Of course, he didn’t. I wasn’t a person then. Just a booking. A body. A time slot.
But I remembered the scent and the silence. I recalled the way he never looked at me as though he wanted to change the way things were.
“You wore cedar,” I added. “Artificial. It clung to the sheets.”
He blinked at his hesitation, like he wasn’t sure he wanted to remember that time, or if he was hiding the fact that he took something that I hadn’t wanted to give up.
“That was years ago.” Two years, actually. But who was counting?
I nodded. “It was.”
He looked at me differently now. Like I’d shifted shape.
“That makes sense on why you pointed him out of the ones that were available,” Alpha Harris spoke, his voice detached.
“That wasn’t…” Moore took a deep breath. I hadn’t ever called him that, but that’s what the Omega beside him called him. “I didn’t pick him. Adrian was the one to point the Omega out.”
Alpha Harris didn’t move at first. Not even a breath. Just that stillness he wore like armor.
Then, slowly, he leaned forward. Elbows on knees. Hands clasped. I felt his movement more than saw it, as my eyes finally dropped back to where they belonged.
“You wanted someone to match your needs, Sir, Vincent.” The Omega was quick to say, not scared of speaking up with two Alphas in the room. “Charlie is capable of that. He’s…a good match for you.” There was more there that was left unspoken. Secrets that we once shared in the safe corners of the garden.
The Alpha simply hummed, as though he could argue against those words but chose not to. Then, a moment later, a hand was in my hair, forcing my head up.
I kept my gaze down, my breath getting stuck in my throat. The grip on my strands wasn’t tight, but it was strong enough to remind me that he had the power to control my entire being.
“I think there’s an Omega in this room that tried to play a trick on me.”
Adrian wasn’t like me. Even before we were split apart, he wasn’t one to keep his thoughts to himself. No matter how often he was punished, no matter how oftenhe was stripped of his freedoms, he never did learn not to speak when not spoken to.
I knew now just as I had then. I wasn’t going to stick up for him. It was better to let him swim in his own pool of misery than for me to join him. Even if a part of me wanted to save him from whatever was going to come from both of these Alphas.
“Adrian is right, Vince. This Omega’s list of talents falls right into what you’re looking for.”
“I bet any of them would have.” The words were muttered and not for anyone to reply to. But he was right.
Each Omega was trained from the moment they arrived at Lockswell Boarding to behave in a certain way. Some were trained a little differently depending on their personalities, but essentially, we were all trained to serve and to be what a client wanted.
I wasn’t sure what I was listed as, or what mytalentswere. I didn’t dare ask. All that mattered was that I was usable to others.
“Charlie likes what you’d like. He said so.” Again, Adrian and his words.
I didn’t respond, but Vincent did. His grip tightened just enough to remind me that he controlled me. My neck stretched tight, holding my body as tight but flexible as it needed to be.
“You…won’t harm him, right?” Finally, Adrian seemed to understand that I wasn’t like him. He understood that I wasn’t claimed or cared for.
I was bought, rented, and would be used. He couldn’t care if I was hurt. Because in the end, I would be.
I’d be torn into pieces, more than I already was. The pieces wouldn’t go back together, either. I already knew that.
I’d leave this place even more of a shell of who I was than I arrived.
“I’m pretty sure that your view of hurt and mine are on different levels,boy.” With those words, Vincent let go of my hair as if I were something he wanted nothing to do with once again.
I didn’t respond to the words. Not to the weight behind them. I simply settled back into my greeting pose with a lowered gaze. Not in submission. Not in agreement.
Just… away. My shoulders curled inward, spine straight but hollow. The silence returned, thick and familiar.
