Page 5 of Snatched Up By the Cartel

With a heavy sigh, I stood up, my eyes darting to Mateo. He sat on his bed, his expression unreadable, but I sensed his awareness of my discomfort. "I'll be back," I mumbled.

He merely nodded, his eyes fixed on me for a brief moment before returning to the book he was reading. He didn't care about me. I didn't know why I even said what I did.

As for the book he was reading, it was the only possession he had, and he seemed to cherish it. I wondered what it was about, but I didn't dare ask. I feared him so much I couldn't even bring myself to glance at the cover.

Steeling myself, I followed the other inmates out of the cell, my heart pounding in my chest and my body perspiring. The prison hallway loomed ahead, the concrete walls oppressive and foreboding. It was even worse than my cell.

The guards flanked us on either side, their gazes cold and indifferent to our plight. They looked at us as if we were cockroaches.

As we neared the bathroom, my steps faltered and I felt I was going to fall to the floor. The sounds of laughter and catcalls echoed from within, sending a chill down my spine. I knew what awaited me, and my skin prickled with embarrassment.

I never took a shower with somebody else before, so with this being my first time, I knew it was going to be embarrassing. I knew I was going to feel like killing myself.

The guards ushered us inside, their eyes scanning the room for any signs of dissent. They didn't care about what we were feeling. They just wanted to do their jobs. If I were one of them, I would also hate it.

The bathroom was a large, open space, the walls lined with showerheads. In the center stood a cluster of inmates, their eyes alight with anticipation as they spotted the new arrival. And, of course, I was talking about me. I was the only one different here.

I felt their gazes on me like a physical touch, their stares assessing, judging. It was as though they could eat me alive just by staring at me.

My skin crawled with goosebumps as I imagined their eyes raking over my body, my form so different from theirs. I was skinny, my frame slight and unassuming, a stark contrast to the muscular, hardened criminals around me.

Even if I closed my eyes and pretended that nothing of this was happening, it wouldn't work. It was impossible to deny reality.

With a nudge from one of the guards, I stepped forward, my heart hammering in my chest. I had spent too much time frozen in the same place. The guard had grown tired of it.

I knew the routine. We were to strip down, shower, and change into clean prison garb. A humiliating process, designed to strip away any sense of dignity we had left.

Even though this was my first time doing it, I knew the process. It was far from a secret.

My fingers fumbled as I tried to remove my jumpsuit, my hands trembling. I could feel their eyes on me, taking in my every move. I wanted to shrink into myself, to disappear from their leering gazes.

They were watching me and making sure they didn't miss a single thing about me. It felt like they wanted to do more than just look at me. I was trying everything so they didn't beat me up. It seemed that wasn't going to work.

"Well, well, what do we have here?" A deep voice, mocking me, cut through the room. I recognized it as belonging to Vance, one of the more formidable inmates. Mateo had kind of told me about him, so I knew who he was. I wished I didn't, but in this environment, it was better to know everybody, even though most of them were nasty.

He stood at the forefront of the group, his arms crossed over his broad chest. "Looks like we got ourselves a little omega."

And, of course, just by looking at me, they knew I was an omega.

Laughter erupted from the group, their eyes gleaming with cruel amusement. I bit my lip, my cheeks burning with shame. I wanted to run, to hide, but there was nowhere to go. I also wanted to punch all of them until they were not breathing anymore, but I knew I couldn't do that.

With shaking fingers, I finished undoing the buttons and let the jumpsuit slide from my shoulders. It was relieving, to say the least.

I stood there, my body bare, feeling utterly exposed. I hunched my shoulders, trying to cover myself, but it was futile. There wasn't anything I could do. I was exposed and they could look at every part of me.

The thought of doing this every day made me feel like killing myself.

Their gazes devoured me, their eyes taking in every inch of my form. I knew I was different, but they had no right to be staring so much at me. They couldn't touch me. The guards were looking at what was happening. The inmates wouldn't try something so stupid.

"Look at those ribs, boys. I bet he ain't eaten a decent meal in his life!" Vance's voice boomed, and the laughter grew louder. I felt my face flush, my eyes stinging with the threat of tears.

They didn't know anything about me. I was rich before coming here. I was accustomed to the best food possible in the world.

"Leave him be." The deep, gravelly voice of Mateo cut through the room, a surprising reprieve from the torment. Wait, what? What was he doing here? He wasn't supposed to be in the shower room. At least, going by what he told me, he wasn't going to shower today.

I glanced over to see him standing at the entrance, his eyes fixed on Vance with a warning glare. A fight could erupt between the two despite the guards being here.

Vance smirked, his eyes narrowing. "Looks like someone's taken a shine to the new boy. You sure you wanna protect him, Solstice? He don't look like he can take much." His words were laced with innuendo, suggesting something more between Mateo and me. I wondered what it was, but couldn't say anything about it.

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