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I wet my bottom lip. “Don’t leave me waiting too long.”

Before he can respond, I dart out of the car and close the door behind me.

12

Ilet myself into my apartment building with one arm wrapped around the huge stuffed fox, its synthetic fur tickling my chin as I juggle my keys and hit the elevator button with my elbow. The day with Orien fills me with warm, unfamiliar feelings I’m not quite ready to put a name to. Not yet.

Faint pine cleaner and the remnants of someone’s perfume linger in the elevator. I lean against the back wall as it groans its way up to my floor.

“You’re the most expensive toy I’ve ever had,” I murmur to the fox, whose beady stare holds no judgment. “The only toy I’ve ever owned, actually, with no educational purpose whatsoever.”

The fox stares back, its stitched smile unchanging as the elevator stops on my floor with a metallic ping. The door slides open, and I step out into the corridor.

The whole day still doesn’t seem real. I’ve never spent hours…playing. Every moment has always served a mission, an objective, a purpose beyond my own enjoyment. Even at family gatherings, I’m performing a role to be seen as the perfect brother, the loyal subordinate, and an asset to the family.

But today, with Orien…

I run a hand through my hair, wincing as my fingers catch on the sparkle clip in my hair. A subtle sweetness clings to my cardigan from the cotton candy I bought at the end. The childish indulgence has me grinning despite the heat creeping into my cheeks at the memory of Orien insisting it was bigger than my head. He’d held the fox for me, though, and even taken the bite of pink fluff when I held it to his lips.

The fox bounces on my thigh with each step, its oversized head occasionally blocking my view of the floor ahead. It’s ridiculous, really. Almost as ridiculous as the way my stomach does a little flip at the thought of Orien joining me in my apartment in a few minutes.

Should I greet him at the door in my bathrobe?

Wrapped up in my own thoughts, I stop in front of my door and put the key in the lock. I’m just about to open it when I sense movement at my back.

The hair on the back of my neck rises a split second before hands shove me from behind. My chest hits the door with enough force to knock the air from my lungs, the fox bouncing from my hold as I throw my arms out to catch myself.

A heavy body pins me from behind, smelling of alcohol and stale sweat, and a hand tangles in my hair, wrenching my head back hard enough to sting.

“Think you’re too good for me?” The slurred words come with spittle hitting the back of my neck. “Embarrassing me in front of my friends?”

“Get off me.” I try to shove him off, but he’s too heavy, with sixty pounds on me.

“You think that other Alpha can protect you?” His hand slides from my hair to my throat, fingers digging in below my nape guard. “Think he’s gonna be there when⁠—”

I drive my elbow back into his ribs, twisting at the same time to break his hold on my hair. The movement slams us both into my apartment door, the wood rattling in its frame.

I catch a glimpse of him beneath a lowered baseball hat and recognize him as the Alpha who approached me at the Blue Note that first night. The one who I slammed into the bar when he wouldn’t take no for an answer. Alcohol and rage have turned the Alpha’s complexion florid. Whatever nerve he needed for this attack came from the bottom of a bottle.

He grapples with me, stretching my cardigan. “You’re a tease. Just another stuck-up Omega who thinks⁠—”

“I don’t think anything.” I go for his balls, but he blocks it, and my knee lands on his leg instead. “Let go of me!”

He shoves me harder into the door as he fumbles with the knob, and we crash into my apartment.

He lands on top of me on the hard floor, his weight driving the air from my lungs, and he starts pawing at me, uncoordinated but determined.

“I’ve been watching you.” His breath is hot on my ear, sour with alcohol. “Waiting for your boyfriend to leave you alone. And now…” His hand drops to my hip, fingers digging in through the fabric of my trousers. “Now I collect what I’m owed.”

I twist and strain beneath him, and his hard cock grinds into my ass.

Revulsion burns through me like acid. “Get off of me!”

He laughs, the sound ugly. “Or what? Are you gonna call your boyfriend? He’s not here.”

He’s right. Orien isn’t here. He’s still circling the block, looking for parking, unaware of what’s happening. I’m on my own.

“You and me,” he groans, “are gonna have some fun.”