Put Me In My Place | MxMxM

Chapter 01

Zane Salvatore, the future heir of the Salvatore's Second Family, wasn't sure when exactly he started hating Lorenzo Salvatore, the future heir of the Salvatore's First Family, his older—only by two years—alpha step-cousin. It might've been since they were children and used to play board games together while their fathers' spent the afternoon discussing business, and Lorenzo always won. Or it might've been when they were in their late teenage years and Zane found out Lorenzo often seduced the alpha men he kept as lovers.

It was more of a power imbalance, he realized after witnessing Lorenzo's taunting smile whenever he stole another one of Zane's lovers. It's always been that I'm better than you. And perhaps Lorenzo was better than him.

Zane was an omega—a lowly omega, as his adoptive papa often put it. He wasn't supposed to be one, though. He had all the traits of a promising alpha at a young age—it was why his papa adopted him in the first place, as the man couldn't father children of his own.

Somewhere along the lines, the two families had grown apart because Zane's papa had decided that he no longer wanted to be considered second to anything. He wanted to be in control of the First Family, and so he filled Zane's head with ideas. Zane was desperate—as he had always been—for his adoptive father's approval, so he listened, never questioned anything, and had happily gone along with his papa's demands, severing any ties he had with Lorenzo. To his surprise, Lorenzo did not take it well. He often showed up at the Second Family's home unannounced, demanding they talk to each other. Zane refused him. Nevertheless, that did not mean they never saw each other. During events, outings, and business negotiations, the two still met, and Lorenzo's eyes always burned hellfire whenever he noticed Zane.

This hatred only increased during their mid-twenties when Lorenzo met a man, Darius, an alpha with muscles and strength that nearly matched Lorenzo's own. The pair quickly became lovers, and a year later, Darius moved into the First Family home. He was considered to be better than Zane.

A rumor had spread among the underworld: Darius was most fit to rule the Second Family because he was an alpha, better fitted for the job, while Zane was only an omega, a bitch in heat who anyone could easily take advantage of—he wasn't even blood.

Because of this, Zane had watched the two alphas religiously, and the sight of them always made him sick to his stomach. It made him want to kill them—put a bullet between their eyes whenever he saw them holding hands. He had tried to break them apart too; he even once drugged Darius with the idea of bedding said drugged alpha because he wanted Lorenzo to turn against the other alpha. Nothing worked, though.

They loved each other as if they were made for each other.

So, Zane's hatred grew.

Eventually the tension between the two families increased, and a fight began when Zane and his Papa finally decided to storm the First Family's home with hopes of taking over.

Unfortunately, it did not go as planned.

The Second Family fell on their knees. This was how Zane's life played out afterward:

One day after the fight between the Salvatore families.

When Zane opened his eyes, the first thing he saw was Lorenzo—standing in front of him with proud shoulders, taking up Zane's space like a victorious lion.

Lorenzo stared at him with madness in his eyes, probably from rage, probably from hunger—more likely both. The kind a predator got whenever they spotted their prey: weak and trembling on their knees, like Zane; weak and trembling on his knees from where he stayed, on the tips of his toes with his arms stretched to the point of pain above his head, wrists bound in chains that glimmered from the light like silver whenever he twisted them.

He looked down from shame, not a moment longer, down to the tip of his toes, watching how they struggled to stay still. Why was he still alive? It had been how long since he was dragged into this cell to rot? A day? Two days? Three—or maybe a week? Zane did not know; his memories were too foggy. He remembered the fight between the first and second families, though. He remembered his papa instigating the fight, wanting to overthrow Lorenzo after Lorenzo's father's death. He remembered storming the First Family's compound and catching the pleased smile on his papa's face for the first time in his life. He remembered losing, too. He remembered watching his papa get shot at by Lorenzo's gun—he remembered being beaten down by Lorenzo's alpha pheromones, dropped to his knees like a frail, breakable thing. I remembered being knocked out of consciousness.

Had Lorenzo planned on furthering his humiliation? Was killing Zane's papa and beating Zane to a pulp—stripping him of his rightful title as the Second Family's heir—not enough? Of course, death would be an effortless way out; Lorenzo probably knew this. Zane had to be kept alive because he was at fault, and Lorenzo had to remind him and any other potential threats why he was Lorenzo Salvatore, an alpha, a true ruler. And Zane was merely a pathetic omega bitch, always inferior, always second, like his papa used to say.

"Look at me," Lorenzo said, cruel and cold, before his fingers gripped Zane on the chin tenderly, directing him to Lorenzo's attention. "Do you know why you're here? Why you're alive?"

Of course, Zane knew.

He was alive to be made into an object of ridicule—someone for everyone else to laugh at.

He didn't say this, though; he didn't say anything, and Lorenzo's touch on him became biting.

"Zane? I'm talking to you," Lorenzo voiced, sounding gentle—a facade.

Zane yanked his face away, refusing to look Lorenzo in the eyes. Although he might've been an omega, a disgusting bitch whose only purpose was to spread his legs, like how his papa often phrased it, he had some dignity left, so he refused to give in and submit to his gloating cousin. And yet, his betraying body seized itself with weakness while Lorenzo's gaze seemed to tie an invisible string around his neck, choking him until he found himself embolized.

"Answer me," Lorenzo growled—a demand this time, a command, really—one Zane's useless, weak body couldn't fight off.

Zane looked with eyes caked in tears and a jaw so tight, he might shatter his teeth if he gritted any harder. "I don't," he answered, not because he wanted to.

Lorenzo hummed, gently thumbing away the tears leaking from Zane's eyes like they were lovers.

Zane's breath picked up when Lorenzo's thumb brushed against his busted-up lips, and he choked back a sob, willing himself to pull away, yet found himself powerless in the presence of Lorenzo, an alpha whose words were enough to make him crumble on his knees. Pathetic.

"If you're planning on torturing me, fucking do it quickly and get over with it," Zane snarled with teeth, despite the tears unknowingly leaking out of his eyes.

A sly smile appeared on Lorenzo's face with madness in his eyes before gently moving back a few sweat-soaked stands of Zane's hair away from his forehead. "You reap what you sow, cousin," he cooed, as though he were talking to a pet. "That mouth of yours needs taming... But not now. Get some rest; I'll be back later."

Zane screamed an ugly, wailing thing into Lorenzo's face until he couldn't anymore. When done, he hung his own head and said, "I hate all of you."

Lorenzo hummed before he ruffled a hand through Zane's disheveled hair. "Don't cry now," he said in a sharp voice. "You did this to yourself."

Then, when Lorenzo turned around and left without another word, Zane couldn't stop trashing about and screaming dirty, degrading curses at the alpha.

Lorenzo ignored him.