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We walk through the dorm doors, and into some kind of battle zone. Randy is on one side of the kitchen island and Beatrice is on the other. They’re throwing glassfuls of water on each other and crowing with laughter.
“Can you two knock it off?” Anne calls from a back room. Her eyes widen as she sees me. “Oh. Are we filming?”
I shake my head. “I’m here with Haven,” I say, my voice sounding thick and deep in my own ears.
Beatrice and Randy stop their game and turn to look at us. Beatrice steps toward Haven, giving me a suspicious look. “What happened?” she asks. “What did you do?”
Haven bursts into tears and throws her arms around Beatrice, who stumbles in surprise. She puts her arms around her a moment later, and leads her toward the couch. I go to follow, but Randy steps between us, looking at me like I’m a piece of shit. “Hold on a minute, buddy,” he says.
“I didn’t do anything,” I snap at him. “It was Reese.”
“The feral?” Beatrice calls from the couch. She turns back to Haven and asks in a low voice,“Is it ok if this one joins us?”
As soon as I sit down, Haven curls up against my side, and begins to weep.
“Well shit, are you going to tell us what happened or what?” Randy asks.
Haven lets out another sob and then starts talking. She tells Randy and Beatrice the whole story; how we met, what the failure flat was like. How it felt to be looked at like the less-than omega. That part makes me furious, and I pull her into my lap, rocking her back and forth as she describes every moment she’s ever felt bad about herself, every time someone called her plain or pathetic or average.
“I know it’s not true,” she says fiercely. “I always knew. But fuck, there’s only so many times you can hear this shit, you know?”
“I do know,” I tell her tenderly.
Randy scoffs, and I look at him in surprise.
“Please, you’re hot as fuck. You have no idea what it’s like to be told that you’re not good enough to be an omega.”
“And you do?” I ask.
“Both of us do,” Beatrice says softly.
“Me too,” says a voice from the shadows. Lilah appears, her eyes filled with tears. “There’s so much pressure to be perfect,” she shakes her head. “It’s overwhelming.”
Beatrice looks from omega to omega before locking eyes with Randy. “You thinking what I’m thinking?” she asks.
“Probably not,” Randy says, “but I’m guessing it’s going to be trouble.”
Chapter Twenty-eight
~Reese~
Thank god there’s a bar in this fucking mansion. I order a neat bourbon and slam it back, staggering inwardly under the weight of my own agony. It’s the right thing to do, I tell myself. I’m doing it for them. I order another and drink it just as fast. Finally, I settle into my third drink, taking it just a little bit slower. Savoring the heat as it laces through my chest.
The hurt in Haven’s eyes is repeating over and over in my head. The look of disgust on Arlo’s face…fuck. More and more, I’m starting to feel like I’ve done something unforgivable; something that is going to fuck up not just my life, but Haven and Arlo’s too.
“What you drinkin’, feral?” asks a rumbling alpha voice to my right. I turn to see a grizzled-looking alpha with a scar across one side of his face, watching me through his one good eye.
“Bourbon,” I tell him.
“Good,” he nods. “Same,” he tells the bartender. He takes a sip and then turns to study me. “I’m Locke. What’s your name?”
“Reese,” I say, shaking his hand.
“Reese. Nice to meet you. If you don’t mind me asking, what’s up with you? You look like you’ve been hit by a truck.”
“Just broke up with someone,” I rasp.
“Not Haven?” the man says, raising an eyebrow.
