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Zorah glued her back to the door, fighting her internal quaking. She'd known her mother was furious, but the level of rage on her face surpassed any state Zorah had ever seen, including when her father invited Nana to come live with them without consulting Ida first. Zorah closed her eyes, retreating into the golden orb that lived in her chest, seeking any comfort she could find from her mate. The bond was there, wavering and flickering lightly, a calming presence albeit a weak one. If only he were here to purr for h —
Smack!
The sound hit her ears before the pain torched her skin. Zorah palmed her cheek and gaped at her mother.
"I told your father this was a bad idea. Was that your plan all along?" Ida hissed, "To come here and whore for this Pack of heathen animals?"
"No! I —"
This time she saw her mother's palm whip through the air before it struck her other cheek. But, unable to react in time, Zorah stumbled from the impact, reaching out a hand to steady herself as her face burned with twin fires of pain and shame. Coppery blood leaked onto her tongue, where one of her molars cut the inside of her mouth. She swallowed it with rising nausea. Her mother had never hit her like this. Never once, and that fact, more than the pain itself, gouged at her heart. Zorah slid to the floor, and Ida advanced, looming over her like an erupting volcano.
"Shut your filthy, lying mouth. I did not raisemydaughter to be a disrespectful Omegawhore."
In an instant, slumped against the wall, she was Little Zorah. Put back in her place by the sheer overbearing presence of her mother, now supercharged with the ferocity of Zorah's apparent betrayal of the family's plan for her life.
"You thought you were so clever, sneaking off with that Beta trash like I didn't know exactly what you were doing," Ida continued. "But I didn't think you'd be stupid enough to let an Alpha fuck you when you were promised to your cousin!"
The days of exhaustion and emotional upheaval crashed down like a waterfall directly on Zorah's skull. She felt paralyzed under it, unable to move or respond or even think clearly. Unable to speak, all she could do was withstand this torrent of hatefulness in numb silence.
Ida continued to snarl and rant, but Zorah tuned her out, realizing that she sat in the exact same spot she'd occupied less than a week ago, when she'd been plopped — sweating and shaking and cramping — in the Heat Hut. That memory floated through her mind, so distant now, like it had been another girl's naked body staring fixedly at the opposite wall, waiting for a solution to all her problems to come out of the woodwork. In fairness, later that night, Jake had come out of the woods to relieve her Heat.
She again groped for the bond and found it pulsing steadily but offering her no assistance or guidance. Could he feel her here? Trapped in this prison with her raging bull of a mother with all her decisions tumbling down around her? Did he know? Did he care?
Despair roiled through her numbness. If she told her mother about the mating bond to Jake, Ida would erupt, and given her current state of agitation, Zorah wasn't sure she'd make it out of here alive. Even if she did, if Zorah disclosed her connection to Jake, Ida would have no choice but to go to Zorah's father, who would go to Hunter, which would expose them in the worst possible way. She'd promised Jake he could talk to Hunter on his own. Telling her mother about him now would not only make a bad situation worse, but it would also make her break the first promise she'd made to her mate.
Too preoccupied sorting out their new relationship, she hadn't considered how she'd tell her family she and Jake mated. Maybe she'd assumed Jake would be with her when she had to confront them, that they would be able to meet him and see he was an honorable Alpha who would take care of her. She never anticipated being stuck in a situation where her tenuous bond couldn't protect her while her mate sat up on his ridge, summoning the courage to do what he had to do to be with her.
Ida crouched and pinched Zorah's chin in an unkind grip. "Your father and Nelsoncannotknow of this," she said, low and deadly serious. "You are going to scrub this Alpha filth off, and then you are coming to dinner. You are going to greet your cousin and look happy to see him, and then we are leaving this cesspool of an immoral village tomorrow morning. We'd leave tonight if that wouldn't raise Nelson's suspicions," she muttered.
Despair clawed at Zorah's insides, spurring a certain kind of desperate recklessness. "I don't want to leave. I want to stay here."
"That was not the bargain." Her mother's lips turned white at the edges. "You begged us to let you come here, you gave us your word that after this summer, you would return home and mate with Nelson. You gave your word." Releasing her chin, Ida stood, her spine ramrod straight, her temper abating the slightest degree. "You are achild, Zorah. You know nothing of the world. This going back on your word only proves that we should've never trusted you in the first place. But here's a nice taste of adulthood for you: you're going to live with the consequences of your actions, as youpromised."
A soft knock sounded, and Grace's gentle voice slipped through the cracks in the heavy door. "I have some food, may I come in?"
Backing up a step, Ida straightened her sleeves. "Clean yourself up," she sniffed. "I'll go make your excuses to your father and bring you some" — she cast another dark look at Zorah's bare and dirty legs — "appropriate attire."
With that, she blew out the door, giving Grace a just-this-side-of-rude thanks on her way. She obviously believed Grace knew about and condoned Zorah's "whoring" and likely would not deign to speak with her again.
Ida was right. Zorah was immature and irresponsible, and she'd messed everything up, for herself, for the Pack that had been so welcoming, and for Jake. Jake, who only ever agreed to help her through her Heat. He never expressed any interest in a mating bond with her, but she'd gone ahead and forced it on him, thinking he'd want her as badly as she wanted him. Assumed he would be pleased by it, just like a child assumes that their worldview is the only one in existence. Sure, he feigned happiness and was kind to her when she'd stormed up the hillside to demand he accepts what she'd foisted on him. But that was only because he was honorable and good. His real feelings were revealed when he dumped her off at the Heat Hut this morning without even saying goodbye.
Grace squatted at Zorah's side and gasped, "Oh my god."
Zorah fixed her eyes on the floor. As if she couldn't feel worse, embarrassment picked through the scant remains of her dignity. "It doesn't hurt."
Grace made a low noise, an Omega mother growl, and Zorah looked up. "I shouldn't have left," Grace said tightly. "I shouldn't have left you alone with her. If I'd known..."
Grace's distress stung. After all, Zorah'd lied to and deceived her hosts while they'd done nothing but offer her kindness.
"Please don't be angry with me," Zorah said, her voice cracking. "I can't take anyone else being angry with me today."
"Oh, Zorah." Tears dangled on Grace's eyelids. "Come here."
Grace enveloped Zorah in the warmth of her soft, comforting arms, and Zorah fell apart completely. Water streamed from her eyes, stinging her abused cheeks and soaking into Grace's shirt. She gulped shallow, shuddery breaths.
"I'm so sorry Grace, I'm so sorry I lied to you."
Strong hands stroked her back, as Zorah had seen the Omega do dozens of times for her children, always slightly in awe of such tender maternal outpouring. After a very long time, the comfort seeped into her bones, and her sobs quieted.
