Page 4 of The Alpha: Part Two
He won’t be deterred. “If I tell her to eat, she will damn well eat, Elijah. Pick up your fork, Desir’ee.”
She glares at him, a small snarl lifting her top lip. “Don’t call me that.”
“Why not?” he laughs. “It is your name, isn’t it? Eat the goddamned steak, Desir’ee.”
She grips the edge of her plate and narrows her eyes. “Don’t call me that.”
Ernesto takes a sip of his wine and gently places the glass back down beside his plate.
“Ernesto,” I start, but he holds up a hand.
He smiles across the table at Desir’ee, but there’s no warmth in it. “I’ll call you whatever I want to call you, Desir’ee. And youwilleat your dinner. You’ve wasted enough of my food and time. Get over whatever this is and stop pouting. You have a job to do and you’re going to do it.”
“What job?” she asks, her eyes narrowing even further.
“You are here to be my omega, and it’s time you start acting like it. Stop your silly moping and do what you’re here to do.”
She stands suddenly with her plate in her hand. “I am not your omega,” she hisses. “I will never be your omega.”
Ernesto doesn’t stand up, but he flattens his hands on the table. “You are my omega, Desir’ee.”
“Don’t call me that,” she seethes.”Only Seth calls me that. And I am not your omega.”
She’s going to do something foolish. I can see it. She’s going to do something that will get her hurt. “She’s to be our omega, Ernesto. She just needs a little more time,” I say, simultaneously trying to soothe his pride and remind her that we haven’t done anything to change her status yet. It’s the only thing I can think of that might diffuse the situation.
Ernesto moves his angry glare to me. “She’smyomega before she’souromega. Don’t forget that, Elijah. I brought her here and I will decide what she does and when she does it.” He returns his attention to her. “Sit down and eat, Desir’ee. Don’t make me tell you again.”
“Don’t call me that!” she screams, and hurls the plate across the table at him.
I’m not fast enough. Ernesto is on his feet and striding around the table before I’m even fully standing, and the sound of the slap he gives her bounces off the walls. Her eyes fill with tears that don’t fall, the hand print already angry on her cheek by the time I reach her side. I start to pull her away and out of the room, but Ernesto wraps his hand around her wrist.
“Sit down, Elijah,” he orders, his voice heavy with command. It isn’t an alpha command, he doesn’t try to use those on me anymore. He still uses them on James, Bryant and the others, but not me. I look from him to Desir’ee, but outside of trying to physically pull her away from him, which will cause more damage than good at this point, I can’t do much. I grit my teeth and move back to my seat. He holds eye contact the whole time I’m making my way back to my seat, only breaking it once I’m back in my chair. Then he says, “giveouromega the rest of your dinner, Elijah. She hasn’t eaten for days and we need her well cared for.”
I do it. I do it even though I know what’s about to happen. There will be no coming back from this. There is no way to move past this moment into an arrangement that would allow her to willingly be our omega. I slide my plate into the place hers was in before she threw it and I wait for the inevitable.
“Sit down, Desir’ee,” Ernesto says, his voice full to bursting with alpha command.
She sits, rage evident in her eyes.
“Pick up the fork, Desir’ee,” he orders.
She picks up my fork, and clenches her jaws so tightly that I hear her teeth gnash.
“Eat every single bite of food on that plate, Desir’ee. Don’t get up from that spot until you do.”
“I hate you,” she whispers, as she cuts into the steak on the plate.
By the time she finishes eating, her tears are freely falling. Ernesto sat beside her the whole time, watching her chew and swallow every bite she took, and now that she’s finished he’s smiling at her.
“Was that so bad?” he asks.
She doesn’t answer. Her cheek and eye are swollen and she’s even more pallid now than she was at the beginning of this wretched meal.
“Go to your room, Desir’ee,” he says, still smiling at her.
She stands up and walks out of the room, leaving me to weigh the consequences to her if I say a single word of the many things I want to launch at him. We sit in silence for a long time, then he breaks it with a self-suffering sigh.
“What, Elijah?”
