Page 44 of Craving Their Omega

I wonder if he can feel it too. If he can feel the way the moment stretches, the way the tension builds.

If he can, he doesn’t show any signs of it. Instead he’s calm and collected, but just as intense as always. He holds my gaze for a moment longer and then turns to head up the stairs, leaving me down there alone for a moment.

I hold the jacket close to me, trying to make sense of the moment. Dominic doesn’t seem to half ass anything, and he rarely seems unsure, so he must really mean what he said. But why?

His motivations are unclear, and it doesn’t seem like a good idea to chase him down to ask. Instead I just make my way up to my own room, closing the door softly. I lean against it for a minute, just trying to collect myself.

There was something in Dominic’s eyes down there. Something almost… possessive. Something almost pleased. I don’t know why and I don’t know what it means, but it’s hard not to think about it.

As I get ready for bed, going to shower and change, all I can think about is the way he looked at me and the feeling of his jacket around me. Even when I’m bundled under the covers to sleep, it’s not far from my mind.

Chapter 16

Penelope

In the darkness, I can’t move.

I struggle, but it feels like I’m trying to drag myself through molasses, something thick and heavy. All I can see are walls, made of unyielding stone, and when I reach one of them, I run my hands over it, trying to find some opening, some way out. But it holds firm. It’s solid, with no breaks, and no matter which way I turn, there’s nothing but more walls holding me in.

I have no idea where I am, but I feel lost and panicked. The feeling of being trapped makes it hard to breathe. I search for a window, a crack, anything that will at least let me get some air, but there’s nothing. Just endless stretches of nothing.

I try to run, but I don’t get far. Taking steps is twice as hard as it should be, and I just can’t seem to get any distance. Everything looks exactly the same, dark, bleak. There’s no light to guide my way, and the stone of the walls is icy cold, burning my hands with frost after a while.

When I open my mouth to call out to someone, no sound comes out. I try to scream and it’s the same thing. I feel the cry building in my chest, clawing its way out of my throat, but it’s silent.

Tears of fear and frustration well in my eyes, and I try not to start hyperventilating. There has to be a way out of here. There has to be something I can try.

I spin in a desperate circle, but it’s all the same, and I’m right back where I started, no progress made.

“Did you think you were worth it?” a voice asks, harsh and cutting.

I stumble back, caught off guard. Again, when I try to call out to the voice, no sound comes out of my mouth.

“Stupid,” the voice says. “Always so fucking stupid.”

“Weak,” another voice cuts in, just as cold and cruel as the first. “You were always so weak. You couldn’t do anything on your own, could you?”

“That’s not true!” I say. I try to say. My mouth moves on the words at the very least.

The voices laugh in unison. “Yeah, right,” one of them sneers. “You wouldn’t know if it was true or not. You can’t even see how pathetic you are.”

A third voice joins in, or maybe it’s a blend of the first two. At this point I can’t tell. “You’re disgusting. No one in their right mind would want to touch you. No one would even miss you if you stayed here. Who would care?”

The laughter gets louder, more intense, and I stumble back, trying to get away. But the sound is coming from everywhere now. It echoes against the stone, reverberating until it’s all I can hear.

I slam my hands over my ears, trying to block it out, but it doesn’t do any good.

“Weak! Stupid! Ugly! Fat! Broken!” The words come rapid fire now, each one echoed over and over again. It’s a chorus of cruelty, of all the worst things I could ever think about myself.

I take off running again, and while I can move a little better now than I could before, it’s not like the distance does meany good. The sound is coming from all around, and the way forward is the same as everything behind me. I’m trapped here, forced to listen as the abuse gets louder and louder.

And then I stumble. My foot catches on something on the ground and it pitches me forward, sending me to the ground in a heap. I try to struggle back to my feat, but what’s the point?

There’s nowhere to go, no one here to save me. I can’t even fight back because I have no voice in this place. All I can do is listen as the words drown out the sound of my harsh breathing and my frantic heartbeat.

I crawl to a corner of whatever this place is and tuck myself in as small as I can, keeping my hands over my ears.

The voices just keep laughing. They keep mocking me. “Stupid little girl,” one taunts. “Hide away from it all. That’s all you’re good for, isn’t it? Run and hide like a baby.”

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