“Sorry,” Elena mumbled, swirling her fork through the slick pasta.
“You are to enter it when you leave and when you return. Do you understand me?” Leon set his silverware down with care, the chunk of steak left uneaten.
“The alarm wasn’t set. I didn’t think it mattered.” She wouldn’t tell him that she’d forgotten all about it in her mad rush to find her suppressants, or that she’d spent the afternoon crying on the bathroom floor. Too caught up in her misery to remember such paltry things.
“Just because alarms didn’t sound doesn’t mean it wasn’t set. You enter your pin as I’ve told you to.”
“Fine.”
“What’s wrong with you? You haven’t touched your food.”
“I’m not hungry.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. Eat.”
Elena heaved a sigh, gathering up the slick noodles with a twirl of her fork. She forced it between her lips, chewing with laborious intensity until she could swallow. She had to drink down half the glass of water beside her plate to get it to plunk heavily into the pit of her stomach.
Elena figured she might as well get used to following his orders. Soon she’d have no choice but to bow to his every demand. Even Linda had had to do that with Valente, but the Omegas under his control had done everything he’d ever commanded them to. Even when it was against their own survival.
The only thing that ever stopped Valente was the children.
The thought had Elena choking on her next bite, chugging down the wine she’d left untouched to get the chicken unstuck from her throat.
Children.
He’d expect those from her. Leon would use her body during her heat, impregnating her. Growing his line and his legacy, prying it from her body one bloody birth at a time. Her mother Corinna had nothing but difficulties conceiving, Elena her only child. It had been a long and difficult trial for her, and she’d wasted away into nothing before giving Valente the prize of an Omega daughter that could be sold and traded.
She’d been no use to him after that, unable to bear him more. He’d sent her away, leaving Elena alone in a house where she was something other. Too weak, too small to be of any significance, but too important to be left alone.
“What is wrong with you,” Leon bit out, slapping his hand to Elena’s back as she continued to sputter and cough.
“Stop beating me,” Elena hissed, her regret at speaking up immediate. She ducked her head, cowering in her chair as she made herself into a smaller target when his anger billowed over her on a wave of hot ash and greasy soot.
She knew better than this, had a lifetime of Valente’s casual cruelty to have taught her how to act around an Alpha of power. Yet it all went out the window every time she interacted with this man, her temper always getting the best of her.
“I’m sorry,” she mumbled at the fine linen in her lap, baring the back of her neck in submission as her head bowed lower. In an attempt to soothe his temper, she added, “It still hurts.”
Leon snatched his hand away as if she’d burnt him. He picked up the cut glass pitcher, filling her water glass himself. His strides as he went back to his seat were stiff, lacking the natural grace of every Alpha. Brows pinched, he took his seat again, watching her with far too much scrutiny across the breadth of the table than was comfortable.
Elena picked at her food, taking small bites if for no other reason than to get him to stop staring at her. It worked after a while, his attention turning to his own meal though he continued to glance at her with eyes so dark they were almost black. They were unreadable to her, his every thought a mystery as he kept a neutral façade on his aristocratic face.
“Go upstairs,” he said with a flick of two fingers in the direction of the staircase once he was finished eating, despite the fact Elena had barely touched her meal.
She rose with care, watching him out of the corner of her eye for any movement in her direction. When he stood, she froze, paralyzed for a breathless moment before he turned and left the room in the opposite direction. Letting out the breath she held, Elena rushed up the staircase, closing the door quietly behind her.
Earlier, after she’d cried herself dry, she’d put up her few purchases and scant belongings in the closet. Putting everything to rights again so he would have no inkling of her collapse. Elena had also showered, covering herself in his chosen scent as well as wiping away the sugary sweetness that still clung to her.
Once she’d gone through her nightly routine, she glanced atthe door, wondering if he would appear. When he didn’t, she dressed in the softest, most unflattering pajamas she owned. The worn flannel gown was oversized on her small frame, the hem dragging the ground in the back as she made her way to the tall bed. Clambering up onto what he'd deemed her side last night, she curled herself up into a tight ball under the heavy blankets. Alphas ran hotter than Omegas, the chilly air caressing her skin as she hefted the covers up to her nose.
The longer she waited, the more tension built within her. Souring her stomach even further as she huddled tight around her middle. A defensive posture against whatever horrors he might visit upon her tonight, no matter his restraint the night before.
She inhaled hard through her nose as the door came open with enough force to vibrate the heavy wood. Clutched the covers tighter as his long shadow came over her before his heat enveloped her as he leaned in close.
Jerking the blankets from her strangling grip, his lip peeled back to reveal his teeth. Snarling at her has he fisted the loose fabric of her gown and wrenched it towards him. Dragging Elena upright as she gave a quiet whine of distress.
“You paraded around town and endangered yourself for a mere three-hundred dollars,” he ground out, giving her a vicious shake by his hold on her nightgown.
“What,” Elena stammered, clinging to his wrist as she shook her head. That couldn’t be right. His guards might have told him where she’d gone, but where had he gotten that amount from? Her purchases hadn’t come to anything near that.
