“Go have a seat in the living room, sweetheart. Make yourself comfortable.”
Kasey was up and out of the chair before I even finished. Thankfully, as I turned to watch him walk away, he fixed the shirt on his shoulder, hiding his marked skin from me.
I made a mental note to order some proper clothes for the Omega. And Shoes, since he came here with none in my haste to get him out of that hell hole.
It didn’t take long to finish cleaning up the already tided kitchen, so I joined Kasey in the living room.
He sat on the floor, legs folded up against his chest, back towards the chair he had sat in yesterday.
At least he remembered no kneeling;I thought as I took a seat on the couch.
Ignoring Kasey’s placement of choice, figuring it wasn’t worth correcting at this time, I pulled out the notebook and pen I had put on the side table late last night after he’d gone to bed.
“So…we need go over a few things. Nothing is bad. Just...expectations. So, you don’t have to guess.”
Kasey’s shoulders tightened, but he nodded.
I softened my tone even more. “These aren’t rules to control you. They’re just to make sure you feel safe here. And so, I don’t accidentally made things harder for you.”
Kasey blinked, glancing up at me before dropping his gaze again.
I continued, slow, and careful. “I’ve written a few down already, which I’ll give you this notebook when we are done so you can always have them to look back on. You can also use this as a way to add other rules that you want to apply, and I’ll be more than happy to take a look at them.”
Another barely their nod.
“First, which you already know, no kneeling. I don’t like Omegas kneeling for me. Second, you don’t need permission to eat, sleep, or shower. You live here…treat it as your home. Third, you don’t have to cook for me. If you want, it's great. If not, that’s fine, too. Third,” I paused, running a hand through my hair before writing it down as I spoke the words. “Clothes. Please wear them.”
“Yes, Sir.” It was spoken just loud enough for me to hear.
“Good. Next one,” I couldn’t help but look at the Omega who seemed very fascinated with the floor beneath his toes. “I will never ever expect any form of sex from you. I don’t want that type ofservicefrom you. And I don’t see you that way.”
Icouldgive him orders. That was the part that twisted my chest. He was trained, conditioned, to follow whatever someonelike me told him to do. If I wanted him to act in a certain way, he’d do it without hesitation.
But that wasn’t what I wanted. Not even close.
I wantedKasey.The real one. The boy I’d grown up with. The person I’d lost and somehow got back.
Not a trained shell. Not someone performing obedience because he thought he had to.
My Kasey.
I didn’t need sex to survive, nor did I necessarily want it.
“Okay, Sir,” he murmured, and the moment the word left his mouth, his whole body seemed to loosen. Like the weight he’d been carrying all morning, finally slid off his shoulders.
I swallowed hard. We’d have to work on that word later.
“There might be other things that come up,” I said, rubbing a hand over my face. “We’ll write them down when they do.” Honestly, it was too early for my brain to come up with a full list. “Do you have any questions so far?”
He hesitated. His fingers twisted in the hem of the shirt he wore, causing it to fall off his other shoulder now. And I could see the handprint shaped bruise from someone having held him too tight.
“What…what am I supposed to do for you, then? How am I meant to…. serve you?” The question was asked in a soft voice; I almost missed it.
The question hit me like a punch, and it told me how much work we had ahead of us.
I didn’t answer right away. Not because I didn’t know what to say, but because the question hit me in a place I wasn’t prepared for.Serve you.The words were too small, too heavy, too wrong for what I wanted from this Omega.
I leaned forward, elbows on my knees as I grounded myself before speaking.
