Thorns And Roses

Chapter Forty-three

Theo's tongue felt thick in his mouth as a headache beat in tune with his heart. He groaned and sat up, rubbing at his eyes to clear the blurriness away. The room came into focus, the walls bare and made of concrete. A door was the only thing that separated him from the outside world. He was just too weak to break it down.

"Hey, you okay?" His golden eyes went to the man that shared his room with him, well somewhat at least. Theo was usually drugged and taken away at night, then he was brought back to their room with a chain padlocked around his ankle connected to the wrought-iron bed. His name was Annie and he's been the nicest to Theo since he was taken about two weeks ago.

"Yeah, I'm good. The drugs hit me hard, too fast." He mumbled to the lynx. Annie was a very beautiful Omega, with blonde hair and blue-green eyes. He didn't look anything like Demi.

Fuck. Theo missed him so much.

"It's best not to think about them." Theo tilted his head at Annie and then winced when it sent a thrum of pain through his neck that sat up shop in his temples. He groaned as he brought his knees to his chest and buried his face in them.

Theo felt sick like he always did after waking up from being heavily drugged. With what type of drugs, fuck if he knew. As long as it kept him docile, they couldn't care less. And speaking of them, they liked to use him in any way they pleased.

"I know. You've already told me." Annie always seemed to be the one to catch him thinking about Demi, or Quinn. Hell, he even misses River and the kids. It was more of a warning, telling him if he stopped thinking about them, it might hurt less in the end. Once he inevitably loses his family.

"Then why do you do it?" Annie didn't understand. None of the others did either. In this horrible place, where his days run with his nights, none of them understood what the happy memories did for Theo. They took him away, just for a small portion of his nights.

"I don't know." He muttered. He didn't want to give his little secret away, in case they take it from him. In case Joseph or Xavier King snatched it up and ate it in front of his glazed-over, drug-induced haze.

"Do you remember anything they do to you if the drugs hit you that hard?" Annie asked, his eyes trained on that thin piece of wood that either one of them could break down. If only it wasn't for the drugs running rampant in their veins and the chains holding them hostage.

"Sometimes. Flashbacks, mostly when I look down at the bruises on my body or I feel the pain in my ass. Which one ever comes first." Theo lifted his head to stare at that same door and groaned as another wave of nausea hit him. He couldn't hold it back this time. Reaching over his bedside, he grabbed the metal bucket that sat there and threw up whatever was in his stomach from last night.

A broken sob punched out of his throat when he glanced down at the contents that came from his belly. It was a milky white color, with stomach acid mixed in. A string of saliva still connecting his lips to it as a bitter taste assaulted his tongue. He liked the cotton taste better. They had used his mouth last night and he couldn't even remember it.

Theo used the edge of his black t-shirt to wipe his eyes and his mouth off after he had set the bucket back down. The black skin-tight boxers he wore did nothing to protect his bruised and broken body from the chill that seemed to stay in the room. Annie wore a similar outfit but in a pale blue color instead.

"You want my blanket? I don't need it as much as you do." Theo looked over at Annie and saw that he wasn't hurt in any shape or form.

With a shaky nod, Annie handed Theo his blanket between the small space that separated their beds. "Did they not take you last night?" He asked as Theo wrapped the itchy wool blanket around his shoulders and snuggled into the ugly green material.

"No, they did. I just don't fight them as much as you do. They don't have to drug me or hurt me to get me under control." And Theo wouldn't stop fighting. He didn't care if being good got him privileges like the others. He would rather suffer than give in to their awful routine.

Annie has already told him this but Theo was stubborn to his core. Besides the only one that he ever willingly let control him was Demi.

"So they don't drug you?"

"I ask for it, to be drugged. Especially if I know it's going to hurt. The drugs help with the pain." Theo did notice that but he still didn't care. Small mercy or not, once he got out of there he would kill all of them and save the others.

It grew quiet between them, the only sound the growling of their stomachs. Theo can't remember the last time he ate. They don't put the drugs in his food because he doesn't eat it anyways. No, they usually have to bring reinforcements in to hold him down and either shove the pills in his mouth or prick his neck with a needle.

The hollow aches of hunger pains are easy to ignore. It's the other pains that make it difficult. The bruises on his thighs, upper arms, hips, and face where he's been slapped multiple times. The bleeding, seeping wound that was his backside. Those were the pains that kept him up all day when he should be sleeping.

"What do they expect us to fucking do all day, sit and watch the walls?" Theo felt like the isolation was meant to drive them insane and the crazy look in Annie's eyes was a dead giveaway that it was working.

"Probably. I didn't know it would be like this. When I saw Joseph, I thought I would be his personal sex slave. I didn't think he would share me with others." It was venomous, and sputtered out like a snake coiling back to strike. He was ready for the attack. Ready to kill. And they fucking knew it. It was the reason why they kept him drugged most of the time. Too afraid of what the Alpha would do when off of them.

"Nah. Joseph isn't territorial like that. He's brought in way too many of us to be even remotely possessive. Why did you think that though?" Annie was just asking what should be innocent questions but they had Theo's hackles raised. Teeth bared and ready to bite.

"I don't know." He tried to keep the sneer out of his voice. It's not Annie's fault that he treads very heavily between the lines of Theo's boundaries. He didn't want to lose Annie as a friend in this place just because he said something stupid.

"Don't tell me you're jealous, babe." Theo rolled his eyes and buried himself further in the blanket.

"No, I'm not. It's better that I'm not the only one. Don't want to be the center of his attention. Like, ever." And that's because Joseph made him uncomfortable. With the way, he talked, walked, hell the way he just watched on the sideline as Theo was raped over and over again. His disgusting brown eyes bored into Theo's soul as he's used in every position imaginable.

"Who said you're not the only one? I've seen the way Joseph looks at you. Even though he's brought a ton of us in, he's never looked at anyone the way he does you. Like he fucking wants to pin you against a wall and fuck you senseless. Wait, has he had sex with you yet?"

Theo couldn't exactly remember if he has or not. After a while the faces of his "clients" start to blur and run together. If they ever told him their names he wouldn't be able to recall them. That's how drugged up and out of it he usually was.

"I'm not sure. Can't remember."

"That might be better. It's best to not think about the men that have their way with us. I may have not been drugged last night but I don't remember what they looked like. I prefer it that way." Annie had a point. It was best to forget about the awful nights he spends in other people's arms.

Fuck. He thought as he dropped his head and silently cried. All he could hope for was that Demi would still want him after all of this.