Nor did I understand how this was connected to Jasmine. Clearly, it was, because the Goddess had chosen her for us to marry. Penelope had been chosen because she was meant to be the last descendant of the omegas who cast the curse in the first place.
“If the original omegas cast this curse because they were bound to the land, it could be that each pack’s omegas had their own spell,” I said aloud.
The others must have been thinking along the same lines, because none of them asked what I was talking about.
I turned back to them. “If each pack has its own curse to deal with, then maybe Penelope was the last living descendant of the omegas that cast the spell in Burgess, and Jasmine is a descendant of the omegas that cast the spell here.”
“Spell?” Owen repeated. “It’s a curse.”
“The alphas of Burgess don’t seem to think so,” Renz countered.
Owen shook his head. “Fine. Spell, curse, we’ll chalk it up to semantics. My point still stands. The violence could be because of the omegas and not because of the darkness.”
“If that’s the case, then we still have to defeat the darkness to break the curse,” Killian said. “At this point, where we assign blame isn’t important, except for how we move forward treating our omegas. We can’t think of them as our enemies, Owen. Especially not Jasmine.”
Owen rubbed his forehead, scowling. “It’s not like I want to keep acting like this.”
It would be easy to tell him to ‘just don’t, then,’ but this was also the first time in quite a while that he actually admitted to wanting something different. I sat down at the table, casting a quick look at Renz as he opened his mouth. Renz shut his mouth with a snap and leaned back, nodding at me to continue.
Focusing back on Owen, I asked, “Then why do you?”
“Because I’m an idiot and an asshole?”
Renz snorted and Killian smirked. I frowned at both of them. “Let’s stay serious, shall we?”
Both of them nodded.
“Right. Let’s get to the bottom of this. What do you have against Jasmine? Why did you lead the bullying campaign against her when we were kids?” I considered my words and shook my head. “No, we can’t just say when we were kids. Our behavior lasted way longer than we can write off as childhood behavior.”
Owen leaned his elbows on the table and sighed. “It’s fucked up,” he warned.
“Then tell us,” I answered.
He was quiet for a moment longer, staring at the pattern that the wood grain created in the table. Finally, he lifted his head. “I knew from the moment I first saw her that she was my mate.”
My brows furrowed together. What?
“I knew it. And I was so happy, but then I made the mistake of telling my father.” Owen’s shoulders hunched forward, and we all winced.
Owen’s father had been a harsh man. He’d been dead for five years now, and there were still times when I caught myselflooking over my shoulder, worried I’d heard his voice. As much as the four of us had been friends since we were kids, we’d always hung out at my place, or Killian’s or Renz’s. More than once, Owen had shown up at my window late at night, asking if he could sleep on my floor because his dad was in one of his moods.
“When I told him, he reacted about the same way you’d expect. Then he started to rant about her grandmother. Apparently, she was the one who got him thrown in jail,” Owen said, his voice low and pained.
Knowing how tough and closed off he always tried to be, there was no doubt that every word was costing him something. I let him speak, keeping my questions and emotions to myself. It wasn’t any surprise that Owen lashed out at Jasmine after that.
Owen fidgeted in his chair, still staring at his hands. “That feeling, that she was my mate, didn’t go away. So, I finally started to bully her. I didn’t mean to recruit you all into it. But once I started, my dad stopped bringing it up. So, I did my best to bury my feelings and just try to pretend like she deserved my hate.”
“That explains when we were kids,” Killian said softly. “But since then? When the Goddess said we were to marry her? What’s holding you back now?”
“I guess…I know she can’t forgive me. Not when I was the reason for it all to start with,” he mumbled. “And I thought, if I were the villain, it would make it easier for you three to be her heroes, and then she would forgive you. You four together could be happy, at least.”
I couldn’t stop myself from groaning. “That is—” I cut myself off before I called him stupid. “Manipulative. And itdoesn’t work like that. You’re a part of this team, and if anything, you’ve been holding us all back.”
Owen scowled. “Just because I know she’s my mate doesn’t mean that I like it. It doesn’t mean that I want to be a good husband to her, or any sort of husband, for that matter.”
“So, it’s more than just your father?” Renz asked.
“Yes. No.”
