Page 60 of His Stolen Omega

“Do we have an understanding, omega?” Levi asked, voice dark, threaded with a warning every fiber of Elm’s being screamed at him not to ignore. “Or should I cut to the chase and break—”

“No.” He shook his head vehemently. “No. I understand.” Elm dug his finger nails into his palms. “Alpha.”

Chapter 14:

The omega was more reserved. Guarded. Levi noted it right away, but allowed him his distance.

He followed orders, moved about the house at Levi’s whim and didn’t argue. Whenever Levi offered soothing pheromones, he no longer resisted or rejected them, but aside from the usual spillage of his own, the omega never responded in like.

Levi wanted to be irritated—was irritated—but there was nothing he could scold the younger man for. He was doing everything that had been asked of him, and yet as the days passed, Levi found his own unease growing.

The only times Elm interacted with him was when he instructed him to use specific types of pheromones. They exercised it daily, shifting from aggressive, to soothing, and even lust ones. By day three, Levi had gone through an entire pack of suppressants. If he took any more inhibitors, he’d be at risk of messing with his own system.

He’d worked from home as often as possible, at first to keep an eye on the omega, but then because he didn’t like to leave him. Which was asinine, because why? What was there to miss when the sulky, quiet omega acted like little more than fancy furniture?

Levi had gotten exactly what he wanted, submission, and yet he somehow felt even less in control of the younger man than he’d been. It was in the way he moved around the house like Levi had a leash attached to him. His gaze was always distant and faraway, the bold statements and curses extinguished from his vocabulary.

On day five, he figured it out.

He felt like he had less control because he did. The omega had sealed himself off, tucked himself away somewhere, maybe not in body, but in mind.

Levi may very well hold the proverbial leash, but the omega was treating him like the piece of furniture. He ate when Levi told him to. Bathed when he was ordered. Slept where Levi wanted him to sleep.

But all the while, he refused to engage. His answers were made up of one-word responses, sometimes even a noncommittal grunt. The only time there seemed to be any sort of life left in him was when he was drawing.

He was so expressive when he drew. Became something akin to living art himself whenever he was lost to creation. In those charged moments, it no longer felt like he was ignoring Levi intentionally, it was like the omega was sucked into his own impenetrable bubble. A world no one could enter without an invitation.

Levi was loathed to admit it, but he wanted a damn invitation.

He started leaving more frequently, still only for hours at a time, but he’d find the omega exactly as he left him on every occasion, sketching behind the bars of his locked cage.

The omega was brought back there whenever Levi left. A few guards had been permitted onto the main level of the house, with strict instructions to never go near the stairwell leading to the basement.

There was little fear the omega would lash out at them anyway. Not with the threat of Pike being hurt in his stead looming over his head.

A fact that irked Levi to no end.

Was this a normal reaction? Did people close up this way when someone they knew was threatened? Shouldn’t it be the opposite? Shouldn’t the omega be spitting mad, cursing him out, talking to him?

“How is the pheromone addiction?” Baal said casually on day six while the two of them made the drive a town over. “Is it not working?”

“He’s getting enough from me he won’t—”

“That isn’t what I’m asking.”

Levi sighed. “I’m fine.”

Fiora was on standby just in case anything happened while Levi was away, and he had access to the cameras he’d left. He checked them now, tapping on his multi-slate to bring up the live feed.

The omega was on his mattress, attention on the pad of paper in his lap.

“You’ve grown attached.” Baal sounded…disappointed? Concerned? Perhaps both. “This grows more dangerous with each passing day, Levi.”

“Because he’s Kian’s brother?”

“Because you are you.”

Levi debated whether or not to pretend he didn’t know what his old friend was talking about, but…It was rare for him to feel this way, or any sort of way at all really. That’s what made him such a good Dominus.