My heart dropped at his words, but I tried not to show my disappointment. This man had tried, and I didn’t want to come off as ungrateful.

“Rules are rules, and if we now clear your name, it weakens our message. We want to make sure the looters will not try to cross us ever again. If the word gets out that we are making exceptions, it won’t be a good punishment anymore,” he explained.

“Right,” I said, and leaned back on the couch. “We understand.”

“I’m sorry. There just isn’t anything we can do to help you with the homeless society,” he said.

I nodded a little, then looked down at my hands. I knew Payton was close to breaking down in tears, and since my own emotions were the same as his, I didn’t dare to look at him or I would’ve started crying as well.

What were we supposed to do now…?

“However…”

Both Payton and I perked up. Lucas gave us a short glance.

“Since you left your clan, and it seems like you’ve been honest with me, we are willing to give you an opportunity to prove yourselves,” he said slowly.

“That would mean the world to us,” I hurried to say.

“I haven’t even told you how,” Lucas noted.

I leaned back in my seat. “So… How?”

“Free labor,” he said shortly. “We have a hotel. Due to… recent events… the entire mafia has been called back home, and since many of them are staying at the hotel for now, the staff could use a few extra pairs of hands.”

“So we’d be working there for free?” I asked.

“Yes, but you are given a small room where you can stay for as long as you keep working for us. It has a bathroom and a kitchenette. The hotel can provide you with free breakfast and meals, and other necessities like shampoo and toothpaste.”

“I mean…” I muttered, glancing at Payton. “That sounds too good to be true in our ears.”

Lucas nodded. “Had the feeling, yes… But you must promise to have no contact with looter clans. You told me you don’t want to have anything to do with them anymore, so this is your chance to show me that.”

“Yes, sir,” I said promptly. “That won’t be an issue.”

“Good. Your status with everyone else will stay unfriendly until we decide otherwise. You won’t be given any help from elsewhere, so if there is something you need, you come to me.”

“Yes, sir,” I said, trying not to get overly excited in front of him. “Thank you so much. We won’t fail you.”

“I’m counting on it,” he said, and gave us his first smile. “I vouched for you. It is my reputation on the line now.”

“We won’t fail you,” I promised.

“Good,” he said, and stood. “My advice is to lie low and do your job. There will be many who won’t be happy to hear you were given a chance like this, so the less you say, the better. If anyone asks, you can say you’re being punished for the crimes against us.”

“Gotcha,” I said and stood up as well. “So…?”

“If you’re ready to go, I can take you there,” he said.

“Yes, we’re ready,” I chirped, and both Payton and I hurried to grab our bags.

This really sounded too good to be true. We didn’t even need help from anyone else if we had our own little home and free food and even shampoo! How was this supposed to be a punishment? Sure, free labor, but how free was it if all our needs were met?

And we didn’t even have to sleep on the streets…

“For how long?” Payton asked timidly, and Lucas turned to him.

“How long do you have to work for us?” he guessed.

“Y-yeah…”

“This will not be a permanent arrangement, but we will give you enough time to figure things out. As long as you don’t end up on our bad side, that is,” Lucas explained. “But for now, you two should just catch your breath and worry about the future later.”

“I do like the sound of that,” I told him with a smile.

“You may regret those words while scrubbing toilets,” he said, and opened the door.

“Right. That would be the punishment part,” I guessed.

“Indeed,” he said with a small chuckle.

And that sound made me feel a bit flustered. In a good way. As we followed him, my omega tried to catch his scent. It was very eager to say hello to this alpha, but so far, they hadn’t really noticed our subtle hints.

If only we could sit down and have a drink or something… But I pushed that thought out of my head. The guy was here to help us, that’s all.

It wasn’t a long ride to the hotel. I recognized it, yes, but I never knew it belonged to the mafia. Now it was very clear who owned it because the underground parking garage was full of large black cars. I grabbed my bag from the trunk and faced the large, welcoming main entrance, but Lucas started walking in a completely different direction. As Payton and I hurried after him, I noticed a tiny little door in a dark corner where we seemed to be heading to.

“This door leads to the apartments. There’s another one outside as well. It’s easy to find. There’s nine other apartments for staff members, but we always keep a few unoccupied for emergencies,” Lucas explained as we entered a short, narrow hallway with a staircase.

We climbed up and entered another hallway that continued into the distance, and Lucas proceeded to lead the way. We passed by several doors, but eventually, Lucas stopped behind one of them.

“There’s the main entrance,” he said, pointing at the end of the hallway while picking up a set of keys. “And this will be where you stay.”

I actually held my breath while he opened the door for us. Because I still believed this was all too good to be true, I expected to find a crappy, dusty old shithole behind the door, but no.

“Wow…” I whistled when Lucas let us step in.

It was actually really, really nice. Very much like a fine hotel, but with more space. There was a closet for our clothes on our left, and a bathroom on our right. When we walked past them, there were two beds, a small couch, and a TV on a stand on the left, a dining table under a set of large windows at the back, and a nice little kitchen occupied almost the entire space on the right, but there still was a little room for a desk against the bathroom wall. The color theme was very soothing and earthly with soft greens and browns, and the materials of carpets, curtains and bed sheets all seemed very luxurious.

“This is so nice…” I breathed out, and Payton agreed with wide eyes.

“It’s all yours for now,” Lucas said, and gave us both keys to the apartment. “Sabine runs things around here, and she’ll come talk to you tomorrow around noon. She’ll tell you everything you need to know. And don’t worry, she’s great. A loud personality, but you’ll get used to her.”

“Gotcha,” I said while still staring at the apartment.

“There should be food in the fridge,” Lucas continued. “I need to get going, but if there’s something you need or have questions…?”

“I, uh…” I tried to think of something, but I was still too shocked and excited about this opportunity that I couldn’t really focus on anything else. “I think we’ll be fine.”

“Good. You can always go find Sabine if you need anything. The best place to look for her is at the front desk.”

“Okay. I’m sure we’ll be fine,” I told him with a smile. “And thank you so much. I’m pretty sure you just saved our lives.”

He waved his hand dismissively. “We don’t turn our backs on people in need. Especially omegas. Just stay away from looters from now on.”

“Don’t worry, we’ll never go back,” I promised.

“Good. I’ll leave you guys to get settled in. Try to get some rest,” he said while retreating to the door.

“Is it all right if we come to visit you at the bar someday?” I asked before he left.

“It’s all right,” he said, his smile turning softer. “I’ll be interested to hear how things are going for you.”

“Then we’ll come visit,” I told him.

“Until then,” he said, waved at us, and left.

I stared at the door for a while, even after he’d closed it. Payton had to clear his throat to get my attention, and when I turned to him, he gave me a little smirk.

“That’s a nice alpha indeed,” he said.

“And big and strong and handsome…” I murmured, then let out a sigh. “He can’t be single.”

“I don’t know. My omega didn’t detect any strong scents other than his own,” he said, wiggling his eyebrows.

“Mine neither,” I said, and glanced at the door again.

Lucas did say it was fine if we visited him at the bar… I’d asked about it mostly because I wanted an opportunity to spend some time with him, and maybe get to know him a little better. He was really kind, after all. I could already tell he was one of the good ones, an alpha worth keeping. If only he didn’t think too lowly of us for being looters… It didn’t seem like that, though.

I let out a sigh, then turned around to face our new little home.

“But would you look at this! I can’t believe we get to stay here,” I chirped.

“I know, right? Like, how is this a punishment?” Payton asked with a grin.

“Let’s wait until we have to scrub toilets before asking that,” I said, chuckling.

“Honestly? I’ll lick those toilets clean as long as they let us stay here,” Payton said, and I gagged.

“Sure,” I said with a chuckle. “But man… We never should’ve joined the looters. We should’ve joined the mafia instead.”

“I know, right,” Payton said, and went to sit down on one of the beds.

“Well, it wasn’t really an option. Not for me, at least,” I said and sat down on the other bed. It was so soft! “Kent recruited me straight from the group home, so…”

“Same,” Payton said, and sighed.

“Anyway! Should we unpack?” I asked to bring the mood back up.

“Yes!” Payton said and grabbed his bag.

I followed him to the closet, but when I put my bag down to open it, I got a little distracted when my omega picked up the alpha’s scent again. It tried to learn more about this mafia alpha, but the details were fading.

But I could still tell it was a very nice scent.

*****

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