Page 114 of The Other Omega

Leon drew in a slow breath. Lucien’s eyes narrowed slightly, and Caius shifted beside him, but nobody interrupted me.

“Everyone kept calling me Lady Elowen. People I’d never seen before were acting as though they knew me, and I kept trying to tell them they’d made a mistake.”

My stomach tightened as I reached the part I’d been dreading.

“Then they called Mireya. She was this doctor—physician, whatever you call them here—and she was so nice at first, but it was all a lie. She’s evil.”

I knelt in front of Alaric.

“You have to believe me, Alaric. No matter what happens today, please don’t send me to her. She’ll kill me.”

Tears ran down my face. Desperation and fear seeped through my pores, my scent heavy with it.

“I don’t want to die.”

Alaric moved before I had time to react, lifting me from the floor and cradling me against him.

“There is no force in this kingdom, nor any other, that could compel me to surrender you to anyone, my heart. You are ours until our last breath.”

I cried against him and let everything out, letting his purr wash away the worst of the fear until I could breathe properly again. Lucien waited until I’d calmed before speaking.

“Mireya. Tell us what occurred after she arrived.”

I turned my face against Alaric’s chest so I could see him.

“She was nice at first. So nice. She asked me lots of questions and did lots of tests—normal tests, nothing painful—but then I started having this pain. It felt like every part of my body was on fire or breaking apart. It was so bad.”

“Did Mireya cause this pain?”

“No. My presentation did.”

Alaric’s hand went still against my back.

“You have to understand, when I came here, I was just a normal Earth human. Then I presented, as Omegas do here, and Mireya gave me something that was supposed to make me sleep. It didn’t work. I woke up while she and her people were doing things to me, putting things inside me.”

Caius’s jaw tightened. Darius’s fingers stilled on his knee, and Leon’s attention dropped briefly to the floor before returning to me.

“What sort of things, my darling?” Lucien asked.

His voice stayed calm and gentle, and somehow that gave me enough strength to keep going.

“Something like a knot machine. She was testing how much of a knot I could take.”

Alaric’s arm tightened slightly around me.

“Can you describe it in greater detail, my heart?” he asked.

I swallowed. “She had her people put it inside me, in my vagina and my anus, and then expand it. It hurt so badly. Even her people asked her to stop because I kept tearing and they had to keep repairing the damage, but she never listened. I begged her, and she never listened.”

Caius’s hands had closed into fists against his thighs. Leon had gone pale, and Darius stared at a point near the floor, his jaw set so hard the muscle beneath his skin moved. Lucien sat perfectly still, his face emptied of almost everything, and somehow that was worse.

“Where were Eleanor and the Alphas when this occurred, my love?” Caius asked.

“They weren’t there. They were never there when she did that. They never found out.”

Caius’s fists loosened slightly. Darius looked up again, and Leon’s brow drew together as though that answer had changed something for him.

“You did not tell them?” Leon asked.