Deviant Games (The Controllers #8) - L.V. Lane Page 0,44

blissful void.

Full beyond comfort, and yet perfectly whole. No emotions existed here. No fears, no sorrow, no regrets.

I was owned, sated, knotted, as an Omega should be.

Only later, when he’d left me to my work and enough time had passed for the numb to retreat, did I recognize what he’d done… what he would continue to do until Ethan returned.

If Ethan returned.

I felt Ryker’s approach long before the door slammed open. He picked me up, carrying me from the room and from the research center. I barely saw any of it. Cared even less for the reactions.

Ethan was gone, and his absence was a form of grief. For once, I couldn’t fight or suppress my nature.

I clung to Ryker the whole way home, and when we arrived in the sanctity of my poorly constructed nest, I clung harder still.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Larissa

ETHAN AVOIDED ME for most of the transit, and that suited me. I stayed in my allocated room, eating the food that was delivered under automation. I accepted the necessary medical checks and was glad that no one offered therapy. They couldn’t straighten out the usual consequence of a Singular who happened to be a mind reader, never mind ten years as an Uncorrupted prisoner.

I didn’t want to be analyzed.

I just wanted peace.

An opportunity to heal.

And to try and forget the heinous act I’d committed by forcing Ethan Black to tend me through my heat.

The room on the ship was clean. I was told most Trident class ships held several such spaces for the more sensitive Psychic Singulars, of which I was simply a unique kind. Whatever they had done had the added bonus of blocking out awareness of everyone beyond the room.

For the first time in what felt like forever, blessed silence filled my mind.

I cried, I slept, and I healed, some. When we arrived, a new circus would begin. I took this respite for what it was and ignored the looming future. Ethan had been angry when he’d threatened to hand me over to an Alpha to ruin. I could see beyond a person’s words, and in Ethan’s case, what I’d witnessed terrified me. My presence on this interstellar Empire ship wasn’t official. The wily Alpha had quite the catalog of contacts and owed favors. What happened to me when we arrived at our unknown destination would be by his design.

I prayed that time might soften his anger. I deserved a break, didn’t I? I wasn’t a terrible person. I was human for all I was a mind-reading Omega. I’d made a mistake, a tragic one.

I bounced between despair and a firm belief that I was the worst person in the universe to fierce chagrin that I deserved forgiveness. I hated myself for doing what I had. I hated that I would probably have done it again, even knowing the terrible cost because it saved me from that hell.

Another form of hell was waiting for me if Ethan had any say in it.

The days passed too quickly. I wanted this peaceful interlude to go on forever.

And this too shall pass.

I’d plucked that phrase from Ethan’s mind, and he, in turn, had heard it from Lilly. She’d been talking to him about her time as a prisoner of the Uncorrupted. My gift allowed me access to thoughts of those I came into contact with, and through them, into an extended circle.

I’d thought my time with the Uncorrupted would never end. Not at first, for I’d believed with conviction that someone would save me, such a valuable Omega. They hadn’t, and as the years passed, I questioned my value as much as I questioned my ability to retain my sanity.

But Lilly’s words had proven to be true for the terrible episode that had robbed me of ten years of my life. Good or bad, nothing was forever.

Ethan’s protectiveness toward her was a thing of beauty to behold. I’d never seen inside the mind of a true Alpha, and I envied Lilly that she held Ethan’s absolute dedication and love. I was jealous that through circumstances beyond my control, such an experience would never be mine.

I didn’t need or want an Alpha, I told myself. I just needed peace. As a child, I’d been happiest creating digital art on my computer. I’d presumed I would reveal as a Mu, like my parents. It came as a shock when I revealed as an Omega. Soon after, the mind glimpses began.

The world turned crazy after that.

The bleep of the door communicator was all the