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Omeglet? What is that? Is it an insult? Should I be affronted?

God, I’m exhausted. I shove my hair away from my forehead, because I’m sweaty, and it’s pasted there. “I don’t want her dead yet, so no.”

Penelope laughs. “There’s a little fire to you sometimes, omega. Just a little bit. I’m not sure if it’s going to be enough, but it’s something.”

I sigh. “I know you’re going to want a guarantee that she won’t get free again, though, so—”

Penelope shifts the gun and pulls the trigger.

I rush forward, letting out a high-pitched noise. I just said that I didn’t want her dead, didn’t I?

But then I hear Dr. Acker screaming. She’s clutching at her foot, curling up around herself as she holds her ankle, which is wounded.

Penelope shot Dr. Acker in the foot.

“That should keep her from going much of anywhere,” says Penelope, putting the shotgun over her shoulder. She looks pretty pleased with herself.

“That’s definitely one way to handle the problem,” I say.

Penelope shrugs at us.

I look at Calix. What are we supposed to do now? “Okay, you think we can carry her together?”

Penelope makes a noise in the back of her throat. “Oh, omega, that’s not how you talk to your alpha.”

Calix looked up at her, his nostrils flaring.

Penelope glares at him. “None of that, boy.” She rounds on me. “Do they explain nothing to you in that world? Don’t you see that the very nature of things is for an alpha to serve his omega, to do her bidding? Pleasing you is what pleases them. They can’t be happy unless you are happy. So, you need to clearly communicate to your alphas what you need and how they can serve you. That’s the path to a happy pack. That’s what they want from you.”

“What’s what they want from me?” I say. “To be ordered around?”

“Yes,” says Penelope, as if I’m a total idiot.

“Well,” I say, annoyed, “maybe I’m going to treat Calix like he’s a human being with his own will and right to decide.”

Penelope lets out a disbelieving laugh. “Goddess help us,” she says. “Do whatever you want. Just get this woman off my front lawn. She’s very noisy. There are babies trying to sleep around here.”

Dr. Acker lets out a wail.

Penelope walks off.

Calix steps close. “Maybe get the others to help me.”

“But she’ll—”

“No, she won’t,” says Calix pointedly to Dr. Acker. “Because if she tries to trigger them, I will put my finger inside the wound on her ankle.”

Dr. Acker whimpers.

striker

WE BIND DR. Acker’s wound with gauze and medical supplies in the bathroom in the cabin where we’re staying. Then we tie her back up in the basement and duct tape her mouth shut. We duct tape her to the pole down there in addition to tying her up.

She’s hurt but she’s bound too well to get free anyway this time.

She cries the whole time, but she doesn’t try to use that voice on us, or to make us do her bidding, or to get us to attack Lotus again. She’s afraid of the pain that Calix has threatened her with, I guess. She’s probably in a lot of pain. The shotgun did a good bit of damage to her.

After, we get upstairs and Lotus sits down on Calix’s lap in one of the chairs and he licks the back of her neck, and I stand there, the only one without a bite of any kind, and I remember being jealous before, when I was the only one who couldn’t get an erection for her, when I was the only one who couldn’t fuck her.