AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter Three
Devin leapt from the old couch with a screech of old springs as someone pounded at her door. Heart slamming against the back of her ribs, she dragged one breath into her lungs and then another, straining to inhale around the tight ball lodged in her throat.
The pounding came again, the following hacking cough announcing her uninvited guest. Devin sagged, shoulders rounding as she wrapped the heavy blanket tighter around herself as she began the long shuffling trek towards the entry. The steady rasp of her socks against the worn flooring grated overwrought nerves, punctuated by the steady slam-slam-slam of her landlord’s fist that rattled the thin door.
Devin took an experimental sniff of herself and the apartment, cringing at the cloying scent of Omega sweetness tainting the stale air. The smell lingered even after two months of diligent cleaning, announcing her to anyone who cared to poke their nose past the paltry barrier of her door. Too afraid to open the windows to air out the dank rooms, unable to afford the special soaps any longer, the whole place reeked of her. There was nothing she could do about it now as she took a faltering breath and slid the deadbolt free.
Arm slung above his head to show the foul yellow stain at his armpits, her landlord propped his weight against the jamb. He lowered the fist he’d been using to hammer her door into submission, a greasy spread of his lips replacing it. Hot onions and vinegar assaulted her senses as he leaned into the small crack Devin allowed the door to open.
Carl Hart might be a Beta, but that didn’t make him any less dangerous. Nose twitching as he scented the air, his bloodshot brown gaze crept over Devin. It was the sensation of a slimy hand undressing her from the oversized sweats she’d changed into after her shift at the seedy diner down the street.
Hart knew all about her. It was right there in black and white on her rental application. Everyone had to claim their dynamic on official forms. It was supposed to be for their protection, but it never was. Just another excuse for an Omega to be further harassed. Hart was no different from any other, and that fetid odor lingered at her doorway where he’d spent a considerable amount of time sniffing around. Devin had heard the rattle of keys at her door more than once while she’d tossed and turned in her bathtub that first week. She didn’t doubt that if she hadn’t had the presence of mind during a lucid moment to shove the couch against the door, things would have been much different during the unexpected heat.
“I put the rent in your box,” Devin murmured, keeping her voice low to hide its scratchy quality.
“Yeah, I saw, but you’re short. Again. This is the second time, and you still haven’t paid for last month in full. Or gotten me first and last. I let you in out of the kindness of my heart, and I’m starting to feel like you’re taking advantage of that.”
“I’m not! I… I’ve just been having a hard time. I’ll get it all to you next month, I swear.”
“That’s what you said last month.”
“I will. I promise.”
“You know, a pretty thing like you shouldn’t have to worry about this sort of thing,” Hart said on a grating wheeze that despaired of being a faint rumble. The miserable sound aimed for the low purr of an Alpha, inciting nothing but Devin’s disgust. “How come there’s no Alpha taking care of you?”
“I can take care of myself.” Deep blues narrowed, meeting the Beta male’s glazed eyes head on without her usual caution. Stretching to her full height, she lifted her chin to add what precious intimidation she could. “I’ll get it to you next month.”
“You know, there’re other ways for pretty girls like you to get rent,” Hart rasped, his shoulder pushing against the door. Not quite forcing his way in, but not letting Devin slam the door in his face, either. “It’s important for your kind to keep a roof over their head and food in their belly. Maybe even those fancy clothes you like to wear, too.”
Devin’s lip curled, the diminutive thunder of her growl echoing through the musty hall as she shoved all her weight against the brittle wood. Her socks slipped over the floor, precious traction lost.
Hart grunted at the impact but managed to keep the door open as he put his shoulder down and shoved hard. “Just… gotta be nice. Do something… about that attitude.”
“Get the fuck out of here,” Devin snarled, slamming her whole body against the panel to get it shut. Her hands trembled with the rush of adrenaline, fear cast to the wayside as her fingers worked over the locks, keeping the Beta from shoving his way in. Not until she threw the new bolt she’d installed herself did she dare let out the shaky breath she held.
“I’m gonna remember this,” Hart shouted through the door. Voice wet, smearing the words, Devin hoped she’d caught his face and drew blood. “You get me that money or I’m calling the cops.”
Devin turned and slid down to the floor, arms tight around her knees as she steadied her breathing. It wouldn’t do to lose her composure now, no matter how much she might want to sit there and scream at the unfairness of the last few months. Life had never been fair, but she’d made it this far.
After she’d come out of the unexpected heat that lasted over a week, it’d still been all over the news about how a group tampered with the pharmaceutical supply. They’d replaced suppressants with hormones, sending hundreds of Omegas into heat. The fallout had been gruesome with a dozen deaths and several high-profile cases of Alphas claiming unwilling Omegas. Weeks later, she’d received a notice from the clinic saying there’d been an incident with certain lots of suppressants, and that she should check the numbers on her prescriptions.
When she could go out in public without the fear of being scented several days after the heat ended, she’d bundled herself in her baggiest clothes and gone down to the free clinic for the first time. It’d been a wretched experience, and not one she looked forward to repeating anytime soon. The crowded lobby overflowed with wounded people, screaming children, and Omegas. All of them packed together into a too close space that screamed danger. Unlike her previous doctors, though, they demanded a physical every two months, so it’d be something Devin would endure more often than not. All just to get by in her daily life.
Swiping a hand over her face, Devin clambered to her feet and headed back to the threadbare sofa. It’d been her sole refuge these last few weeks. She’d had to drag her mattress down to the cramped, dark alley in the middle of the night by herself, praying the entire time that no one would see her. A single hint of the sweetness ruining the bed reaching the wrong person, or Gods forbid, people, and she would have had more trouble than she could have dealt with. Somehow, the Gods had smiled upon her. She’d remained unseen, but it left her without a bed. Sleeping on an ancient couch hadn’t done her many favors.
It’d been especially awful when she managed to get the job at a grocery store as a cashier, since they made her stock shelves when days were slow. She wasn’t built to haul around large pallets, but she hadn’t complained since it was steady money. Until they fired her for the ridiculous reason of running to the bathroom without clocking out. Then she found a position at a printing shop, which she lost before she even received her first paycheck. They had fired her for spending too much time on one customer. The retail job, receptionist at an oil change shop, even the discounted shoe place had all gone the same way. There were a few other demeaning jobs, each lasting only a day or two before they let Devin go.
The diner was her last hope, and she had no idea how long she would last there. Kept to the overnight shifts, there was no money to be made from bleary-eyed dock workers and sequin-bedazzled prostitutes with too much makeup. Dealing with those same people was not so easy either, no matter how hard Devin tried.
Shuffling her way into the miniscule kitchen, she cast blue eyes at the glowing clock on the microwave. While Devin had lucked out when another waitress had asked to swap her much busier lunch shift with Devin’s graveyard, there’d been precious little time to sleep before needing to get ready. Hart’s interruption had cost her a good chunk of it.
Squaring her shoulders, Devin made her way to the bathroom to take a shower. The tips would be worth it, and there was an endless supply of coffee at the diner, anyhow.
* * *
Devin jammed the wrinkled bills of the measly ten dollars in tips they allowed her to keep deep into her jeans’ pocket as she shoved through the faded swinging door from the locker area to the main floor. Everything seemed surreal as she dodged wide trays and sizzling coffee pots on her way toward the front door plastered with peeling stickers announcing specials that hadn’t changed in the last decade.
A single complaint, the first she’d ever heard about, and she was out. She’d done nothing wrong, had been polite and as pleasant as she could be. It wasn’t her fault the jerk shoved his hand up the disgustingly short skirt of her uniform or that she’d dropped the stack of dishes she’d been carrying. The tips she’d been counting on to clear her with Hart, of getting actual food into her fridge, all went to pay for the asshole’s meal and to replace the cheap ceramic that couldn’t come close to costing as much as the owner claimed.
