Chapter 52: Shifting moments

Elias’s POV

"Fuck it" I mutter just two seconds after shutting the door in his face.

I open the door.

Reach my hand out.

Grab him by the collar.

And pull him into the room.

The omega gasps with surprise but doesn’t try to reject me or fight me off. And like a good possession, he remains quiet even when I rough handle him.

I hate how much he still smells like that man.

His strawberry scent is weak underneath that man’s strange and unwanted smell.

I hate anything I don’t know and can’t predict. Death is sure, and the unfamiliar bothers me.

"Fuck, I hate the way you smell" I say. I don’t raise my voice, he doesn’t move away from me.

I grab the collars of his shirt and rip it down the middle. Buttons pop off with the force of the tear, they fall to the floor, and bounce off the tile.

"You let him...you let him scent you?" I ask though clenched teeth, and the only response he gives is a whimper.

He doesn’t run. He stays with a whimper.

My possessions shouldn’t have any other person’s fingerprint, scent, hair, or any tiny DNA on them.

I throw his ruined shirt across the room, leaving Noah half naked in front of me.

His skin is bare but somehow he still smells like that man. My phantom smell is killing me.

"Come here" I growl, grabbing his forearm and pulling him into the bathroom.

My men prepared this room before hand. My things are here. Everything is exactly the way I want it. And the generic shampoo and soap have been replaced with mine.

I throw him in and the way he staggers takes me back to the morning.

I had enjoyed washing Noah up. I had even felt something light in my chest for him. But now I’m full of rage, even worse, I feel like drowning him.

"Get in. Get in the bath" I order.

"Okay" he says softly as if he has no issue with the way I’m tossing him around.

Noah takes off his pants and boxers before getting into the bath. And I take a second to look at him.

He hasn’t spoken much since this morning.

I gave him a silent treatment all day, but my eyes stayed fixed on him. He only smiled at funny moments, gazed with wide eyes, and nodded to what he agreed with.

I wasn’t speaking and he wasn’t speaking either.

"Did you like when he touched you?" I ask him, squatting in front of the bath to look into his face.

"No"

"Don’t lie to me" I grab his chin and force him to look at me.

"No, I didn’t" he says.

I search his face for the lie tells, but there are none.

He isn’t lying and I can’t handle that. I don’t know why, but I can’t handle that.

"Wash up and get ready for bed, tomorrow is another day" I tell him as I stumble out of the bathroom.

Multiple bolts and nuts in my head are falling loose.

My chest is starting to ache in a funny way for Noah. My head only lights up when the omega is mentioned. And he is suddenly the center of my thoughts.

My cherry blossom boy and the need to find him is still at the forefront of my mind, but something tells me to be patient with Noah.

Completely annoyed, I throw a loose round neck shirt and a pair of my boxers on the bed for him. The hotel room has a chair, and just like I like it, I drag it to sit in front of the bed.

Noah finally comes out of the bathroom with his head down.

The omega is covering parts of himself that I’ve seen, touched, and own with a small green towel.

"I’m done" he announces and I nod.

He slowly dresses up while I take a turn in the bathroom. I don’t spend too much time washing up. I’ve been away from Noah for too long in one day.

I get dressed for the night and leave.

Instead of finding him on the bed, Noah is sitting in the seat I set up for myself. His legs are up and folded on the chair.

"Go to bed, Noah" I say.

He doesn’t.

"Now" I command firmly and he gets out of the chair.

The omega stands beside the chair and I really don’t give a damn what his plans are.

Without sparing him another glance, I sit in the chair, and he suddenly plants himself in my lap.

What?

My brain short-circuits for a moment.

I’ve studied people like they’re objects and I rarely get caught by surprise...but this? What the hell is this?

Noah makes himself comfortable in my lap without my permission.

He shifts and turns till he’s satisfied, and then he presses his nose to my neck while I sit with my back rigid and my heart leaping like a spring is in me.

"What are you doing?" I ask.

Why does my voice sound so fucking weak?

"Why don’t you ever sleep?" the omega asks back.

That question is a nerve that no one touches in me. My fucking sleep life is the monster I don’t talk about. The monster that haunts the god of death.

"It’s not your business" I growl.

"I like to sleep. I dream of a lot of things that I can’t remember. Sometimes I can’t tell if they’re made up or just memory" he continues to talk.

"That’s none of my business, Noah"

"And there’s this person...I know them, and I also don’t know them" his voice drops to a whisper and I blink twice in succession.

Is he talking about me? Is this the answer I’ve been looking for?

"Is it a nine years old boy?" I ask and he shakes his head.

"No, it’s a man...a very grown man" he says.

Not me.

"What’s his name?"

"I don’t know...them?" he says like he’s asking me and I frown.

This can only mean something tampered with his memory or he knows what the cherry blossom boy means to me and he’s playing with my head.

"How old were you?" I ask calmly.

"I was pretty young and I just know that they left me. But after they left, I had Roman" he says, killing the thoughts in my head.

Fucking Roman.

Again.

I have nothing to say. I have no more questions to ask, so I tuck everything he just told me into a part of my mind.

He might not be the cherry blossom boy I’m looking for, but he has something strange going on in his life.

"Roman was my first love" he says softly.

"And now?" I ask, and Noah lifts his head to look at me.

His eyes drop from my eyes to my lips and back to my eyes.

Where the hell is all the anger and resentment from today?

"Will you kill him if I tell you the truth?"

"He dies either way" I say my truth.

Noah thinks about it for a while. He sighs and speaks his truth.

"He owns my heart, but my body and mind don’t belong to him" he says and I grab his throat.

Holding him like this is becoming my habit and addiction. I grab him and make him look at me in the eyes with those blue Sapphire-like eyes.

"They belong to me" I say the word with the depth of conviction I have.

"You belong to me, do I have to remind you?" I sneer and the omega nods.

"What?" I ask.

"Yes...remind me" he whispers.

No thoughts proceed my action. I pull him forward, and latch on to the skin of his neck...the skin that smells like me.