Page 11 of Omega Captive of the Golden Dragon (Alpha Dragons #3)

VARIK

I woke slowly, quickly reminding myself I wasn’t alone. I lay still, listening.

There were no loud sounds. Nothing alarming. The omega was quiet as a snowdrop. But I could still sense a disturbance in the air.

It had taken me a long time to fall asleep. Dawn had come by the time I passed out. Not unusual for me. I often worked on projects all night long and didn’t fall into bed until the sun came up.

I stretched under the warm covers, the cold daylight leaking into my bedroom through the curtains.

I like his scent.

I spoke aloud. “What? The omega?”

Varikan didn’t seem the least ruffled or upset by Caylen’s presence.

Now we have someone to talk to other than each other.

“Tired of me?”

Of course, I am.

“Humph.”

You behave as if he’s scary. He’s like us. To have someone else to talk to who is like we are, outcast and alone, is intriguing. Val was having the right thoughts to do this even if he didn’t go about it the way we would.

“Val is devious and underhanded.”

He loves us.

My online shrink had tried to get me to anonymously join group therapy. I’d refused. He told me my face could be hidden and my name changed, but it terrified me to think of opening up to complete strangers.

This will be good for us.

“Do you think the only reason Val bought the omega was so we could have someone to talk to?”

Hmm. More had to be on his mind. He’s not a stupid man. He did go to a breeder auction to procure him.

I rolled my eyes. “Exactly.”

How much does a set-omega even cost?

“A lot more than simply going online and finding a dragon or any type of shifter omegas looking for alphas.”

Val wanted someone he could control. Own. Someone who had to be here and couldn’t run away. Someone who was a mate for us.

I let out a short growl. It was horrifying, but also just like Val to and create everything I needed to keep me safe and free from my past. I still didn’t have details about what he’d done to the people who held me after our parents fled the country.

Val had a darkness inside him that let him believe the means justified the end.

He’d have done anything for me. I couldn’t criticize him.

He was my hero. Beyond that, I didn’t let myself ponder his acts too deeply.

Going to a slave auction probably never phased him. If he told himself he was doing it for my own good, he was capable of anything.

He’s a good brother.

“Such a good brother.” But a tinge of sarcasm laced my words, immediately bringing a pang of guilt. If our positions had been reversed, could I have ever done the things he did to help him?

I liked to think I would have. But what Val had gone through himself had been terrible.

When it came to trauma, there was no such thing as competition.

He had his scars, too. I was glad he had a family now who loved him.

He had good in-laws, and he and his husband were looking toward surrogacy for kids.

When I got downstairs, I found the TV on low and Caylen napping on the couch.

A plate of fruit, half-eaten, lay on the coffee table.

His auburn hair was pushed forward, giving his face a heart shape.

He slept on his side, his hands pressed together in the middle of his chest. He wore the same sweater and pants as yesterday.

Which reminded me about his list I’d asked for.

I was responsible for him now, damn it. He had to be kept warm and fed and healthy. He’d been ripped away from everything he’d ever known, which meant the “healthy” part of my responsibility might be a challenge. At least I knew firsthand what that felt like.

I left him sleeping and went to see if he’d left me a list. There it was, sitting in a notepad on the dining room table.

It was short, but at least he’d remembered to include the laptop computer make and model he had left behind.

I’d been so caught up in my own emotions yesterday I’d forgotten to ask Val if the omega had any belongings that were to be delivered.

Just as I grabbed my phone from my pocket and was about to text him, Caylen walked into the dining room.

“You’re up,” I said.

He pushed his thick bangs back with one hand. “You found my list.”

“You’ll add to it over time, of course.”

“I guess.” He wouldn’t look at me.

“I can create an account for you, too, so you can get whatever you want. Delivery is at the gate.”

His eyebrows rose. “You’d trust me with an account?”

His question confused me. “Trust?”

He sat in a chair across from me, shrugging. “It’s money.”

“That’s not a concern of mine.”

“I could buy a car, take funds for an apartment and leave.”

“Is that what you wish to do?”

He blinked at me as if I’d spoken a foreign language. “Is that even allowed? For a set-omega, I mean.”

“You would have to be under an alpha’s guardianship. Right now, that’s Val.”

“You wouldn’t care if I left, would you?”

I looked down at the list, pretending I didn’t hear his question.

“You don’t want me here,” he added.

“But now you are,” I said quickly, trying to avoid the conversation altogether.

There was a sniff from him that made me look up.

“Whatever you need, I’ll provide,” I said. “Val wants you here, so I’ll be respecting his wishes.”

He smacked the table lightly with his palm. “What would I even do alone here in a country where everyone’s a dragon but me?”

“It’s only been a day since you left everything behind. Maybe someone would take you back?”

“I hate them all.” He started to get up, his face scrunched. “I don’t want to go backward or forward.” He pushed at the edge of the table in anger.

“Like being in a cage.” I didn’t realize I’d said it out loud until Varikan spoke.

Like being an item to be scrutinized and owned.

“I guess you would know.” He pouted.

“I do know.” My chest tightened. “I thought I would die in my cage. I needed help to get out but there was no one. Until Val came.”

“My parents didn’t do anything.” He turned away, shoulders shaking. “Why?”

A pain shot through my solar plexus. There wasn’t a day that went by when I hoped my own parents were rotting somewhere, suffering like I had.

Caylen had barely just arrived. He’d had no time to settle his thoughts. To deal with such enormous betrayal. To grieve.

I didn’t know what to do. Feed him ice cream? Buy him pretty things? I had not matured socially in the past years since my rescue. I had no clue how to deal with this.

“I wrestle with the concept that my parents made the greatest wounds on me. I spent years as a teenager locked away crying about it.”

“I’m not crying about it.” He sniffed again. “I’m just pissed.”

“I am one of the few who can imagine how you feel.”

His body went stiffer.

“But,” I added, “that’s not going to help you right now.”

Slowly, he turned. “Maybe it is.” His voice was a whisper.

“I don’t like to talk about the past.”

Caylen’s lips pressed together as if he was holding back a flood of hurt. “Good,” he said. “That’s fine with me. I don’t want to think about Papa and Dado ever.”

He was shaking, his face red.

“Okay.”

“How much did I go for anyway? At least I could know I was worth some gold.”

“I don’t know.”

“Can you find out?”

I realized I was gripping the notebook with his list so hard the binder was breaking. I let it drop to the table. I nodded.

“When you do, let me know.” He stomped off to the kitchen, then headed back to the living room, but not before glancing over his shoulder.

“How much were you worth?” He shot the question like a deft arrow.

I’d contemplated that question for years after Val found me.

I had a rough count of the scales that were stolen from me every month for years.

Accounting for the rises and dips of gold on the exchange over the years, I’d come up with the conservative figure of one billion, four hundred and fifty million, three hundred twenty-seven thousand, six hundred and twenty-nine dollars.

That included Val’s trust fund and the money he’d invested for me.

It did not include what I was worth now.

I looked up at him and said simply, “A lot.”

He dipped his head and walked out.

Our first conversation had ended. As things stood, it could’ve gone worse.