The Omegas Time Chapter 29

Hope

I hadn’t painted for a while , and part of me didn’t know what to do. It was almost like my hands couldn’t remember how to hold the brush. It had nothing to do with the fact that the paints were centuries old and little more than a child’s paint pallet. 

Ever since I had got here, in this time I hadn’t let myself believe I would ever hold a paintbrush again. Art and beauty wasn’t something that was part of life here. The world was grey. A barren land where only the strongest survived.

Lincoln was the strongest. It was more than his huge muscles and towering frame. There was strength in the small acts of kindness he showed people who were weaker than him. It was one of the reasons I could understand why Deacon was secretly in love with him.

Maybe it was even the reason I was so attracted to him. Although his dark good looks didn’t hurt.

My stomach gave a dull ache. Not enough to make me worried yet but I hadn’t had the little blue drink yet today and I knew without it that I would turn into some sex craved maniac.

Well they had put it differently but that’s what they meant.

I wasn’t even sure being a sex craved pest would be such a bad thing if it was with Lincoln. 

It had been a long time since I had even thought about sex let alone had any , and now it was all I could think about.

Like I had thought him into existence, Lincoln appeared at the head of the stairs. I turned on the little stool and watched as he paused to talk to Deacon. It gave me a chance to really look at him.

Gorgeous.

Especially with his forearms on show. My eyes traced the veins and thick corded muscles and my mouth went dry.

He lifted his head , his eyes bored down into line and a slow lazy smile spread across his face. 

Lincoln had dimples I realised with a start. How had I never noticed that before.

“Here Hope.” Striding toward he came to a stop right behind me.  A hand was thrust around me. The small glass bottle of drink hovered in front of my face. “You haven’t taken it today have you?”

“Nope.” I plucked it from his hands , pulling out the stopped I tipped the blue liquid onto my tongue and swallowed. It still tasted disgusting but I was getting used to it now. I didn’t even gag anymore.

“Good girl.” 

My core ached and I squeezed my thighs together. 

“May I talk to you for a moment?”

Twisting on the stool I peered up at him. From this angle because he was so tall and I was sitting down his face was nothing but light and shadows.

“It’s your home.” I said with a shrug. “Surely you can do whatever you want?”

In answer he crouched down beside me. “Do you like this?” He asked and I didn’t need to ask what he meant.

“I love it, thank you very much.” I wanted to hug him to prove how much it meant to me but I wasn’t sure if that was allowed?

“Good. But-“ his fingers brushed against mine. The one holding the still clean paint brush. “You haven’t-“ he took a deep breath and it lifted the hair that had come free from my braid. “You haven’t started? Did I forget something? Did I get it wrong? If you tell me-“

“Lincoln it’s perfect.”

He was even more attractive with that little glimmer of uncertainty in his eyes. He might have rejected me but a small part of me wanted to make me happy.

“It’s the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me.” Without thinking I swung my arms around his neck, almost making him topple backwards and pressed my lips to his stubbly cheek.

“Thank you so much.” 

“You’re most welcome Omega Hope.” He shifted backwards but his hand reached out to twirl a bright red strand of hair around his finger. “I like the fact it made you happy but I think I would like it more if you actually painted me something.” He winked. “That way I can add it to my collection.”

“Oh I’m not that good! You have the masters and I am just a-“

“I will treasure anything you paint Hope.” Lincoln’s voice dropped and with it my heart seemed to slow to a stop. It still beat but so painfully and so slowly that I rubbed against my left breast before I could help myself.

Lincoln eyes darted downward and then narrowed. “Are you sick?”

I shook my head, but I couldn’t speak. “No, it’s just-“

A wave of nausea swept through me. Forcing me to drop the paint brush, I doubled over and wretched. Nothing came out but a strangled scream as a torrent of pain swept through my body with such force that it forced the breath from my lips.

Doubled over I screwed my face shut. I was dying. I knew I was dying. No one could be in this amount of pain and not be. It didn’t just grip my body, it crawled all over my body and set each of the my nerve endings on fire.

That’s what was happening. I was being burnt alive from the inside out.

Poison.

That had to be it. There was no other explanation.  Lincoln or someone within his household had poisoned me.

The blue drink. I had taken it because they had said I needed to.

“Hope.” Lincoln caught me as I toppled sideways off the stool. “Hope what is-“ dimly I could hear the panic in his voice as he shifted me into his arms and stood. “Deacon, what the hell is wrong with her?”

The sound of the smaller man’s footsteps was almost silent but that might have been because I was crying so hard. Twisting and turning in Lincoln arms because even his touch was agony from the burning in my skin.

“Help me.” I wailed. “Get off of me.” I said in the next breath. Because everything hurt and I didn’t know how to make it better.

Yes I did. I knew what would make it better. Blearily I stared up into Lincoln’s worried face. “Kill me.” I pleaded , my voice thick with tears. 

“I’m not going to do that.”

“Throw me over the side.” I begged.

One side of his mouth twitched. “I am not going to do that either.” He shook his head. “Deacon?”

A smaller hand pressed against my forehead, before lifting my eyelids. “I don’t know. She’s warm and getting hotter by the second? Some kind of virus?” 

If I had an infection or a virus and my body had no previous interaction with it then I was dead. I wouldn’t be able to fight it.

Being thrown over the side would be a more merciful death.

“Let’s get her downstairs and into bed.”  Lincoln began walking and Deacon rushed ahead. “I’ll find a healer-“

I groaned a low guttural sound in the back of my throat. My whole body turned to liquid and it almost felt like I wet myself only I was in too much pain to be embarrassed about it. 

Both men paused on the stairs. 

“What the hell was that?” Deacon asked.

Lincoln’s muscles bunched and I heard his ragged breath as he glanced down at my sweat sheathed face. 

“She’s just come into heat.”