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Hailing a hackney on Piccadilly, I gave him directions to St John-at-Hampstead church. But before we arrived, I slipped out, skipping the fair, and walked uphill for another twenty minutes to Omega House. It had been shut up for the night but the spare latch key let me slip in.
“Stick ‘em up!” a child ordered in the dark.
“Tod, who let you have a pistol?” I asked, holding my hands up to let him know I was harmless.
“You’re the omega that had me kidnapped. Why do you smell of my uncle Puck? And there’s another alpha that ain’t uncle Oberon, but he’s there too. Speak. Where are they? What have you done with them?”
I enjoyed his rambling, imperious questions and his quickness. But at last he finished, and I was permitted to answer. “I smell of your uncles because I was with them not so long ago. The other alpha is Jude, who brought you here.”
“He ain’t no alpha,” the boy protested. “And where is uncle Oberon and uncle Puck?”
“They are at the Hell. I have left them for they put me in a cage. How do you get on here?”
He was a good lad for letting me finish for I could hear him moving about in the shadows. “A cage? You escaped! How?”
“I escaped down a drainpipe,” I told him.
“Hm, well ‘spose you can be trusted.” I heard the sound of the pistol being put down on the hall table. I moved further into the house, carefully scenting as I went. I wanted to see if my nose had been true before and that under the dirt he was an omega like I suspected. As I passed the table with the pistol, I pocketed it.
“I’m going to light a candle,” I warned him.
“Got one.” I heard him move towards the dining room and a moment later return with a stub that illuminated his face. He surprised me when he let me take it from him and light several more candles until we had enough light to study each other. His features were even more delicate now that the grime had been washed away and that he finally wore clothes which fit his slim body. Even without scenting him, Tod gave every impression of being an omega. My instincts screamed to protect him, lock him away from the dangers of the world. Then an ache filled me at the memory of my girlhood. The freedoms my alpha mother permitted us. The opportunities to run free. Everything had changed when my eldest sister had recklessly mated with a good alpha who didn’t meet my mother’s unreasonable standards. Our freedoms had ended then. Beatrice had been packed off to London to cover up her pregnancy. That same day Mama had sat me down and told me that alphas only wanted one thing: to fuck an omega. She’d painted my sister’s mate as a predator who’d taken advantage of her by forcing himself on her during her heat. Besides, I was sixteen, and Bea’s hysterical tears and the inflamed mate bite on her neck was fresh in my mind convinced me, laid the groundwork for an insidious fear of the dynamic. Fear that had evolved into hatred when I discovered my mother’s perfidy. She’d lied to me. Lied to my sister, saying Jack had left her because he didn’t think he was worthy. For her own ambition she’d hatched plans to marry and mate us off to influential alphas. Our omega prices were low, a mere two thousand pounds, but equality was in name only.
Looking at the urchin in clean clothes, I wanted Tod, a boy who was as dear to me as he was to Oberon and Puck, to live without the crushing weight of anger alphas that had haunted me for years. How much had I repressed yet the violent fury against them remained.
“You gonna say something or just stare at me?” Tod jerked me out of memories best forgotten but impossible to banish.
“What do you think of returning?” I asked.
“I like it here,” he said at last. “It is why I didn’t go back right away.” He bit his bottom lip tight—an action so like his mother that it stole my breath away. “Then no one came for me and I guessed they didn’t want me anymore.”
“They have been looking,” I promised, even if I had no proof.
“Don’t believe you,” he said mulishly. “They are the smartest, cleverest alphas to be born. They rule this city. And they couldn’t find me? Let them rot. I’ll—”
“It is my fault because I hid you very well.” I flicked his nose as I had with the twins when they were little and pouting. I’d rather tell him a small lie to help the hurt this child so clearly felt. “They hunted everywhere they thought you might be. Again, my fault for I did not tell them you were safe in my care.”
I pressed cold hands to my eyes. Every one of my mistakes suddenly weighing heavy on my heart. “I was wrong to keep them from you.”
“I like it here. I don’t…”
“What do you like about it?” I jumped in, surprised by his repeated admission.
“The other omegas,” he whispered. “Hadn’t really known any before. Tina is fifteen and told me about heats. Clarissa is pretty quiet but she made me practice my letters.”
He sounded like he was piecing things together and I wondered at the resilience in children to adapt so quickly. I curled my fingers into a fist to prevent myself from running a hand over his shiny curls.
“Do you want to go back though? Ever? Your uncle said your birthday is coming up.”
Pinching his lips together he gave a little shake of his head, but the way his eyes darted away told me enough. His pride made him say no. His heart was a different matter.
“Did you know that I can get you whatever sweets you want?” I asked. “We can go to my room—”
“Oh, I found those already.”
“You broke into my room?” I asked more surprised than I should be considering this boy’s upbringing and parentage.
“I got bored.” That careless shrug! How perfect.
