After scrubbing her teeth with her finger and rinsing with the minty mouthwash, Maria slunk out of the bathroom. Elena pretended not to notice, drizzling the vanilla and jasmine scented bubble bath into the running water. Not until the tub was more than half full did she bother turning the cold tap on.
A long soak was what she needed. The book would wait. As much as they were her escape from the reality she lived in, it became more and more difficult to get lost in the pages these days. There was too much going on, too much stress.
Leaving her clothes crumpled on the floor, Elena climbed into the large bath. Sucked a long breath between her teeth as the scalding water lapped at her calves and thighs before she sunk into the fizzing hiss of the bubbles. Settling against thetowel she draped over the long, angled back, she closed her eyes with a gusty sigh. Concentrating on each group of muscles, she tried to make them relax and soak up the blessed heat.
Thoughts of what was to come nagged at her, wriggling their way in to spread the inky darkness of fear and doubt through her. She had no idea who this Russian was, what he was like. He could be no different than the last man her father promised her to. Though hopefully not so old as his predecessor to be six feet under in a handful of years.
Elena scoffed, the caustic sound echoing off of the cold tiles. She’d had an all too brief reprieve from the expected niceties, and now she would be subjected to them all over again. This time she wasn’t a little girl to be guarded. Young, yes, but old enough that should this Alpha’s hands wander, it would simply speed things along.
Any dreams she might have had concerning her future were falling to ash in her very palms. The oily film of shattered hopes clinging to her skin no matter how she scrubbed.
Climbing from the bath as the water began to grow cold, Elena paused to look at her reflection. Smaller than most, even by Omega standards, she was pretty enough. Full hips and breasts, though her waist could be smaller. She lacked the thigh gap her few friends seemed so enamored with, but she’d also never dropped her cell in the toilet, so she considered that a win.
Would this Russian? The only ones she knew were pale, blond and blue eyed like the Vikings they showed on television. How would he feel about the olive cast of her skin, the deep russet of her wavy hair, and the cool hazel of her eyes?
Snorting at her own vanity, Elena grabbed a towel and wrapped it around her body before heading into her bedroom. Once clothed in comfy flannel pajamas, she climbed into bed and snuggled under the heavy duvet.
Valente hadn’t given her a timeframe, only that she’d beenpromised to this man. It could be a year or a month from now. Next week if it came down to it. A nervous energy stole through her at the thought, limbs twitching as her heart began to hammer at the back of her ribs. Pulling the covers tight to her chin, she looked out her windows at the waxing moon and shivered.
There were no guarantees on what this new life would bring her, but by the Gods, it was something different. For better or worse, she’d be free of this place, and that would be worth so very much.
It was a long time before Elena turned off the light, and longer still that she lay in bed trying to piece together some vision of her new future. Trying not to hope for too much.
TWO
ELENA
Two Weeks Later
Elena flattened her lips into a hard line and ducked her head as she approached the restaurant. The giggling flock of females twirling around the lone male were immediately recognized, and she wanted nothing more than to avoid their notice.
If it had been possible to cross the street to bypass them, she would have. Her father’s wretched Beta wife Linda wouldn’t have it though and clucked in angry hen fashion every time Elena tried to veer off the sidewalk.
“What is wrong with you, Elena,” Linda squawked when Elena came to a hard stop and veered around their guard, Jamie.
“Elena? Elena Costanzo?” Marjory Tyler’s voice was nails on chalkboard, her squealing laughter a pig just before slaughter. “We haven’t seen you in ages, darling!”
Elena stared hard at the grimy sidewalk, murmuring a greeting before taking Linda’s elbow and now trying to hurry her along.
“Oh, come now,” Rosa Milano said as she linked arms withMarjory to block Elena’s path. “What have you been up to, Elena?”
“Don’t be rude,” Linda hissed at Elena’s shoulder, forcing her to stop.
“There’s this awful rumor going around,” Stacy Pavia began in a loud stage whisper. Interrupting herself with a vicious curl of her lips and a twittering giggle, she leaned closer to finish, “that your father is giving you to another ancient old man!”
Elena’s face grew cold then hot, and she knew she was doing a horrible job of hiding the tremble of her hands by the way they all sneered and cackled, their cruelty knowing no bounds as they petted at her hair and shoulders as if in consolation.
“Leave her be.”
She knew that voice. Had hoped to avoid it for the rest of eternity. She’d once thought of him with fondness, though not a friend by any stretch. This world they lived in didn’t allow for such things. An ally, perhaps, a fellow soldier in this horrible reality. Someone who saw her as more than a commodity.
He’d ruined it all in a single moment, and it seemed he hadn’t changed at all in the intervening years.
Leon Marchetti was tall, broad. Beautiful in a cold, aloof way even with the lustrous bronze cast to his already rich olive skin. Despite the charming smile showing his perfectly white and even teeth, it didn’t reach the endless abyss of his deep chestnut eyes. Powerful beyond anyone else his age, he already controlled a territory, won by his own hands. He wasn’t just wealthy, by his own right or from his family’s name. He probably bled diamonds and solid gold bars.
He was everything a woman could want in an Alpha.
Elena hated him to the very depths of her soul and would never forget his betrayal.
