“He’s right,” Josh says, letting his arm drop to his side as he glares down at me. I back away, eyes on the floor. “Nothing to say for yourself?”
“I’m sorry, alpha.”
He scoffs. “I don’t think you are. Not yet.”
Then he snatches my lamb out of my arms. I whimper and reach for it without thinking, biting back the desperate cry that wants to escape my lips.
“Pathetic,” he sneers, holding the lamb out of my reach. “Get upstairs, you’re sleeping in the nest tonight.”
Without my stuffie? I refuse to let any hint of tears show, as I’ve learned that only eggs him on. My insides feel hollow asI make my way up the stairs to my least favorite room in the house.
Josh is spitting vitriol behind me, words I try to tune out. “So fucking lazy. Sitting in your room all day. Useless omega.”
The door locks behind me and I wrap my arms around myself. The space is filled with the scents of them. Josh and Steve, and a mixture of alphas I don’t know the names or faces of.
I want my scent-matches. A sob catches in my chest when I think of them.
The hurt takes me to my knees and I curl into myself, hugging my empty stomach and trying to fall asleep to memories of today. The best day of my life.
Time passes in jumps and spurts. Stretches of nothing, followed by hours of desperate hope and fear that the door will unlock. I survive on nest snacks and water from the mini fridge. It’s meant for my heat, and they likely won’t restock it before the next one, but I can’t help myself.
I need to eat.
I also can’t stop thinking about Brooks. I apologize to him over and over in my head, begging him to forgive me for ignoring him, hoping against hope that he’ll give me a second chance when I get out of here.
And above it all, I don’t even have my lamb stuffie to hug.
Two days later, the sound I’ve been waiting for hits my ears, jarring me out of my dissociative state. I blink to find I was staring at the white wall, and I jump up when the door unlocks.
It doesn’t open, though.
I stare at it, unsure if I really heard it unlock. Unsure if it’s a trick. A trap.
Am I allowed to leave?
I stand and twist the knob, and the door clicks open. I peer into the hallway, but don’t see anyone, so I open it further and tiptoe out, aiming for my bedroom.
“Omega.”
I flinch, a full-body cringe as I drop my eyes to the floor and turn to face Steve.
“Dinner. Mushroom risotto.”
I nod, stumbling on weak legs down the stairs and into the kitchen. Of course they would want something that takes over an hour to make. Steve leaves me to it, but Josh is in the kitchen when I walk in.
I’m desperate to go to my room and check my phone, to apologize and plead for Brooks’ forgiveness, but there’s no getting out of doing this first with Josh hovering over me.
He sits at the kitchen table, watching as I ladle every scoop of broth, carefully clean and chop every mushroom, until finally it’s done. I stand silently next to the table, hands clasped behind my back and head bowed as they eat.
My legs tremble and I lock my knees to stay upright.
When they’re done, Steve scoops a few spoonfuls into his bowl and shoves it across the table toward me.
“Eat, then clean up and go to your room.”
I nod, waiting to sit until they’ve left, then I inhale the food, clean the kitchen as fast as I can, and nearly sprint to my room. I drop to the floor by my bed and reach beneath the mattress.
My hands shake as I open the phone, and I can’t make sense of what I’m seeing. There are so many unread messages that I have to scroll back a few times to read them all.
