AN OMEGA'S CYCLE: TRAPPED IN HEAT WITH MY FOUR STEPBROTHERS.

NICHOLAS’S POV

When I opened my eyes again, I didn’t know where I was.

For several seconds, I stayed still, staring at the unfamiliar ceiling while my mind struggled to catch up with my surroundings.

The room was dim, lit by a single bulb that barely provided any light, and the air smelled different from the warehouse I had tried to escape from.

I tried to move my hands and immediately felt the rope tightening around my wrists. My stomach dropped as the memory returned slowly.

Fuck.

I lifted my head properly to see that Jayden was sitting directly opposite me.

He had apparently been waiting for me to wake up because the moment our eyes met, he leaned forward and stared at me with an expression that made it obvious he wasn’t interested in pretending to be calm anymore.

There was a fresh cut near his eyebrow, probably from the struggle during my escape, and his clothes were slightly disheveled. He looked exhausted, but the exhaustion had only made him angrier.

"You’re awake," he said, getting to his feet and walking toward me. "Good, because I was starting to think I was going to have to sit here all day waiting for you to open your eyes. Do you know how much trouble you caused me? Do you understand what happened because you decided to run? I had to abandon the route, move the car, move you and deal with people asking questions because you couldn’t simply stay where I put you."

Before I could answer, his hand struck my face.

I turned away from the force of it, my cheek burning as I tried to steady myself against the chair. Jayden grabbed the backrest and pulled me closer to him, forcing me to look at him again.

"I gave you a chance," he continued, his voice low and furious. "You had food. You had somewhere to sit. I wasn’t constantly bothering you. All you had to do was stay where you were and stop trying to be clever, but you couldn’t even manage that. It’s absurd what you’ve managed to do in a day. You had to find a phone, call one of them and then make a run for it when I stopped at the filling station. Do you know what that means for me? Do you know how quickly everything changes when people start looking?"

I swallowed and looked away. "Please," I said quietly. "Just let me go."

Jayden stared at me for a long moment before giving a short, humorless laugh. "You still don’t understand. If I let you go now, everything I’ve done becomes pointless. You already know too much, and now your family knows enough to start looking in the right places. Do you really think I’m going to untie you and watch you walk out after all of that?"

He stepped away from me and walked toward the table. There was a folded map spread across one side of it, weighed down by a phone and several other things I couldn’t identify from where I sat. My eyes moved toward it without thinking. I couldn’t see the entire thing, but I could make out several roads and markings around the area. The warehouse wasn’t as far from the main city as I had expected. One route on the map appeared to lead toward the city in roughly seven minutes, depending on traffic.

Seven minutes.

I kept looking at it.

If I got another chance to escape, I needed to remember that.

Jayden picked up his phone, and it began ringing before he could do anything else. He glanced at the screen and immediately stepped farther away from me before answering. I couldn’t hear the person clearly at first, but Jayden’s side of the conversation was enough to make me pay attention.

"I know," he said, rubbing the back of his neck. "I know I made a mistake. I thought I had everything under control."

He listened then sighed. "No. He didn’t get far. I found him before he could reach the road."

Another pause followed for a second. "I said I handled it." His voice changed slightly, becoming more cautious.. "I understand. I’m sorry. It won’t happen again."

I stared at him.

There was something about the voice coming through his phone that made me uncomfortable. I couldn’t make out the words, but the tone sounded familiar. It wasn’t enough to identify the person, but it reminded me of someone I’d heard many times before.

My stepfather.

The thought came so suddenly that I almost dismissed it immediately. There was no reason for me to make that connection. I had no proof, and the last thing I needed was to start imagining everyone around me was involved in what had happened.

Still, I couldn’t stop listening.

Jayden turned slightly away from me. "Yes, I understand what you’re saying. I should have been more careful with him. I know that. I’m not making excuses."

He listened again before sighing. "I’ll take care of it."

The call ended.

Jayden stood there for several seconds, staring at his phone. Then he turned toward me.

Whatever the person had said to him clearly hadn’t improved his mood.

He crossed the room and struck me again before grabbing my chair and dragging it backward.

"You’ve made everything complicated," he said. "You were supposed to be easy to handle."

I didn’t answer. He grabbed the rope around my wrists and began untying it and I tensed immediately.

"What are you doing?"

"You’ll find out." He pulled me to my feet.

My legs were weak from being restrained for so long, and I stumbled when he dragged me toward the adjoining room. I tried to pull away, but he tightened his grip and forced me forward. The moment I realized where he was taking me, panic surged through me, and I started resisting harder. "Jayden, don’t."

He ignored me.

I grabbed the edge of the doorway, trying to stop him from pulling me inside. He cursed under his breath and tried to pry my fingers away. "Stop fighting me."

"I’m not going with you." I struggled.

"You don’t get to decide that."

I fought him until my strength began to disappear, but he eventually forced me into the room.

He threw me on the bed and I landed with a thump, wheezing as I tried to drag myself on all fours.

He wasted no time coming to the edge of the bed, his fingers tangling in my hair and pulling the strands roughly. "Perhaps I need to remind you who is in charge." He grunted, his other hand already working his belt buckle.

My voice came out as a croak. "Please— no."

He finally got his belt unlooped, a crazy look in his eyes. "You always like it when your step father and your step brothers fucked you, don’t you? So what’s bad about me having my own fun with you, huh? Why are—"

The sound of Jayden’s phone ringing interrupted everything.

He stopped immediately. For a moment, he simply stared toward the phone lying on the table outside the room as though he couldn’t believe someone had chosen that exact moment to call him. Then he cursed under his breath, pulled away and walked out to answer it.

I stayed where I was, trying to catch my breath while he picked up. "Hello?"

His voice carried through the partially open doorway.

I couldn’t hear the other person clearly, but Jayden’s response made it obvious that the call was important. "Now? You want me to leave now?"

He listened. "But I can’t just—" Another pause went on before he sighed. "Fine."

I heard him moving around outside. "How long?" He listened again. "Understood."

The call ended.

Jayden appeared in the doorway a moment later, visibly irritated. He looked at me for several seconds before shaking his head. "You’re lucky."

I didn’t understand what he meant.

He walked over, pulled me back toward the chair and began tying my wrists again, this time much more securely. I struggled instinctively, but he only tightened the rope and stepped back to inspect his work.

"I have somewhere to be," he said, picking up his phone. "I’m leaving you here for a while. Don’t make another attempt at escaping because I won’t be nearly as patient the next time I find you."

He moved toward the door and I watched him carefully. "Where are you going?"

He stopped but didn’t turn around. "That’s none of your business."

Then he left. The door closed and I listened carefully as his footsteps moved farther away.

I waited to see if he would come back, but nothing happened.

I looked around the room again, forcing myself to pay attention instead of allowing panic to take over. The chair was positioned near the table. The map was still there. I could see part of the route now, and I memorized what I could. There was a road running directly toward the city, another branching off toward what appeared to be an industrial area, and several smaller streets around the warehouse.

Seven minutes.

That was the distance I’d noticed earlier. If the map was accurate, the city wasn’t far.

I tested the rope again. It was tighter than before, but not impossible to move against. I shifted my wrists carefully, searching for any weakness in the knot without making unnecessary noise. My breathing was still uneven, and every movement made the chair creak against the floor.

But I had to leave before he came back.

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