Chapter 2
Chapter Two
TECH
“Come on, Cody,” I told my best friend.
“Allen, I don’t think we should be out here two nights in a row. If Sire catches us, you know he’ll give us lashings for a week.”
I shivered at the thought. Even though Sire was my father, he didn’t want me calling him that. He was Sire to me like he was to everyone else around here. We basically had our own little community here. The children never left the compound. Ever.
We had our own school and a doctor. Not that we learned much in school. Every day, we were taught the word, or at least that’s what the adults had been leading us to believe.
At thirteen, I was pretty savvy with technology.
Recently, Cody and I hacked into my father’s computer and did some research.
I’d always felt something was off about this place.
I had never seen another human outside of the ones on this compound.
The few times I’d snuck and watched the television, which was forbidden, I had seen that the way we lived wasn’t normal.
That sparked my curiosity, which led to my research. I learned that what we were was indeed not normal. We were a cult. And the things they were teaching us were not okay.
Whenever we asked questions about our teachings, we were beaten. I didn’t understand why we would get lashings for questioning the things they wanted us to do.
Sire, by far, was the worst. He hated me.
Although he had never said it, his actions showed it.
He never missed a moment to remind me that I was the reason my mother was dead.
From what I heard by listening to his conversations, my mother died while giving birth.
She had been eighteen, and my father had been thirty.
Sometimes, I wished I could know how it felt to have a mother, but then I would look around and see how the women were. They were puppets. They did anything and everything their husbands said. Some of the men had multiple wives, including my father.
There was something about this place that didn’t sit right with me. I couldn’t find a connection to it, no matter how many times I got beaten for it. Cody was the same. He hated it here. We weren’t allowed to be ourselves. We couldn’t say how we really felt about a lot of things.
One of those things was why I had brought Cody to the creek two nights in a row. Last night, I chickened out, but tonight I would finally tell Cody how I felt.
I battled with this for a very long time.
I liked my best friend as more than a friend.
When I first started feeling this way, I tried praying them away as we were taught.
But it didn’t work. The feelings grew each day.
I even did my research to see if what I was feeling was a mental illness, like my father said.
Turned out there were thousands of people just like me.
The more I read, the more I realized that we had been lied to.
Everything they were teaching us was based on their hateful beliefs.
So, tonight I was finally going to tell Cody how I felt.
I had a feeling he felt the same way. Whenever we came out here, Cody loved to hold my hand and hug me for a long time.
He even kissed my cheek a few times. That made my stomach feel funny in a good way, though.
“It’ll be okay, Cody. Sire took some sleeping pills, so he’ll be out all night.”
“You sure?” he asked as he looked around nervously.
“I’m sure. Come on.” I grabbed his hand and led him to the lake. This time, I initiated holding his hand. He looked down with a small smile. “Cody, I have to tell you something.”
He raised his head to look me in the eyes. He appeared to be nervous and worried. “W-what is it, Allen?”
This was it. I was finally going to say everything I had been feeling for the past couple of years. I didn’t care anymore. I just knew I couldn't go another day without telling Cody this.
“I’ve been so scared to tell you this. I don’t want you to hate me if you don’t feel the same way.”
Allen grabbed my other hand, squeezing them . “I would never hate you, Allen. Ever. I promise.”
I took a deep breath and swallowed. “I like you, Cody.”
“You like me?” He stared into my eyes.
I nodded. “Yes. Not just as a friend.”
“Really?” He smiled and moved closer to me.
“Yes. Wait… are you happy?”
He bobbed his head up and down rapidly. “Yes. I thought I was crazy, Allen. They tell us that this is wrong and we’ll burn in hell, but I can’t stop it. I tried so many times. I swear.”
“Me too,” I agreed with him.
We sat in silence, just looking at one another. It was as if we were drawn to each other as our faces got closer and closer. Before I knew it, our lips touched as we shared our first kiss. Nothing in my life had felt more right. There was no way something that made me this happy could be wrong.
Cody and I were lost in our kiss when I heard my father's raised voice, igniting instant fear in me.
“WHAT THE HELL DID I JUST SEE?!”
I sprang up in my bed, covered in sweat. That night had haunted me for thirteen years. As much as I’d tried my hardest to forget it, I couldn't. That night changed me. Sire did the unthinkable to ensure that I would never act on those feelings again.
Refusing to go down that rabbit hole, I hopped out of bed and got into the shower.
I needed a nice distraction. One of the club bunnies would take my mind off things.
I had been here since I was eighteen. At first, I thought the club was like a cult, too, until I started partying there often.
I realized the guys had plenty of freedom to do and be whatever they wanted.
They were truly a brotherhood. Since I never had a real family, I was drawn to the place.
I wanted to be part of something where I would be embraced, not shunned.
The guys often teased me because I was considered the quiet and shy one out of the bunch.
They didn’t know I dealt with childhood trauma that made me second-guess myself.
In fact, no one knew my story. When I turned eighteen, I changed my name and did everything I could to distance myself from my past. As far as I was concerned, Allen died the day I turned eighteen and ran away.
I finished my shower and got dressed. When I opened my bedroom door, a very ticked-off Blade stormed past me.
“Marco! Hannah! Where are you two little deviants?!” he shouted.
I chuckled and locked my door before following him into the dining hall. As I turned the corner, I saw Crystal, Blade’s mom, standing there with her hands on her hips. “Don’t call them that.”
I went over to the breakfast table and fixed my plate while watching the show.
“That’s what they are. I know they’re the ones who put the pop-it's under my toilet seat lid.”
That caused most of the room to laugh. Hannah and Marco were always playing practical jokes, so it definitely sounded like something they would do.
“I bet that scared you shitless when you sat down, huh?” Cara teased him.
That made the room laugh even harder, as no one was taking him seriously. Blade gave everyone the middle finger before storming back up the hallway.
I took a seat at a table with Gunner, Big Red, Dice, and Capone.
“Are y’all ready to see the nannies?” Dice asked excitedly.
“No,” we all answered in unison. I didn’t see why this was a question. Cara had warned us to stay away from the nannies.
“Well, why not? That’ll be two new ladies on the compound.” Dice frowned, looking around the group.
Capone chuckled and shook his head. “It’s clear you weren’t listening to Cara the other day. She swore that if any of us fucked the nannies, she would cut our dicks off. She doesn’t want us running them off. And it's only one female nanny. The other is a guy.”
“Damn, only one. I guess she didn’t want to give me double temptation.” Dice had a salacious grin plastered on his face.
“Temptation? There shouldn’t be any at all. Did you not just hear him say that Cara said she would cut our dicks off? I’m not scared of anybody, but I refuse to piss that little ankle-biter off,” Big Red said, cracking a joke about Cara’s height.
We all roared with laughter. Cara was indeed a tiny little thing, but she wasn’t anything to be played with. I’d seen that women do things that I didn’t even think were possible.
“Well, it sounds like you’re scared to me. You all listen to Cara, and I’ll see what the nanny has to offer. If she’s sexy enough, I don’t mind ducking Cara’s blades.” Dice shrugged his shoulders and continued to eat his breakfast.
No one said anything else on the matter. It was his funeral. Literally.
After breakfast, I did my morning sweep of the grounds to check the cameras.
I didn’t have too many tasks as a brother, so I took my tech duties seriously.
As I was making my way around the west wing, I noticed a few of the cameras looked to be a little out of place.
It wasn’t surprising since we had a really bad rainstorm last night with high winds.
That could have easily shifted their position.
I pulled out my phone to look at the feed for the west wing and noticed it was going in and out. I had to fix this immediately. Even though Cara and Sara had designed our entire security system, they taught me everything they knew.
I made my way back to the clubhouse and to the cave where we kept all our equipment. As I made my way up the hallway, I noticed the cave door was open. I knew the girls had to be there. We were the only ones with access to that room.
“Sara, Cara, have you noticed the cameras on the west wing are glitching?” I asked as I stepped into the room.
As soon as I saw the man standing next to Sara, my mouth went dry. He had chestnut-brown hair cut short. His soft features made him look young. Almost like he had a baby face. I stared at him, taking in every single detail, from his brown doe eyes to his full, pouty pink lips. He was beautiful.
As soon as I thought that, my chest tightened. Years of suppressing those feelings, and here he was undoing all that in a matter of seconds.
“What were you saying about the cameras, Tech?” Sara asked, snapping me out of it.
I blinked a few times before repeating myself. “The cameras on the west wing are glitching.”
“Okay. Well, let us take the nannies to meet the kids, and then we can come back to see what’s going on. By the way, Debbie and Will, this is Tech. Tech, these are the nannies we hired.”
I shook Debbie's hand and then Will’s. As soon as his hand was in mine, an all-too familiar feeling shot through me. I hadn’t felt this way since… NO!
I dropped his hand like hot lava. I couldn’t do this.
After the girls told me they were taking the nannies to meet the kids, they made a quick exit. Will was the last to leave.
I couldn’t help but notice his slim figure. He wasn’t tiny by any means, but compared to my stature, he was. He was small and lean with an ass you didn’t see on most men. Involuntary thoughts invaded my mind of what it would be like to have him in my arms. Against my will, my cock grew in my pants.
Right before he walked out the door, he turned to me. Whatever he saw caused his eyes to widen before he quickened his steps. I stood there, not understanding what the hell had just happened. A part of me didn’t want to get into it. I just wanted to forget.
Locking up the cave, I went in search of a club bunny. Any one of them would do. They would be just the distraction I needed. As long as I avoided the nanny.