“He walked in there by himself, right? Of his own free will? He wasn’t dragged or forced.”
“Yeah. He walked right in.”
Into the spider’s parlor and what an opulent parlor it would be. He could see Dave's unhappiness with his reaction. Despite all the time they'd worked together, the other shifter still held expectations that Will was better than he was. He wasn't.
“Then we have our answer.”
It was like being trapped in a strange waking dream. His body wasn’t fully under his control, though he was on his feet and walking, arms holding him up, urging him onward.
He had flashes of insight. They were in a large bathroom. Hands were pulling off his clothes, ignoring his weak attempts to bat them away.
Then he was in a bath, the water sloshing over him as he twisted and turned. Words passed over his head, and he vainly tried to catch them.
“Hold him still.”
“Wet his hair. His hair, idiot, not his back.”
“Stop fighting us, Jake. You’re getting clean whether you want to or not, boss’ orders.”
He lunged for the edge of the bath, dragging himself over.
“Shit, grab his arm. Grab it.”
“Fuck. This one's a fighter. Samson!” the voice shouted suddenly, loud in his ear. “Grab a needle and put him under, or we’ll never get this done.”
He struggled harder at the words, feeling the water splash about him. But the sharp sting of a needle in the top of his arm was followed by a wave of tiredness so heavy, he could do nothing to stop it as it crashed over him.
He blinked his eyes open, taking in the low, shimmering lights above him. Like stars. Were they stars? Was he outside? He smiled sleepily and reached a hand up to touch them. His hand looked funny, fuzzy, and leaving a trail of light in its wake. Pretty.
His eyes were heavy, his body relaxed. Sleepy, he was sleepy. Maybe if he rested for a while…
“Wakey, wakey Jake.”
He blinked his eyes open again, a yawn escaping.
“Huh?”
“Come on, Jake. Time to wake up now.” That voice was so smooth to his ears. He knew it, but from where? A shadow crossed him, and he smiled up at the voice.
“I’m awake.”
“Very good. I hope you’re going to be a good boy for us now.”
His eyes focused on the shadow, and the outline of a familiar face. He smiled again, but the smile faded when a fragment of memory returned. Apple… something about an apple. Or fruit. Or…
“Antoine.”
“There. That wasn’t so hard, was it? I hear you gave my men quite the hard time when they were cleaning you up.”
“Where…” He tried to sit up. “Where am I?”
“In one of our private suites. You’ve been asleep all night and most of the day. You missed all the fun. There was such a flurry of bids for you. Everyone wanted to get their hands on a sweet, untouched Omega. You looked the picture of Snow White in that photo we took of you. Here…”
He held a tablet in front of Jake’s face. On it was a photo of him, lying asleep on a white background, a red apple with a bite taken out of it in his hand positioned next to his head. They’d done things to him. Styled his hair, put makeup around his eyes, his face, his lips, and dressed him in clothes like nothing he’d worn before.
“Antoine, I want to leave.” He made his wishes clear.
The Alpha laughed, the smooth sound rippling over him and turning his stomach.
“So sweet, so naïve. No, no, Jake. We couldn’t let a morsel like you escape our grasp. You fetched a higher price than any mature Omega we’ve ever handled.”
Jake struggled to make sense of the words. But he got the awful, sickening implication in what Antoine said. The highest price of any mature Omega. There’d be no talking his way out of this, no convincing them there’d been a misunderstanding.
“What do you want from me?”
Antoine’s hand combed through his hair and Jake forced himself to hold still.
“We want you. Or, rather, we want you for our client who has purchased you. They’ll be here very soon. They had certain… requirements that we’ve done our best to fulfill.”
“What do they want?” He needed some idea what to expect.
“Our client has a particular love for Omega. He likes them in so many ways. With you, he wanted… innocent. As to the specifics, I’m sure you’ll find out soon.”
Antoine moved back and Jake sat up. He was wearing a white, sheer, gossamer top that made his skin shimmer under the lights. Below that he was wearing loose white silk pants.
“Up you get.”
A third person stepped forward, slipping hands under Jake’s arms, and lifting him to his feet.
“Why don’t you have a look at yourself in the mirror. The transformation is quite bewitching.”
The hands moved to his shoulders and urged him forward. He knew without looking it was one of the security guards.
Stepping in front of the mirror, he had to do a double take. That couldn't be his reflection.
“It’s masquerade night tonight but our client didn’t want you to wear a mask so…” So they'd painted one on him, in shimmering silver and gold that made his brown eyes stand out. He reached up a hand to touch his face. In a blur of movement, Antoine came at him, the sharp sound of the slap echoing through the room followed by a sting across his knuckles.
“No touching. He wants perfect, and we’re going to give him that. And now for the finishing touches.”
At some signal from Antoine, the Alpha behind him grabbed his arms forcing them behind his back and holding them there. Antoine stepped in front of him, blocking his view of the mirror and held up a length of white fabric, rolled and knotted in the center.
“Open up,” Antoine said, holding it up to his mouth.
Jake turned his head to the side, struggling to free his hands. Antoine fisted a hand in his hair, dragging his gaze back to the Alpha’s cold blue eyes.
“Open your mouth, Jake, or we’ll find something much worse to put in there.”
The hand in his hair tightened hard enough to hurt. He stopped fighting and opened his mouth.
“There, that wasn’t so hard, was it?” Antoine asked, letting go of his head, slipping the knotted rope into his mouth, and tying it tightly behind his head.
The next few minutes seemed to take an eternity. They forced him to his knees on the floor and bound his hands loosely behind his back with a silky white ribbon.
Antoine stood before him, eyeing him critically.
“Straighten your back.” He did as he was told. “Bow your head, chin to your chest.” He did that too, hoping that appeasing them would give him a chance to escape.
“Perfect. There are cameras on every wall. Don’t move a muscle, or we’ll be right back in to put you in your place.”
Time ticked by slowly after they left. He could feel the cold of the floor seeping through the thin pants he wore and up through his skin. The rub of the material of his clothes when he shifted slightly was distracting. The knotted fabric gag forced his mouth open as it slowly soaked with saliva.
They’d dimmed the lights, leaving only a handful of spotlights that all seemed to be trained on him and the surrounding floor.
He’d been stupid and foolish, and he was going to pay for that dearly. It wasn’t fair. None of it was fair. Not his father, not any of it.
He was so lost in his anger and grief that he missed the sound of the door opening, only realizing someone was there when a pair of feet came into view in front of him. He looked up, finding himself facing the knees of tailored black trousers.
“Well, aren’t you just the prettiest picture?”
He jerked his head up, seeing a man in a black mask looking down at him, pale green eyes glittering behind the mask.
“Perfection itself, my little Snow White.” The image of him holding a red apple flashed in his mind as a hand reached for him, one long finger trailing along his
jaw.
“Now, Mr. Antoine has told me you’re going to be very good for me. If not…” his finger and thumb gripped Jake’s chin in warning. “Two of his burly guards are going to come in here and help you. I promise you that way will lead to a lot more pain for you. Do you understand?”
Jake nodded as the stranger let him go.
“On your feet,” the voice of steel said.
He stood on shaky legs, turning with the press of the man’s hands to his shoulder. He wasn’t sure at first what he was looking at. Was that… a wooden cross?
He was walked towards it, his eyes widening as he took in the cuffs on each of the four arms. No, no, no. He didn’t want this. He shook his head, a whine escaping his throat as the masked Alpha pushing him firmly forward, his hand now in the small of Jake’s back. The Alpha leaned closer, his shirt brushing Jake’s back as he spoke into his ear.
“You’re going to do exactly what I say, when I say it, or you will suffer the consequences.”
Jake stepped up onto the raised platform, his heart fluttering in his chest so hard it hurt.
“I’m going to release your hands. You’ll reach up and rest them against these cuffs.” He tapped the frame of the cross in demonstration.
The man’s hands at his back pulled lightly on his binds, and they slipped free. This was it, he should try to fight, to run.
“Ah, ah. You’re doing so well. Don’t ruin it now.” The Alpha's hand tightened incrementally, as if he could hear Jake's thoughts.
Bringing his hands in front of him, feeling the blood rush down to his fingers, Jake raised his arms, sliding them up along the polished wood. He had to stand on his tiptoes for his wrists to reach the cuffs. Then the Alpha’s cold hands buckled him in with quick, perfunctory movements.
“Just relax now, feel the cool wood against your skin, let it hold you.”
He would have laughed at that if he wasn’t gagged, bound, and terrified.
The Alpha knelt behind him, reaching to secure his ankles, trapping him with his body outstretched, balancing on his toes. His buyer stepped back and circled him.
“So good, so obedient. From the moment I got word from Antoine, I have been so looking forward to playing with you.”
The Alpha’s eyes trailed down his body before he licked his lips. “And later, I’ll enjoy tasting you.”
He stepped behind Jake again, leaving him with an unimpeded view of the blank wall. The Alpha crossed the room, then there was the brush of material and a sound Jake couldn’t readily identify. A rustle like a curtain falling.
The Alpha’s footsteps returned. Jake tried to crane his neck to see what it was he had, but the masked man stood directly behind him.
“Red stands out so beautifully on white,” the Alpha said, his voice a seductive whisper. A second later, there was the sound of something swishing through the air followed by a crack. Pain exploded across Jake’s back, and he screamed around the gag. The pain seemed everywhere at once, multiple points on his back burning. A second blow, and he pulled hard at his wrists, trying in vain to free himself. Escape, he had to escape.
The third blow was lower, across his back and buttocks, the whip cutting easily through the light clothing he wore. The next hit was lower still, across his thighs and the back of his knees. He wailed, choking on the knot stuffed between his teeth.
His mind couldn’t focus on anything but the agony, the whip slamming into his flesh over and over, the tips biting into his skin, flaying him open. The pain was all encompassing, reverberating through every part of him. He wished for oblivion, he wished for death.
He didn’t hear the shouts in the distance, or the scuffle outside the room. Neither did he notice when the blows stopped, his tormentor slipping out the second door. He cried out, over and over, the torment unending, his body contorted and bleeding and unforgiving.
The sound of the door crashing off its hinges barely made a dent in his consciousness, the angry shouts and snarls that followed slipping past without notice. He did notice, as if at a great distance, hands on his ankles, sliding open the buckled cuffs before moving to his wrists. There was a second set of hands, holding him steady as his legs buckled while the first pulled the gag from his mouth.
“Shit, we need to get him…”
Arms picked him up, the skin of his back contacting cloth and flesh, and he screamed again, welcoming the murky black that swam up to meet him.
Chapter Five
Will couldn’t get a handle on his anger. He paced back and forth as Heidi checked the Omega over in the other room. Dave popped in and out, keeping an eye on the bar and Will.
The images came back, accompanied by sound and smell. The Omega tied to that damn cross, the red lines crisscrossing the otherwise perfect white of the Omega’s clothes, the sickening smell of blood permeating the room, and those soft sounds of agony that the Omega kept making, muffled only by the gag in his mouth. Dave had been right and Will should have acted sooner. If he had…
He turned, punching the wall, and imagining it was the face of the Alpha who tortured Jake. The Alpha who’d slipped away before Will, Dave, and Jeff had pushed their way in.
“Will.”
Dave’s impatient tone reached him, and he stopped his actions, letting his forehead rest against the wall.
“We have a reinforced punching bag for a reason. If you need to blow off steam, go use it. You’re no help to Jake right now, not like this.”
He was still throwing punches at the bag an hour later when Heidi came to find him.
“How is he?”
“I’ve loaded him up with painkillers and sedatives. He’ll be out until morning. The cuts were clean, but a few were deep. Four to five days healing if he’s taken care of; bed rest, good nutrition, wound kept clean, the usual.”
“I’ll see to it. Anything else?”
“Are you going to do anything about Antoine?”
“Like what?”
“You know, sanctions, restrictions, a sound beating. He deserves at least that.”
“That and more, in an ideal world. Unless the Omega consented.”
“Why would anyone consent to that?” Heidi eyed him curiously as she hoisted her bag onto her shoulder. She hadn't been in the city long and a lot of this was still new to her.
“Money, desperation. That drives people to do a lot of things they wouldn’t otherwise.”
“Sad to think we’ve come so far and Omega are still resorting to that shit to survive.”
“Sad isn’t the word. Thanks for coming out, Heidi. Dave will settle up with you, he’s out keeping an eye on the floor.”
“Alright. I’ll come back to check on Jake in two days’ time but call me anytime if you’re concerned.”
“I’ll do that.”
When she was gone, he threw another few half-hearted punches at the bag, watching as stuffing fell out through a burst seam.
“It wasn’t your fault,” Dave said, entering the room with near silent steps a few minutes later.
“I let him into the city. I didn’t turn him away like I should have.”
“You laid out the rules pretty clearly. Jake was responsible for his own safety. He walked into Forbidden Fruit of his own free will. He compromised himself, no one else.”
But Will knew it wasn’t that simple. He’d given Jake a general warning, yes. But he’d heard about people like Lee and the kind of tactics they used to take advantage of the desperate. He hadn’t warned Jake of that, and Jake had walked right into the trap.
A pained murmur woke him and it took a moment before he realized the sound was coming from him. He hurt, that much he knew, but the hurt was blurry and far away. A hand settled on his head, warm pressure.
“Shh. You’re okay, Jake. Go back to sleep.”
Content to listen to the deep voice, he let his eyes close and his body sink back into the bed of warmth.
The pain was more insistent the next time he woke, drawing a gasp as he tried to prop himself up on his ar
ms.
“You shouldn’t be up,” a voice called, and he froze, alert for the trouble he knew he was ensnared in.
Slowly, he turned onto his side, towards the voice, trying to figure out where he was. The walls were unfamiliar, the lighting harsher than the room he’d been trapped in…
“Where… where am I?” he croaked, his throat raw, his voice hoarse. The edge of his mouth chafed as he spoke, and he was aware of a bigger hurt that seemed to cover most of the back of his body.
“Snakes and Ladders. We brought you here from Forbidden Fruit. Bastard you were with had torn your back to shreds.”
He stopped trying to move when the pain sharpened suddenly, laying down on his side and craning his neck to find the speaker. What had happened? Rescue? Or had he gone from frying pan to fire?
The speaker took pity on him, walking closer, and relief flooded him as he recognized the face staring down at him. The Alpha of Eden.
The Alpha dragged a chair closer and took a seat by the edge of the bed.
“I have questions. I want honest answers, understand me?”
Riding the wave of pain that followed his ill-advised attempt to move, he nodded. The Alpha raised one eyebrow but didn’t speak.
“Yes, Alpha,” Jake added belatedly.
“Good. How’d you end up in Forbidden Fruit?”
Jake thought back, feeling ashamed at his naivety.
“I met another Omega, Lee. He said they’d offer me work.”
“So, you went there to get a job?”
He started to nod, then thought better of it. It pulled at the skin of his upper back. “Yes.”
“And that’s what you signed up for, what was happening in that room?”
He felt his eyes widen in horror at the question, the assumption, and tried to push himself upright. “No. No, Alpha. They said I could clean and clear tables. They didn’t say anything about… about selling me. Please don’t give me back to them.”
The Alpha’s hands were on him, pushing him back down.
“Whoa, lie down, take a breath. No one is giving you to anyone. I get it, okay? I get it. I just had to ask. If you’d consented to what happened, that might be a different thing.”
Falling Together (The Omega Haven Book 1) Page 3