Still Life 3
Pairing: Alpha Curtis Everett x Omega Female Reader
Word Count: ~4.3k
Summary: Curtis has been volunteering as a foster alpha for three years now. He's never seen a case this bad...
Warnings: Heavy angst (with an eventual happy ending), past abuse (not Curtis), alpha/beta/omega dynamics, physical scarring, extreme sexism (both external and internal), adult themes, referenced past non-con, fear of non-con, explicit language, the slowest burn I've done yet. All of my work is 18+ - Minors DNI
Dividers by me this time!
Series Masterlist
Masterlist
A/N: Here we go! We're back with Curtis's POV this time.
A huge thanks to @bigtreefest for talking through so much of this with me and especially gut-checking the Ari appearance. I've never written him before!
Any comment, reblog, or ask to let me know what you think will be greatly appreciated. And if you need to come scream at me, that's ok too!
As always, thank you so much for reading! 💜
“You look terrible.”
Curtis sighed and slumped a little in his kitchen chair. “Gee, thanks, Tanya. So glad you came over.”
Across from him, Tanya ignored his comment. “Are you sleeping?”
He grimaced. “Not really.”
She hummed in acknowledgement before moving on. “Are you eating?”
He nodded, then added, “When she does.”
“Curtis.”
“I’m eating, ok? I am. I’m fine.”
His friend just raised a judgmental eyebrow at that as she glanced around the kitchen. “This house has never been cleaner.” She wiped a finger across the wooden table. “Recently polished.”
Curtis groaned, finally dropping his head into his hands. “I don’t know how to get her to stop. I’ve tried to tell her she doesn’t have to, and she just nods and says ‘Yes, Alpha,’ and then continues to clean every surface. And she’s kind of mad at me, I think, for cooking as much as I do. She looks completely bewildered every time I’m in the kitchen.”
“So, she really drank the Kool-Aid on all that alpha supremacist stuff, huh?”
Curtis sighed. “I think the Kool-Aid’s all she’s ever known.”
His friend gave him a scrutinizing look. “You’re in over your head.”
He couldn’t help the humorless chuckle that came out of him. “Yeah, I’m well aware.”
Tanya sighed with her whole body. “But you aren’t going to stop, are you?”
Instead of answering, Curtis drummed the fingers of one hand on the table for a few moments, then said, “I set up a Google alert for the Snowpiercer Collective. I can’t stop reading about it. I keep hoping they’ll release some detail about the investigation that will open the whole thing up for me, you know? Clue me in on how to actually help her. But so far, it’s just been stories about the guns and the drugs and the money. Nothing about the sixty-three omegas they pulled out of there or the well over a hundred children. For just twenty-five alphas! I can’t–” his hand came up to cover his mouth briefly, the horror he’d been feeling on and off for the last week sweeping over him again. “I can only imagine what she’s been through, what’s happened to her. And, of course, she won’t tell me. She doesn’t talk to me at all unless she’s answering a direct question. She is so–” He dropped his head into his hands and did his best to take a deep breath, the constant stress and worrying of the last week settling in his chest. He looked back up at Tanya. “She needs so much help, and I don’t know– I don’t know how to help her. How do I help her?”
He helplessly laid his hands on the table, and Tanya immediately covered one of them with her own. “Curtis, you are helping her. It’s been a week. She isn’t going to heal from a lifetime of abuse in just a week. But you’re giving her a safe place to be, and you’re showing her kindness. That helps. And you’ll continue to help her. But you have got to take care of yourself too. Take care of yourself so you can take care of her. “
Curtis exhaled slowly. “Yeah,” he eventually said quietly. “Okay.”
“And you will call your friends when you need help. Got it?” Her tone left no room for argument, her eyes steady and determined.
That finally got a real smile out of him. “Yeah, Tanya, I got it.”
You had insisted on making tea for Curtis and his guest when Tanya had first arrived. Then, as soon as the pot was placed between them, you’d disappeared into your room, door open, but out of sight.
After Tanya left, Curtis carefully approached you, lingering in the doorway. He was committed to never entering your room without your explicit permission. And he’d figured out that you couldn’t say no to him yet, so he’d stopped asking if he could come in. He was just fine staying in the hallway for as long as you needed him to do it. He rapped lightly on the doorframe to let you know he was there. You looked up at him from where you sat on your bed, your eyes not quite meeting his. “Hey,” he said softly, “I just wanted to let you know that Tanya’s gone. And– And that you didn’t need to stay in your room while she was here. You could have joined us. Or gone anywhere in the house you wanted. I want you to feel at home here.”
You curled in on yourself, trying to make yourself as small as possible. You did that too often. It sent a sharp pang through his heart every time. “I’m sorry, Alpha,” you whispered.
Goddamnit. He was fucking this up. “No, nothing to apologize for. I just wanted to make sure you knew that you have free rein over any part of this house. But if this room feels safe, and that’s where you want to spend your time, that’s okay too. I want you to feel safe.”
There was a long pause during which you didn’t move out of your curled-up position. Then, even quieter than your apology came, “Yes, Alpha.”
Reflexively, one of his hands coiled up into a tight fist. He was going to lose his mind if he heard that phrase one more time. “Right,” he said with a tired sigh. He should leave you alone; he knew that, but he lingered in the doorway. He just couldn’t walk away quite yet, even if the conversation was clearly over. As he searched for something to say, all he could come up with was a necessary reminder that he knew wouldn’t go over well. “You have your doctor’s appointment tomorrow. We’ll leave for the center right after breakfast.”
He’d tried to keep his tone as calm and gentle as possible, but panic still spiked in your scent. “Yes, Alpha.”
“It'll be okay,” he said quietly. Uselessly. “We just– We just want to make sure you're healthy.”
You didn't respond to that. Of course you didn't.
He looked down at his hands and shook his head. “Alright, I'll leave you alone now. But please come get me if you need anything.” And then he turned around and walked down the hall, knowing full well that you wouldn't.
You were quiet on the drive to the center the next morning, so Curtis was too. He’d turned the radio on to try to drown out your silence. He knew you were scared about your appointment. The scent of your fear filled his truck. He had no idea what to say to make it better.
When you got to the center, Yona met you at the door. “Hi,” she said warmly. “It’s so nice to see you again. If it’s okay with you, I thought I’d come to your appointment with you.”
Instead of answering, you looked to Curtis. He did his best not to sigh. “That might be nice,” he said, trying to keep his tone even, “having a friendly face with you.”
You nodded, and turned to follow the omega down the hall.
He stood and watched you go, slowly trailing behind Yona. Then he took a deep breath and went out to the large courtyard behind the building. There were several omegas milling around, and he gave them a wide berth, not wanting to be obtrusive. He’d planned to just sit quietly by himself until your appointment was done, when he saw a familiar figure sitting at a nearby picnic table.
“Steve!” he called out. The blonde alpha raised his head at the sound of his name, his lips turning up in an exhausted smile when he zeroed in on Curtis.
“Oh hey,” he said as Curtis sat down next to him. “You ended up with one of the compound omegas, too?”
Curtis nodded as he carefully looked at his friend. Steve had dark bags under his eyes, and he sat hunched over. “You look about as good as I feel,” Curtis told him.
Steve let out a humorless chuckle. “Yeah, that sounds about right.” He sighed with his whole body. “The pups are really running me ragged.”
Curtis shouldn’t have been surprised. He’d known since that first day when he picked you up that most of the rescued omegas had come with children, but since you hadn’t had any, he hadn’t put much thought into the logistics of fostering an omega and their pups. “How many?” he asked.
“Three,” Steve answered, his lips turned down. “An alpha boy and two little omega girls.”
“Shit, that's a lot to handle on your own. I just have an omega and I’m completely exhausted.”
“Yeah,” Steve sighed.
“How are the kids adjusting?”
“Well. The little omegas still haven’t said a single word in my presence and the alpha pup won’t stop saying the most vile shit while he keeps trying to be all buddy-buddy with me because we’re both Alphas.”
“Shit,” was all Curtis could come up with.
“Yeah,” Steve sighed again as his shoulders sagged even more. “And their mom– I don’t know. She just seems really sad all the time.”
Curtis scrubbed a hand over his face. “Yeah,” he said, “mine too. And very, very scared.”
They both just sat there in silence, next to each other, Steve staring off into the distance, while Curtis looked down at his hands.
Suddenly, Steve’s posture changed. Curtis looked up and followed Steve’s gaze over to a man who was slowly approaching them. “Well, look what the cat dragged in,” Curtis called out.
Ari’s face split into a wide grin as he reached them. “Been a while,” he said warmly.
Steve smirked and nodded pointedly at the prominent, deep mating scar peeking out from the collar of Ari’s shirt. “Well. Looks like you had a decent excuse for losing touch.”
“Yeah, how’s it feel to foster fail?” Curtis teased as well.
Ari’s smile stretched wide, and his eyes shone. “There was no failing about it, boys.”
Curtis’s grin matched Ari’s, and Steve looked lighter, for a moment, too. “Congratulations,” they both said.
Ari ducked his head a little. “Thank you. I never expected it, but shit, it’s good. It’s really good.”
Curtis looked at his friend, who really did seem to be glowing with an uncontainable happiness. Mating with an omega you were fostering wasn’t unheard of, but it also didn’t happen quite as often as one might expect. News of Ari’s relationship and retirement from the program had rippled through the small, tight-knit community that revolved around this center. He was a fixture here, one of the longest-running alphas in the program. He took on a mentorship role for the incoming foster alpha classes, going as far as leading some of the workshops. That was how Curtis and Steve had met him, hitting it off after he’d taught one of their classes.
So when Ari had fallen for one of his long-term foster omegas and left the program to settle in together as a mated couple, the news had spread like wildfire. Curtis had sent his best wishes by text and then had left him alone to enjoy the honeymoon period in peace. The last place he’d expected to run into Ari again was here at the center.
And really, there could be only one reason he was here. “So, you got called in for this mess, too?”
Ari’s smile dimmed slightly. “Yeah,” he said with a sigh, running a hand through his hair. “Cherry and I had just started talking about the possibility of maybe coming back here and fostering as a couple, but it seemed a long ways off. Then we got the call and–” he shrugged. “How could we say no?”
“Yeah,” Steve said quietly. “Me too.”
“Me too,” Curtis echoed.
The silence stretched on again until Ari asked, “You guys dealing with this omega hierarchy bullshit?”
“Huh?” Curtis asked at the same time Steve let out a resigned, “Yeah.”
“Poor Cherry was so confused when our foster, Mary, started following her around, waiting for orders.”
Steve snorted in response, but Curtis just looked between his two friends, cluelessly. He had a sinking feeling he was missing something important. “What are you talking about?”
Ari didn’t answer right away, just looked at him seriously. “So, most of these alphas had more than one omega, right?” Curtis nodded. “Apparently, there was a pecking order in these houses. The first omega the alpha claimed was in charge, sort of, under the alpha, at least. Then the further you got down the line, second, third, sometimes fourth omegas, the fewer privileges and worse treatment you’d get. Mary was a first omega. She had a younger alpha who hadn’t claimed anyone else yet. When she came into our house, she assumed she was now second in line. It took Cherry a lot of talking to get her to understand.”
“My foster was second,” Steve said, darkly.
Curtis’s head whipped around. “She told you that?”
Steve shook his head as his expression got more grim. “No, the alpha pup.”
“It might be a good idea to find out what number your foster was. Could be helpful,” Ari said.
“How?!” Curtis exclaimed. “She won’t talk to me unless I ask her a direct question, and then the only answer is either ‘Yes, Alpha,’ or ‘No, Alpha.’ I don’t know anything about her. I don’t have any details that might help me help her. I’m reaching my wits’ end and it hasn’t even been a week! I mean, my god, she even refused the suppressants and I don’t know why–”
“Wait,” Ari stopped him, “she isn’t on suppressants?”
“No,” Curtis told him, defeated. He felt Steve staring at him on his other side. “I tried. I explained what they were, but she still said no.”
“What are you going to do?” Steve asked with urgency.
Curtis shrugged. “Hope like hell she doesn’t get her heat soon?”
Ari shook his head, “That’s not–”
He was cut off by a commotion near the doorway into the main building. Angry voices rose over the din of a gathering crowd. Instinctively, all three alphas started moving towards the sound of omegas in distress.
Curtis’s instincts were on high alert as he moved and tried to parse out what he was hearing at the same time. There was indistinct shouting, and then he could see the crowd move back as he distinctly heard someone hit the ground. That was followed by a wild, guttural, rageful cry that something inside of him recognized instantly. It was you. What the fuck?? “Shit,” he said to the other alphas, “that’s my foster!”
How could that wail possibly have belonged to you? You were meek and quiet and painfully deferential. But was it really that far off from what he knew of you? That cry had been full of pain and anger and hopelessness. His pace immediately picked up as he got closer to whatever fight was happening. The seconds it took for him to get to you were completely unbearable.
The crowd immediately parted for him once he was close enough, all of the omegas bowing their heads before an unfamiliar alpha. But he didn’t have time to pay attention to any of that. His eyes were on you, sitting on top of another omega, trying to hold her down as she scratched at your face and kicked and screamed. Your face was contorted in rage as you tried to hit her right back.
It only took him one long stride before he was close enough to grab you by the waist and lift you off the other omega. You gave no indication that you knew who was holding onto you as you kicked and screamed. Curtis was shocked by how much he struggled in the face of your rage, even using all of his alpha might. Ari was quickly by his side, gently holding on to one shoulder so Curtis could hold you by the other. Steve was immediately on the ground, checking on the other omega while trying to disperse the crowd.
Curtis recited a litany of comfort into your ear— ”It’s okay, omega. You’re okay. You’re safe. You can calm down now. It’s okay. Calm down,”—as he and Ari moved you down the hall, searching for a quiet room to use. He couldn’t tell if you heard him at all. You were crying now, big heaving sobs. What the fuck had happened?
Ari opened the door to a small conference room, similar to the one he had met you in. As Curtis ushered you inside, Ari sent him a questioning look. “We’ll be fine,” Curtis said. “Thanks for your help.”
“Anytime,” Ari said, patted Curtis on the shoulder, and left.
Curtis got you settled in one of the chairs and then crouched in front of you. Your sobs had subsided somewhat, now mostly just little sniffles and whimpers. He was desperate to touch you, hold you, comfort you. But he was determined not to do that until you gave him the verbal okay. He wouldn’t be one more person taking a choice away from you.
He stayed that way, silently crouched in front of you, until you finally seemed calm enough to talk. “Okay,” he started, softly, “can you tell me what happened?”
You hunched over, wrapping your arms around yourself tightly, and ducked your head. You didn’t say a word.
He sighed deeply. Mostly at himself. He had no idea how to do this. “Omega, please. I need you to talk to me. This is–” another sigh, “it’s really important that you tell me what happened.”
All you did was hug yourself tighter. “I’m sorry,” you whispered. Your hands were shaking.
“It’s–” He stopped. He couldn’t tell you it was okay when he didn’t actually know if it was. “All I need right now is for you to tell me what happened.”
A long silence passed, and then with a voice packed with an aggression he hadn’t expected, you growled, “I hate her.”
“The omega you were on top of?” You nodded but didn’t say anything else. “Who is she?”
“Claude,” you snarled. When just her name clearly did nothing to answer Curtis’s question, you continued with a huff. “She is– no, was Wilford’s omega.” Now, Wilford was a name Curtis knew. He’d featured prominently in all of the news stories coming out about Snowpiercer. The head of the compound, the list of his crimes was ever-growing. But Curtis didn’t have time to dwell on that. In your rage, you seemed to have finally found your voice. “She called herself the head omega, when everyone knows that’s not a real thing!” you scoffed. “She’s always thought that made her such hot shit, but it never stopped him from bringing me to his bed, did it?”
Curtis’s eyes got big, first at your language, which he’d assumed you weren’t even capable of. But then he got over that shock and was able to actually focus on what you’d said. From the way you’d said Claude was Wilford’s omega, Curtis surmised that he wasn’t the one who’d given you the scar on your neck. But he’d still hurt you and taken from you. God, it just kept getting worse.
Curtis desperately wanted to do something about all this. But as lost as he’d felt since you’d first entered his home, he did know what his job was here. And that was creating an environment for you to feel safe. And him reacting too strongly right now wouldn’t do that. Especially when he still didn’t have the answers he needed. “Why did you get mad at her today?” he asked, trying to keep all of his feelings out of his tone.
“She was running her mouth,” you said with a dark glint in your eyes that took him aback. “Thinks she’s still so important and I should care what she thinks about me. Doesn’t understand that none of that matters anymore. Wilford isn’t her alpha now. She still ended up here just like the rest of us. I don’t have to take her shit anymore.”
Curtis let out a deep sigh. “Okay,” he said slowly. “I understand where you’re coming from. But this is serious. Fighting like that, that’s not– If you were staying here, instead of with me, you’d be at risk of getting kicked out.”
And just like that, it was like a switch had been flipped. Your head shot up, and your eyes widened with fear. You were back to the scared, meek omega he was used to. “Kicked out?”
“Well, yeah. They have a pretty strict no-tolerance policy for physical violence. Now, since you’re staying with me, it’s a little di–”
Your hands jolted out and grabbed his, your eyes full of desperation. “I’m sorry! I’m sorry! Please don’t send me to a breeding program!”
“A what?” he asked, his brain trying to catch up to the leap you’d just made.
“I’m sorry. I’ll be good. I will. I’ll be better! Just, please. Not a breeding program. Alpha, please!” Your hands were wrapped around his, and your gaze was so pleading that his heart broke.
Breeding programs. Now that he had a moment to think about it, his mind jumped to the deepest, darkest, stupidest corners of the internet, where conspiracies ran wild of secret underground centers where omegas were kept chained up only to help the government control the population. Of fucking course you’d been taught about that.
“Sweetheart,” he said, so gently, “that’s not something that’s going to happen. Breeding programs aren’t real.”
“They are!” you cried, and it didn’t escape him that you were so scared that you’d just corrected an alpha without thinking. That had to be a good sign in this entire shit show, didn’t it? That had to show that maybe he’d earned just a little bit of your trust.
Curtis paused. Arguing back and forth with you on this wouldn’t do any good. But maybe this would. “I promise,” he said, making sure to look you right in the eye as he said it, “that I will never send you to a breeding program, okay?”
You swallowed nervously and glanced down to where your hands still clasped his. But you didn’t move them. “Really?” you whispered.
“Really,” he said, trying to imbue his words with all the certainty and steadiness he possibly could. “Not ever.”
“But then why haven’t you–” you started, but stopped abruptly, ducking your head.
“Why haven’t I what, honey?” he pressed. The moment felt loaded, like whatever the next words out of your mouth might be, they’d be absolutely vital.
You kept your head down, and he had to strain to hear you as you asked, “Why haven’t you used me, yet?”
Fucking shit. He took a deep breath as he chose his next words very carefully. “Because you aren’t a thing to use. You’re a person. A whole person. And you should get to decide what happens with your body. Not anyone else. Including me.”
You lifted your head at that and just stared at him. He held your gaze, refusing to blink. He needed you to know how seriously he meant it.
After a pause that felt like it spanned an entire age, you said, in a soft whisper, “Thank you, Alpha.”
“Hey,” he said quietly. “You can call me whatever you want. But I’d really like it if you called me Curtis.”
A war played out on your face as he could see you fighting your instincts. But eventually, you said, slowly like you were trying out the words for the first time, “Okay, Curtis.”
Holy shit. Holy fucking shit. He didn’t even try to fight the smile that broke out on his face. This felt like the first real win since he’d met you. Maybe he could do this after all.
He took a few more minutes to make sure you were okay and calmed down, then, when you were ready, he guided you out of the room. Yona, of course, was waiting outside the door. “Give me just a minute,” he said to you, then stepped into the hall with her. “I know, Yona,” he said immediately. “We talked about it.”
She sighed and shook her head. “This isn’t the first incident we’ve had with Claude. And some of the other omegas said it was provoked. But this can’t happen again, Curtis.”
“I know,” he nodded quickly. “It won’t.”
She sighed again, and he noticed the hunch in her shoulders, the bags under her eyes. He wasn’t the only one overwhelmed by this situation.
“How’d the appointment go?” he asked.
“She did well,” she said. “You know that’s all I can say, but we’ll call her with any results in a few days.”
“Alright. I’m gonna take her home then.”
She nodded, said goodbye to you, and walked away down the hall.
He continued herding you out towards his truck, when you were both stopped again, this time by Ari. “Everything okay?” he asked.
“Yeah,” Curtis said. “I think we’re alright.” Then he called your name to introduce you. “This is my friend, Ari.”
“Hi,” Ari said, “it’s so nice to meet you.”
Your eyes were on the ground as you nodded, but he saw you sneak a glance up at the other alpha, and your eyes went wide as they landed on his neck.
Before Curtis had a chance to wonder what that was about, Ari pulled him aside. “You’re doing really good, Curtis,” he said quietly. “I want you to know that. And if you need anything, I’m just a call or text away, okay? You aren’t alone in this.”
Curtis gave his friend a warm smile. “Yeah, he said. “That’s what everyone keeps telling me. Thank you.”
“Absolutely, anytime,” Ari said, then made his way back inside.
“Alright,” Curtis said to you. “Ready to head home?”
You nodded, and your shoulders relaxed a fraction. “Yes, Curtis.”
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