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“Cassandra?” I stepped back in shock. Cassandra Windsor was another person who was practically a celebrity in our town. She was a beautiful omega, had amazing clothes, and was born from one of the wealthier packs. She looked at me with a frown.
“I’m sorry, do I know you?” I noticed the scents that wafted out of the house. I smelled all four of the pack members, and the quite strong perfume of Cassandra as the blend of scents lingered in the air. And from the smell of it, she had been there for a while. I swallowed. I needed to tell her what happened.
“Are - are you with the Deloney Pack?” I asked, my voice shaking. Her frown turned into a scowl.
“Of course I am. Who are you, and what are you doing on my property?” She stepped partially out of the doorway. Her property?
“What do you mean, your property? Look, I need to tell you something. There’s been a mistake. Pack Deloney was courting me. They have been for the past couple of weeks.” As I spoke, Cassandra didn’t seem surprised, but she did seem pissed. I tried to explain more. “And I just had my first heat with them. They told me they would take care of me. I told them I wouldn’t have my first heat with anyone who didn’t love me.” Her scowl turned into a smirk. I had run out of words, waiting for her to understand or react. There had to be some explanation for all of this. She should understand - she was an omega as well. Instead she just looked at me with disdain.
“Oh, you poor stupid thing. Did you really not know?” My mouth dropped open in shock as she spoke. “Do you think you're the only omega they targeted? They’ve been with nearly all the omegas on the trashy side of town. It’s what they do.” She crossed her arms and assessed me. “Let me guess. They bought you a few things you’ve never had before, including that sad dress. They asked you to choose them for your first heat, and you, like an idiot, let them. Don’t feel too bad, all the omegas from your side of town fall for it. A few coins tossed your way and you lose your minds. It’s sad really.” She looked at me, her words dripping with condescension while my heart raced at what she was implying. “But I’m who they will eventually bite. I’m already practically living with them. We marry and bond with our own kind, not trash from the wrong side of the tracks.” I felt like I had been slapped. Her vitriol stunned me, but I found my voice, stepping toward her as I protested.
“You don’t even care? They are cheating on you! They are liars! They are using omegas and you don’t care?” I was yelling now, causing a scene at the front door. Cassandra rolled her eyes at me.
“Our families marry to build wealth. Why would any alpha lower themselves to be with someone like you when they could have someone like me? I don’t care if they meddle with trash like you, as long as they leave you where they found you. Which they clearly failed to do.” She looked down at her phone, texting furiously. How could she not care?
“No, you’re wrong! They even had a nest ready for me! They care about me!” I was sobbing now, seeing red and unable to process my emotions. Cassandra laughed, not even looking up from her phone.
“Let me guess, in a penthouse outside of the city? They keep that ready year round for any omega nearing heat. They pay a pretty penny to keep it cleaned and deodorized weekly.” My legs were going to give out. How had I been so blind? Why didn’t I know about this? Cassandra looked up at me and snorted, her dainty nose wrinkling as if I was trash, which to her I clearly was. My mind was swirling with rage, both at her and at the pack. A lifetime of living on the wrong side of the tracks, as Cassandra had called it, bubbled up in me. Instinct took over and suddenly I lost control, finding myself on top of Cassandra as I slapped her and pulled her hair, insistent on teaching her a lesson. I was not the right omega to mess with. Her screams stunned me out of my rage, but it was too late. A car had pulled up behind us, and suddenly I was being yanked off of her by large hands.
“What the fuck do you think you’re doing!” A loud voice boomed as I was thrown across the entryway. I skidded across the floor until my back hit against the wall as the four alphas of Pack Deloney stormed in, three of them catering to Cassandra while Lance towered over me. “How dare you touch our omega!” His words pinned me to the ground as I started to weep. Their omega. I would never be theirs. I tried to get up on my knees, my face blotchy and wet with tears.
“How could you do this to me? Why didn’t you tell me?” I sobbed. Lance looked at the spectacle around him.
“Get up, omega. Leave and never come back.” I gasped, not believing he could toss me away that quickly.
“No. No! I’m going to tell everyone what you did. I’ll make sure you pay for this!” I stood up for myself for once, not being kind or forgiving. “I’ll make sure the whole town knows!” Lance reached down and grabbed me, pulling me up so high my feet were dangling. He growled at me in a low, threatening voice.
“Do you think the town doesn’t already know? Half the omegas who work as surrogates for the horny alphas in Goldpine started off just like you. Our packs here don’t want your type of omega. We have our own.” I sobbed, my world crashing down around me. “You will never touch our omega again. You will never set foot in this community again. Your father works for our auto factory? He’ll be let go and blacklisted from any job here with the snap of my fingers. Your mom, too. I’ll make sure no one hires her. We can make sure your family is so poor that you’re the only one who can support them. And you’ll have to earn every cent begging on the street, using your body to make any alpha or beta happy for a night.” My eyes went wide as he threatened my family. “If you want to preserve any dignity, leave this town and never come back. If I hear you set foot here again, your family will lose everything that same day. I promise you.”
I couldn’t remember calling the rideshare home. All I remember was that when I flew inside my family’s apartment, the place I called home since I was a child, my mom was there. I could barely see, my eyes wet and my face puffy from sobbing. My throat was so sore that I could barely croak out for help when I ran to her. “Oh Bella, what happened sweetheart?” I fell onto my knees as I clung to her, crying into her cleaning apron. She almost never wore anything else. How could I let her suffer any more than she already had? I needed to talk to her, but not tell her everything. She would be so disappointed if she knew the full truth. And there was nothing she or my father could do about it.
In her naivety, she had believed the Pack Deloney were honorable and true. She believed I would fall in love and live a better life. I couldn't let her know what really happened. But I couldn’t stay here, either. Not if it meant putting my family at risk. After an hour of my hysterics, she managed to get me to my bed, where I wept. At some point she brought me a glass of water, and after I drank most of it I could finally stop sobbing and get some words out.
I couldn't tell her the truth. So I decided at that moment to make up a story, one that would keep them safe. I only told her part of what happened. The part that she would understand. The part that I thought she and dad could handle. I told her about the courting, the love I thought I felt for them. Then the betrayal of finding out they were never really interested in me. I told her my heart was broken when I found out they were courting another omega, and that I couldn’t bear to stay in this town a day longer.
By the end of it, my mom was weeping with me. She begged me not to go, to stay and try with another pack. But there was nothing I could do. Pack Deloney and their fathers owned this town, even more than I realized. I begged her not to tell anyone out of shame. “I just want to go far away where I can have a chance at a pack.” She didn’t understand, and asked me to stay and try again. But I told her I needed to leave, that I was sick of this town. We didn’t have money for a traditional omega house, but I remembered that the social worker had handed me a few pamphlets for state run omega homes. There was one a few towns over in Haven. I decided to leave that night. My parents were already struggling, and now because of what I had done to Pack Deloney’s omega, I put them at risk. I needed to go to an omega house and find a pack as soon as possible, to stop being a burden. I left everything in my old town of Goldpine, and tried for a new start far away.
Chapter 32
Jameson
Present
“And so I lost everything after that. I left everyone I knew behind, and that’s how I ended up in Haven. The Omega House was the only place that would take me. Most of the omega schools nearby cost too much. But it hasn’t worked out so well. Packs courted me at first, but none of them thought I was a great fit. So when I have a heat, it kind of hurts me each time because I get attached and want to join the pack. I know alphas don’t feel as emotional from the heat. But I do. That’s why I only want to go through them with people I trust. And I trust you, Jameson. I’m not asking for anything but that you help me through this one time.”
The omega finished her story as I practiced my deep breathing exercises. During missions or any other stressful or chaotic times, I could go into an almost Zen-like state to keep myself from losing my cool. I had to breathe extra deep when the omega had told me what happened to her and why she didn’t look forward to heats. I was this close to losing my shit and heading straight to the Western Province to tear the Deloney Pack’s mansion apart. How dare they hurt this omega? They not only used her first heat as a trophy for their own egos, but they had also threatened her family and effectively banished her from her own home. On top of it, she had developed some type of complex and didn’t believe in her own worth. And despite all that, she had the strength to persevere. Even now she gave me a brave smile as she looked at me hoping I would help her through her heat, as if I was doing her a favor and not the other way around.
“Don’t worry, omega. I know you’ve been lied to before. But I swear on my pack, I will help you through your heat. And I will never reject you. You are perfect.” She was startled, but I held her close. “Shhh. Relax now. You deserve to rest and feel safe.” I gave the barest whisper of an alpha bark to my words, and she seemed happy to take the suggestion. She nested into my arms and I saw her eyelids droop. Sharing her emotional story seemed to take a lot out of her. I looked up at the camera in the corner when I felt her give a little snore. I knew at least one member of the pack was always watching the monitor, and we were going to have a talk about what she had disclosed. And I knew there was no way I was going to let her feel hurt ever again.
When she was sleeping deeply, I bundled her into a blanket and slowly moved out from under her. I silently left the room and made my way down the hall. Cy and Maddox were waiting for me by the monitors. One look at my face told them everything. Cy sat back in his chair, lacing his tatted hands behind his head and propping his foot up across his knee. “Well, looks like we need to block off sometime in the next week. We’ll be busy.” Maddox looked back and forth between me and Cy.
“So we’re in agreement, then? We’re helping her through the heat?” Maddox asked while Cy looked at him.
“Don’t act so altruistic. This is your dream come true. She smells like everything we’ve ever craved.” I cleared my throat, garnering their attention.
“You heard her story?” They both nodded, the mood in the room shifting to a more serious note. “If we do this, there’s no going back. If she wants us… I don’t think I’ll be able to say no. And I don’t want to. She deserves better than the hand she’s been dealt.” Cy sat forward, nodding.
“I didn’t think an omega in the Western Province would have a story as sad as that. She’d be better off here with us. That is, if she ever wanted to stay.” I looked over at Maddox.
