Page 61 of Petals and Strings
“Tell me about that,” she said as she leaned against the wall. There was a clipboard in her hands and she’d been fidgeting with the pen, the annoying click, click, click, ready to send me into another rage.
“I’m turning feral, didn’t they tell you?” I asked, cocking my head to the side. It only made her twitch more, all too aware that she’d entered the lion’s den. “That forced bond didn’t do anything to help that.”
“F-forced bond?” she asked. I had to hand it to her. She was trying to get me to share, to work through things.
“Yeah. You see, when you stick a whole boarding school of potentially feral alphas together, bad things happen. My family name and being the new guy who didn’t want to interact with anyone else, earned me my fair share of attacks. When I retaliated it fueled more of that fire. I was overwhelmed, tied down, and they brought in a little, sweet omega… just like you. Stuck her with some heat drugs, got her out of her mind, and she bit me.”
The therapist looked even more green now than when she walked in, her hands clinging to her clipboard as hard as she could.
Too bad I wasn’t done. She wanted me to feel it, I would feel it. My filters were fucking gone.
Maybe it would get me the fuck out of here.
“She took what her body told her it needed, my own body giving it to her even though I wanted to fuckingdie.”
Her intake of breath was enough to fuel me on. There was a rising cruelty inside of me. Iwantedto inflict this pain on her, to show her what she’d walked into.
To punish her like I’d been punished.
“Hell, she nearly did, but I was tied down and couldn’t do much to save her once the others got to her. By the time theyfound us and saved her, breaking our bond in the hospital and pulling me out, I was deemed unsafe, despite being a victim. Now here I am, forced into isolation for saving an omega from yet another predator.”’
Her eyes widened even more and she tried to speak, but her mouth only opened and closed a few times with no words escaping.
“I’m not going to just stop being feral because I talk about what happened,” I warned her. “This is my fucking life. I’ve never had a say in it, and likely legally never will. It’s just how things are.”
“Many alphas with that feral gene live long lives.”
My hollow laughter echoed around her and she took a step closer to the door, ready to flee.
I gave her an unhinged smile that felt wrong on my face. “What’s wrong? Am I too much to handle?”
Her eyes narrowed but she swallowed hard as I rose to my feet. I was broad and tall, easily towering over most alphas.
Did I do it to scare her off? Yes.
I was done with this interaction. She had no right to walk in here and try to fucking force me to talk this out.
This time my actions were justified.
Just like last time.
I’d never once hurt anyone who didn’t deserve it.
She let out a squeak of pure, unfiltered fear and rushed out of the room. Her badge couldn’t swipe fast enough before she was out of the door like her ass was on fire.
The resounding thud of the door sliding closed and the lock engaging had me sinking back to the ground.
My stomach churned and I let my eyes slide closed as I pictured Audrey. She was safe with the others, but this place wasn’t good for her.
I fucking wished I could take her and run. Find a place out in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by nature and peace.
The reality was there was nothing I could do to make that happen. Once you walked into the doors of Ash Recovery Center, you didn’t walk out.
That was for the short-term people.
I was trapped, like always.
We weren’t getting out of here alive unless we managed to break free. That wasn’t an option.
