Chapter 21 #3
Anything they’ve given me has to go? They’ve disposed of everything I brought to this apartment ten years ago. I don’t have a single possession of my own.
My eyes drift to Nico’s jacket. Ian follows my gaze and scoffs derisively. He places both hands on the fabric and pulls.
“No!” I’m clamoring to my feet, but it’s too late.
The jagged rip forms with a brutal sound too harsh to have come from cloth. It tears viciously once, then again as Ian easily splits it a second time.
“Stop!” I shriek, reaching for his arms. That was Nico’s gift to me. It was mine. What am I going to tell him when I see him? If I ever see him. If my pack ever lets me out of this room again.
I don’t offer any more resistance than the fabric did. My feeble attempts to stop him only make him madder. Once the jacket has been turned into small tatters of cloth, he tosses it on the bed in disgust.
I fantasized about it once, adding Nico’s jacket to my nest, burrowing my face in the pistachio scent. This wasn’t what I had envisioned.
Sinking to my knees, I do my best to put the scraps together frantically. Something has to be salvageable. When I can’t piece the fabric together, I scoop it up and cradle it to my face instead.
I’m yanked off my knees by the collar of my shirt. Ian’s repulsed. It’s palpable in his scent and written across his face. I wince, bracing myself. I think he’s going to strike me.
I thought I had accepted who my alphas had become. Who I became. Now, faced with the force of his rage and revulsion, my omega instincts have regressed.
I’m no longer the apathetic twenty eight year-old, but the teen receiving her first punishment. The sensitive girl who can’t stand to see her alphas disappointed or go without their touch.
“Ian…” I whine, higher and more desperate. Both my hands reach up to cup his face. “Please.”
He doesn’t move. Whether he’s frozen by my whine or preoccupied searching for the change in my demeanor, I can’t tell. He stills regardless.
Then his grip tightens. “What did you say? Amy needs to get out and she’ll be replaced. She won’t have a pack.” He smiles darkly at me, without any humor or laughter. “I’ve changed my mind.”
Having listed off my crimes, the man serving as my judge, jury and executioner drags me by my shirt collar. Out of my bedroom, through the perfumed hallways and into the foyer. It’s all I can do to keep up with his long strides.
The two alphas and second omega follow behind us, but no one says a word or makes a move to stop him. Ian slams his hand into the elevator button savagely.
“New punishment. You can experience what you threatened Amy with. Go, be packless.” He barks the last sentence for good measure, sealing my fate.
“It’s the middle of the night.” I murmur. “It’s raining outside.” I wanted to leave, but the bond in my chest is screaming with pain now. It’s unbearable. If Ian wasn’t holding me up, I’m not sure I would be able to stay upright.
Ian doesn’t seem concerned with my pleading. I turn to face Cole instead. “Cole…”
He looks at me in a cold way I’m not used to. “Is it true? You’ve been out with other men?”
“She confirmed it under an alpha’s bark. How much more confirmation do you need?” Ian answers for me.
“All those days…I was watching your location. I thought I was keeping an eye on you. But the entire time, you were-” he shakes his head and doesn’t continue.
“The bark didn’t let me explain.” It’s too late. Cole’s turned his back to me and walked into the apartment again. Without my phone to contact anyone for help, the apple scented man turning away means my last hope is gone.
“Liam,” I look at him desperately. When he doesn’t respond, I even turn to Amy.
“Don’t look at her,” the sage scented alpha spits out.
He shields her away from me with his body. As if meeting my eyes might turn her to stone. There’s no time to protest as a familiar tune chimes behind me.
Ian smiles. “Elevator’s here.”
“Please don’t do this.”
“Do I have to use my bark on you again, sweetheart?”
“Please.”
When I don’t show any signs of moving, Ian’s smirk turns into a scowl momentarily. It turns out a bark is unnecessary though. He only needs to press the pads of his fingers into my stomach and push.
With his other hand, he presses the ground floor button while still holding me in place. It’s only once the elevator doors have mostly closed that he retracts his arm. In the gap, I see it quickly.
A smile flickers across Amy’s face before it returns to her saddened expression. It stuns me so badly I miss the opportunity to slide my foot into the space between the doors.
They close before me, sealing my fate.
Knowing something is coming and living through it are two different things. I steeled myself for the inevitability of losing my pack’s love after Amy’s heat. But not like this. Not this cruelly.
I stumble into the empty lobby. It’s so late even the receptionist isn’t here. Then I keep going, the tiles of the floor cold against my naked feet.
Ten years. A decade of being their perfect omega. And where did that get me?
Cast out into the rain without shoes or a jacket. I sink to my knees in the street.
I can’t find the will to get back up.