The White Omega: Hell's Bears MC Book 2 Page 4

  “I want you to tell me your story,” Dan says, his eyes narrowed as if he’s going to read me like a complicated novel.

  “I don’t really have a story,” I say.

  “You came to be here somehow. Tell me how.”

  I can’t see that any good will come from concealing this, so I tell him the story. “I ran away from my pack near Blind River. They never treated me well, my whole life was difficult with them. Painful. I wanted my freedom. The opportunity to run presented itself and I took it, knowing it might be years before I got another chance. But I made a mistake.” I think back to Bradley, the wolf, picking me up from the side of the road, and I hear my voice crack as I continue. How could I have been so stupid? “I put my faith in the wrong person,” I say. “He took advantage of my vulnerability to bring me here. He took away my chance for freedom.”

  Dan steeples his fingers. “I see.”

  “Sir,” I say, knowing this is the moment, the only chance I’m going to get. “Please. I beg you. I know you paid good money for me, and I don’t want you to be taken advantage of the way I was. Let me buy my freedom. Let me get a job and earn money. I’ll pay you back for what you spent on me, and then you can let me go my own way. You won’t have lost anything. I just want the chance to live.”

  “We need to confer,” Dan says, pointing to Miles and the woman who brought me in, beckoning them forward. They approach his recliner and squat down to either side of it, heads together, talking in low voices.

  I take the moment to examine the others in the room. Not counting me and the three around the chair, there are five of them. Two look near my own age—a reddish brown haired guy and a girl with a loose braid running down her back. They’re each perched on either arm of a second armchair and watching me with unashamed interest, as if I’m the best thing on television. Meanwhile, behind them on a couch, an old, gray-haired man stares at the actual television. He doesn’t seem to have noticed anything else is happening in the room at all. I wonder idly, for a moment, if it’s galling for this man to be the most senior person in the pack and yet not be the alpha, to have to take orders from someone so much younger than he is.

  The remaining two people in the group are a man and woman who appear to be in their mid-forties. As I take them in, I realize they’re flanking the door through which I came in, standing like guards. I wonder, suddenly, what would happen if I attempted to leave through that door. It seems pretty obvious that they’re positioned to stop me. How much force would they use? Are they authorized to kill me?

  Except for the other young woman and I, Dan is the smallest person in the room by far. He’s also among the youngest—he looks like he’s in his late twenties. How, I wonder, did that happen? And why is everyone comfortable with him being in power? I feel like, if this were the pack I came from, there would have been a coup by now.

  The huddle at the front of the room breaks up. Dan looks up at me. “Miles tells me you’re an omega,” he says. “Is he right?”

  I don’t want to admit it. I know that’s just going to get me into more trouble. Didn’t Aiden, and Sinclair before him, always warn me what would happen if anyone in the outside world discovered I was an omega?

  “I’ll know if you lie to me,” Dan says, his eyes narrowing again. “That won’t end well for you, girl. Believe me.”

  And I do believe him. Despite his size and age, he is terrifying.

  “Yes,” I say quietly. “It’s true. I’m an omega.”

  Dan nods. “Then I’m sorry,” he says, “but we can’t grant your request. We can’t let you go. As you can see, our numbers are low, and we need to grow our pack. Another bear omega is an asset we simply can’t pass up at this stage.” He turns to the woman who brought me into the room. “Take her back to the guest room and lock her in, Luce.”

  The woman—Luce, I guess—dispassionately takes my arm. I fall into step automatically, but I feel as if my heart has stopped and my brain has left my body. All that trouble—fleeing my old pack, running away—and nothing has changed. I’m going to be bred by a pack that doesn’t give a damn about me anyway.

  Maybe, for an omega, there is no escape.

  Chapter Eight

  Luce stops in front of the door to the room I was locked in earlier. “Do you need a bathroom?” she asks.

  “Yes.” I do, but I would have said yes either way. I need a moment of privacy, a moment alone to feel like myself.

  Luce points to the next door over. “I’ll be right out here,” she says. The tone of her voice sounds harmless, like she’s just letting me know where she’s going to be in case I need anything, but I hear the warning in her words. I shouldn’t try to run, because she’ll be here. She’ll be watching the exit.

  I pull open the door and go inside. This room is much better cared for than the room with the futon—the so-called guest room. I realize they must never use that room. That’s the only explanation for the state it’s in. Here, meanwhile, the light is bright again and the towels on the rod are fluffy and clean. I wash my hands and face and then stare in the mirror, hardly able to believe the decline in my situation. I wish heartily that I was back in Blind River, back with my old pack. They were awful, but at least they were awful in ways I understood. I feel a pang of nostalgia for my little bedroom in that house. It had no lock, but at least it didn’t lock from the outside. It wasn’t decorated to my taste, but at least it was familiar.

  I stay in the bathroom as long as I can, but eventually, I know I have to go out or I’ll risk Luce coming in after me. I open the door and, right away, she maneuvers me into the ugly guest room.

  “Wait,” I say desperately as she starts to leave. “What’s going to happen next? When will I be let out? You’re not going to keep me in here forever, are you?”

  “I’m not keeping you anywhere,” Luce says. “I’m acting on orders from my alpha. You heard him give the order. You’ll go in here because he says so, and you’ll come out when he gives that order. There’s no use asking me.”

  I want to open my mouth, to point out that Dan isn’t my alpha and I’m under no compulsion to obey his orders, but it would be pointless. That’s what Luce is here for, we both know that. To make me obey. All the fight drains out of me and I walk into the room. Luce shuts the door and I hear it lock. I sink down to sit on the futon and listen to the sound of her footsteps walking away.

  I have no idea what time it is. I wonder whether my pack has started searching for me yet. They must have, right? Surely, they’ve noticed my absence. But odds seem very low they could ever find me. And would I want to be found? The punishment I’d face for having run away...I’m honestly not sure which situation would be worse for me at this point.

  Why did I have to be born an omega? Is it impossible for an omega to just have a life, one in which she does things that make her happy? Does my life have to be lived in the service of someone else just because of what I am? And if so, is it a life worth living at all? I recoil from the darkness of that thought, and yet I can’t deny that the future looks bleak. Is there any hope or happiness for me in the days to come?

  I’m jerked from my thoughts by a knock at the door. “Girl? Um. Omega? I’m sorry. I don’t know your name.” The voice sounds genuinely regretful for having to address me this way. I’m momentarily stunned into silence, and then I slowly pick myself up from the futon and make my way over to the door.

  “Who is that?” I ask. It’s not as if I can open the door, so why knock?

  “I’m Caleb,” he says. “Is it okay if I come in?”

  If I said no, what would happen? Would he go away? I’m half tempted to try it, but the truth is, being alone in this darkness with nothing but my thoughts is scaring me. “Okay,” I say.

  The lock clicks and the door opens. Caleb turns out to be the young reddish-brown haired man I saw when I met with Dan the alpha. Now he’s carrying a cardboard box in one arm and a plate in his other hand. “Here,” he says. “I brought you dinner. We ate earlier, so you mi
ssed it, but I fixed you a plate of leftovers.”

  Hesitantly, I accept. It’s a warmed-up piece of lasagna and a pile of green beans. With his hand free, Caleb fishes a fork out of his box and hands it over to me. It suddenly hits me how hungry I am. I sit down on the futon and begin to eat.

  “Good?” Caleb asks.

  I nod, unwilling to stop eating to answer him.

  “Okay,” he says. “Can I sit for a second?”

  I shrug, edging toward one end of the futon. I don’t want him too close to me.

  Caleb keeps a respectful distance as he sits down. “I know you’re probably freaking out,” he says.

  I swallow my bite of lasagna. “Why would I be freaking out? Because I’ve been sold into sex slavery as part of some shifter cult? And I thought I had things bad before!” It’s strange, but saying it like that, letting it out angrily, makes me feel less afraid.

  “Please listen,” Caleb says. “Dan can come across as heartless. We all know it. Even he knows it. But he cares about this pack more than anything in the world, and he’d do anything to keep it strong. He’s keeping you here because we need an omega, but he doesn’t intend to hurt you. That’s not in his nature.”

  “How do you know?” I ask. “Is it that he doesn’t hurt all the other women he kidnaps?”

  Caleb pushes the box he brought into the room across the futon toward me. “I brought you some things,” he says. “A lamp, because this room hasn’t been used in a while and I knew it would be kind of depressing in here. Sheets and blankets and a pillow for the futon so you can turn it into a decent bed. My sister put in a few paperback novels in case you got bored. It isn’t much, but it will help the place out.”

  I have to admit, what he’s offering does sound good. I want to stonewall him, but I can’t resist glancing into the box. The blanket, piled on top over the rest of his offerings, looks particularly fluffy and tempting. “Thank you,” I grumble.

  “What’s your name?” Caleb asks.

  “Jacie,” I tell him.

  “I don’t want you to be unhappy, Jacie,” Caleb says earnestly. “I know this is a bad situation and you’re probably scared, but nobody’s going to hurt you. I really think you can be happy here if you work with us. And in the meantime, I’m going to do everything I can to help you.”

  “Will you let me out of this room?” I challenge him.

  Caleb shakes his head. “You know I can’t do that. I have orders.”

  “Would you?” I ask. “If you could?”

  “I don’t know,” he admits. “I know that’s not the answer you’re looking for, and I’m sorry. But I want to be honest with you. I’m a beta. I don’t spend much of my life making big decisions. I don’t know what I would do if one was left to me. I follow orders. I’m sure you can relate.”

  “Actually, I can’t,” I say. “I ran away from my pack at the first opportunity, remember? I don’t follow orders. I do make big decisions.”

  “I guess I should try to be more like you,” Caleb says with a smile, getting to his feet.

  “Wait,” I say. I’ve been hard on Caleb, but already I’ve grown to like him. I don’t want him to go. “Will I see you again?”

  “I’m sure we’ll see each other eventually,” he says. “I’ll come see you if I can. Dan doesn’t want you to starve. Maybe I can get assigned to bring you your meals.”

  He picks up the lamp from the box, carries it over to an outlet, plugs it in, and switches it on. The room fills with warm light. “Good night, Jacie,” he says, and leaves me feeling just slightly less alone.

  Chapter Nine

  I don’t think I’ll ever get to sleep. I lay awake for hours, watching the stars go by outside the little window set high in my wall. At least the blankets Caleb brought me are soft and comfortable. I cling to his kindness as the night passes, trying to convince myself that someone here is decent. Someone here doesn’t want to hurt me. I think of his face and I can almost believe it.

  At some point, I must fall asleep. The next thing I know, a loud banging on the door is startling me awake, and I sit bolt upright. My heart is racing. It feels like some catastrophe is about to come crashing down. What are they going to do to me now?

  “Breakfast,” says a husky voice. “You decent?”

  It takes me several minutes to find my voice. “Yeah.”

  The lock clicks and the door opens. It’s Luce again. She’s dressed today in cutoff jeans and a fitted concert t-shirt, and I can see every muscle in her well-defined torso. “C’mon,” she says.

  “Where?”

  “Breakfast.” She looks at me like I’m an idiot.

  I feel like an idiot. I was not expecting to be invited to breakfast. The way Caleb talked, it seemed like I would be in that room for a long time. But I’m not about to look a gift horse in the mouth. I get up and follow Luce down the stairs.

  The rest of the family is already in the kitchen. In the light of day, the wooden floors and walls of the first floor look more welcoming than they did at night. Luce points me toward an empty seat, and I take it, quiet and unsure.

  Caleb slides into the seat next to me. “Hey,” he says, throwing a grin my way.

  “Hi.”

  “Nice to see you out.”

  “Surprised, though.”

  “Yeah. I was hoping Dan might go lenient. He’s worried you might bolt, you know, because you’re not compelled to stay. Because he’s not your alpha and he can’t make you.”

  “And what, he’s decided I’m not a flight risk?” He’s wrong, if so. I’m totally going for it if I see a chance.

  “I think it’s more that he’s decided the rest of us are capable of containing you,” Caleb says. “I hate to say it, but nobody’s going to let you get anywhere. We’re all under pretty strict orders. So, there’s no real problem with letting you have the run of the house.”

  “I’m good at escaping,” I tell him.

  “We’re pretty good at what we do too.” He makes a fist and I see his forearm muscles clench. He’s still smiling. I don’t think it’s a threat. But it’s definitely a warning. I pull away a little. No matter how friendly Caleb seems, I can’t let myself forget that he is not my friend.

  Dan takes a seat at the head of the table. Miles sits to his immediate right, and Luce to his left. If the dynamics here are anything like they were back at my old pack, those positions indicate power. Miles and Luce are Dan’s most trusted deputies. I could have guessed as much, based on their treatment and the way they act, but I know that no one is going to give me any information for free around here. I have to learn how to pick things up just by watching.

  The young woman with the braid joins me and Caleb at the opposite end of the table. The old man is down here with us too, at the very foot and looking as if he’s mentally somewhere else. “Eggs again,” he grumbles, and I get the feeling this is a common complaint.

  “Take it easy, Joe,” the girl says. “You know if you complain they’re just going to make you do the cooking, and none of us want that.”

  The old man—Joe, I guess—shakes his head. “When I was alpha, we had prime rib for dinner every night. You young bucks have no idea what you’re doing.”

  Joe was alpha? I file that one away. I’ve never seen alpha status pass from one pack member to another without a death. I wonder how Dan became alpha.

  The couple who stood beside the door during my interview with Dan yesterday come into the room now, each bearing a dish. The man sets his down, and it does indeed contain scrambled eggs. The woman’s dish turns out to be full of hash browns. Dan helps himself to some of each and then hands the serving spoons to Luce and Miles.

  “Eggs?” Caleb asks when the dish makes its way down to our end of the table.

  “Thanks.” I watch as he fills my plate and passes the spoon to Joe.

  “Bill and Mary do all the cooking around here,” Caleb explains. “And they run the restaurant by day. They’re both amazing cooks. Try the eggs, you’ll see what I
mean.”

  I try them. They’re delicious, seasoned perfectly. “What do you mean, they run the restaurant?”

  “It’s kind of the family business,” Caleb explains. “We’ve got a steakhouse downtown. Bill and Mary cook, like I said,” he gestures to the middle-aged couple who have now taken their seats among us. “Alex and I are the servers,” he adds, indicating the girl with the braid. “And Luce is the bartender.” He eyes me speculatively. “If you play your cards right, Dan might let you take a job there. You’d make a good hostess.”

  From his other side, the girl with the braid punches him lightly. “Stop checking out the new girl,” she says. She reaches across him and extends a hand to me. “I’m Alex. You’ll have to excuse my brother. He’s never talked to a blonde girl before.”

  The fact that my skin and hair are so white next to theirs is a constant reminder that I don’t belong here. I’m a polar bear, not a Hell’s Bear. I can’t let the fact that people are being nice to me lull me into a false sense of security.

  When the meal is over, Dan turns to me. “You’re on dishwashing duty,” he tells me. “With Alex. Clean up from breakfast and then go back to your room.”

  I push against his command mentally, making sure I don’t have to follow, and am relieved to find that I don’t. He is not my alpha. I can still choose. But there’s no point making my stand over such an innocuous order as wash the dishes, so I just nod and follow Alex into the kitchen.

  She runs water into the sink. “You can dry,” she says, handing me a towel.

  I run it through my fingers, waiting for my first dish. “Is Caleb really your brother?”

  “Yeah. We’ve been here since we were kids.”