Since I had nothing else to do while I waited for the food, I watched as the omega nurse started slathering the salve all over Alex’s arms, hands, and fingers. He was using a crap-ton of it, way more than we ever could’ve afforded, so… I carefully hoped this mummification treatment would work well. I could tell Alex was in a lot of pain, but he acted brave and even smiled at the omega’s jokes.

I still hated these strangers and everything they stood for, but… If they could help Alex…

Once Alex’s arms and neck were fully covered with salve and bandages, Trouble came back with two plates of food – spaghetti and meatballs – and I couldn’t… I couldn’t ignore it when he put the plate on a table next to me. It smelled so good… We rarely got warm meals… And spaghetti… With meatballs…

“Thanks!” Alex chirped in excitement, grabbed his fork, and started eating.

I watched him, then sniffed at my plate. My alpha told me it didn’t smell anything weird in the food, but still… I just…

“It’s all right, little one. It’s all yours,” the nurse spoke softly after Trouble had left. “You must be hungry.”

I glared at him for a brief second, then turned my back on the plate and all of them.

“How about we give you guys a moment alone, hmm?” the nurse asked.

“Thanks,” Alex told him quietly, then waited until the two older men had left the room before he spoke again. “It’s really good.”

“Sure…” I muttered, trying to ignore the scent of the meatballs.

I expected him to keep talking, but instead, I heard him continue eating slowly. He let out a couple of sad sighs now and then, and eventually, my alpha told me our brother was miserable. I couldn’t keep ignoring Alex for much longer, and eventually, I had to turn to him. He kept his head down, and his expression was just as sad as I’d thought as he slowly pushed one of the meatballs back and forth, picking at it.

“Why do you want to trust them?” I asked him.

“I don’t know if I trust them, or if I even want to…” he muttered, then sighed. “But… Our life is… It’s shit, Josh. No matter what we do, who we trust, who we make friends with… It’s just shit. All day, every day. This is just another kind of shit. But now I have spaghetti, and my arms don’t hurt anymore. I can’t wait for Kieran to come back and do my legs as well. So… Maybe this will be better shit, you know?”

I stared at him with wide eyes. “Who taught you to swear like that?”

“You did!” he said and let out a short laugh, but then his expression dropped, and he brought his hand up to see his new bandages. “I’m… I’m tired, Josh. Maybe… Maybe I just don’t have the energy to care if they really are the mafia and want to help us. Maybe I just want the pain to stop, eat my meatballs, and rest. They keep talking about our room… I wonder if we can have proper beds…”

“But they want to keep us here against our own will. We’re their prisoners,” I said, though I was already peering at my plate.

“No… They want to keep us here so you won’t go out there and do bad things for True Order,” he said quietly. “And… I’m fine with that. I don’t want you to hurt anyone. You’re my big brother. You’re supposed to be a good person… You are a good person, but somehow… somehow, they got to you…”

I watched his plate as he kept pushing the meatball back and forth. His words hurt. I just wanted to give him a good life… He couldn’t see what True Order tried to do for this country, for all of us…

But I couldn’t give him a good life if he didn’t allow me to stay with him. So… I pulled closer the plate that was left for me, then took my fork. I was so hungry all of a sudden… I didn’t even hesitate to stuff my mouth full of food, and fuck, it really tasted so good… Alex chuckled a little and continued eating as well while I kept wolfing down the meal. I felt almost crazed as I ate… I was done with half of my plate when I finally had to pause and catch my breath and drink a little before I’d choke.

Man… Warm food… I mean, sure, we were supposed to have warm pizza tonight, but–

“Fuck…” I whispered, my heart freezing all of a sudden. “Simon…”

“Oh, no… He’s probably worried sick…” Alex said, his expression dropping again.

“He has no idea where we are…” I muttered.

I could almost see him searching for us, fearing something bad had happened to us… He’d probably blame himself for leaving us alone at the gym…

Just when he and us were growing closer…

“Fuck this…” I muttered. “They should’ve just asked us to come with them! Why did they have to kidnap us like that?!”

“I mean… You wouldn’t have trusted them enough to come willingly…” Alex muttered.

I shook my head and pushed the plate away. I wasn’t hungry anymore. I was mad. I was mad because I suddenly realized how much we would lose if we didn’t get the fuck out of here. How long were they going to keep us here, anyway? Days? Weeks? Years? Were we ever going to see Simon again? Would he ever find out what happened to us?

Would he ever forgive himself?

“Fuck this…” I mumbled again.

Poor Simon… He just wanted to take care of us…

I guess the doc and the nurse could tell we were getting upset, because they returned almost right away, and stopped to watch my angry expression.

“You didn’t like the food?” the nurse asked.

I turned to glare at him.

“I don’t like to be here,” I hissed at him. “I don’t like the food, I don’t like you, and I really don’t like this place. So. If you want me to even consider playing nice, you need to find our friend and let him know what you did to us.”

The two of them exchanged glances.

“We can see what we can do,” Hans then spoke. “But if you’re talking about Zach–”

“I’m not talking about him. I’m talking about the guy who was with us when you kidnapped us today. He’s worried sick, so the least you can do is make sure he knows what happened. He’s on your side, after all.”

Hans stepped closer, smiling at me. “We’ll see what we can do.”

“Wait… How do you know Zach?” Alex asked, and I got mad at myself for not realizing that.

Hans sighed, fished out a bottle of painkillers from his pocket, and came to give me a couple of pills. “Take these so we can X-ray your arm.”

“You think I trust anything you give me?” I spat at him.

“You really are a firecracker, huh?” Hans said and sat down next to me. He showed me the bottle. “See? Just some heavy painkillers. If you take them, I can explain everything while we wait for them to start working.”

I glared at him for a moment longer, but I did recognize the bottle, and the pills looked the same… So… I sighed and took the pills.

“Good boy. Now… Zach,” Hans said, while the nurse continued mummifying my brother. “You know, our Trouble, Glen, and Thomas used to work for Jomica, too.”

“Huh?”

Hans nodded. “Kieran here helped Trouble to see the truth behind True Order’s lies, and now that fine young man is helping Michael Mercer to run this place. This is Trouble’s baby, really. Thomas and Glen joined our cause with him, and they are the reason we know about Zach. They used to know each other, you see. Zach has always been Jomica’s recruiter – he was the one who recruited Trouble in the first place – so when we spotted him, we knew we had to catch him.”

“That’s how we learned about you two,” the omega said and turned to my brother. “As we followed Zach, we spotted you, and we saw how much pain you were in all the time, and we wanted to help. But it wasn’t easy since we could tell you two were very close, so we didn’t want to separate you.”

“And right when we were ready to take you two off the streets, you stopped hanging out together. We tried to follow you, but whenever we spotted you, you were always alone,” Hans told me. “We had to wait until you two showed up together again.”

That’s why I kept seeing that small blue car…

“How did you follow us without us noticing you?” Alex asked.

Hans smiled at him. “The mafia has their secret ways.”

“Right…” Alex muttered, then came up with another question. “So what exactly is this place? A prison?”

I really didn’t like him talking to them so much, but… I kind of wanted to know, too…

“This is our very own Youth Center,” Hans explained. “It’s for homeless kids like you. Kids who are… in danger… of falling into the hands of Jomica.”

I could feel all their eyes on me again, but I chose to ignore them.

“We are trying to save as many children as we can from becoming victims of True Order’s lies, and help those who have already been brainwashed,” the omega explained. “Kids like Trouble, who couldn’t tell who was lying, and who was telling the truth. Now he’s dedicated his life to sabotaging Jomica and making sure they can’t recruit homeless kids off the streets anymore.”

“So… What? You just kidnap kids and keep us here forever?” I asked.

“If that’s the only way to keep you from harming innocent people, and keep you safe from getting killed by our armies… Yes,” the nurse said. “We won’t let another child die, no matter whose side they are on.”

I glared at this omega, but he only watched me calmly. I could suddenly feel his strength and determination, and soon, I had to yield to him and look away.

Kieran, right…?

“You two will be all right with us. You’ll have your own room, your own beds, all the food you can eat, and we can teach you basic skills, like reading and writing. You can hang out with other kids your age in the common area, play video games, watch movies, have hobbies… We have a large yard and a basketball field. We have a lot of adults here to protect you and watch over you, and people you can talk to if you have something on your mind,” the omega… Kieran… explained. “And of course, we’re here to take care of your injuries.”

I snorted quietly. “Sounds nice… I hope you’re not lying to me…”

“I’m not, don’t worry,” he said calmly.

I watched him for a moment while he continued wrapping up Alex’s foot.

“But you need to find our friend,” I said. “His name is Simon. He took care of us. He must be worried sick since you kidnapped us right in front of him.”

“I’m sure we can find him,” the om… Kieran… said.

I nodded a little, then turned to look away. That was when Hans stood up.

“Right, let’s take those X-rays, hmm?”

I closed my eyes, feeling… feeling a lot… But the pain was fading now, and I wasn’t hungry anymore. My alpha was still scared, but it was watching these strangers, and… It didn’t detect bad vibes coming from them. They really just… seemed to want to help.

I still hated them, though.

Getting the X-rays was a tedious, painful thing to do, but the images confirmed what had been very obvious: I had a fracture. Lucky for me, it didn’t go through the entire bone, and didn’t require surgery, so Hans was sure it would heal just fine as long as I wore a massive, ugly-looking black splint for at least three weeks. At least there didn’t seem to be anything wrong with my knee, but Hans gave me a brace for that, too.

And… I had to admit, both the splint and the brace helped with the pain… But they were ugly as fuck.

By the time Hans was done with me, and I was trying to get comfortable with the splint and the brace, Kieran was also finishing my brother’s mummification process. He was drowning my brother’s scalp in salve, then pulled a clean, white wool beanie over it all.

“Now, when you get to your room, use this salve on all the spots I didn’t get yet,” Kieran spoke to Alex, and gave the whole big bottle to him. “There will be clean clothes you can wear so your bed doesn’t get drenched in salve right away. Don’t worry about getting the sheets dirty, though. We’ll change them for you every morning until your skin is doing better.”

“Okay,” Alex said as he studied the bottle. It was bigger than his damn head…

“And as for you,” Hans said and turned to me. “Keep the splint on for now. Tomorrow, after breakfast, I’ll have someone escort you both back here so we can run some tests and give you more painkillers if you need them.”

“Fine…” I mumbled.

Kieran was telling Alex to make sure to use as much salve as he could on the spots he didn’t get yet when Trouble returned with two of the guys who’d helped him kidnap us.

One of them was apparently Glen, according to the murderous glare he gave me.

“How’s your balls?” I asked.

“Don’t know,” he said, scoffing. “Haven’t found them yet.”

The blond shorter guy next to him patted his back while trying to hide his grin.

“Thankfully, we can’t have kids, anyway,” he told Glen, so I assumed he was his mate.

“Are we ready to go get settled in your new room?” Trouble asked.

“I guess,” I grumbled at him, but he just chuckled at me.

“Oh, we didn’t get your names yet,” Kieran said when Trouble gestured for us to follow Glen and his mate.

“I’m Alex,” my brother said without hesitating one bit. I glared at him for a moment, but he only gave me a questioning look in return.

I huffed and rolled my eyes. “Josh.”

Kieran’s smile changed a little, and he stared at me for a brief second. “Josh… And Alex.”

I raised my eyebrow at him, but he shook himself a little, then smiled wider. “Well, try to make yourselves at home. You will be staying with us for a while, so…”

“Okay,” Alex said quietly, peering at me.

“Right. We’ll show you the way,” Glen said, giving me a suspicious look. “I’m Glen.”

“And I’m Thomas,” the blond guy said as Alex and I started following them.

“Whatever…” I muttered as a reply.

I didn’t like this at all… Not at fucking all…

“Trouble…” Kieran spoke quietly, and I turned to glance over my shoulder. The omega stood in front of the tall alpha, looking… looking like he was almost in tears. “His name is Josh…”

I frowned and slowed down a little so I could hear them. They didn’t seem to realize I was still listening…

“Josh…? Oh…” Trouble said gently and pulled the omega into a hug. “Like Joshua.”

Joshua…?

Kieran nodded against his chest like he was in pain… Joshua… Was he… someone they lost?

I sighed and ignored them. Not my problem.