“Wild, like sexually?” Tibby sounded almost hopeful.
I snorted, “No, not even a little bit. Their head alpha seems to have a bone to pick with all omegas and I just so happen to be an easy target.”
“Aw, damn. I was hoping they wined and dined your ass and you did the horizontal tango with them. Did you at least put that alphahole in his place?”
“With a labeled table setting and everything.” I joked and turned to reach for my toes. “I don’t know how I’m going to survive eight months of this Tibby.”
“With your tits forward and a can-do attitude Eloise Taylor. You are lovable as hell even if you can be a bit prickly with people you aren’t comfortable with. At the very least you can be friends with them.” Tibby sounded more like a mother than a friend—which was ironic because as far as I could tell neither of us had very good motherly role models.
“Alright, I’ll try my best.”
“Damn straight you will. Call me with any updates you have—don’t leave me out of the loop. Love ya.”
“I love you too Tibs, I miss you.” We hung up and I paused the music that had begun as soon as I ended the phone call. I was no longer in the mood for dancing even though I had yet to even break a sweat. I made a note to ask Owen if there was a treadmill in the house I could use—even if I didn’t feel like dancing I’d always feel like running.
I changed out of my leotard and slipped into the shower and scrubbed down with the unscented body wash and shampoo. Afterwards I sat on the edge of the tub in my towel and scrolled on my phone. On the non-school wifi I felt more comfortable with my google searches, though I had no doubt that Owen could see it all anyways. But they didn’t know why I was searching for the name that I was:
Lincoln Vendrick.
As always, when I googled the name the only thing that came up was a deactivated facebook page and an old address. I only allowed myself to do this once in a while—look up his name.
I’m not even sure what I’m hoping will happen. A phone number miraculously popping up on the first page? An address that I can access and find him?
“I’ll come find you Ellie, I promise.”
His promise seemed to float around me and I could almost smell his citrusy scent and see his green eyes. He would no doubt look older now—he was only thirteen the last time I had seen him after all. I wondered idly if he had grown into his lanky limbs or whether or not his blond hair was short or long now. Leaning back against the rapidly cooling tile of the shower wall I closed my eyes and let myself return back to when I was eleven years old—to the day that I was taken away.
Eloise, Age 11
“I don’twantto go mom.” I protested from my place on the couch as men walked in and out of my bedroom with small boxes which were full of my possessions. My mother leaned against one of the walls, a lit cigarette in between her lips as she watched the men load up one of the black SUVs that had pulled in front of our trailer only twenty minutes ago. My mother had been acting weird all morning, not letting me out of her sight and hadn’t even drunk her morning cup of spiked coffee to get her morning started. I had wanted to go play at the creek with Link since summer had just begun but she had told me that it wasn’t possible.
They had been acting weird for the past week—weirder than normal. My father was out of the house most of the time and had bought a new truck, though with what money I couldn’t say since neither of my parents could hold down a steady job. Link’s theory was that one of our relatives that I didn’t know died and we’d inherited some money. But now I was quickly realizing why my parents had gotten money. I had perfumed at the end of the school year and my designation as an omega had been the only thing anyone in our tiny town in the farmlands of Northern California could talk about. The last omega that had presented here had gone on to marry a state senator. My mother had been preening to all of her friends for the past month about it.
I didn’t feel any different than I had before. Link told me that my smell was just stronger now and it wasn’t like there were any alphas in our town other than the mated owner of the orchards where most people worked. His omega wife had treated me like some kind of an interloper when we’d run into her at the grocery store the week after I’d perfumed. It was apparently a territorial thing but to my eleven year old mind it just seemed kinda stupid.
Other than that nothing had changed—at least until last week.
“I don’t want to go.” I repeated myself again, stomping a foot on the crumb filled brown carpet that had been the same for as long as I could remember. No matter how many times you vacuumed there would always be more crumbs and dirt. We rarely bothered.
“It will be better for you Eloise. To be taken care of by them at the Omega Academy.” My mother took a long drag of her cigarette, the end glowing a bright red, before exhaling a cloud of gray smoke that made one of the men carrying a box out of my room cough.
“It’s better for me to stay here with you.” I didn’t really care for my mother since, at the best of times, she was an absent presence in my life. At the worst she liked to use her hands to get her way. But this wasn’t about her. I couldn’t leave Link.
My mother called my bluff immediately with a snort, “No one likes a liar, Eloise.”
One of the men poked their heads into the open doorway of the trailer, “It’s time ma’am.”
Panic filled my gut. I didn’t want to go with them. I wouldn’t go with them. Turning around I threw the window open behind me and vaulted out of it. It was a short drop to the ground but I still managed to scrape my knees. I couldn’t stop and look at them so I stood and took off away from the trailer, followed by shouts from my mother and the men. I ignored them and ran as fast as my legs would take me, the long weeds and grasses catching at my bare legs as I ran to the one place I knew they wouldn’t look: the creek.
By the time I made it to the creek my lungs were burning and I was covered in a sheen of sweat. I plopped down in the dirt on the creek bank and put my face in my hands. I don’t know how long I sat there for but eventually I heard the rustle and crunch of grass under someone’s foot.
“Ellie?” A familiar voice came from behind me and when I looked up Link was standing at the top of the creek bank. Lincoln Vendrick had been my best friend for as long as I could remember. He moved into the trailer next to ours with his mom and step-dad when I was only five and he was eight. He and I usually spent the entire day away from our respective trailers, avoiding the adults. He was my person—a term that I’d become attached to after watching an episode ofGrey’s Anatomyon the TV. Even when he’d gone to high school this past year he still made time for me.
Link skittered down the steep incline before landing next to me, crouching and taking my appearance in: bloodied, scraped knees, scratches and tear streaked face.
“I saw the cars outside. They're looking for you, you know.” Link said quietly as he took a seat next to me.
“I don’t care.” I wiped at my face and stared into the lazily running creek, “I hate being a stupid omega and getting sent to a stupid school. They sold me.”
