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Another milestone. I’d never been kicked out of my father’s house and now I was being tossed from the gym.
I didn’t even put up a fight, just turning and walking back to the locker room. After showering and changing I sat on the bench, staring at the lockers in front of me, dazed and a bit numb.
I was so fucking tired of feeling helpless and alone. I lost the girl I thought I was going to marry and my brother in a single day. Then my father got sick not long after.
How much did I have to lose before I lost myself completely?
“Ellie, why are you pacing?” my brother demanded after my heels clicked across the front foyer for the fifteenth time in a row.
“I haven’t dated, Micah. I haven’t gone on anything or seen anyone since I left that show and I know it’s only been a couple weeks but what if he knows who I am? What if he finds out and makes a joke of me? What if it goes awful?”
“What if he’s a nice guy and you have a really good time? I haven’t really talked to Atlas but he seems respectable,” my brother countered. “Ellie, I love you, but you can’t keep living your life hiding and running from the show. I didn’t really think it was going to end the way it did but I would have never encouraged you to go on if I thought that it would ruin your life like this.”
The guilt in his voice had me softening a bit. I walked over and wrapped my arms around him, squeezing him tight. The fact he returned it had me relaxing…at least a little.
“Don’t blame yourself. I’m just being a big baby about it all. I guess I’m still hurt,” I admitted. It was weird to say it out loud or even let the thought surface. I’d been suppressing it all since I left.
“That or your ears are still ringing from all those horrible voicemails,” he deadpanned.
Micah was right about that. He’d stuck by me while I turned my phone back on. It was mere seconds before voicemail after voicemail started rolling in I listened to a few of them before just giving up completely. After all of Candace’s threats I’d even gone as far as pulling out my copy of the contract. It said I had an entire year to complete my obligated interviews, there was nothing about me leaving after the show wrapped or staying through all of that humiliation.
She could take her legal team threats and shove them.
Candace was just livid that we’d ruined the finale.
“If I hadn’t spun it in your favor this would have been detrimental,” my brother mocked Candace in a fairly impressive impersonation. He even had her nasally tone down perfectly.
“I don’t miss that awful voice at all,” I said with a laugh.
“Her voicemail kind of rivaled Mom’s,” he said. “Let’s just be glad they don’t know each other.”
“I’m going to have to give in and do an interview soon. We only have a day and a half before my world comes crashing down.”
“Wow, the drama,” Micah teased before pointing at the clock. “Did you say you were leaving at six?”
“Shit,” I cursed, running for the door and snagging my purse on the way out.
Atlas had offered to pick me up when I finally gave in and texted him, but I insisted on meeting in town. We didn’t have a ton of options in Lockwood but I told him to surprise me.
All he told me was to meet him in front of the Raven’s Nest at fifteen after six.
I still couldn’t get over the fact that his brother, twin brother at that, was the one who spilled coffee all over me.
Of course, my mate would have an evil twin.
Nerves fluttered in my stomach as I walked toward the town square. Atlas was adorable and definitely my type, but I was understandably hesitant. Betas were generally a safe bet which was likely the only reason I agreed. Hell, half the packs I knew started by the betas finding the omega first. They had a natural way of calming omegas and alphas alike
That and I’d somehow found two other mates in the span of a week and a half. I wasn’t really sure how dating protocols went for a pack. Most of the ones I’d encountered were formed before they’d even met the omega.
And my ex was solo… and a dick, so he wasn’t relevant.
My phone incessantly buzzed in my pocket as I walked. I was damn near close to shutting down social media altogether. The show put in the contract we had to have public profiles for the network to tag for the duration of the show airing and six months after.
Now that it was down to the wire, the network was tagging me incessantly and it was already driving me nuts.
I’d avoided reading every single one of them. The last thing I needed was to read the headlines and they were only going to get worse.
“You look amazing.” Atlas’s smooth voice called out and I looked over to see him resting against the side of the building.
