15. Ella

Chapter fifteen

Ella

A lastor lingered outside the bedroom door for some time after he 'left', and I wish I could say it was my first time dealing with a creep.

Alas, it is not.

I've met far worse than pretty green-eyed Alastor, anyway.

The Alpha is an enigma. While handsome, there is a maniac lurking beneath that perfect veneer, and the thought sends an excited thrill down my spine.

He may be intriguing, but not enough to make me leave the safety of my closet.

Alastor saw right through me with those glacier eyes of bright green.

I sleep in the closet because it is the closest thing I have to a cage.

A cage makes me feel safe and rested.

A cage is my entire universe.

My life revolves around bars, and I am not quite ready to leave them just yet.

The idea of all that open air around me.

I'm on display for all my enemies, so I need to hide.

Footsteps echo down the hall, and I pick up on his cherry scent even through two closed doors.

Brody knocks. "Um… Twenty-two?"

Ugh, that name sounds so… yuck.

It makes my toes curl inward.

Maybe I should tell him the moniker I gave myself?

But am I ready to part with such valuable information?

After all, my name is sacred to me.

It's a sign that I'm not a complete husk. It's proof I still have autonomy deep down.

Brody is good. He's new to this pack, so he hasn't been tainted by them yet.

The pack, however…

They are not good guys.

They're just like my old jailers at the prison. They're also like the Alphas who locked me up my whole life and turned me into… this.

A killer.

"Twenty-two?"

Again, I refrain from replying. He's hard to resist.

He's too sweet for this pack, and I understand why they get so bent out of shape to protect him.

They are afraid of losing him.

I have come to realize that I entered this pack just as he moved in.

He is their Omega by law.

But how can he belong to them and me?

It's biology.

He is mine…

Am I prepared to fight his Alphas if it ever comes to that?

Would I win?

There's three of them and only one of me.

"That's it. I'm… coming in…"

Brody opens the door and my heart pounds when it squeaks. I wrap myself up further in my blankets.

I can't let him see me like this.

My heart thumps inside my ears as the floorboards creak outside the closet door. What will he think when he sees me in here, and not on the bed?

He would have already spied the empty bed with its clean, unruffled sheets.

"Twenty-two? Where are you?"

It rhymes.

Finally, he inhales, and his sense of smell must lead him to the door. He steps closer, and when it opens, daylight pools in on my cocoon.

I squeeze my eyes shut.

"Twenty-two?"

I don't speak.

The floorboards creak again, and it sounds like he's sitting on the ground.

Still, I don't leave my cocoon.

It's pretty odd how I have grabbed all the blankets I could find.

I have been deprived of comfort like this my entire life. It's like I am… nesting , somehow.

I was pretty meticulous in how I arranged the blankets and the pillows too.

"That's some nest you've got there."

Brody sounds so cheery, and this world doesn't deserve him.

Still, his comment makes me curious, and now I peek out from my cocoon, finding his spectacled face.

The glasses make his fawn brown eyes even bigger, and the sight takes my breath away.

I swallow, trying to keep it together.

It's hard not to be attracted to him. He's perfect.

Soft skin, shiny orange hair, sweet voice…

This pack will destroy that sweetness. Right from the moment they give him their knots, and I fight back the growl in my throat.

"Nest?" I say.

He points at all the blankets and pillows. "The blankets. Typical Omega behavior."

My heart pounds. I wouldn't even know.

No one taught me how to be an Omega. I was just given a knife and told to kill all Alpha scum.

I'm aware of knots and ruts.

But nothing about my own biology.

When I killed that Alpha in the forest, I was torn between impaling myself on his knot or slitting his throat.

He had been in a rut. Something about my sickly scent seemed to bring it out of him.

That insanity I went through… That was not natural.

The warden injected me and then set me loose.

I experience hot flushes and cramps every now and then, but when the warden inoculated me with that strange substance, it was as if all those hot flushes and cramps hit at once.

I became possessed.

Brody's brows knit together, and it's like the penny finally drops. "Wait… do you not know about nesting?"

My blank stare must confirm his horrors because he looses a heavy breath, and I'm not sure what I see inside his eyes next.

Anger, empathy, who knows.

Brody is the real puzzle of this pack.

"Damn."

Nothing happens for a while. He just continues to look at me with those sad doe eyes, and he really is something else.

No one has looked at me that way in a long time.

Gryphon and Jeremy were concerned about me, but only out of obligation.

Brody has no reason to care about me. He should despise me.

I'm an Omega encroaching on his territory.

Yet he only has sympathy for me.

He makes my heart hurt.

Finally, his face brightens, and then he reaches out a hand.

I stare at the strange gesture.

"Well, it's a good thing you have me to teach you."

"Teach?"

"Of course. I graduated at the top of my class. I can teach you how to be an Omega…"

A perfect Omega? Like him?

I almost scoff at the strange notion, but I stop when I spy the sincerity in his eyes.

He truly means it.

Brody wants to make me a civil being like him.

Not in a million years.

I am a lost cause.

He needn't bother losing a wink of sleep over me.

"What do you say, Twenty-two? Fancy being my pupil?"

I want to be more than his goddamn pupil.

I want to be beneath him.

It's no surprise I'm attracted to another Omega. I was taught to fear Alphas after all.

But never Omegas.

Omegas are kin. And it's okay to trust your own kin, right?

Brody still offers his hand, and with shaking fingers, I reach out.

When our hands touch, it's like the heavens open up again. A light shines over me, making me feel something I hadn't thought possible.

It's hope.

Brody pulls me out of my blanket cocoon as he helps me to my feet, and now we stand close.

The top of my head only reaches his chin, and I could stay this way forever.

His full lips are prettier up close.

He has a pronounced Cupid's bow, and I just want to place my finger on it.

I want to touch all of him…

"Well, first lesson. Cleaning."

The illusion cracks, and I blink. "Cleaning?"

Yet Brody looks excited. "Yes! It's always more fun with a partner. Let's go."

I find it hard to say no.

So, here's to a whole afternoon of cleaning.