Page 31 of Bound to the Guard

Damien sucks in a sharp breath. “You know where you were being held?”

“Those who buy Omegas don’t think of us like people. We’re pets or lab rats, used up and discarded like trash when there’s nothing left to squeeze out.” I run my fingers over the piano keys. “Owning someone makes them over-confident. Like gods our worlds orbit around. They forget to keep the blinds shut,forget to put on the blindfold, because why bother when we can’t run?”

My hand lifts to touch my arm, where Dr. Walton took out the stitches earlier in the week. “And even if we do run, we’re chipped like animals and easy enough to retrieve.”

This is a feeling I’ve been working on with my therapist, but it’s still difficult when I face Damien again. “But we’re not animals, and we’re not so broken that we can’t be put back together.”

“No, you’re not, sweetheart,” he agrees, a hardness to his features I’ve only seen once before, when he planned to destroy the compound where Jade and I were kept. “And if you tell me where to find these men, I will burn their lives to the ground.”

My pulse quickens. “I don’t care about the second and third owners, but can I be present when you question the Doctor?”

He appraises me. “If that’s what you need.”

My hands curl into fists. “I want to see him bleed. For him to knowI’mthe reason for his pain.”

“Then that’s what you’ll have,” he promises.

10

Damien leads me into Sebastian’s domain, a room filled with wall-to-wall high-tech equipment, screens flashing with code and maps. The hum of servers fills the air, the sterile, almost clinical room reminding me of?—

No.I push the memories down to focus on Sebastian’s broad back. He leans over a desk littered with computer parts, his fingers flying across a keyboard.

He glances over his shoulder at us, then lowers his eyes when he spots me. “Hey, what can I do for you two?”

Damien’s hand rests on the small of my back, lending me strength. “Seven thought that if he could give you details about the places where he was held, you could use the information to locate them.”

Sebastian spins all the way around, his scarred face twisting with disbelief. “Why didn’t you tell us this sooner?”

Damien growls, and his cousin spins back to his desk. “Sorry, trauma. I get it. What details do you remember?”

Damien leads me over to a spare chair and sits, drawing me down onto his lap and tugging the blanket up.

I weave our fingers together, and my throat clicks when I swallow. “T-the first place… the scientist’s lab…” Shuddering, I squeeze Damien’s hand tighter. “It was underground, with narrow windows near the ceiling covered in bars. The air always smelled like chemicals and bleach.”

Sebastian types, pulling up a program I don’t recognize. “Good. What else? Any sounds from outside? Weather conditions? Landmarks?”

“Trains. And it never got warm, not even in summer.” As the memories resurface, I curl into Damien. “Across the street was a red brick building with a green metal roof. The sign had the letters E-S-T-O-R on it.”

That sign had been a beacon of hope for me. So many times, I wondered what the business was and if the people inside ever wondered what happened in the building across the street.

“Perfect.” Sebastian works his magic, satellite images and street maps flashing across the screen as he narrows down locations.

Awe fills me at the information pulled up by swift taps of his fingertips.

“What else?” Sebastian asks. “I need everything you remember, no matter how small. Tell me about your cell.”

I shiver as the memories threaten to drag me under, but I force the words out. “It was small. Concrete. A cot bolted to the wall. The door…the door was metal. With a slot at the bottom for food. I never saw any other Omegas…”

Echoes of the isolation, the hopeless despair, creep up my spine, and I hold Damien’s hand with both of mine now, needing him to anchor me. I’m not there. I’m safe.

Sebastian works, his fingers flying over the keys, eyes darting across the screens, in his element, a master of his craft.

“You’re very good at this,” I venture, sounding small in the humming electricity of the room.

Sebastian pauses, a flicker of surprise crossing his scarred face. “It’s what I do.”

I chew on my lip. The memories of the lab, the Doctor, the experiments, they all churn in my mind, a nauseating kaleidoscope. It takes effort to sift through them, searching for anything that might help.

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