Page 18 of Mercy & Her Devils

Shocked, I hardly know how I have such courage, only that I’m not holding back…not anymore.

“Because you love him,” Fletcher snarls. “Because I can feel your happiness through the bond when you’re with him and not me. Because you don’t love…”

He twists away. His shoulders are tight.

I don’t know how to make this better.

I didn’t want to be matched with Fletcher. And I don’t want his toxic type of love.

“How can I love someone who locks me up?” I say, softly.

Fletcher’s eyes widen with shock. “Mother is right. I have been too soft on you.”

My heart hammers in my chest. “What do you mean?”

“I’m sending you for retraining in the Institute.”

My stomach curdles with dread.

He can’t mean that.

He can’t.

I dive for him, grasping his arm.

I expect him to shake me off, but he doesn’t. “Please, don’t. Please, Alpha…”

“So, now I’m Alpha.” To my surprise, Fletcher wraps his arm around me, however, pulling me against his chest. He’s as cold as a block of ice and shivering. What the hell has he been doing? “Mother would have marked you as a Reject. If I’d told her any of this, she’d have told me to auction you and start again with a proper Omega.”

There’s a roaring in my ears. A blind terror.

I’m whining, only I don’t know it, until Fletcher’s stroking my hair.

Now, I know that he’s not bluffing.

“But I couldn’t do that to you, darling. Do you think that this has been an easy decision for me? That I enjoy seeing you in distress and smelling your delicious scent soured? I’ve been just walking around Haven for hours. I don’t know where. I didn’t even take a coat. I’ve been wracking my brain, trying to think of a way out of this. But if Mother hears about this type of behavior from you then…” He shoves me away from him, grabbing me by my arms. I flinch, as his fingers pinch into my skin through the thin nightie. “Fuck, Mercy, why would you risk everything between us for a Brok?”

I tilt up my chin, even though I’m shaking. “Because it was the right thing to do. Because I’m an Omega just like him. Because I don’t know that it makes me a good Omega to stay silent, live by your rules, and make bad choices.”

Fletcher’s dark eyes meet mine. “That’s why you need this course. Your thinking is muddled. I’ll help you.”

“If you loved me, then you’d simply accept me.”

He looks at me like I’m crazy. “I literally run the Institute, where those who don’t behave dynamically appropriately are taught how to do that. How do you think it looks that I can’t control my own damn Omega? And don’t you think that I have been loving and accepting you? What have I been doing for this entire year?”

I stare at him in shock.

Not allowing me to leave the house.

Giving me rules but not punishing me for failing at them.

Not sending me on any of his courses.

“You’ve been keeping me inside,” I breathe, “because you don’t want anyone to know that I’m not the perfect Ace pack Omega that you should have been able to train me into by now.”

He nods.

He’s an asshole but in his own way, he’s been protecting me. And now, I’ve lost even that.

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