Noah’s POV

We have been driving for a while and my headspace keeps dipping.

I’m a little too familiar with this state. This place where my heart feels like it’s eating itself up. I’m staring blankly at the dashboard and have no energy to wear a pretend smile.

Elias doesn’t mind if I don’t fake a smile. I use the last bit of energy in me to look at his face.

The face of a man that killed my mentor for me. He’s handsome, cold, and unreachable.

Since I asked him to let me go two hours ago, he hasn’t said a word to me and I don’t blame him.

No one wants damaged goods; my dad has always taught me that being perfect is what makes people want you.

Being away from Winslow makes me realize how far from perfect I am.

I like men who promise danger. I like leaving my hair unstyled. I like kissing and being kissed. I like everything I shouldn’t like.

Elias made me unhide that part of me, but I wish he’d let me go.

It will hurt less if he gives me up now, than later.

I’ve fallen for the man I should hate.

The car comes to a stop at the Deus’s home and Elias gets out of the car first to open the door for me.

He opens and before he does anything, he scans my body while I drop my head in shame.

My throat still hurts from screaming for help, my ankle is swollen, and everything hurts so much.

"A doctor will attend to you in my room" he says and pauses.

"Noah, if you pull the move of refusing treatment, I will kill the doctor and the next and the next after that one too" he says and my head snaps up.

"Winslow?" I ask and he gives me a grim nod.

My eyes fill with tears.

"You still have them in your basement" I murmur, wiping tears off with the back of my hand. I’m seriously losing the plot with this man.

I need to remind myself that he’s an enemy.

"I won’t fight" I whisper, and he takes his jacket off me.

He hides me with his body as he figures out a way to carry me in without exposing my naked body to the world.

"Hold on to me" he says, and I do.

I hold on to him and make the mistake of pressing my face into his scent gland.

And as soon as I do that, my body automatically relaxes into him. I only feel myself being carried, but I can’t feel anything else as he takes me to his room.

I’m wrapped up in his scent. It forms a cocoon around me in my mind, and I shudder at the power his scent has over me.

I feel the softness of a bed dipping under me, and I hold on to Elias even tighter.

"Don’t...don’t leave me" I whimper, still holding his neck like a vice.

"I need to run your bath" he says softly and I shake my head to refuse. I don’t want him to let me go.

Since he’s not talking to me, can he at least hold me?

"Fine" he sighs, and I lose consciousness. Falling asleep and letting him take care of me in his own way while I fall into a dream state.

Dream

There are three men in the room and I’m standing in front of them in my pajamas.

"Smile for us, Noah" someone says, and my lips automatically stretch into a smile.

"Get him braces, look at those teeth" another one of the men says and someone else writes it down.

"There’s nothing wrong with my teeth" I say quietly, covering my mouth as the smile drops off my face.

"Turns around for us, Noah" the first person says and I turn around.

"Goddess! Look at the waist on that boy, perfect" the third man claps and I pout. I really want to go back to playing my car games.

"Perfect? Doesn’t he look a bit...fat?" the first man says.

"Fat?" I ask, looking down at myself.

"I’m not fat" I whisper, feeling conscious of the eyes on me and the imperfections they keep finding on me.

The door opens and a mad looking man bursts into the room.

"That’s enough, you guys have done enough" a male voice says, and I look up at ’they’ or...Conan.

Yes, his name is Conan. Dad wouldn’t be happy that I’m saying his name in my head.

"Leave the kid alone, he’s just twelve" Conan says.

"Some of the greatest omegas started their training as early as five" the oldest of the three men says.

Conan hugs me to his chest, growling at the other men and his eyes are bright blue.

"This is not seventeen hundreds, you old asshole. Things have changed and children are children" Conan says violently, and I look up at his face.

I love him. I love him more than everyone, but I can say that.

"Conan, excuse yourself" the leader of the circle, the first man, says angrily.

"Excuse yourself or we’ll make you leave" the other man says and I hold on to Conan. Why do they always want Conan to leave me alone?

I don’t want to be alone with these men.

"Noah, one day you’ll be great like your dad, but you have to be perfect. Conan here is an enemy of your future" the gentle looking one of the three men says.

"Baby, don’t listen to them" Conan snaps.

He sounds mad...

"Conan kidnapped you. You don’t remember, but he took you away from your dad and mom to a far far away place" he says.

"Stop it..." Conan cries out as I stiffen.

I remember Conan took me to a place with a scary angel, it was cold...I was lonely and he never came back for me.

"He made your mom sick, do you...do you want to make your mother sad and sick?" the leader of men says.

"No" burst into tears.

My mom is always sick; I don’t even talk to her or see her. If I make her sicker, Freya says she might die.

"Tell Conan to go away so we can help you, Noah tell him to go away" he says and I push Conan’s hand off me.

"Go away. Go away!" I cry, pressing the palms to my face.

I have to do everything I don’t like; I need to make mom happy and I have to make dad proud.

I love Conan, he’s like my best friend but everyone says he’s dangerous and mad.

Present

My soft sobs are filling the room as I blink awake. I don’t know if that’s a dream or a memory.

Freya said something about memory altering and it hurts...what is real? What is fake?

I don’t even know anything about myself. Dad doesn’t know the kind of people he handed me over to as a kid.

I wish I could find him and hug him and tell him everything.

Someone presses soft fabrics to my face, and I open my eyes to find a man with white hair and blue eyes.

Siren.

"It’s okay, darling. You’re safe" he says, wiping all the tears off my cheeks while I look for Elias.

"Elias?" I ask with a cracked voice, and he smiles softly.

"You asked him to go away."

’I didn’t mean it’ I want to say, but I can only shut my eyes and accept it.

I want my dad. I want Elias. I want all this pain to stop.

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