Claiming their Omega (Suzi de Beer) novel Chapter 43

1. DAISY

“How long are you planning on standing there, Daisy?”

I jerked in fright. When I snuck out of the room, I didn’t expect him to know since the floorboards made no sound. I had stayed in the room until darkness started setting in. And of course, hunger.

“You’re not a vegan, are you?” he called again.

Biting my lip, I stepped around the corner and searched the living room until my eyes locked in him where he stood in front of the stove in a small kitchen.

The smell for frying onions filled my nostrils, making my stomach growl. I hadn’t eaten since Elias cooked us breakfast before they left this morning. Was it still the same day? How long had I been out for?

A glance outside the window didn’t give me much information about where we were. All I saw was trees for miles and miles. The window had a lock that wouldn’t budge no matter what I tried.

“Canned meat will have to do for now,” he muttered. “I’ll go hunting tomorrow to get us some real meat.”

Was that going to be my chance to find an escape?

My eyes darted around the cabin. It was small and cozy. Not too much furniture but the furniture that he had blended in with the walls of the cabin. There was a big fireplace made out of shiny rock and a stack of wood next to it. I could use one of the branches to knock him out.

“It’s not gonna work.”

My eyes snap to Derek.

“It’s heavy and you won’t be able to use enough force to knock me out. I’m twice your size, Daisy. Do you really think you can take me out?”

I pursed my lips as I glared at him. “I have to try.”

He stared at me silently for a few seconds before he smiled. With the smile still playing around his lips, he grabbed a red can and started opening it.

Dumping the contents into the pan, he started mixing it with the onion.

With one last glance in the direction of the wood, I moved into the kitchen.

The table had been set with two plates, a fork and a spoon and two glass that looked like plastic. If I had to, I could stab him in the eye with the fork.

Derek filled the plates and placed the pan in the sink. Walking over to the fridge, he pulled out bread and butter. He placed it down on the table and then returned to the fridge to get a bottle of berry juice.

Filling our glaces, he spread butter on two slices of bread and placed it down in my plate.

“Eat up,

,” he muttered, nodding down to the plate. “You must be starving.”

I didn’t move.

1/4

Shrugging, he took a seat and dug right in. I watched him with a frown. If he drugged the food, he wouldn’t be eating any of it, would he?

Letting out a sigh, I took a seat and reached for a slice of bread. I hesitated a moment more before I started eating. It wasn’t bad, but it also wasn’t Elias’s food.

“There’s some clothes for you in the closet,” Derek said softly. “It’s all new and should fit you. The only shoes you have is the ones on your feet.” His eyes darted up to catch mine. “Can’t have you taking off into the forest.”

I looked away from him.

“I do hope you’re not that stupid, Daisy,” he muttered. “There’s no one within a walking distance and the forest is full of dangerous animals.”

Licking my lips, I lowered the fork to the plate and leaned back in the chair to look at him. “How long are you going to keep me here?”

Derek didn’t answer me right away. He finished the food on his plate and chewed slowly before he raised his head to look at me.

“However long I say.”

“What do you want from me?” I asked him.

His eyes narrowed. “I want a lot of things I can’t have, omega. You’re here because there’s a bastard out the who wants you for his own sick pleasure. You might not understand this, but to some alphas an omega means everything. I’m not going to sit back and watch him ruin your life.”

I swallowed. “So you’re not working with John?”

“No.”

Collecting the plates, he placed them in the sink and turned back around to look at me as he leaned back against the counter.

“But you’re not working with my alphas either?”

“This wasn’t part of the plan,” he muttered. “Aiden and your alphas had another plan, but John… It doesn’t matter. We’re here now and you’re stuck with me until he gets taken care of.”

It could take weeks or months for them to take care of things. We were in the middle of nowhere and I was stuck with a man I didn’t know. For all I knew, he was just trying to win my trust.

“There’s no TV but we do have some board games.” A sigh fell from his lips. “We have hot water but use it wisely. Once the tank empties it might take a few hours for it to refill.”

“How?” I asked, tilting my head to the side and fluttering my lashes at him.

Derek chuckled as he turned around and opened the tap. “Daisy, you are not the first omega I had to kidnap to protect. Fluttering your lashes and giving me flirty smiles isn’t going to make me tell you anything.”

“How many?” I questioned. “How many omegas, I mean.”

“Too many to count.”

2/4

Questions filled my mind, but I didn’t voice any of them. I was trying to gain his trust but I didn’t want to make it so obvious. He was smarter than he looked.

“Thank you for the food,” I said softly as I stood. “I’m going to go to bed.”

“I’ve been trained to sleep with one eye open,” he told me without looking at me.

I paused and then hurried back to the bedroom. Closing the door softly behind me, I leaned back against it and tried to calm my racing heart.

So I had been kidnapped, but I wasn’t locked up in a dark closet. I had water and he gave me food. I had a bed to sleep in and a light to keep on.

But it wasn’t home.

Home?

Those words made all thought jerk to a halt. The penthouse wasn’t home. They weren’t my alphas. They weren’t family.

But you want them to be.

I wanted a lot of things but that didn’t mean that you always got what you wanted.

Shaking my head, I walked over to the window and glanced outside. I wasn’t the right omega for them. They needed an omega who knew how to cook and clean so she could take care of him. They needed a pretty omega who had no trouble going out in public.

I wasn’t that omega and I was never going to be her.

But I wanted to be.

Swallowing, I crawled into bed and pulled the sheet up to my chin.

I had no idea where I was but instead of thinking of a plan to get out of the cabin, I was stuck fantasizing about a life with them.

What the hell was wrong with me?

Closing my eyes, I forced them from my mind.

I’d think about it again when I got out of this place alive.

My eyes were starting to get droopy. I was close to falling asleep when my bedroom door slowly opened. I tensed but kept my eyes closed so he would think I was asleep.

“We have a storm rolling in,” Derek muttered as he covered me with a thick blanket. “It gets cold up here when it rains.”

On my their own occurred, my eyes fluttered open. I blinked up at the big alpha hovering next to the bed.

“I didn’t drug Alex,” he said softly. “And I had no intention of harming him. I needed you to cooperate and threatening your alpha was the only way I knew you would.”

3/4

“Why are you doing this then?”

With a sigh, he took a seat on the edge of the bed. Gripping the blanket, he pulled it up to my chin and then reached out to stroke my hair.

“When Aiden first met you, he asked me to keep an eye on you.” He hesitated. “You never smiled or tried new things when you lived with John. You always did the same things over and over again. But it changed when you started living with Alex’s pack. They make you happy and I don’t see why you keep fighting that happiness.”

“I’m not the omega for them.”

“Why?” Derek tilted his head to the side. “Because they make you happy? Because they make you feel things you have never felt before? Because they scare you?”

I opened my mouth to deny all of it, but something stopped me.

“What happened to you when you were a kid could’ve happened to anyone. In an average day, more than two- hundred omegas get kidnapped, abused…killed. Only two percent make it out of their ordeal alive and they won’t let the shit that happened to them keep them from living their lives.”

I closed my eyes, unable to look at him any longer.

“Most of those omegas don’t get to return to the lives they had before shit happened.”

He left the sentence hanging in the air as he stood and walked over to the window. I watched as he checked the lock and then pulled the curtains closed. For a few minutes he stood there and then he turned and walked back over to the door.

“You got a second chance in life, omega,” he growled. “Are you really going to let the shit that happened keep you from being happy?”