He reached for another cup of water, but before he could dip it into the tub, the door creaked open. I didn’t bother to look; I could smell the alphas. Excitement prickled my skin, and I tried to suppress the subtle clench of my knees.
“Skye,” Serena’s voice carried in. “You need to lie down. Vinny and I will take over.”
Vinny.
That must be the coffee-scented alpha.
Skye didn’t listen at first, he continued to twist his fingers through my wet hair.
“It’s okay, we're almost done,” he promised, looking over his shoulder. “Do you have clothes for Violet? Her dress is filthy.”
“We’ve got it,” Serena replied, stepping fully into the bathroom with a bundle of fabric folded over one arm. “But you need to rest, Skye. You’re carrying the pack’s baby.”
He shot Serena a weary look, but he complied.
With a soft groan, Skye pushed himself to his feet, one hand resting on the gentle swell of his belly.
My head cocked to the side, and I wondered how they trained their omegas, if they’d locked Skye in a room and starved him when he didn’t listen. Or maybe they’d pushed him outside naked during Florida’s one and only snowstorm last December.
Or maybe those were only things done to me.
Skye reached the doorway, and Serena leaned in to kiss his cheek, brushing her knuckles over his stomach with a tenderness that made my throat tighten. Then, a tall man whom I assumed to be Vinny placed a hand on the small of Skye’s back and pressed a kiss to his temple.
My brow furrowed as I watched with a feeling I couldn’t quite place. I wasn’t envious; Skye deserved this life. But, the bone-deep ache in my sternum lingered, growing sharper as I watched the three.
After a moment, Skye trotted out of the room, shutting the door behind him. I sank lower into the tub and pretended I hadn’t been staring at them.
The alphas circled the tub, and while Serena knelt beside me, Vinny stood against the wall, crossing his arms.
I looked up at him and did my best closed lip smile.
“Christ,” he mumbled under his breath, shaking his head. “Serena, that’s a kid.”
My forehead creased as my lips parted. I almost said I was twenty, and I’d be twenty-one in October. I was a full-grown adult, thank you very much. But, after two years of not speaking, my lips and tongue didn’t cooperate, leaving me to sit there, gaping like a fish.
Vinny didn’t mean to insult me, I don’t think. His voice wasn’t cold, just… stunned. Like he couldn’t reconcile the mess in the tub with whatever image he’d expected.
Serena didn’t miss a beat.
“She’s not a kid,” she said, kneeling beside the tub again. “She’s an adult omega.”
Vinny’s arms locked tighter as he stared at the wall above me.
“She looks like she should be in a college dorm, not soaking in my bathtub.”
It was decided then and there that I didn’t like Vinny. Because he was right, Ishouldbe in a college dorm, studying horticulture, or ancient literature, or something equally as brainy and useless. I’d get away with it because I was pretty and interesting–just like how I’d gotten away with everything else in my life.
Unfortunately, being pretty and witty didn’t end with me skating through life; it ended up with me being used to settle a debt I never created. And again, I tried to tell him just that, but the only sound I made was a pathetic rasp.
Finally, Vinny looked down at me, but his next words weren’tsorry for talking about you like you weren’t here.
Instead, he doubled down.
“She can’t even fuckingtalk,” he spat.
I flinched, not because he hurt my feelings, but because he was right and I was embarrassed.
“Vinny,” Serena said quietly, but firm enough to make him stop. “Shouting about it won’t help her.”
