36. Gryphon

Chapter 36

Gryphon

O liver and Mila have barely left the nest since its debut, and I've hardly seen my Omega since.

However, I don't intrude. Not this time. Oliver needs this as much as I need him to be happy.

I will not be that Alpha again. I will not rain on his parade, or that sweet female Omega's either.

Lord knows she deserves all the happiness in the world.

I'm just not sure if I can be the one to provide it for her.

She still can't stand me, but I do catch her lingering stares. Like the other day, for example, when Oliver and Barret took her upstairs to the nest.

I have yet to see it myself, and I haven't dared ask.

I know I am not welcome.

That is a line I am not willing to cross, and I guess it's payback in a way.

Once upon a time, I caught her peering longingly into Oliver's nest, and I gave her hell for it. I got possessive, and I made her cry.

I made her feel unwelcome.

I only made my own Omega despise me in the end, and then he loosened the tether of our bond just to punish me.

So, this is my penance.

So far, it's only Oliver and Mila who frequent the nest.

Barret was there the day Ollie revealed it to her, but no more than that.

He's a little too busy with Lachlan these days, anyway.

But by day three, after the nest's creation, they invited him inside, and Barret whistled like a smug prick all the way up those goddamn stairs, telling me that I wouldn't see him for a few days.

I pretended that I wasn't jealous, that I wasn't dying inside.

But I would rather Barret than the crazy piece of shit, Lachlan.

Barret and I are quite similar. We're more reserved and keep our emotions inside.

Lachlan is insufferable at the best of times, and I don't know how he can do it. Just… grovel, and shame himself.

Yet look at him now, locked up alone in the basement with a permanent hard-on.

I prep a meal for him, pinching my lips in irritation.

How did I get stuck babysitting that crazy bastard?

I want to be with my Omega, both of us bathing in Mila's gingerbread scent, but I made my bed, and now I have to sleep in it.

Barret has written me instructions. No meat, and don't look him directly in the eye. Also, feed him with the extra-long spoon… not unless you like your fingers, that is.

Extra long spoon?

Finally, I finish Lachlan's mush and take it to the basement.

This food looks nasty. I almost feel bad for him.

I go down to the basement, and there I find him in the padded room at the back, hanging limply from his chains.

I made sure to use desensitizer before I came down.

Anything to remove any traces of Mila's scent.

It's all over the house, and sometimes I wonder how I'm not losing my own grip on my sanity.

So, how am I going to do this, then? Feed him without losing a finger.

That's when I see it. The 'extra' long spoon, leaning in the corner of the padded room out of Lachlan's reach.

It's just a bunch of plastic spoons all tied together, and good thinking on Barret's end.

Good. Because if Lachlan so much as bites me, then I will kick the living shit out of him.

I'm not as patient as Barret. Hence why he usually does this.

I grab the spoon, or spoons , poking the Alpha in the face. He hisses when I jab him in the eye.

Fucking freak.

"Hey, Lachlan. Your grub is here."

He's more animal than man now, and why the hell we never committed him long ago, I'll never know.

I poke him again with the spoons. "Now, are you going to be a good Alpha, and let me feed you? I should warn you, any crap, and this bowl goes over your head. I'm not Barret. I don't play nice."

Those enraged blue eyes don't leave me, and nothing but pure animal hatred.

I know the real Lachlan is in there somewhere.

But until the day he wakes again, he can stay down here.

I don't want him anywhere near Mila.

I scoop up some mush with the spoon and direct it toward his mouth. Lachlan chomps too hard, and I have to fight to pry it from his jaws again.

"Let go!"

He giggles like a creepy court jester next, showing me the sclera of his eyes, and I have to remind myself that I brought this upon myself.

My punishment for hurting Mila and my pack.

But I've had enough.

My own eyes flash, my lips peeling back from my teeth, and now an unearthly sound rumbles from my chest.

I'm just glad that one of us is in chains because we would only end up killing each other.

I step forward, yanking him up by his blond, greasy hair. I shouldn't take my sexual frustrations out on him, but I still pour that mush over his head, watching as he laps up that filthy gruel with his tongue anteater style.

Then I let go of his hair, turning my back on him as I stomp up the stairs.

His disgusting slurping sounds fill the basement as he licks his face, and I don't care anymore.

I need an ice-cold shower.