We hung up, and I used the rest of my time as I normally did.
First, I tried my parents’ last known phone numbers.
Again.
I checked my messages, to see if anyone I had reached out to in those first few days when I’d been asking about them had replied.
Not a one.
Then I went to the news sites, just to keep up on how much the world was passing me by.
And yet, all I saw were the same dumb articles about the city council weighing whether or not to increase the blood tithe of non-cits, the introduction of a new early morning bus route, an arrest of two witches caught selling bruum, Sigil releasing a new album…
Why did it feel like everything and nothing had changed all at the same time?
* * *
One week later
I knew I couldn’t rush Accalia, especially since she was probably really busy as both a new mom and a Premier’s wife, but it was getting harder and harder to act neutral around Victor.
At least before I could pretend to be pleasant and accommodating. Now, his touch reviled me, and he becameenraged when I could no longer orgasm.
Even his alpha bark, commanding me to come, failed to force it out of me, and he’d been sleeping on the couch.
For a few days in a row, about an hour or two after Victor left in the evening, someone would come by to take more of my blood, and I began to panic that he was planning on punishing me again.
I may have had my phone as a connection to the outside world now, but I worried he would scrutinize the security footage more closely than ever, entertained by my slow unraveling without him. Proof in his mind that no matter how much I fought, I needed him.
When he arrived that morning, I was already sobbing, down on my knees and begging at the front door for him not to leave me. That I’d be good.
“Please,” I whimpered.
With a heavy sigh, he got down on the floor next to me, gathering me in his arms. “Sage, darling, I know things have been… off, recently. But I’m not leaving because I want to. There’s a Premiers’ Summit coming up in Halcyon in a few days. I shouldn’t be gone long, but I’m taking some extra blood as a precaution, in case I get held up. It shouldn’t be more than a week, though.”
I released a shuddering breath of relief, and he chuckled as he held me. “Poor little omega. I promise I’ll never leave you like that again. Can’t have you breaking on me, can I?”
He gathered me in his arms and made his way to the bedroom. “Come, let’s make sure we make a few good memories to tide you over until my return.”
* * *
Five days later
Victor was gone, busy with meetings and likely had little free time to check his security footage closely enough to notice the loops, so I still had my hour of phone time. That made a huge difference, at least, and while I was lonely, my skin didn’t crawl in his absence as much as it did before.
That night, while checking the news, I received a message from Accalia.
Extraction in fifteen minutes. Wait in the bedroom.
My whole body froze, and I forced myself to read the message again just to be sure it was real and not a figment of my fevered imagination.
Finally, I snapped to and ran into the bedroom. All those “date night” dresses were long gone, so I still had no clothes that weren’t sexy negligees. I found the longest one with the opaquest fabric, and then gathered Ember, wrapping him in a blanket to make him easier to carry.
There was no way I was leaving him behind.
My hands were slick with sweat, and I struggled to contain the wriggling cat in my arms when the front door opened, and I held my breath.
“Housekeeping!” a voice called.
