Page 14 of The Runaway
“That doesn’t bode well,” Antoine said. “We can’t have an omega on the estate with no training or sense of discipline. He’d create havoc for everyone.”
“How is that his fault?” Gabriel challenged him immediately. “He didn’t choose to be raised the way he was.”
“I’m not saying it was his fault,” Antoine said. “But it still creates a problem for us. If he was never trained, then that could possibly be why his current masters are treating him so badly. Or possibly, he simply thinks he’s being treated badly because he was never trained to understand what to expect of a master.”
“He had a fucking handprint around his throat!” Gabriel snapped at him. “I don’t know what your sense of normal is, but I see that as pretty fucking harsh!”
“Okay, I’m not… I’m sorry,” Antoine said quickly, holding up his hands to placate Gabriel. “I didn’t mean it like that. Clearly, he has been treated badly. My point is that keeping him here is a bad idea. If he doesn’t understand the basic rules of a civilised estate, he could create enormous problems for all of us.”
“So an omega being disobedient is a reason to not help him?” Dante asked, and Gabriel could detect a warning undertone in his voice. He still found it odd that Dante would so willingly challenge his master, bonded or not.
“I’m not saying we should send him back,” Antoine replied. “But perhaps telling him to move on might be the better option?”
Dante looked Antoine in the eye, a dangerous glare on his face. “You want to run that one by me again?”
To his credit, Antoine hesitated. “Dante… It’s not just about what’s best for Connor. I’m also thinking about the safety of the rest of this estate.”
“Just like you did when you bought me, right?”
“What’s that got to do with it?”
Dante scowled. “If you want to talk about disobedient omegas, then let me remind you that I deliberately fell pregnant when I wasn’t your breeding omega, and you turned this entire estate upside down to accommodate that.”
Gabriel felt his jaw drop at Dante’s words. He’d done what? Such a thing was outrageous! How the hell was Dante still living here? And how had he bonded with Antoine after such an indiscretion?
Antoine opened his mouth to argue the point… and then abruptly closed it again. “You were different,” he said finally, no doubt knowing it sounded weak.
“Why?” Dante challenged him. “When I came to this estate, you gave me exactly one rule to follow, which was that I was not to harm anyone on this estate, and I broke that rule, and you still managed to find a way past it.
“Connor didn’t ask for any of this. Not where he was born, not the way he was raised, and not who his current master is. And yes, he’s probably going to make a dog’s breakfast of any of our attempts to help him, but I don’t see how that could be any worse than anything I did back then.”
Antoine was wavering, but he still wasn’t convinced, so Gabriel decided to throw his hat into the ring. “Let me make this plain,” he said, quietly but firmly. “If you send Connor away, I will be leaving this estate this afternoon. I will not stay in a place where people turn their backs on omegas who’ve been abused and are in desperate need of help.” One omega, after the hundreds he’d already seen slaughtered, was not going to do much to redeem himself. But at some point, Gabriel knew he had to draw a line in the sand. And if Antoine turned around and told him to leave, then so be it.
If Antoine looked surprised by the declaration, then Dante looked positively delighted. Even Niles smiled, looking at him with a sudden admiration.
“I still think we should hear Connor out,” Niles said. “We should listen to why he ran away. He deserves that much.”
Antoine didn’t move for a long moment. Then he sighed. “That was what we originally agreed to. So, that’s fair enough. We’ll hear him out. Where’s Connor now?” he asked Dante.
“I left him in the kitchen with Cirroc, to get something to eat. Though there’s no guarantee he’ll still be there. The kid’s as flighty as a wild sparrow.”
Antoine nodded. “Could you do me a favour and go and call him over?” Neither Gabriel nor Dante missed the fact that it was stated as a polite request, rather than an order.
Dante nodded, then left the room. He returned a few minutes later, and Gabriel was mildly surprised when Connor came in the door behind him. So for the time being, at least, he’d decided not to run away again.
He was looking better, clean and dressed in a new set of clothes. But with the dirt gone, the bruises on his face were all the more prominent. The left side of his face was purple and blue and the bruise extended all the way down to his jaw.
But the rest of his features were also more visible. He had brown hair, with a lock that hung stubbornly across his forehead, and he had a smattering of freckles across his nose. His cheekbones were high and delicate and his lips naturally curved in a slight bow shape. He had his hands clasped in front of him, and he kept his eyes on the floor.
“Come in,” Antoine said. “Please, sit down.” For all his earlier doubts, his voice was calm and soothing now. “As you’re probably aware, we’re in a fairly complicated situation, and we’d like to ask you a few questions to see where we go next.”
Connor nodded. He took one step towards the sofa, then hesitated. His eyes swept quickly over the room, and he tensed as he took in how many men were here.
“May I make a suggestion?” Dante said, far more restrained than he’d been earlier, when they didn’t have an audience. Antoine nodded. “Perhaps Connor might be finding it rather intimidating to have four alphas in the room all at the same time?” It was carefully phrased as a simple observation, and while Dante’s intentions were obvious, he’d stopped short of actually asking Antoine to have some of them leave. Dante played his politics well, Gabriel realised. It was one thing to make demands of his alpha behind closed doors, but to do so in front of other omegas could give the impression of disobedience, or perhaps suggest that Antoine was not in control of the property, neither of which were conducive to the peaceful running of the estate.
“It’s a fair point,” Antoine said. “Niles, Lucas, could you please give us some privacy?”
Gabriel was surprised on two counts. Firstly, because both Niles and Lucas nodded and rose without comment. Like Dante, they seemed to have firm rules of protocol. For all the robust debate that had gone on only minutes ago, the master of the house was not to be questioned in front of lower ranking members of the estate – even if it was only a runaway omega, in this case.