Page 26 of Shadowlands Omega

My hand hangs suspended, reaching for where Finn was. I watch the door shut behind him. A black, carved piece of wood. It’s beautiful and austere, severe and cold. Everything that is Lord Yaron.But in the icy rain, he was so warm…

Yaron wants me to look at him. I can feel it like I can feel the grime on my skin. I look at the sheets instead until the force of his rage pulses so hot, I have to close my eyes against it. I clench everything together. My sanity, my fear, my fists. He comes to the edge of the bed.

Silence hangs between us like a noose. With his next words, he loops the killing end around my neck. “You do not seem well.”

Rage surges between us, but it’s mine this time. I inhale deeply, feeling the painful tinglings of aches and healing wounds all over. “I’m not well. I don’t know where my family is.”

He shifts his weight between his feet. Another wall of silence and animosity builds between us. “You know where they are.”

“And that’s why I’m not well.”

“Be that as it may, you know I am referring to your healing process. Physically, you also seem unwell.”

“Why does…” I choke. I mean to sound strong, but I’m really scared, angry, and uncomfortable. I turn my face away from him and stare at the curtains. The thick, black outer curtains are partly pulled back to reveal a gauzy, translucent curtain that lets in light but prevents me from seeing anything of the outside world. “I’m a prisoner,my Lord. I don’t see why you’d care about my physical state.”

He makes a sound in the back of his throat and I know it’s because he didn’t like the way I called him what I called him and I know that it was boorish, but I can’t help it. I’m scared and I’m pissed off and I know it doesn’t matter. He’s going to return me to the dungeons at some point. What…happened between us in the woods…that was just once. That was just to sate my heat. I’m nothing to him, clearly, less than nothing — not even a no-name peasant, but an accomplished criminal and a bloodthirsty killer.Right.

“You are also an Omega.”Riiiiight. That, too. “It is the duty of an Alpha Lord to ensure the safety and security of the Omegas in his charge.” He recites the words as if he read them somewhere once and has them memorized.

I snort even though I don’t mean to. He growls low, but I don’t react to it except to tense further, knotting my arms across the blanket I have pulled up to my chest. “I am safe and secure, so you don’t need to worry yourself. You can leave me to rot in this prison, knowing you’ve upheld your duty as Shadow Lord.”

I’m speaking to Lord Yaron petulantly. It makes me want to bite off my own tongue. I’d never disgrace myself in this way. Never. My family would be horrified. But there’s a good chance they’re already dead, tortured, brutalized…and even if they aren’t, it doesn’t seem like Yaron has any intent to reunite us, so they’ll never know anyways. I don’t cry. I won’t cry. I refuse to cry in front of him.

He takes another step. It’s loud. Leather-soled boots, I’d imagine. They’re huge. He has enormous feet and hands, and that’s without the claws. Everything about him is larger than life. And yet…this male, imposing in any form…I’ve seen him kneel before.

“Does this look like a prison to you?”

“I think…” I swallow and when I answer, my voice is soft, a direct response to the sudden flash of vulnerability I thought I heard in his tone. “It feels like a prison. It could look like anything.”

Quiet falls like an axe this time, the one he carries. He shuffles again and I spare a single glance up to see him roughly running his hand over his face before carding his fingers through his hair. He glances around and I look down quickly, scared to get caught in his steel-eyed snare. “Is there some…temporary adjustment that could be made to increase your comfort?”

“You know what I require to be comfortable,” I mumble, though what I really want to say is, why do you care? He’s told me already that I mean nothing more to him than the obligation any other ruling Alpha would have to an unclaimed Omega in their territory. His asking me now…borders on cruelty. I didn’t think he’d be cruel, our Lord. I thought he’d be severe, sure, and fair, but not cruel. But it’s been cruel, his questions, and his visits, keeping me constantly on edge and yet depriving me of information, of assurances…

…of clothing and a bath…

…of sunlight.

I glance to the window, but he steps between it and me, scattering the little light that there is and casting a shadow that covers me completely. Another cruelty, this one slight. “You know I can’t do that.”

I fist the sheets over my thighs. “Youcando that, but you choose not to, Lord.”

“You are not a simpleton. You understand why.”

“I must be a simpleton, then, because I don’t understand.” And this is the part that I’ve been trying to avoid. The one coming on for days now. The part where I start to cry. I bite my bottom lip hard enough to hurt so that I don’t choke. “You believe us killers, fine, but we are a family of killers. A family. I should be at their side.”

“You’d rather be with them in the dungeons than here…” He scoffs and looks away. I glance up again. His cheeks are ruddy, likely with anger. It makes me nervous. I don’t like it. I’m afraid of it, of him, of this.

“Yes. I’d rather to be anywhere with them than anywhere else with anyone else.”

“In lieu of my locking you in the dungeons, is there something else?”

“Just to see them would be enough.”

“I’m not taking you to the dungeons and my word is final.” He raises his voice and I jump. My lower lip quivers. I stroke my hair again — my head — and shiver. “Something else. Anything else. Please.”

Please. He said please.

I shudder violently now and cover my face with both hands. I press the heels of my palms to my eyes and try to remember that my family committed crimes, heinous crimes, and that justice needs to be doled out. He is their Lord. How he deals justice is his prerogative and if he chooses not to include me in this…part — or if this is my penance — then I will have to bear it.And he said please. I truly am a simpleton if I’m swayed by that.

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