Prologue
Federal Correctional Institution
Morgantown, West Virginia
The dull rattle of plastic food trays clattering against metal tables provided a familiar soundtrack to the morning. With breakfast offering granola and fresh fruit before a morning shift scheduled in the prison library, Otto had high hopes of a low-stress morning as long as they – andtheyreferred to the combined occupants of cellblocks J through L that were currently shoveling their breakfast in- could make it through the thirty-minute meal period without any altercations.
When the room suddenly fell silent, Otto groaned and dropped his spoon back into the bowl, scanning the room for the disruption. A turf beef was ruled out as all of the usual suspects were still crowded around their respective tables, but that almost would have been better than the sight drawing every eye in the place. Cowering between two guards standing inside the entrance to the cafeteria was a boy who didn’t look old enough to be out of school, much less in an adult prison. He was slight of stature and waif-thin with shimmering black hair and wide, frightened blue eyes. If the air of terrified innocence wasn’t already catnip to the room full of incarcerated Alphas, the kid was a fucking Omega. There was no way they’d brought him to the right place.
Even as Otto was preparing to speak up, the guard on the left shoved the boy’s shoulder and sent him stumbling into the room.
“Show’im the ropes, boys,” the other guard cackled with a smirk, turning to follow his partner out the locked gate that served as a door.
“No good gonna come from this,” the man across the table commented to Otto as Alphas advanced from all sides, forming a ring around the newcomer. “That kid needs a protector, Fafo.”
“I’m on it,” Otto sighed, rubbing his fist over his forehead. “And stop calling me that, Wade.”
At the front of the room, the Alphas were toying with their prey, catcalling him in one breath and then shouting insults and threats at the others in the next. The circle slowly closed in, sending the frightened boy skittering from one side to the other to keep from being grabbed.
Shoving to his feet, Otto lumbered over to the ring where the other Alphas grudgingly parted at his grunt. Every animal in the room may have wanted a shot at the promise of fresh meat, but not one of them was dumb enough to take on the scariest Alpha in the joint which, luckily, was exactly who Otto was.
Wordlessly, Otto strode to the center of the ring and swept the kid up with one arm, tossing the boy’s slight weight over his shoulder before returning to his seat at the table and settling the kid on his lap. Anchoring the boy in place with the arm he’d lifted him in, Otto reached for his spoon with the other. Omega in need of help or not, granola was a rare treat and there’d be plenty of time to figure out what the hell was going onafterOtto finished eating.
Chapter One
Mitchel
I was in shock.
I had to be. That was the only explanation for why I accepted the banana that suddenly appeared at my nose. And for why when the massive man growledeatin my ear, I obediently began peeling it. I knew he was an Alpha – as far as I could tell, every man in the room was – but somehow he seemed like a safe, comforting island in a sea of aggression and hostile intentions. His pheromones, again, clearly Alpha, were soothing and comforting. Did I already say comforting? I guess I can’t overstate it since the next thing I knew I was being jostled awake, my half-eaten banana still clutched in my hand.
“Gotta leave it,” he muttered in my ear, gently prying the fruit from my grip and replacing it with an intact orange. “Can’t take anything out of mess other than a new piece of fruit. This should tide you over.”
I nodded, unable to voice any of the questions rattling around in my mind and pretty sure I couldn’t have been heard over the background din, anyway. All the prisoners stood abruptly and formed a line at the locked gate. The man holding me stood also, tucking me to his chest like a child instead of allowing me to walk as he took a space in the line.
“Safer this way,” he murmured in my ear. “We’ll be able to talk in a few minutes.”
I nodded to show I’d heard him and felt my hair catch on his stubble.
Out in the hall, the line came to a stop and the two guards who’d manhandled me earlier reappeared, flanking the man holding me.
“Hand him over, Nilsen,” the taller guard, a dirty blond with a cruel smile and pock-marked skin snapped. “Playtime is over.”
“I don’t think so,” the man carrying me said politely.
The guard took a step toward us, his hand landed on the handle of the baton on his belt but froze when a faint growl sounded.
“Mine.”
The guards exchanged a look and then to my amazement, backed off a few steps. The other guard, a smaller man with a nasal voice spoke up. “We’ll have to tell the warden.”
I raised and lowered with the shrug of the big man’s shoulders as he began to walk away from them. “So, tell him. We’ll be in my cell.”
I knew I should be concerned -scared, even- with the massive Alpha staking a clear claim on me but you know that old saying about the lesser of the evils? I was pretty sure he was that, at least for me since everyone else in the place seemed scared to death of him.
I didn’t have long to consider it before I was carried into a six-foot by eight-foot cell and lowered to the mattress on the cot. I jumped when the door clanged shut behind us.
“That should give us a few minutes,” he murmured, lowering himself to sit beside me, “but we’re gonna need to talk fast and quietly. My name is Otto Nilsen and you are?”
