Page 98 of In Doubt

The omega buries her face in her knees. This time her body shakes with her sobs. Levi squeezes her hand.

“What can we do, Sweetness? What can we do to help?” She doesn’t answer him. “Do you want to go back to the nest?” He pauses for a response. “Or we can stay here and I’ll just keep on holding your hand.”

I stare down at her, shame, rejection and self-disgust hurtling through my body. Nausea of my own sloshes in my stomach and I taste bile at the back of my throat.

I did this to her.

Me.

I need to fix it.

I walk from the room, returning a moment later with a blanket in my arms that I pass to Levi. Levi drapes it carefully around the omega’s shoulders, clearly trying his best not to spook her. She takes a hold of the edges and pulls the material taut around her body.

When she’s done, we’re all silent again. The hiss from the swimming pool, lit up beyond the window, the only sound now.

I hold out my hand.

“Phones,” I grunt.

The omega stares up at me with frightened eyes, yanking the blanket more tightly around her small frame.

“What?” Dylan asks, glaring at me like he wishes I would keep my mouth shut.

“Everyone give me your phones,” when none of them move, I bark, “now.”

Jake hands his over immediately and Dylan scrambles to his feet, finding his phone on the counter and passing it to me.

“Where’s yours?” I ask Levi who seems reluctant to pull his hand from the omega’s.

“In the bedroom.”

I go in search of it.

One of the floor lamps is lit casting mellow light across the giant bed. Pillows and cushions lie scattered in strange patterns and I stare at the nest the omega built. It stinks of her. A stink that has every inch of my skin tingling and my cock stirring. Sex, sweat, come and slick. I have to fight the urge to climb into the bed and roll around in the soiled sheets.

Fuck. How did events go from what went down in here to the mess out there in the kitchen?

I rub the heel of my palm into my eye socket, suddenly exhausted.

Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe I pushed her too hard. I knew she had a history of some sort. Maybe if I hadn’t teased her like I did, she wouldn’t have reacted like that when she saw the phone. Then again, I’m not so sure. It was like a switch. One minute she’d been blissed out in my arms, the next shaking and screaming uncontrollably.

What was on that video? What did the dickhead film? Who is he? And most importantly where can I find him?

Spotting Levi’s phone on the bedside table, I grab it and take it back to the kitchen.

They’ve moved the omega to the sofa, and she sits sandwiched between Jake and Levi, sipping from a glass of water. I breathe a sigh of relief seeing the colour returned to her cheeks.

I pile more devices in my arms. The phones, Jake’s laptop, Dylan’s kindle and Levi’s iPad. I walk over to the large picture that hangs on the wall, the pyramids at sunset, swinging the painting to one side to reveal the door of the safe behind. I punch in the code and the door flings open. Our passports and other travel documents sit inside. I add all the communication devices, then hold my thumb down on the reset button.

“We’re locking these in the safe and you’re going to set the new code, Giorgie. That means only you will be able to open the doors. We won’t be able to access our devices.”

Now she seems a bit more rational. I wonder if she’ll argue, insist there is no need. She doesn’t. Gingerly, she climbs to her feet and hobbles towards the safe. I take several steps away and turn my back, hearing the beeps as the omega inputs the new code, the door slamming shut afterwards.

I twist back around.

“Better?” I ask her.

“Yes,” she says. “Thank you.” She chews on her bottom lip. “I’m going to go lie down.”