Page 74 of Unravel Me

Then I curl up inside it, and almost instantly a wave of peaceful relaxation washes over me.

My muscles loosen, my breathing slows, and suddenly it feels as though the entire world has stopped around me.

While the nest cradles me in its comforting energy, I suddenly hear voices coming from downstairs.

Curious, I get up from the bed.

My room is in a corner of the house, with two windows, one offering a partial view of the driveway and the other overlooking the side terrace. I notice the elderly omega, Silvio, settling at a table with tea and cookies, along with Emilio and Tony. Gianni joins them, as does another older omega.

I've never seen him before. He looks so much like Silvio that I immediately guess they're brothers.

So the Santoros have a guest. I gingerly slip behind the curtain, hoping they won't notice me.

From there, I watch them for a while. Through the partially open window, I can hear the muffled sounds of their conversation, and my omega hearing lets me catch bits and pieces.

They aren't discussing me, though. Just casual conversations about everyday things, small problems, and the kind of mundane stuff people talk about daily.

The atmosphere is warm and familial. At one point, Silvio puts an arm around Emilio and kisses his cheek. There's so much parental affection in the gesture that something stirs inside me. I can see the tenderness in his eyes.

The other older omega, whom they call Stefano, tells them about his grandson, who got into medical school, and everyone listens keenly and congratulates him.

There's this natural closeness between these people, something that feels almost foreign to me. Even the slightly odd Gianni seems relaxed, occasionally adding something to the conversation.

But… the longer I watch them laughing, exchanging jokes, talking about plans, and gossiping a bit, the more uncomfortable I become.

Jealousy surfaces.

This is something I've never had, and inevitably, my heart starts to ache. The pain quickly grows, soon becoming almost unbearable. My soul aches with a longing to be part of a close-knit circle like this, one built on acceptance, warmth, and love. To be part of a… family.

Those thoughts are like reefs I crash against, and the demons of my past crawl back to the surface.

Yeah.

Family.

The deepest scar in my soul:

I was a rejected, abandoned child.

My dad was a makeup artist who worked with models, actors, and television personalities, but he struggled with an addiction that only grew worse as the years passed.

He fell in love with one of the alpha models he worked with, a man who was already married. He became pregnant with me, but that man never acknowledged that I was his child. He thought my dad was a junkie who tried to trap him with a baby. So my dad ended up raising me alone, and the weight of it broke something inside him.

He was kind, gentle, and loving, but he never had the strength to defeat his addiction. Sometimes he'd wrap his arms around me and cry, grieving for himself, for me, and for the fact that he simply wasn't strong enough.

When I was eight years old, he drove me to my granddad's house one day, left me there, and… disappeared. His addiction consumed him.

My granddad wasn't thrilled about being handed a child to raise during his retirement. He was one of those omegas who had never wanted children in the first place.

He had resented raising even his own two children after my grandfather divorced him, leaving him to do it alone. So when another child landed on his doorstep, years of bitterness found a new target. He called me white trash, a junkie's kid, and plenty of worse things besides.

There was no way to be happy while growing up with someone who made you feel hated every single day. So when I turned fifteen, I ran away and moved in with my cousin Alex, who was barely eighteen at the time.

Of course, I also tried to find my father, but he chased me away from his front door. The only thing I learned was that I had a half-brother named Star. I caught a brief glimpse of him that day.

I suddenly remember Storm mentioning that someone with the same name had come to him for help, someone who looked a lot like me.

Technically, he could be my half-brother, a glimpse of… my biological family?