Page 20 of Petals and Strings
She could be wild and untamed. If I managed to get her out of this prison.
“We’ll find out,” I said. “The only way to figure it out is to face those demons and conquer them. I’ll fight mine as well. Anything to leave.”
“Tell me something about you, Ledger,” she requested. I had a feeling she simply needed a change in subject but I was willing to humor her.
“I love being outside. Camping. Hiking. Our mansion was surrounded by this forest that felt endless back then. I’d spend every moment I could out there. When I was old enough I’d escape for weekends as far as I could get from home. Explore in a place untouched byhim. Learning how to survive in thewilderness, embracing it and honoring it. The closest I get now is this and the conservatory.”
“I saw that on the way in,” she said. “My parents had this flower garden when I was little. My dad called me petal because he always found them in my wild hair. She’d get so mad, but it was my happy place. I’ll have to visit the conservatory.”
“You’ll like it,” I said. “Someday when we escape, we can go to a botanical garden. They have more than you could imagine.”
“I’ve never been,” she said, then turned to me, a smile playing over her plush lips. “Bold of you to assume we’d leave together.”
“Who else will protect you out there?”
“Me?” she asked, but I could see the conflict there.
“I’ll win you over by then,” I said, as if my inner promise to keep my distance meant nothing. Sitting here, hearing only a glimpse of her past, I knew it was all going to crumble.
She was mine and I’d make sure she knew it even outside of these walls.
Chapter Eight
Rydell
The walls were closing in around me. It was too fucking dark in here. My skin was crawling and my stomach growled angrily. It forced my mind right back to that fucking empty classroom.
To the omega who smelled like rotten strawberries.
To them.
Fuck!
I lashed out, my fist slamming into my cinderblock wall. Pain lanced through my knuckles and warm blood trickled down the wall and my skin. It helped fight off my anger at the injustices I’d been forced into.
The label they put on me that caused more damage than I ever could have on my own.
I hit the wall again, my skin splitting and crumbled cement raining down on the floor. Another divot for my wall.
The bracelet on my wrist gave a warning buzz at my elevated vitals, forcing me to breathe deep and calm my racing heart and mind.
The clock on the wall ticked slowly, counting the minutes past midnight.
With a sigh, I shoved open my door and stalked the empty hall. I made it no more than a few steps when I slammed into an invisible wall. A scent tickled at my nose, spoke to my anger-riddled brain.
Mine.
Ours.
Omega.
It wasn’t hard to spot her. A flash of blonde hair spilling over the side of the chair she was curled up in. I rounded, needing to see her face more than I needed another breath.
Small. She looked so tiny in that chair, the one that was a bit uncomfortable for me to fold my large frame into.
The omega’s eyes were scanning slowly over the page, her focus fully on the book in her hands. My first thought was that it wasn’t safe to get lost like that.
She didn’t even notice me standing here.
