Chapter One
Riley didn't know what to expect when the car had pulled up outside the rundown little motel that he'd been staying at for the past week but he certainly hadn't expected anything close to what he was looking at now. The car, he didn't know what kind it was, was black and expensive looking. Honestly, he'd never seen anything like it before. Other than in movies. It was sleek and impressively comfortable. The driver had gotten out and opened the door for him, which should have been his first clue. Noah, the guy he was going to meet, had money.
He knew Noah was well off, he could tell that just by their video chats. The room he was always in looked bigger than the house Riley had grown up in and the furniture that he could see looked elegant and antique. He figured that Noah lived in a large house. That was obvious. A large estate probably but what Riley saw coming into view as the car turned onto an impossibly long drive lined with ornamental trees was not a house. He didn't even think it qualified as a mansion. The massive structure looming before him was a palace.
Riley leaned across the back seat closer to the driver. "Is this the right place?" He asked.
"I'm sorry?" The driver responded.
"This can't be a house." Riley told him. "Is it a hotel or something?"
The driver chuckled. "No, Sir. This is Reaney Hall."
Riley sat back and let out a deep breath. Reaney Hall. Noah Reaney. It made sense but he was still shocked by the sheer size of the place. From what Noah had told Riley, he lived alone with his mother. Riley couldn't believe that only two people resided in such a huge manor house as this. Of course, he suspected that there must have been a plethora of servants who also lived on the grounds but it still seemed odd that Noah and his mother would choose to occupy such a grand estate. This house could easily have housed half the town, Riley was sure of it. Why would something so grand be kept so empty, and so isolated?
Noah was an eccentric. Riley knew that already. Noah was twenty-five years old and had been a shut in since early childhood. He hadn't gone into many details about what happened but from what he's told Riley, Riley suspected that it had something to do with Noah's father's death when Noah was only eight years old. For the past three months the two had been corresponding via the internet. First meeting in a chat room and then private messaging each other. Eventually they traded cell numbers and in the last month had started video chatting.
In that time Riley had divulged pretty much his entire life story to his new friend but Noah in return shared very little about his own life. Riley knew that Noah lived with his mother, Lilian, and that his father, Stephen, had been killed years ago. Both Lilian and her husband were alphas, as was Noah, and Noah had a younger brother, a beta, named Charlie. Charlie left for university when he was eighteen but dropped out after one year, had gotten married and currently had one child. Noah and his mother rarely saw Charlie or his family. They lived in another state and since leaving college, Charlie and his mother had not been on good terms.
From what Riley could tell, Lilian was a very controlling woman who liked having things go her way. Noah never talked about his mother in a warm and caring way, in fact, he rarely spoke of her at all and acted as though the mention of the woman made him uncomfortable. Riley couldn't begin to imagine what it must be like, living with a mother who was so cold and devoid of emotion as Lilian appeared to be. He wondered if it was the death of her husband that made her so or if she had always been that way. For Riley it made no sense. He would have given anything to see his family again. He barely had any memories of them. He'd been so young when they had passed away.
Riley had barely been five years old. His parents had left him with a family friend to attend a Christmas party but never came back. They said it had been a car accident. The roads were icy and his alpha father had swerved to avoid a collision with a drunk driver. The car careened out of control and flipped upside down in the river. Both his alpha father and his omega father had lost their lives that night. Since Riley had no other family he was placed in foster care, going through many different homes before he aged out at eighteen. There had never been any chance for him really. Each foster family that had taken him in was quick to transfer him after only a month or so.
There were no prospective adoptions in his future either. No one wanted an orphaned, male, omega. Omega's were thought to be trouble. Their heats made them unpredictable and they weren't as strong or as assertive as alphas. Even betas were preferable over omegas. In Riley's society, an omega was only good for two things, service and child bearing. He survived his time in foster care by keeping his head down, his mouth shut, and his legs closed. Omegas had it hard enough as it was without being labeled a whore. Becoming a single teen parent would have diminished his chances of ever finding a suitable mate.
After aging out of the system, Riley was basically left on his own. He had no where to live, no money and no way of making any. No one wanted to hire him. At least no one that paid a decent wage. The most he was able to get were cleaning jobs that paid shit and had no benefits. It didn't surprise him really. Not many omegas worked outside the home. Parents with omega children would have marriages arranged before their child's first heat. By the time the omega child had graduated high school, they were well on their way to becoming someone's mate and then soon after, raising their own children. That was the way society worked. Omegas were property. They belonged to their fathers and then to their mates.
An omega on their own was looked down on and greatly discouraged. When Riley left foster care it was highly encouraged that he submit himself to the local mating house. That wasn't for Riley though. He knew that already. Sure he would have a roof over his head, a bed in a dormitory style room, and three meals a day but for him, the price was too high. Omegas in a mating house were paraded around in front of alphas looking for a submissive mate to cook, clean, and bear their children. The omega was chosen by his or her new mate and expected to be compliant with whatever was demanded of them.
There was no love, no courting period, and the omega never had a choice in the matter. Riley couldn't imagine being forced to spend his life with someone he didn't know and hadn't chosen for himself. Someone that saw him as an object rather than a person. That was the reason he started hanging out in chat rooms. If he were going to give himself over to another person, it was going to be on his terms, his choice, and he wasn't going to settle for the first alpha to show an interest in him.
Riley had spoken to several different men before meeting Noah but none of the others were what Riley had been looking for. Most just wanted a quick hook-up with no strings attached. It wasn't as if he expected to find true love or anything but he certainly wanted more than a one night stand. Honestly, Riley wasn't entirely sure what he expected. What he wanted more than anything was a family, a real home and a stable future. Unfortunately, what you wanted and what you got were two different things. At this point, Riley would settle for a roof over his head and some real food.
The motel had been a welcomed change from the streets but it wasn't a home and the rent was way too high. He'd been lucky enough to get by cleaning rooms for a reduced price and a bit of spending cash but it still wasn't enough. He'd spent the last week eating tuna fish and peanut butter sandwiches, if he even ate at all. Most omegas in his situation would have turned to prostitution by now but there was no way in hell that Riley was going to do that. If he were going to give up the most precious thing he had left, it was going to be for more than a weeks worth of rent and some groceries.
Besides that, he couldn't even fathom the idea of spending countless nights on his back beneath some sweaty, greasy, unkempt slob looking for a cheap fuck. Riley was no ones bitch. Never had been and never would be. Omega or not, he had more respect for himself than that. The question now was, if this thing with Noah Reaney worked out, what was Riley willing to do to earn his place in Noah's life and, for that matter, what exactly did Noah want from him? Companionship? Intimacy? Riley wasn't really sure but one thing he did know was that nothing came without a price. It was just a matter of what Riley was willing pay. Looking up at the house now towering over him, he was suddenly feeling very generous.
