Lust or Mate?

Chapter 6 - Possessions

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Alafia

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“Welcome back to the land of the living,” Lex said with a smirk as I sat up on the bed, stretching.

“My head,” I whispered, and she pointed to the bedside table. I took the painkillers and gulped down the water before lying back down. My body was sore. I asked what happened, adding that the last memory I had of myself was us sitting at the bar and she said I had been wasted.

“Is that why I feel like death?” I asked, turning to my side, and she laughed at me, walking over to the bed with something steamy. She told me to get up and drink it, and I did. I didn’t even know what it was, but it was spicy. She said it was something Avery told her, and I didn’t miss how she blushed at the mention of the boy’s name. I’d say my girl was in love if I didn't know any better. Thinking of love, my mind drifted off to Alexi, and I felt that familiar burn in my chest, even though I knew I shouldn’t.

“I’m sorry, friend,” Lex said, taking my hand. I told her I was okay.

“We weren’t dating, Lex. I wanted to lose my virginity to him, and I did. It’s not like he promised me anything,” I told her, leaning against the headboard, and she nodded, saying she knew that, but she was still sorry, adding he was still a d**k. There’s pizza and fries, the boys went to get food, and we saved you some,” she told me, and I was famished. I got up, groaning as I did at the soreness between my legs, and I headed to the bathroom while she told me she was going to warm up the food.

“We have to get groceries at some point,” she shouted as I closed the door and nodded, even though she couldn’t see me. Today was the formal orientation, and it was going to take place in two hours. As I was still washing my face I heard my phone ringing, so I ran out of the bathroom and it was my mother.

I answered, and she was just checking up on us. I told her we were fine, and that we were about to head to the orientation. She could hear in my voice that I was not well, but I quickly lied and said I missed Lex so much that we stayed up all night chatting, and that is why my voice was scratchy.

I finished talking to her just as Lex came inside the bedroom with the food. I sat and ate while I asked her what happened at the bar. I had never had a blackout before, but again, I had never drunk seriously before. Lex told me everything, but my eyes widened, shocked when she told me about the Gyda incident in the bathroom.

I shivered, creeped out by the whole thing. I asked Lex what she thought this girl was playing at, and she said she didn’t know, all she knew was that she was weird and wanted her to stay away from us. I agreed. I wanted her to stay the hell away from me. She gave me stalker-girl vibes, and I didn’t need that.

Alexi and I weren’t dating, but it hurt seeing him look at me like that—like he’d never seen me before while making out with someone else. I wasn’t going to let him see it though. He wasn’t my mate; he didn’t have to affect me. The whole reason I slept with him was to enjoy my freedom, anyway.

If he was going to pretend like he didn’t know me, I was going to do the same. Lex returned and we help each other choose what we were going to wear to the orientation. There were a lot of students at the club and that wasn't even everyone, so we knew the auditorium was going to be packed and we wanted to look our best.

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Azarios

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“What?” Lake asked, sitting up on the bed, seeing me enter the room running.

“I need you to go to Avery’s room and make sure you hang onto his phone,” I told him, and he gave me the look again, but I was doing this for us. We were saving money, and we were still thousands short. I was going to do anything I could to avoid spending it. We already hated that we had to spend so unnecessarily last night, but we couldn’t let the guys see we were broke. It would have been weird and would have raised questions, and questions were going to lead to unwanted attention.

“Go now, I’m going to run across the street to the pharmacy quickly. Keep the phone on you until I tell you what to do,” I told him, but he cut me off, saying he knew what to do. I rushed out of the room and headed to the pharmacy.

I went to Avery's room for something I wanted to ask him, but when I entered, he was in the shower, and his wallet was on the bed. I took out his card, and I was going to use it now to get the cough medication I needed for Mama and put it back when I was done. But I needed Lake to keep Avery's phone away from him when the bank notification that his card was used came in. He was going to quickly delete the messages and then give Avery back his phone.

This wasn’t the first time we had done it; we didn’t only do it to Avery. We did it with other students as well. We hated doing it to Avery, though, but we didn’t have much of a choice. It was everyone or us.

As I entered, the pharmacist walked toward me, and I told him what I wanted. We got Mama this new medication that helps to lower her blood pressure, therefore reducing the workload on the heart, but a dry cough seems to be one of the side effects. I called her this morning to let her know that we weren't going to be able to come through and that we were going to make time in the week since The Priestess had something for us to do, and that's when I heard the dry cough. She said she was fine, but I could hear she was not. The Priestess called two hours later and told us we didn’t have to get the package anymore, so we were going to see Mama as planned.

“Thank you,” I told the guy as he handed me the medication, and headed out. I ran past the florist but decided to stop and buy some flowers. After that, I rushed back to our room. I placed everything on the bed, hearing the bell ringing as it called all the new students to the auditorium.

I grabbed my phone and sent a text to Lake letting him know I was done and that he could come back. He entered after a moment, saying the flowers looked good before asking what was the other stuff. I told him and I asked if he was ready to go. He said he was, and I took the car keys and some of the shopping bags while he took the others, and we went out.

It was Sunday, and we always visited Mama on Sundays. We lied when we told the guys we were from around here. We were from Alverton. That’s where the orphanage we grew up in was. One of our operation bases was here, and it’s where we went when everyone went home.

We haven't been back to Alverton since the morning after our eighteenth birthday, and that was three years ago. I took a deep breath as we headed down the stairs, recalling how excited Lake and I were at the prospect of going out into the world and starting our lives.

All our lives, we grew up knowing that when we turned eighteen, we had to leave the orphanage. It was scary leaving a home we had always known, but we weren't just going to be thrust out into the world and left to fend for ourselves. When the kids turned eighteen and left the orphanage, they were taken to the grand house. They were put through university, and they lived in the grand house until they graduated and were ready to get places of their own. Every child knew this, and every one of us was looking forward to it.

I recalled when we were told that Mama would come live with us. We were over the moon because leaving her behind was the only downside of leaving in the orphanage.

We even asked what was going to happen to her once we were done and moved out of the grand house, and she told us that she would go back to the orphanage and look after another new group of kids as she did us. We never said anything to her at the time, but we told ourselves that we were going to take her with us. She had heart problems, and we were going to work hard and hire the best doctors to help her. She was our mother, and we loved her.

They threw a massive party for our group before the day that we were leaving. We were even taken to the club and drank for the first time. I recalled how Lake threw up all night when we returned; Mama was worried sick. Despite sleeping late, we woke up early the following day, and Mama helped us get ready for our transport. We were expecting a bus or something since we were a group of fifteen. But it wasn't a bus that showed up. Black SUVs and sports cars that were driven by men in expensive-looking suits showed up.

We were made to stand in line like we were at an auction, and the men came in and chose. Everyone was picked, except Lake and me. The whole thing was intense, and we were so confused. We sat there for over an hour, not sure what was happening, before a woman we had never seen before entered. She was introduced by the man she was with as The Priestess. We were told that she was our sponsor and the owner of the orphanage. We had no idea what that meant but went with her when she told us to.

We were taken to the house, and we were told it was the grand house. But it looked nothing like we had imagined. It was like an army base, and we knew something was very wrong. We were taken to our rooms, and that's when we were told that everything that we grew up believing was a lie. We were never free; we were slaves. The men who showed up in fancy suits had come to collect their possessions. They were going to be turned into whatever their owners wanted them to be, and the same was going to happen to us. The fairy tale was over once you turned eighteen. The Priestess was our owner, and she had big plans for us.