And the worst part? Knowing it was exactly what these people here wanted.
They wanted to see me broken. See my soul shattered.
If I hadn’t been broken already, this surely would have killed me instead of just cracking me open a little bit more.
Chapter 5
Evander
I had been in the Client House building before, but never like this. Never with my pulse hammering in my throat. Never with the sick weight of dread twisting in my gut. Never with the knowledge that somewhere behind one of these identical doors was the boy I’d spent ten years searching for.
It had been a long three days on top of the ten years of searching, of hoping, of waiting.
Three extra days shouldn’t have been so taxing, but it had been twice as hard as those ten years.
The hallway was too quiet, too clean, and too controlled.
Every door looked the same. White, numbered, and sterile. A row of rooms disguised as luxury. A place where Omegas wererentedas if they were furniture instead of people.
I saw this place with a new set of eyes, knowing fully what went on behind those closed doors.
And I hated it.
I hated that I was here. Hated that Kasey was here. I hated that this was the only way to get close to the Omega without raising suspicion.
A handler walked ahead of me, keys jingling against his pocket with every step. Since I wasn’t a regular client, protocol said a Beta had to escort me through the halls and deliver me to the room personally.
Room twenty-seven.
He stopped at the door. “You have two hours.”
I nodded like it mattered. But I already knew two hours wasn’t the plan. I wasn’t leaving this building without that Omega. Not this time. Not after finding him again.
The Beta dipped his head before turning away, walking back the way we came.
Taking one last deep breath, I twisted the door handle and pushed it open on smooth hinges.
For a moment, I couldn’t breathe.
Kasey was on the floor, kneeling. Back straight, shoulders set, hands resting lightly on his thighs. Perfect posture. Perfect stillness. The kind of stillness that wasn’t natural. The kind that was trained, demanded, beaten into someone until it became instinct.
Nothing else in the room mattered; my eyes stayed glued to the Omega.
He was as naked as the day he was born. A splattering of bruises covered parts of his body that he didn’t bother to hide from me.
He didn’t look up when I entered. He didn’t flinch. He didn’t even seem to register the sound of the door closing.
He was there physically, small frame, bowed head, the familiar shape of him that I’d carried in my memory for a decade, but mentally? He wasn’t anywhere close to this room.
His eyes were open, but empty as I walked in front of him. His gaze was focused on something, but he saw nothing. Pupils dilated; the blue almost completely gone.
Kasey was a hallowed version of the boy I used to know.
My stomach twisted. I’d prepared myself a lot before coming here. Prepared for anger, shock, and maybe even fear. But not this. Not the sight of Kasey kneeling like he’d been carved out of obedience and silence.
Like his own thoughts had been washed from his mind.
I took a step forward, carefully, like approaching a wounded animal. “Kasey…”
