Ignoring her request, I swiped the screen. Not password protected. Not safe. But it enabled me to see the text that she’d been looking at. “Who is this Vex, and why does he think you reneged on a contract?”
Anathea buried her face in her hands. “Isn’t it obvious? I belong to him. Them.”
“I beg your pardon? How do you belong to someone or someones when you clearly have no interest in them. Why did you agree to this?” I knew most of the answers before I asked the questions. The omega was in a similar situation to the one I’d been in but with greater consequences. Nobody had come after me. My former pack mates and the pack leadership had to pivot, but as an alpha myself, I couldn’t be coerced or forced.
Females? Omegas? In a bad pack, they had almost no rights.
“My family signed for me. I never agreed to anything, and I would rather be dead than mated to them.” She shuddered. “They treated me like property to be traded for power and connections.”
“And, it sounds like you almost got out of it, but now they want their property. Do they know where you are?”
She shook her head. “Only my sister, but if they figure out that she knows, they will get it out of her. Somehow.”
I could imagine how, but I didn’t want to make Anathea feel any worse than she already did. “So you need help.”
“I help myself. I don’t need an alpha to protect me.” Tipping her chin up, she shedded despair like shedding her fur for her skin. Blazing violet eyes challenged me to deny it. Which I absolutely would not do.
“I’m sure that’s true, but if you don’t want to have to go far away, if you want to continue to build your life here, my pack and I would like to provide assistance.”
“Pack?”
“You know them. Elias, Jayden, and I.”
She pushed the chair back, the legs screeching on the concrete floor. “You want what they all do. A female who is your possession. I won’t do it.” One more shove, and the front two legs were in the air, Anathea tumbling over backward, about to slam her head into the floor.
I flung myself over the table and grabbed her arm, moving around to stabilize her further. “We would never think of you or any omega that way.”
“I need you to leave, okay? I have to figure out what to do.” Her expression was closed, wary.
Although I wanted to fling her over my shoulder and carry her off, that would make me no better than those she’d fled. “I’ll go, but I want you to have our phone numbers in case anything happens or someone comes snooping around. Or…if you just feel like talking.”
She let me put them into her phone before I handed it back.
“Can I suggest one more thing?” I asked.
“What?”
“May I walk you home?”
Chapter Nine
Anathea
Carter walked me home. If I wasn’t so numb and at the same time wired, I might’ve enjoyed the time with him.
And I did as much as I could. He comforted me when I needed it. Held me in a way I didn’t think I had ever been held. Didn’t pull away or try to cut off the connection.
He was there.
Too bad my thoughts kept drifting to the what-ifs.
Even though he asked me to go inside and lock the door, after I heard his footsteps on the stairs, I went back outside and let myself pretend I was an omega who had just gone on a date with one of the sexiest and most caring men I’d ever met. And none of that took into consideration his appearance. It was the way he took control of the situation. His movements and words purposeful. His tone sincere.
His whole demeanor made him attractive. Didn’t hurt that his scent, earthy and wild at the same time, grounded me. I was so calm with him, I could’ve fallen asleep and forgotten the world existed.
A little part of me deflated once he was out of sight.
“That’s a dreamy look you’ve got, Thea.” The high-pitched voice of my landlord cut into my thoughts. She noticed everything. One week, I came home with only one grocery bag, and she asked me if I needed money for food. Nosey but kind.
