Page 7 of Petals and Strings
Theo wasn’t one to threaten us as often as the guards and nurses, but he still had to follow procedures to keep his job. Plus, I genuinely think he enjoys keeping us in line. The beta liked being above a bunch of alphas and omegas.
Maybe even the few betas here as well.
It was all about power and influence. I’m sure on the outside, in the real world, he was fawned over. The selfless therapist working with all these broken souls. I’m sure he liked that attention.
“You eat or we have a meeting about it,” he warned me again, his voice sharp and louder so I’d listen. “That’s three meals you’ve skipped this week alone, Ansel. It’s too late tonight, dinner is over, but I don’t want this to happen again.”
My head dropped so I was staring at the floor. With a deep breath I forced my eyes to look up at him and nod once.
Understood. I wasn’t stupid enough to think he wouldn’t follow through on that warning. He always backed up his word.
Some days, it was impossible to handle all the noise and it wasn’t like there was a way to shut them all out. Even if I could, their scents were strong enough to overwhelm me.
A slow, steady squeaking had both of us looking to the hallway where they wheeled a girl strapped to a wheelchair down the hall.
Her head lolled, eyes vacant. She’d clearly been hit with the Dr. Malik cocktail from her shiny new bracelet.
The omega’s blonde hair was dirty and limp, smudges of dirt lining every inch of her skin and clothes that I could see. Bandages wrapped around her feet, blood seeping through the white in spots.
It was painfully familiar.
I might not have fought them when I came here, but I was covered in bruises and blood.
Some of us showed our trauma on our skin, others were lost in their heads.
The others slowly started to drift out of their rooms. Kane had a smile on his face as he watched the newcomer join us. His dark dreads swung around him as he shifted in place. For him, his mind blocked the trauma he endured, giving him a constant sway of emotions.
Usually ignorance was bliss and I couldn’t fault him for that.
Wouldn’t we all escape if we could?
Ledger loomed near his door, arms crossed and glaring at the guards. His expression was always angry but he didn’t waft off those awful alpha pheromones. The man was generally in control. He’d have acted his way right out the front doors if not for the court mandate on him.
Rydell was inside his room, leaning against his wall, fists clenched and teeth bared. Feral, they said. I’d been warned when they first placed us but he didn’t scare me like the others.
Maybe because he never really saw me, just looked over me as if I didn’t matter. It was strange, but reassuring.
That didn’t mean I trusted him, just that I could be near him without losing my mind.
I stood frozen on the spot, lingering in my doorway as the others drifted off to the common area and their own rooms.
For some reason I couldn’t move. My gaze watching and waiting for the new girl to wake up.
Chapter Four
Audrey
“Wake up, dear,” a woman’s voice had me stirring. My eyes felt too heavy to open, crusty and burning with the remnants of whatever they gave me.
My pack. Where were they?
“Up we go,” she tried again. Light flooded the room as she unceremoniously yanked open the curtains. “You’ve been here a day already. That sedative kicked your butt.”
She let out a little string of laughter like this was a fucking joke.
When the court required me to stay I never expected to be treated like some crazy omega. All I wanted was my pack and I couldn’t wrap my mind around why everyone was acting this way.
The nurse treated me like a doll when I didn’t move, lifting me to sitting and dragging me to the chair. My mind was still sofoggy that it felt like the world around me was moving in slow motion.
