“His name’s Frank. He’s from Vail,” Cassandra supplied.
I moved between him and her, using my body as her shield in case he tried anything now that I was there. “I know you’re awake. Stop pretending to be asleep.” My voice came out rough, almost as a growl. It hadn’t been intentional, but I wasn’t going to complain about it either. Not when I saw him shiver under my command. I was glad to have that power over him. It would make finding out what he was doing there, and who he really was much easier since I could use it to control him if I needed to.
Frank got to his knees and then crawled toward me.
“Stop,” I said when he was still a good three feet away.
He nodded and became still with his hands on his knees.
“Is your name Frank?”
Again he nodded. I turned back to Cassandra. “Get your things together. And his, too. Then get in the car. It’s parked right out front. You’re driving for the first few hours, so I hope you slept.”
“I did.” She was quick to obey me. Maybe because she knew better than to take her time when given a command in front of a stranger. Maybe because she could tell I was in no mood to be argued with right then.
When she had gathered up their things and then gone outside to wait for us, I approached him. I wanted us to be alone together. If I ended up not liking the answers I got from him, I didn’t want her there to witness what I would have to do to him. A rogue werewolf couldn’t be allowed to run wild, not in any territory, and even though we weren’t in my territory right then, I knew the alpha whose space we were in would agree with my actions this morning, no matter what they ended up being.
I sat down on the corner of the bed and allowed myself to slump a little. He was close to my knee and if he’d been a member of my pack, he might have leaned into me for some affection, but as it was, he knelt there with a straight back and a calm, unwavering expression.
“Tell me about yourself,” I said.
“I’m from the Vail pack. I’m an omega.”
There was so much more to him than that. I was sure of it. None of us were that simple. “How old are you?”
“Forty.”
I nodded. The need to touch him, to reassure him, became nearly overwhelming. I gave in, just a little anyway, and touched his hair. The strands were rough and dry. He hadn’t been cared for well, at least not recently.
“What is your alpha’s phone number?” If I could talk to his alpha, I could find out more about him, and then get a better understanding of what kind of a wolf Frank was. Before I took him anywhere, I needed to know if I could trust him. If I decided I couldn’t, he wouldn’t be leaving this motel room alive.
Frank shook his head.
“Give me the number.” I turned the simple question into a command.
He ran one hand up the opposite arm as he trembled. I figured it had to be a nervous gesture. “Sir, I—”
“David,” I interrupted him.
Frank gave me a shaky nod. “David, I...” He licked his lips. I could smell his nervousness as well as his fear bleeding out of him as if he were bathing in the acrid scents. “I don’t have an alpha. He... I’ve been disgraced.”
Disgraced. I turned my lip up at the term. It wasn’t a word I used lightly, and I hated to hear it come from an omega. “I want to know the whole story. Now.”
“I can’t betray him like that. Please.”
He was trembling now, fighting somewhere between obeying me and being faithful to his former alpha. I had to make the choice easier for him. I had to lighten his burden. I moved my hand from his hair to his neck, giving him a little pressure on his scruff.
He bowed his head at my touch, lowering his chin to his chest.
“Do you understand why I’m asking you this?”
“Yes.” His voice was soft, and his eyes were closed.
“I don’t want anything to do with your previous alpha. I have no interest in him. Whatever happened, it’s in the past and it will not leave this room. While I do admire you trying to protect him, you’re not doing yourself any favors. Now, I’ve driven over ten hours tonight. I want to go home. If I like your answers, I will take you with us. I will ask you for your story one more time before I decide you aren’t worth any more continued aggravation. Frank, do you understand what I’m saying?”
He nodded quickly. “Yes. I do.”
“Good. Then tell me what I need to know.”
He took a deep breath and put his hands back on his thighs. I relaxed my hold on his neck, placing my fingers between his shoulder blades instead.
“I was born in the Vail pack,” he quietly began. “I served two alphas there, in every way I was told to. My last alpha, he chose not to continue the pack. There was no place for me where he was going.”
I listened for the words he wasn’t saying. “Did you have sex with your male alphas on their orders?” I didn’t need the clarification, but I wanted to hear what he would say, whether he would give me the truth or if he would continue to protect an alpha who had done nothing that I could see to earn his allegiance.
“I did everything I was ordered to,” he said, answering my question as plainly as he probably could.
“Did your alpha refuse to take you because of how it would look to have a male omega he was intimate with come with him?”
“I believe my alpha did what was right for him at this time in his life.”
I admired what Frank was doing. Loyalty was to be rewarded, but it also needed to be earned. And I needed to make Frank understand that my pack worked differently than the one he’d come from.
“Frank, in my pack, relationships like that, those between men, are welcome. They aren’t something you would ever be punished for if you engaged in one. Also, no one in my pack is ordered to do anything of that nature with anyone else. Affection is freely given. I don’t use my place in the pack to command something like that. Do you understand what I’m saying?”
“Yes.”
I felt him relax a little under my fingertips. I could have said more, but I knew I’d already made my decision. “You’ll come with us on a trial period unless you have somewhere else to go.”
“I don’t.”
His clipped answers didn’t bother me. I was used to them from other wolves I’d met, those that were used to strict alphas and harsh commands. I could be that kind of alpha and I’d had to be in the past, but it wasn’t how I preferred to run my pack.
I rose from the bed and put my hand in front of his face, offering it to him. I bristled at the rough pads of his palm against mine, but I helped him up anyway.
Omegas, at least how I’d been taught to treat them, should have never been in the condition he was.
With his hand still tucked into mine I led him out of the hotel room and to the car where Cassandra was waiting for us. She had the heat on and my favorite music still playing on the radio. I told Frank to get in the back and then I took the seat next to Cassandra.
“We’ll get fast-food for breakfast then we’ll get on the road. With any luck we’ll be back in the Ozarks by sundown,” I said as I settled in beside her.
About the Author
Caitlin Ricci has been writing professionally since 2012 and since then has released over a hundred stories including some award winners. Though she writes in many genres, all of her stories are about finding love and happily ever after. She lives on a small farm in Missouri with her dogs, goats, and husband.
[email protected]
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Forbidden Omega Page 10