A few hours later, I’m still awake, unable to sleep, when Silva crawls into my bed.
“You awake?”
“Yeah,” I sigh, rolling onto my back. “Is it really over?”
“I don’t know,” Silva says. “I don’t trust people like that, but it’s possible. Gideon might have had power over us, but he’s not invincible. He’s not a big, powerful man the world fears. He’s just a rich man who is sick and fucked up, running an operation to match. He’s small enough to fear losing everything he has, but big enough to send people after us if his secrets get into the wrong hands. We hold power over him now, and he knows that. As long as we have that leverage, he will leave us alone.”
“But the other girls,” I whisper, closing my eyes as tears start to flow.
“I know,” she whispers, pain in her own voice. “We can’t save everyone, Lexi. We learned the hard way that the world doesn’t care about us. We need to fight for ourselves.”
I know she’s right, but it doesn’t hurt any less.
I need to focus on the fact that we’re free. After three years of being groomed to be sold, we have control over our own lives again.
It might not be much, but I’d take living in the middle of nowhere, away from society, in this small, run-down ghost town, over being sold.
If Gideon had his way, we’d have had a nice house, nice clothes, and everything we probably could ever want.
What we wouldn't have is our freedom or any control over our bodies and how we use them. Nothing in the world is worth having our control stripped from us.
My body. My choice. Never again.
Chapter 3
Emmett
Five years later
“Angel, you’re up,” my boss, Rico, barks from the doorway to the dressing room. If you can even call a closet-sized nook with a broken mirror and chipped end-table a dressing room.
“I’m coming,” I grunt, dread filling me like it does every time I have to work.
I fucking hate this job. But it’s the only thing I could find that pays enough to cover the bills. Believe it or not, there aren’t a lot of jobs out there for a male Omega who’s a high school dropout.
You know what is in high demand, though? Omegas who are willing to strip on stage and fuck people for money. Both of which I’m good at, unfortunately.
Taking one last look in the mirror, I shake my head. The glitter lining my cheeks catches the light and makes my lip peel back in disgust.
I have nothing against sex workers. What we do is hard and valid work.
It’sthisplace, this sick, fucked up dive bar that is run by a monster with no morals.
Rico doesn’t give a fuck about what happens in this place as long as he gets money from the customers.
My blond hair has grown out enough that it curls at the ends, giving it more of a wavy look. The men love being able to grab it. It’s fucking sick.
The shimmery highlighter on my cheeks makes my blue eyes pop, adding to the look Rico wants me to have.
Sweet and feminine.
I’m not a twink, there’s enough men here who are. So why the fuck do I have to change who I am to please this fucker?
Just because I’m a pretty boy?
I used to work out religiously in the group home growing up. It was the only way to get away from my shitty foster parents. It gave me power, made me stronger.
Then it all went away when I woke up shortly after my eighteenth birthday. I was surprised to find out I wasn’t an Alpha like I expected, but an Omega.
