“Wren?” Kellan’s tone is indecipherable.
Dammit. Now I know I messed up something.
“Yes?” I try to make my voice light and breezy, but it comes out choked.
“What the fuck is thisslop?” Jasper’s fork stabs the pile of egg and cheese experimentally, and Victor eyes the toast with distaste.
His tone makes me shrink in on myself. “Um…slop? It’s um, a scramble, with toast and bacon—”
“I know what it is,” Kellan cuts me off, his eyes hard. “I just don’t know why you thought it was okay to serve it to us.”
“This is inedible,” Jasper declares, standing up and dumping his plate in the trash.
My stomach turns. “Wait—”
“You can’t even make fucking toast right,” Victor sneers, following his lead and dumping his plate in the sink.
“If we leave now, we can grab breakfast on the way to work.” Jasper strides out of the room without a backwards glance.
Victor follows not far behind him, and in the next moment, I’m shrinking in on myself as Kellan backs me against the kitchen counter.
“It is your first day,” Kellan’s voice is deadly quiet, as he leans in close to my ear, “so I will be lenient and not punish you for this fuck up. If you do the rest of your duties perfectly, you’ll have a bedsheet to sleep on tonight. Do you understand?”
“Yes,” I can barely whisper.
“Yes,what?”
“Yes, Alpha.” The words burn coming up. They’re wrong. He’s not my alpha. None of them are. But I have to show them what they want to see.
“Good.” He straightens, taking a step back. “Don’t forget, Wren. We’re always watching.” He points up, drawing myattention to a security camera in the corner. “And yes,” he gives a cruel grin, “they’reeverywhere.”
My blood runs cold.
“Everywhere?” I squeak out, my legs starting to shake.
He doesn’t answer, just smirks as he turns his back on me, leaving me to clean up the mess of breakfast that nobody ate.
The house is spotless.
I’ve wiped every counter, cleaned every toilet, done every scrap of laundry I can find, and now, I’m scrubbing at a stubborn stain in the sink for the fiftieth time.
I thought about trying to leave. Just walking out the front door. But they have this electronic lock on it that can’t be disengaged manually—they control it from their phones. Something I’m reminded of every time I hear the tell-tale “beep” and then the turning of the mechanism.
The back door in the kitchen might be a good option, but then…where would I go? I could try to find a phone to call Teddy, but I can’t be caught wandering around unattended. The Omega Rights Act only passed four years ago—I’m more likely to be taken into custody by the police and returned to my “rightful owners” if they come across me.
The only thing keeping me sane is the thought of Teddy. If I had a cell phone, I could have texted him before Pack Caruso took me away. These men seem like they might have secret phones lying around—something my father did. But I’m too afraid to search this house for one. Like Kellan said, they have eyes everywhere, and I don’t want to put Teddy in danger if they look up the number I tried to call.
He has to have found my note, I’m sure of it. “Caramel Drizzle” was the only thing I couldthink to write that wouldn’t draw suspicion from anyone that holds any sort of meaning for us. Since he must’ve found it, he’s probably taken it to his roommate, and somehow, they’ll be able to figure out where I went and what happened to me.
And then some way, somehow, he’ll get me out.
He has to.
There’s no way I can stay here the rest of my life.
And tonight…one of them is sleeping in my bed with me.
It’s unclear to me if they’re the type of alphas who would enjoy a struggle, or if they need their women to fawn over them.
