Chapter Twelve
Beau was almost relieved when Griffin left, retreating back into the darkness of the cottage. He hadn’t believed what Griffin had told him, not until he saw it with his own eyes, the alpha deferring to the omega, going silent with just a single word. His breaking point had been the question. Going back? Was there any going back?
The omega returned as the sun began to sink in the sky. His hands were full. Beau assumed it was more food, even though he had plenty left from that morning and the day before. But it wasn’t food.
Griffin followed Beau inside, sitting cross-legged on the floor.
“I brought you some clothes.” He set them down on the floor between them.
Beau reached for them, snagging the shirt, and pulling it on over his head. He hesitated with the pants.
“Are you going to unlock my chain?”
He didn’t think so. Normally, there’d be half a dozen guys around when they took the chains off. For their safety, not his.
“No need.”
“But these…” He gestured to the pants.
“They open along the side.”
Frowning, Beau picked them up, examining them. They did, indeed, have zips along the side. “You have a lot of chained alphas in your pack?”
“Just you,” Griffin replied with a smile.
“Then who wears stuff like this?”
The omega opened his mouth to reply then closed it before speaking, his cheeks flushing slightly. Beau decided he didn’t want to know. He struggled to get the pants on, not getting how the fastenings worked. Just when he was about to give up in frustration, Griffin was there, the omega’s hands deftly helping him dress.
When he was done, he looked Beau up and down. “Well,” the omega said. “The clothes don’t exactly make the man but then you’re a shifter and an alpha. You’d look good in anything.”
“You like what you see.” Omegas found alphas attractive, it was just how things were.
His words seemed to surprise Griffin, the omega glancing down at his hands before looking back up at him. “That didn’t sound like a question.”
“It wasn’t.”
Beau found he liked seeing the in-control omega a little off balance. His cheeks looked good with some color.
“It works both ways, of course,” Griffin threw back, meeting his gaze head-on. There was a brief battle, neither of them willing to break eye contact first.
“I brought you something else.”
Beau looked down at the box in Griffin’s hands, prompting a laugh from the omega.
“What is that?”
“Snakes and ladders.”
Beau frowned. “There are snakes in that box? Are they dead?” He couldn’t hear any hissing.
“No, it’s a game… you’ve never played Snakes and Ladders?”
He watched, mystified, as Griffin opened the box and set out the board.
“A game?” he asked. He’d played games in training, when he was small, but never one that looked like that. Besides, games were for kids.
“Yeah. Something to pass the time. You must be bored sitting here day in and day out.”
Beau listened as Griffin explained the rules. It seemed simple though he didn’t understand the point, pushing his counter along the squares like Griffin showed him. After a few rolls of the dice, he was winning. Until he hit a snake and slid almost back to the start. He growled his displeasure.
“Hey,” Griffin chided. “It’s just a game. No getting upset.”
The omega’s hand covered his, and it sent a jolt through Beau, the warmth of Griffin’s touch spreading up his arm.
“Why does he call you that?” he asked quietly.
“Who?”
“Your- the alpha. Ronan. He called you Finn.”
“It’s a nickname. We’ve been friends a long time.”
“I didn’t think that could happen. Alphas and omegas being friends. There’s too much…” He waved a hand in the air, unable to name what he felt when in close proximity to an omega. Their trainers had always warned them never to get too close. Omegas threw them off their game, distracted them. They got fighters killed.
“Sexual tension,” Griffin said. “It’s a little overstated, and not as much of an issue when you’re not compatible.”
“So, you and he aren’t…”
“We’re not. Why? Not jealous, are you?”
Beau didn’t know how to respond to that, knowing that seeing Griffin with Ronan had stirred up strange feelings inside him. The kind that made him want to fight.
“Hey, I’m just teasing,” Griffin said. “Here, your turn.”
They played until the sun started to go down.
“I’ll be back tomorrow,” the omega promised, packing up the game. “Is there anything you need? Stuff to help you pass the time? Some books maybe.”
“No,” Beau replied. He didn’t read. What would have been the point?
“Okay. I’ll look for some more games.” Griffin got to his feet, the game in his hands. Beau was almost sad to see him go, knowing that the long night was closing in.
“You’ll be back tomorrow?” he asked.
The omega nodded readily. “I’ll be back with some food in the morning. Goodnight, Beau.”
He slept poorly, his mind full of half-remembered images, yelling, and blood. Something had happened. He’d got lost inside his head, had buried a part of himself. But he couldn’t remember when or why.
Griffin’s arrival was a welcome relief though the thing he carried in his hand had Beau on edge.
“What is that?”
It was metal and shiny.
“An electric shaver. I thought maybe you’d like to trim some of that beard you’ve got growing,” Griffin replied, gesturing to Beau’s face.
Beau reached a hand up to his chin, surprised he hadn’t noticed his facial hair. The trainers preferred him clean-shaven for fights. He hated being tied down while they did it, but they didn’t trust him with a blade.
“Come on, there’s a mirror in the bathroom.”
He padded after the omega, feeling the cool floor tiles under his feet. Griffin handed over the razor and Beau tried to work out how to use it. When it started buzzing, he threw it away, Griffin catching it with surprisingly quick reflexes.
“Keep that thing away from me.”
The omega shut it off with a frown.
“It can’t harm you. I can show you on me if you like.”
Beau shook his head, his hands shaking. He didn’t want that thing near his face.
“Okay. I guess we’re on to plan b.”
Griffin went to his bag, returning with three items carried in his hands.
“No buzzing this time,” he assured Beau. “Scissors, razor, and shaving cream.”
Beau reached for the scissors, his hand still trembling. He clenched it into a fist to stop it but as soon as he let go, it started again. Griffin nudged his hand away when he tried to pick the scissors up again.
“Maybe leave this to me. Steady hands, see?”
The omega held his hands up and, sure enough, they didn’t waver.
“Here, sit down,” Griffin told him, gesturing to the closed toilet seat. Beau sat hunched over, watching as Griffin approached with the scissors in his hands.
“Just try to relax,” the omega added.
Beau closed his eyes as Griffin’s hand went under his chin, tipping his head up. There was silence except for their breathing and the snip-snip of the scissors.
“You want it all off?” the omega checked.
“Yes.” He hated the itch.
Griffin’s hand released him. “Just some foam now, it’ll feel a little cool.” There was an odd hissing sound and then something that smelled like soap was spread across his face.
The sound of running water filled the room.
“Okay, here we go. Hold still.”
Griffin’s hand was back, tipping his head this way and that as the razor scraped across his skin. The omega was so close that underneath the smell of the lather, he could scent the other shifter’s skin.
“Let’s see who we’ve got under here,” the omega joked, breaking the silence.
“You already know who I am,” Beau replied.
“I know what you were trained to be,” Griffin answered. “But I don’t know the first thing about who you are.”
“Why would you want to? I’m a fighter. That’s it, there’s nothing beyond that.”
“But there’s a whole world out here, a life that has nothing to do with fighting. It could be yours for the taking.”
“I don’t know anything about that,” Beau said, feeling lost. “I don’t belong out there, I belong in the ring.”
Griffin’s hand pressed against his shoulder. “There, we’re done.”
Beau found himself maneuvered onto his feet and pushed to stand in front of the mirror.
“What do you think?” Griffin asked him.
He looked at his reflection for a moment before letting his eyes drift away.
“I don’t know how to be anything except a fighter. But after what happened, I don’t think I can go back. And I don’t know the first thing about surviving out in that world you keep talking about.”
Those images flashed before his eyes again; the blood, the fury. He turned away from the mirror, and Griffin was there, standing in front of him.
“Let me show you. Let me teach you.”
“Teach me what?” Beau wondered.
“How to live.”