Page 27 of Sweetheart: Part One

After a long drive, during which the silence and stillness left me alone with imaginative dread for what was about to happen, the engine shut off.

I was led from the car, and Wheatgrass took my arm in his, as if I were his partner. We were outside, and I almost felt tears break free as light rain touched my cheek.

How long since I'd been outdoors?

I could hear the click of my heels beneath me, and on another day that sound would bring a smile to my face. I’d always loved an opportunity to dress up. Heels weren’t often my first choice, but I dated like a hobby, and some dates called for heels.

I would never go on a date again.

That realisation was like a gut punch. Countless days and nights in a musty cell, singing to myself and holding on to hope. And all of it would die tonight.

Soon enough, I was met with warm air as we walked back inside. As we stepped across the soft carpet, I thought I could perhaps hear voices through the walls. It was, undoubtedly, people chatting.

The public...?

Right there...

The alpha must have seen the slightest tilt of my head toward the sound.

“Be aware.” He sounded almost bored. “I’d snap your fragile little neck before risking getting caught.”

I failed to catch the shaky breath of a laugh before it slipped out. My movement had been instinct, but nothing more. I hadn’t forgotten the gun in his belt.

Still, his words broke a long silence between us, and I finally found my voice, faint and shaky as it was. “I’m… being bought?”

I needed to hear it before this journey ended. Before I was met by the reality itself.

He drew us to a stop, and there was faint music around us now, as if we were in a lobby of some kind.

Wheatgrass let out a lowhmm, that could possibly be a yes. “You’re fetching a rather obscene amount, and they don’t care if you’re broken in. So don’t test me.”

So… yes.

I was being sold.

For a second, it felt like there was nothing keeping me upright but his arm around my waist. If I could see, I was sure the world would be spinning.

I had to keep it together.

Escape wasn’t a thought, not with a blindfold and heels. Not with the gun.

But maybe… Could I prepare, somehow? Might there be a better chance of escape when I’d met them?

Where were we right now?

A place in which a blindfolded omega on an alphas arm was not enough to stand out.

And what would this pack be like?

He’d said they didn’t care if I was broken in. What did that mean?

Was there any hope at all, that perhaps, they weren’t so bad?

My throat was closing up thinking about it, and I focused on my breathing. There couldn’t be much of an intersection between good people, and packs willing to buy an omega.

The scents around me were faint, alphas and omegas who had passed through, but no one seemed to be here now.

I used to love alpha-spotting when I’d go out, pretending to be a beta. How many perfect packs had I built for myself with the lone alphas in my neighbourhood. I'd always liked the idea of being the centre of a pack. The one who started it, the alphas having to bite in through me.

---