My chest is tight.
What kind of hypocrite would I be if I did, when I have checked into those cruel hotels myself?
“You’re mine.” I drag Bird closer by his hair. “And the protective brother who stood up for his sister. The only person I am judging is your asshole mom. Do you want me to put her on my hit list?”
“It’s okay. I left behind a scheme to take her down in a coup.”
My eyebrows rise.
Well, there is more to this Omega than his golden retriever vibes.
Now, that’s what I find attractive.
“Smart and pretty,” I praise.
Bird purrs.
Then he jangles the ugly Rej bracelet. “Giving up wealth and privilege was worth it. When I thought that I’d lost everything, I realized that I had never had anything in the first place.
I’d always been trapped in a gilded cage.
Family, pack, and friends. I only discovered them when I was living downstairs with the staff.
” He pulls himself free of my hold on his hair, before gesturing around at the cell.
“Now, I’ve woken up in a cell but I’m in the arms of my scent match. ”
I study Bird. “You don’t regret this.”
“How could I? I spent years staring at elite packs, desperately yearning that one of them would want to bond with me. I was a hopeless romantic, yeah? Now that I have found you, we have each other. It’s all I want.
Do you know, Mom never allowed me out of the hotel.
It was a cage for me my entire life. This is just another one. ”
I hug Bird tightly.
He freezes, surprised. But then, he loops his arms around my neck.
I didn’t think that I would meet anyone who had been more controlled than I have been. Yet Bird has never been allowed outside a single hotel, whether as an elite or as a Reject.
Despite that, he has retained his optimistic outlook.
I must protect him.
I will save him.
He has an entire world to explore and blue skies to fly free in.
“I need to breathe,” Bird gasps.
“Oh, sorry.” Sheepishly, I let him go.
Bird’s eyes are dancing with amusement. “Can you teach me to be as strong as you are?”
I snort. “Dream on, Little Bird.”
“You don’t know how stubborn I can be.”
I lean closer, until my lips graze his. “Or how hard a teacher I can be. I will push you, until you’re begging, Omega. Prepared to be drilled hard?”
“Are we flirting right now?” Bird’s playful gaze meets mine. “Because that sounds fucking hot.”
What?
Suddenly, heavy footfalls clatter outside the hallway.
“Shit.” I shove Bird away from me, throwing the blanket over his head. “Don’t move.”
Those footfalls don’t belong to Colette.
If the warden believes that Bird is still in the coma, then surely I can convince him to leave him with me for longer.
Right?
My heart is beating wildly in my chest.
I leap up protectively in front of Bird but I don’t leave the safety of our rubber raft in the middle of the metallic sea.
Mr. Baskerville strolls to the door in one of his stained suits. He is wearing a pair of wiry glasses. He pushes them up his nose as he peers first at the bundled Omega on the mattress and then at me.
“Push Seventy-one onto the floor,” he commands.
I bare my teeth and shake my head.
I’m trembling.
Does the warden want to shock Bird?
Kill him?
“She is protective of him already,” an eager, female voice says. “Fascinating. I didn’t expect that of a cold Alpha like her.”
Dr. Gill steps closer to the bars.
She is the Chief Beta scientist in the Facility, known as The Operator, even amongst the staff.
She performs the procedures on the Rogues like they are any experimental material, rather than living creatures.
All that matters to her is data collection.
Greco sneered at me in the first week that he hoped I enjoyed my time with Op. You won’t last long with her. She doesn’t stop because she logs failed experiments; she doesn’t mourn them. Mr. Baskerville is on a mission. Op is simply following the science.
I find that more frightening.
I was raised amongst bad people.
Monsters.
And The Operator is a fucking monster.
Dr. Gill looks deceptively young and innocent, in her early thirties. Her ginger hair is pulled back with unicorn clips. Her nose is dusted with freckles.
She is dressed in a crisp, white coat, clutching a metal clipboard.
“Is this the subject you want to test this week, Op?” Dr. Baskerville points at me.
Bile rushes up my throat.
Dr. Gill nods, enthusiastically. “If her pheromones are strong enough to keep Seventy-one alive all this time, then she is the perfect specimen to help complete our experiments. Statistically, he should have died. I will need to study how he survived.”
I don’t move.
My pulse is roaring in my ears, but I blank my expression.
I use every trick I have not to show how much her saying that she intends to study how Bird survived terrifies me.
She says it like she’ll cut him open.
What are her mysterious experiments? Why are they so important to Mr. Baskerville? I do know that they can’t be good.
“I ordered you to roll him off the mattress,” Mr. Baskerville repeats, as if he’s not ordering me to make it easier for my Omega to be tortured. “Do I need to make it clearer to you that if you disobey us while you are out of your cell, then your Omega will be electrocuted?”
I shake my head.
I understand.
Bird is my weakness.
He is the shock collar around my neck that they intend to use to force me to behave.
I grit my teeth, before I bend down and lightly place my hands on Bird’s shoulders, which are covered by the blanket.
I can feel the tremors that are running through him.
“Sorry,” I whisper, gently rolling him onto the cold floor. “I’ll be back soon, my Bird.”
See, I’m a good liar. I have no idea if I’ll be coming back at all.
This should be my best chance to escape. I have my Rogue Powers. I could do this.
But it would mean leaving my Omega behind to die.
Love and pack bonds truly do make you weak.
Why do I crave them?
Wanting Bird is a mistake.
I stand, glowering at Mr. Baskerville.
He must read something in my expression because he pales and takes a step back.