Page 21 of Omega Shattered
River soaped up and washed himself down, not adjusting the temperature at all. Maybe it only felt cool to me because I was so warm.
"I think I'm getting sick," I told him. "The snow, the wet . . . it must have made me sick."
"Maybe. Or you're trying to entice the alphas in this house to knot you so we won't take you back to the ORC." His eyes hardened as he looked down at me, absently rubbing a hand over his chest. "You will not take advantage of my brothers."
Part of me wanted to say, "And you?" But I pressed my lips together and nodded. "Okay. I'm not trying to do anything." If anything, I wanted to get out of here and far, far away from all these alphas.
"I'm done," I said quietly, wanting to get away from this huge alpha.
"I don't think you are. You're perfuming and slicking all over. You're horny as fuck." He shook his head. "Why don't I give you an orgasm, you calm your ass down and we can get some sleep."
"Wh-what?" I stared at him. He hated me. He was taking be back to the center. And now . . . he was offering to get me off?
"That's what you want, right? To cum?" He looked bored. "I can do that. Fingers only. We'll get it done fast and you can get to bed and stop with this nonsense."
My body was nonsense to him. Half of me wanted to slap the man for being so insufferable, the other half wanted to take him up on the offer.
In the end, my stubbornness won out. "Fuck you!"
He looked surprised. Had he really thought I would just fall at his feet because he was an alpha?
I pushed past him, ignoring his half-hard length and got out of the shower. In the time it took me to dry off, River finished hisshower and turned off the water. He grabbed another towel and stepped out.
"The offer was real. We'll both sleep better."
"You hate me, I hate you. There's no reason to think we should have anything to do with each other aside from this kidnapping," I snapped.
"Kidnapping?" He snorted. "That's rich. You ran away. You're in that center for a reason, you know! You couldn't be a good omega for your pack and they decided to cut their losses. I don't blame them."
"What about the alphas?" I asked, trying to hold back my tears. Why was I so damn emotional? I mentally steeled myself and gave him a disdainful look. "What happens to alphas when they're bad? Oh, right, nothing."
River froze, his hands in his hair, drying it with a hand towel. Then he slowly lowered it, his eyes darkening, if that was even possible.
"What alphas?"
"Does it matter? It's always the omega who's labeled the problem!"
"Did your pack hurt you?" he growled. "Is that why you ran away?"
"It doesn't matter." I rummaged through the clothes on the counter, digging out a t-shirt, black of course. Pulling it on over my head, I fought back the tears and the memories. How dare this man drag those experiences up again?
The shirt fell to my knees, just an indication of how big River really was. I pulled my hair back and braided it so it wouldn't soak me all night, then left the bathroom.
He followed me as I curled up on top of the blankets, still too warm to bother slipping under them. Flipping my pillow, I relaxed into the cool side and closed my eyes, determined toignore River. He wouldn't believe me anyway if I told him what had happened.
But he didn't go to sleep like I'd hoped. Instead, he sprawled out on his back and stared at me. I was facing away, but I could feel his eyes piercing my back.
"What did your pack do?" he demanded.
"What are you going to do if I tell you?" I asked. "Will you magically not take me back to the center? No, you're still going to drag me there, kicking and screaming and pat yourself on the back for a job well-done."
He was quiet for a moment. "You're safe in the ORC. They'll help you find a pack that fits your needs."
"God, you really believe that, don't you?" I flipped over to glare at him in the dim lamp light. "You think the center is there to help omegas?"
"It is."
"Okay, sure. It's all for our benefit." Twisting to lie on my back, I stared at the ceiling. There was a lone glowing star up there. This really had been a nursery before.
