Elliott
The late spring weather wasn’t particularly hot, but the afternoon sun had been bearing down on me for hours while I hauled piles of the weeds I’d picked the day before to the large sheet of metal at the back of the barn; there, they would dry out for a few days until their roots and seeds were dead and I could take them to the compost pile.
I’d forgotten my hat and was going to be sunburned.
The others would be annoyed with me—I was always forgetting something.
When I told Gail that I never used to be that way, she said that my forgetfulness was a trauma response: when I shut my mind down to protect myself from memories I didn’t want to face, nothing had a chance to take root.
I enjoyed working in the garden so much that Laura had made it my main job on the ranch.
It was kind of therapeutic to work in the dirt and create living things out of seeds.
I weeded and watered and picked the vegetables and fruits when they ripened.
The only thing I didn’t like about the task was that it gave my mind time to wander.
When I mentioned that to Keane, he ordered me a pair of Bluetooth earphones so I could listen to music or senseless podcasts while I gardened.
Late morning, my back aching from stooping for so long, I decided to take a break.
Placing the garden fork that I used to dig up the worst of the weeds that I swore popped up overnight from the ground, I picked up a folded tarp nearby and trudged several yards to spread it under a big oak tree.
As I lay down on the soft, fragrant grass and closed my eyes, peace settled over me.
It was the best part of moving to the ranch, this calm I felt when alone and outdoors.
I could hear the breeze rustling the leaves overhead, the soft lowing of the cattle in a nearby pasture, and the melodious song of a meadowlark somewhere to my left.
It had rained recently, which is why I was using the tarp, and the musky scent of wet sagebrush hung in the air, along with the normal smell of livestock and manure.
Every so often, a stronger wind would carry the stinging aroma of pine and juniper to cut through those less pleasant smells, and I would take a deep breath of it before letting it out.
After a while, the invasive feeling of someone’s eyes on me disturbed my rest, and I tensed.
I opened my eyes to see the sun peeking through the leaves above my head with sections of blue sky visible when the wind shook the branches.
The feeling of being watched persisted. Slowly, I turn my head to the right, and there was Jet.
He stood, leaning against the fence near the barn, his dark hair lifting in the breeze and his gaze pinned on me.
A shiver ran up my spine, even as I remembered that he was assigned to me that day.
Which meant he’d been following me since my chores earlier that morning, and I hadn’t even realized it. He certainly was discreet.
Discreet? Or creepy?
Jet. As in jet black.
I used to have a neighbor who called his black motorcycle jet, and when I’d asked him what the word had to do with the color, he’d explained that jet was a type of black gemstone formed from fossilized wood.
After that, I’d asked my birth dad to take me to a crystal store where I’d bought a piece of it along with some tiger’s eye and carnelian.
I set them on my window sill so I could see how the sun glittered off them.
Home. After the rescue, when the SOS had offered to take me back there to pick up my things, I’d declined, and so had most of the others. Only Solomon and Zeke had chosen to go back and, judging from their demeanors in the following weeks, they probably regretted it.
Home to me after that was the long-term hospital and rehabilitation center run by the SOS, where I met Dr. Laura Turner and the therapists and was reunited with the six other omegas that the kidnappers had eventually separated me from.
We lived there for years until Laura announced that we were moving out West. Because Laura had been with us since our rescue, she was one of the few people I trusted and felt comfortable with.
If she had moved without us, I would have been upset.
Laura said that omegas appeared to bond quickly with one another.
I believed that because of how despondent I was when the kidnappers took me from the group and of how when the seven of us came to the ranch and met Ben, David, Trey, and later Jackson, we all immediately felt at ease with one another.
We also wanted to be together all the time.
That yearning had eased a bit over the nine months we’d been there, but I knew that if I had to be away from any of my omega friends for long, I would have a hard time.
Then how do you suppose you’re going to manage what you have planned?
I knew it was going to be tough. I would just have to keep reminding myself why I was doing it.
Lying under the tree, I forced myself to look at Jet.
His hair was so dark, it might have been how he’d gotten his name.
He wore faded blue jeans that hugged his long, muscular legs, a long-sleeved blue jersey that clung to his broad shoulders and chest, and scuffed work boots on his feet.
All the special ops alphas were built solidly.
According to Riku, they worked out like crazy, which was why he was always lifting weights and going for runs every morning, forcing whichever special ops alpha was watching him that day to take a run with him.
When Jet went back to working on something in the area by the barn, I figured that I’d rested long enough and got up.
A half an hour or so had gone by when I caught movement out of the corner of my eye and looked toward the ranch house. Brandon, the alpha who reminded me so much of Edge, stood at the bottom of the steps leading to the back deck.
Rationally, I knew this guy was not that alpha, but when I looked at him, the panic took over. Focusing hard on the peppers, I tried to keep the memories at bay, but one in particular persisted.
The kidnappers had introduced Edge to me as the guy who would be my worst nightmare if I didn’t cooperate. I’d avoided him as much as possible, but the apartment was only so big, and the locks had been taken off the doors.
The first time he cornered me was in the bathroom. I hated taking a shower, because not only was I naked and vulnerable, but I also couldn’t hear over the spray of the water. I washed as quickly as I could, but when I opened the curtain, there Edge was, leaning against the counter, waiting for me.
Before I could grab my towel, he had me up against the wall.
Smiling as though he enjoyed my fear, Edge said in his low, gravelly voice, “You’re so small. You might break when I fuck you.”
The scent of his pheromones filled the room, and I was terrified he was going into rut. His heavy breaths fell on my face as he scrutinized every inch of it.
“I hope you do.” A smile of pure evil split his face as he ran his hand up my side, sending rivulets of fear scurrying in every direction.
One of the kidnappers called to him from another part of the apartment, saving me from whatever he was going to do.
Before he let me go, he said, “I’m tired of waiting. The day you go into heat, I’ll be there, omega. And I’ll make you beg for it.”
I shook with fear. I was young—only fourteen—and he was a grown alpha. I dreaded my first heat because I knew my kidnappers would let him have me. If I didn’t cooperate, they’d let him have me sooner than that.
I’d stood in the bathroom frozen in fear, until one of the kidnappers came looking for me.
“Hey, it’s okay. It’s okay! You’re all right.”
A male voice broke through the terrifying scene, sending it spinning back into the vault of my memories where my mind clamped shut on it, locking it down tight.
Slowly, I came back to myself, feeling first the gritty dirt beneath my hands and then the sun on the back of my neck. Each breath I took came fast and shallow. Dizzy, I covered my face with my hands.
“That’s it. Breathe,” the soothing voice said. I should be scared because I wasn’t sure who it belonged to, but it wasn’t Edge’s voice, and that’s all I cared about at that moment.
As I gradually calmed, nearby sounds began to filter into my consciousness. Birds twittering above my head. The breeze rustling through the trees. Cows, pigs, chickens, goats—all making their various noises. The bugling of an elk in the distance.
“That’s it. You’re doing great,” the voice said, so gentle that I was no longer afraid. As I relaxed, I leaned back against something solid and fragrant, bright sunlight behind the screen of my closed lids, and floated…
A siren in the distance made me twitch violently and immediately sit up, my eyes flying open. Turning, I fixed my gaze on the owner of the soothing voice and fragrant smell—as well as the broad chest I’d been leaning against. Jet crouched next to me in the garden bed.
“Are you okay now?” he asked softly. “Brandon didn’t mean to scare you. He can be kind of intense, but he wouldn’t hurt you. I sent him over to the barn.”
I nodded dumbly, unable to believe I’d been so close to him without panicking. Remembering my allure, I quickly scrambled away from him. “Thank you for your help but y-you shouldn’t get so close to me.”
“I’m fine, don’t worry.”
“You say that, but—“
“I’ve been around omegas for years at the facility. I know my limits,” Jet reassured me.