“It’s different here.”
I wanted to huff at the words, but kept it under control.
Yeah, it was different here. Alpha Harris wasn’t rude or commanding, yet. But it wasn’t even the first twenty-four hours with me in his care. There was plenty of time for him to destroy me.
Well, there wasn’t much left of me to be destroyed.
Adrian’s hands moved, stacking sandwiches like it was a ritual. I watched him, the way he always made the corners line up, like symmetry could protect us. It was a practiced move that we learned together through our schooling, yet he always made it look ten times better than myself.
“You remember the linen closet?” he asked suddenly, voice soft.
I blinked. “Which time?” I remembered a lot of times, both good and bad.
He smiled, just barely. “The time we hid there during inspection.”
I did remember. The hallway had smelled like bleach and fear. The Betas were stomping through rooms, checking drawers and perfection of rooms. Adrian had grabbed my wrist and pulled me into the closet, wedging us between folded sheets and oldtowels. We were fifteen, and oftentimes trouble found us when we least expected it.
“You were shaking.”
“I thought they’d find us.”
“They didn’t,” he said. “We stayed there for hours. You fell asleep on my shoulder.”
I looked down at the sandwich in my hands. “It was warm.”
“It was quiet,” Adrian said. “No rules. No eyes. Just us.”
I nodded. That closet had felt like a secret. “You hummed something,” I recalled. “I didn’t know the tune.”
“I made it up,” he shrugged, like it hadn’t been a big of a deal. But to me, it meant more than anything I ever could of thought. “For you.”
Growing up at Lockswell’s, there were few things I wanted to remember; few things that mattered to lock away in my memories. The times with Adrian were all I ever wanted to never forget.
He had been the one thing that made my days worth living. His lightness, his hopefulness, gave me just a bit of a boost to keep my head above water.
When one day, I woke up and Adrian wasn’t at breakfast, I knew. I knew he had been taken off the property and wouldn’t return. Living at Lockswells’ wasn’t great after that. Not that it was all that cracked up to be to begin with.
“I don’t miss it,” Adrian mumbled, wiping the counter of crumbs after placing the sandwiches on a plate. Two on each plate.
Maybe I wasn’t allowed dinner, since I had yet to service my Alpha. Omegas didn’t get rewards without first doing something to earn it. And I had yet to do a single thing to prove my worth, my time, towards the Alpha who wanted me for the time being.
My stomach grumbled, asking for food that it wouldn’t receive. It wouldn’t be the first, nor would it be the last.
“You’ll see. It’s better on the outside.”
I dropped my eyes, away from the food. He could say that about himself, but I knew better. I knew that it was just as bad, if not worse, to be outside of the prison gates that contained Omegas rather than out here. I knew the power that Alphas held, where there were less rules they had to follow.
It was only a matter of time before my entire body was black and blue. And who knows, it was likely that the two Alphas in the other room were talking about just that.
“I wish you’d believe me, but I understand why you can’t.” Adrian shot me a sad smile, one that was filled with not just sadness and understanding, but also knowledge of what he’d himself been through.
“All Alphas aren’t the same,” I said, voice low but steady. He had to know that. He’d been marked by clients’, ones who ignored the rules, who carved their cruelty into him like it was owed.
“Some of us aren’t the monsters you were conditioned to fear.”
I flinched, turning sharply. My hip slammed into the counter’s edge, the jolt grounding me in the moment.Alpha Harris stood there, gaze unreadable, like he was waiting to see which version of him I’d choose to believe.
“You think I don’t know what they did to you?” he asked. “What they made you believe?”
