Keep the Omega as your own.
You’d win.
He’s only after money.
I stepped back from the wall, careful not to let my heel scuff the floor. The hallway felt colder now. Longer. Like the house had stretched itself around me, reminding me I didn’t belong.
I moved quietly, retracing my steps toward the guest room.
Not running.
Not panicked.
Just… gone.
I shut the door behind me without a sound, then leaned against it, heart pounding.
Alpha Harris hadn’t said yes. But he hadn’t said no either. And that space in between where I was wanted but not chosen, defended but not claimed was the most dangerous place of all.
I crawled back into bed, curling tight beneath the blanket. Not for warmth. For containment. Because if I let myself unravel now, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to put the pieces back together again.
And that space in between—where I was wanted but not chosen, defended but not claimed—was the most dangerous place of all.
It shouldn’t hurt so deep, but it did. It was crushing my soul even more than ever.
Alpha Harris really wasn’t any different than any other Alpha I’d met. He wanted my mind as much as my body, yet he didn’t truly want me that way, either.
I was an unwanted gift, and he played his part as much as I had to play mine.
Was the last three days all a lie? Was it just to play with my heart? A new way to break me?
If so, I was already broken. There was nothing left to me but my servitude. And even then, I saw no point in doing it any longer.
I wasn’t sure any amount of punishment, of retrainment, would change my lookout on my miserable life.
Born as an Omega, I’d die as one. Loveless, alone, and miserable.
Just as the Lockswell House wanted.
I don’t know how long I lay in bed, wallowing in my own thoughts and destiny. It couldn’t have been too long, since Alpha Harris didn’t come search for me . He didn’t come check on me.
He just let me be, and that was worse. Knowing he truly didn’t see me as anything but athingin his house that he had to care for for a short amount of time.
The sun didn’t change in the way it came through the window, shining brightly along the floor.
I jerked, bolting upright, as a ring sounded through the house. My heart sunk to my chest, knowing exactly who it was.
The brief thought of running, of hiding, was there. But where would I go? I’d be tracked, and there was no one to help me. I wouldn’t survive on my own.
Instead, I moved to sit at the edge of the bed, head bowed, and waited.
It only took minutes. Not nearly enough time to gather my thoughts, let alone silence them.
Then came the knock—soft, deliberate.
I didn’t move. Didn’t speak. Just stayed where I was. The door open. Still, I didn’t shift.
“Charles?” His voice was gentle, but the name felt sharp. Who else would he expect to find here?
