Page 22 of Alpha’s Possession

Rhen portions the food on our plates and just as I take my seat, Leon comes downstairs, buck naked and pale as a ghost. I suppose he didn’t enjoy Thane’s punishment this time. Thane’s punishment isn’t over until he allows Leon his clothes. I chew my lip nervously as I quickly assess Leon, double-checking he is okay.

Evidence of how brutal Thane was in his punishment is left clear across Leon’s reddened ass cheeks. Leon stops beside the table and stares, which is unusual for him. Not a word leaves his lips, and I go to reach for him when I hear footsteps and stop myself. A moment later, Thane enters the dining room, tugging off his tie as he walks closer in a blaze of fury.

“Sit!” Thane snarls at Leon, who whimpers and instantly complies.

I don’t blame him, though. The dark cherry color of his ass looks painful, and I can tell that Thane didn’t just use his belt but also took his hand to Leon’s ass.

I watch as Leon shifts in his seat and hisses in pain while Rhen sucks his lips into his mouth, trying his hardest to stifle his muffled laughter.

Rhen carefully sets the food in front of Leon, but Thane grabs the plate, adds more food, and sets it down, tossing a napkin over Leon’s lap.

“Eat!” Thane orders him, sounding all sorts of pissed off and challenging him to disobey. Thane is looking for a fight and Leon recognizes that, so he doesn’t push him. Leon knows he would be on the losing side of any fight if it escalated.

Rhen takes his seat beside me and we both try to ignore the sounds that escape Leon. We can tell he is pretty uncomfortable, but Rhen and I know better than to comfort him. Not until Thane gives his approval, and after seeing his mood today, I sure as shit won’t risk getting my ass spanked by Thane.

When Leon finally brings a forkful of food to his lips, Thane turns his gaze toward us, focusing on Rhen. “So, did you find her files?” he asks, but Rhen keeps his gaze down, staring at his plate, stuffing his mouth and shaking his head.

As silence creates a heavy tension in the dining room, Rhen gulps down his food and speaks up. “Nope,” he says, popping the 'P' at the end.

Thane growls, knowing damn well Leila didn’t bother to do any background checks on our new assistant. I know the woman well enough, so I’m confident that Leila probably just saw Omega on her resume, did a sniff test to ensure she wasn’t lying about it, and hired her on the spot.

For the past year, Leila has been doing everything in her power to force us to accept another Omega. She needs to stop trying to force it on Thane. It won’t end well, and by the angry look on Thane’s face, Leila will be his first victim tomorrow.

Chapter Sixteen

~Harlow~

The alarm blares so loudly, it reminds me of an air horn. I’m tempted to smash my fist against it as soon as I wake up, or even better, toss it out the damn window that doesn’t even lock.

At least this morning, I could sleep in a little, even though I can hardly describe my sleep as anything close to restful. My skin feels like it isn’t a part of me anymore, as if it’s crawling and the bed beneath me is alive.

Sitting up, I shudder with disgust, as violent as ever. Yep, it’s clear that I need to take another shower to get rid of the bedbugs. I’m sure the dirty stairwell behind the plaza would have been a cleaner choice to spend the night instead of the bug-infested bed in the shitty motel room I had to pay money for. So much for thinking anything would be better than the streets. The streets would definitely be better than this.

After rummaging through the small number of toiletries I own, I hop in the shower and scrub my skin so hard with my loofah that I’m surprised I didn’t scrub off a dozen layers of my skin. With the strength I have to use, I might as well just scrape all of my skin off. If only that would help eliminate the awful feeling those bed bugs left on me.

As I finally focus on scrubbing the shampoo into my hair, which I’m sure is now infested with the critters from the seedy bed I slept in, I hear my phone ring on the nightstand next to the bed of nightmares and despair.

I let it ring out, fully aware that I don’t have to be at work for an hour. Instead of running around the motel room like a lunatic to pick up the phone, I close my eyes and rinse the shampoo from my hair. Then, I turn the taps off and step out of the shower.

My hand reaches out to retrieve a towel, but once I notice the state of it, I drop the idea and opt for my clothes from yesterday and use them to dry myself.

The phone on the nightstand starts ringing again while I struggle to dry myself, figuring out that clothes aren’t the most effective way to reach my goal.

Cursing under my breath, I race out of the shitty bathroom and snatch my phone. Dread pools in my stomach, and my heart nearly stops when I see Thane’s name on the phone screen.

Hesitantly, I answer it, bringing the phone to my ear with a wildly shaking hand.

“What part of being a personal assistant did you fail to understand when you read the job description?” he growls through the phone, sending a cold shiver down my spine.

Thane is scary, and if he can scare me like this during a phone call, I fear what he could do if we were to stand face-to-face right now.

But, as I focus back on his words, I have to resist the urge to roll my eyes because the bastard may somehow notice that. As for his question, I didn't understand the personal assistant part because I applied for a damn receptionist position, not to become an Alpha's personal, perfect little coffee-bitch.

"My apologies, sir, I was taking a shower and didn't hear the phone ringing," I answer as politely as possible, while in reality, I wish I could kindly invite Thane to suck on my imaginary dick, or even better, to fucking choke on it and die.

"Fucking useless Omega! I need you to wait for the mailman out front," Thane snarls at me, sounding far more pissed off than he was a moment ago. There goes the give and get principle—I give him kindness, he gives me shit. Fucking prick!

"Around what time does he arrive?" I ask and slowly lower the phone from my ear to check the time. Well, that's not the only reason. I also do it to avoid the high risk of this Alpha asshole screaming so loud I go deaf.