My winter treasure

Chapter 13.

I learned what an alpha liked from an omega when I was 10 years old. My parents had died relatively recently, and although we spent some time on the street, we again had a roof over our heads when a "kind" beta man offered my older brother a job.

I was innocent then, I didn't know what that job my brother was doing, I only knew that there were many omegas in the house we lived in, and that Micha always put me in a small closet when he had to work. I never saw an alpha, I could smell them, but during those two years I never knew what my brother had to do to keep that roof over our heads.

And the cost to his body.

Nothing is free in life, and although I believed that the kind owner of the house allowed me to live there without paying because I was a child, in reality it was Micha who paid my debt and his stay. Micha took the worst jobs, those that no other omega wanted to take, violent guys, dirty and nasty alphas, Micha took them because the pay was higher, and thanks to those earnings for his boss he paid for his stay in the house and also for mine.

And even though my brother was torn apart every day in that job, when dawn came, he would just smile and come for me in the little closet where he would ask me to hide, fix me something to eat, and then the two of us would sleep together in a little room that the boss had given us. I never noticed anything, because I didn't want to notice.

Until something terrible happened.

One night like so many I was hiding in that closet, I think that's when I started drawing, I had nothing else to do to pass the time, so I drew with a marker on the walls of the closet, drawings on drawings, in the middle of the darkness. But that night was different, because one of the other omegas in the brothel opened the door looking scared, and asked me to go with him.

"I can't, Micha told me I don't have to go out" I flatly refused.

"That's why you have to leave Nick, your brother is injured, and no one can take care of him, you have to do it yourself."

Still hesitant but concerned, I finally decided to come out of the closet, taking that omega's hand and walking beside him to lead me to where Micha was.

It was then that I saw the house at night, the brothel where I lived that in the mornings had empty and silent corridors, now had several alphas coming from one side to the other, with loud music from the lower floor, and strange noises behind the doors.

It was then that I saw Micha.

"He grabbed me by the neck, he tried to kill me" I heard my brother's desperate voice in the distance.

"Then you would have let him do it! He's one of my best customers, and you dared to bite him, who do you think you are? Do you think your life is worth anything?" Said the strong voice of the owner of the house, that "kind" man who let us live here.

Feeling frozen with fear, I approached one of the few open doors in the house, seeing my brother lying on the floor, in the middle of a horrible sight, being beaten by the owner of the house even though he was injured.

Then I saw the panic in his eyes, Micha immediately shut up, and we both exchanged glances... I was probably as scared as he was.

"Come on, answer me! Do you think your life is worth more than the wishes of an alpha? Who do you think you are?"

Silently, my brother accepted all the blows from his boss, while I watched everything in the door frame, finally understanding where we were and what my brother's job was.

Then I knew what an alpha liked, and how horrible some of them are.

And again I have that feeling, that helplessness, seeing all the omegas around me so terrified and helpless, while the terrible shadow of that man stood in front of me.