“Is it like a country club?” I asked, confused. Lots of men during my time were a part of the country club in Brookline. Nicky was a member and told me it was just a bunch of men who sat around drinking and smoking while they complained about everything.
That earned another snort from Legs followed by the sound of someone being smacked.
Wren popped into my line of vision, her warm brown eyes smiling as she spoke to me directly. “No, sweetheart, it’s definitelynotlike a country club. In fact, if you see anyone roll up on motorcycles that aren’t the pack’s or ours, you need to find a place to hide, okay? This house has lots of nooks and crannies that you should be able to fit into, do you understand?”
I nodded, though I didn’t fully understand the severity of her words. She looked a bit… haunted.
With one last tug, my dress finally fell away from my body and pooled at my feet. I stood shivering in my chemise and corset while the women let out little gasps as they saw the corset for the first time.
“Oh god, this thing must have been so uncomfortable,” Legs muttered and I felt her start to pull on the stays of the corset.
“I am so glad I was born in the twenty-first century,” Taz muttered as they finally got the corset loosened. There were red splotches on my chemise where the corset had rubbed me raw and bloody and I winced as they pulled the white material away from my skin.
Legs cursed under her breath. “Wrenny, can you go and get some Neosporin and the biggest band aids you can find?”
The other beta left the room without further question. Taz and Legs helped to pull my chemise off, revealing patches of angry skin on my ribs and sides.
“Ouch,” Legs hissed as she examined the wounds. It was strange to stand nearly naked in front of women that I’d just met, but they seemed to be cognizant of my discomfort because Taz helped me pull a soft shirt that smelled like cinnamon over my head. It was massive, coming down half past my thighs and settled just above my knees.
The door opened again and Wren breezed inside, carrying a white tube and a roll of gauze in her hands. She looked a little harried as she shut the door firmly behind her and turned to face us.
“There is a very upset omega outside. Podcast caught me rifling through the first aid kit and I didn’t know how to explain that her corset had hurt her, so I just grabbed what I needed and ran,” Wren explained as she handed the gauze to Taz and began to squeeze white cream from the tube. I lifted the shirt as they gently rubbed it onto the patches of wounded skin.
It hurt at first, and I couldn’t contain the surprised yelp that slipped out of my throat. The betas began to whisper soothingly to me, telling me that they were almost done and that I was doing a good job.
Someone began to pound on the door.
“Podcast, she’s okay,” Legs called to him as they worked to wind the gauze around my torso.
Something chimed causing Legs to sigh and pull her cell phone out of her back pocket. She read whatever was on the screen and rolled her eyes. I had realized last night that they could send messages back and forth with their cell phones instantaneously. It was fascinating to me, but I also had no idea how it worked.
Legs shot a glare over her shoulder at the closed door. “She’s not dressed yet. May I remind you, she’s from 1915. Even if she doesn’t mind your presence, that doesn’t mean she wants you to see her naked.”
Heat flared in my cheeks at the mention of Podcast seeing my body. Ishouldhave agreed with Legs’ words about being nude in front of a man, but I didn’t care if he saw. I sort-of wanted him to see me, I realized with a jolt.
Omegas weren’t supposed to feel drawn to one another. All I ever felt in 1915 had been camaraderie and empathy for the ones who were in bondings that they hated. I’d never paid them any attention otherwise.
But ever since I met Podcast, I found my thoughts constantly returning to the green-eyed omega. He should have felt threatened by my presence in the house. Bonded omegas didn’t like unbonded ones traipsing around their private space. Instead, Podcast was soft and friendly. Then there was his scent. It was more enticing than any alpha I had been near in the past. I wanted to open the door and pull him into my space, filling it with his clean eucalyptus scent.
But he wasn’t and couldn’t be mine. He was bonded to a group of alphas that didn’t want me here and he was another omega.
It figured that the first man I was wholly attracted to would be another omega. Timothy would have been in fits of laughter if he ever found out.
There was one more knock and another chime. Legs read the message on her phone with a frown. “We will bring her downstairs to eat when she’s ready, don’t forget that Rex bit her head off when she tried to get food earlier this morning.”
Legs’ words were met with silence, and then the sound of retreating footsteps.
“How do you know about that?” I asked as they helped me step into a pair of too-large trousers that were made of a softer material than the blue denim that they were wearing.
“Because we’re like mothers to those boys downstairs. I could sniff Rex being an asshole to you from a mile away, and bless his heart, he isn’t a very good liar. I had the information about your little fight in the kitchen out of him in three seconds flat,” Legs answered with a smirk on her face.
I felt my face warm at her words. My mother would have reprimanded me for calling Rex a cad. Not because he wasn’t being one, but because she was always afraid I would say something to the wrong alpha and end up at the receiving end of an alpha’s rage.
“I should apologize to him…” I worried my lower lip with my teeth, feeling suddenly nervous.
Taz wheeled me around so I was looking into her eyes. “Why the hell would you do that?”
“Because I called him a cad,” I replied, whispering the word as if they would yell at me for using such coarse language.
