Page 29

TWELVE

Kensley did wake up to a face looking down at him, but it was not Bishop’s, and the man was not smiling.

He was…well, not crying, but he had a face full of grief that instantly made Kensley’s heart ache.

Kensley’s mouth was dry, his arms and legs a little stiff, and he tried to get his bearings.

To understand he was in a bed somewhere.

A much softer bed than the hospital-like one of his last prison.

“Where am I?” he asked, unsure if he’d managed to verbalize the question or not when the stranger didn’t speak for a long time.

“Your new life,” the other man replied, his voice as broken as his expression. “I’m so sorry.”

Kensley started to sit up, and the stranger moved back a few steps, not trying to discourage him or help him.

He simply watched. Kensley was wearing a pair of simple linen pajamas, which meant someone had changed his clothes.

Someone had touched him, seen him naked, and that lit a spark of fury behind his breastbone.

The room looked like any standard bedroom might, with a dresser directly in front of him, a single window, and two doors, one shut and one that stood halfway open. But unlike in a normal bedroom, this window had metal bars on it.

He also wasn’t chained to the floor or the wall, so he shoved his covers aside and swung his feet over the side of the bed. “Where the fuck are we? Who are you?”

“It’s been so long.” His companion looked at his hands, as if the answer was written on them. “They only call me Omega. That’s what they’ll call you.”

Terror sliced coldly through his chest. “Who’s they?

What’s your name? How long have you been here?

” Kensley stood and walked to the window.

Saw only sprawling countryside that was mostly flat, full of grass and small trees, which told him very little.

It could be the Midwest as much as someplace in Europe.

“I don’t know where we are, no one ever told me. I learned quickly not to ask questions. He’ll punish you. He’ll break you.”

Kensley turned and studied the other man. Similar age, but taller with thin blond hair, gaunt cheekbones, and a general haggardness that made him seem twice as old. “I’m Kensley.”

The other man’s eyes went distant. “My name was…it was…Malori. I haven’t said it in so long.”

“What’s out there?” He pointed at the half-open door.

“The rest of the apartment.”

“Apartment? So, there’s another door to the outside?”

“It’s locked. There’s no escaping, Kensley, believe me, I tried. So did the omega who was here before me.”

Kensley really didn’t want to know. “What happened to him?”

Malori shrugged one narrow shoulder. “About a week after they brought me here, when I stopped fighting back, he disappeared. If you’re here, that means I’ll disappear soon. But fuck, I am so tired.”

“Tired of what? Why are we here?” He suspected but had to hear it. Had to know how hard he’d need to fight.

“Entertainment.” Malori turned and left the bedroom.

Bewildered, and on the cusp of losing his shit, Kensley followed him into a living room.

Pretty typical setup with a couch, two chairs, side tables, a TV, and two more windows, both with metal bars.

The same view of indistinct countryside.

He spotted three more doors and tested them all.

The first was a bathroom, the second another bedroom, probably Malori’s. The third didn’t budge.

“It won’t open from the inside,” Malori said. “It’s where Master enters. We only leave with him.”

As much as Kensley’s instincts told him to search for an escape, the perfectly defeated expression on Malori’s face and the exhaustion in his voice, told Kensley it would be futile. “And go where?”

“Downstairs.”

“Why?”

“We’re omegas, Kensley. Why do you think?”

Bile scorched up Kensley’s throat, and for the first time, despair tickled at the back of his mind.

King hadn’t paid enough for him. Someone else had bought him.

And now he was in some sort of brothel for people with an omega fetish.

It explained everything about Malori’s stooped shoulders and dead eyes.

“We need to get out of here,” Kensley said.

“There’s no way out. I’m not the first and you won’t be the last.”

Oh yes, I will be the last. Even if I die trying, I will tear this place down one brick at a time.

“My brother has a lot of money and power,” Kensley snapped, unwilling to give in to his despair.

He embraced his anger and frustration over trading one prison for another.

His entire life had been a series of prisons.

First the abbey, then the cabin, over the ocean to the beach house, and ending at that bizarre windowless room.

Now this. No. No more prisons. “King is looking for me. I know he is.”

Malori’s dead expression went briefly curious. “You have a loved one in the outside world?”

“Yes, my half-brother. You don’t?”

“No. My family was not supportive of me being omega. As if I had a choice. I had no belief in religion, so I didn’t join an Order.

I tried to survive, and I thought…I thought I’d found a new family.

But I was wrong, and now I’m here. I’ll eventually die here, but I had hoped they wouldn’t find another to replace me. ”

Kensley desperately wanted to hug his forlorn companion, but he doubted the gesture would be welcome.

“Whoever they are, they picked the wrong omega. Not only will I fight every step of the way, I know there are people looking for me.” Please, Bishop, be looking for me.

“They will find us, Malori. Believe that.”

“It’s sweet that you believe it.”

“It’s not sweet, it’s true.” Kensley would lose his mind if he believed anything else. “So, you don’t know where we are? Does this Master asshole have an accent or anything?”

Malori shook his head. “I don’t know where we are, and Master is very careful in how he speaks. The men and women who’ve had me…their accents vary. Some don’t even speak English.”

“So we could be anywhere in the world.” He refused to let that terrify him as much as it wanted to. Giving in to terror wouldn’t help him. “Do you know how long you’ve been here?”

“One thousand, one hundred and four days.” Malori pointed to a spot on the wall full of small hash marks. “I note every sunset I witness.”

Kensley wasn’t great with math in his head, but he knew that was more than three years. Three years of sexual slavery. He wanted to retch but kept hold of himself. “I’d rather die than live like that.” The words slipped out before Kensley could censor himself, and his face flushed.

Malori barely flinched. “I thought so, too. I imagined any number of ways to end my own life, but then I couldn’t. It wasn’t just my life at stake.”

“You got pregnant?”

“Yes. I was brought here just before my fertile cycle. I remember the face of the man who I believe impregnated me, but I don’t know his name. I never saw him again.”

Malori had been impregnated not long after he’d arrived here, but— “Wait, where’s your baby?”

“I don’t know.” Malori sank into one of the upholstered chairs, his entire body exuding a kind of peaceful misery that confused Kensley. “After I gave birth, I was allowed to nurse for ten days, and then my daughter was taken from me. And I went back to work.”

“Ten days.” Kensley swallowed back another urge to retch. He couldn’t imagine getting out of bed ten days after giving birth, much less being forced into sex. And to have his child stolen? Given away? Sold? A new kind of rage overtook his terror. “Fuck. I am so sorry, Malori.”

“I try not to think about her. Or my son.”

“What? You have two kids?”

“I birthed two. They were taken. They aren’t mine.”

The way Malori spoke suggested those words had been trained into him, and Kensley ached for his fellow omega’s pain. Kensley could not fathom the idea of having one child taken from him, never mind two. Forced pregnancy, forced birth, forced separation. It was revolting and inhumane.

“I am so sorry, I can’t even say it,” Kensley replied. He pressed his palms over his own belly, newly terrified for the baby he could be carrying. “I will fight for you, Malori. I’ll fight for all of us.”

“Please, don’t fight for me. I gave up a long time ago. Fight for yourself.”

“No.” Kensley moved to kneel next to Malori’s armchair and held the quivering omega’s hands in his.

“No, I’ll fight for us. Before this happened, I discovered the myth of charum is real.

I met my charus. I know he’s looking for me.

So is my brother. I’ll die before I stop fighting.

But you don’t have to fight. I know you’re tired. Just don’t give up.”

A single tear slipped down Malori’s left cheek. “I’ll do my best. I’m not sure how much I have left. It’s why they brought you here. I’m sorry you’re here because of me.”

“I’m not here because of you. I’m here because of greedy, disgusting men who think they have a right to what our bodies can do.

” Kensley was also here, in a way, because of his half-brother’s career choice, but blaming King’s business wouldn’t help him right now.

He had to focus on the present, and the present was all about survival.

“When you first arrived, how long was it before this Master came to see you?”

“Maybe a day. You were brought here this morning, and it’s close to dinnertime now. It’s hard to say when he’ll come see you.”

If he was recalling his days correctly, that made today Thursday. Kensley’s stomach rumbled with both disgust and hunger. “How are we fed? I don’t see a kitchen anywhere.”

“The dumbwaiter.”

“The what waiter?”