Page 63 of Knot Your Average Beta

I take a shaky step into the room, my stomach churning. “My surprise is my mother tied up to a chair?”

My mom’s blue eyes latch onto me, pleading with me to help her. But even though she looks like she’s about to be tortured, I can tell she’s fine. In fact, she looks… great, considering the circumstances, hardly a hair out of place.

Her nostrils flare as I get closer and her gaze narrows. Well, I guess she’s scented my omega perfume. She says something, but a gag muffles her voice and I can’t make it out.

“Why is she here?” I ask as Swift moves toward me, his bottom lip pushed out into a slight pout.

“Don’t be mad.”

I blink at him. “You have my mother tied to a chair. How can I not be mad about that?”

“She has answers for us, Cherrybomb,” he murmurs, sliding his hand into the dip of my waist. “Answers she should have given you years ago, but didn’t. We need them now.”

He dips his head and brushes his lips over mine. I hear my mother make a choked noise, like she can’t believe I’m kissing the man that kidnapped her, and If I’m honest, I really can’t either, But then some part of me knows he’s not going to actually hurt her.

He’s just going to scare her a little.

Or maybe a lot, knowing what I do about Swift.

I mean, the man fucked me with the handle of his knife the second time he saw me.

His teeth catch my bottom lip, scraping over it before he lets it go and then runs his tongue over the abused flesh. “You can’t hurt her,” I whisper, so only he can hear it.

One of his hands drifts up and presses my palm over his heart, letting me feel its steady beat. “I promise.”

“Let me talk to her first?”

He nods, a lock of his white blond hair flopping over his forehead. “Of course, Cherrybomb.”

Letting out a breath, I move away from Swift, leaving him by the door, where he crosses his arms and leans against the wall, watching me, watching her. I give her a smile as I approach, and I can tell she’s pissed as hell. I don’t blame her, I would be too.

I think she expects me to untie her, to drop to my knees and tackle the ropes on her wrists and ankles. But I don’t. Instead, I just reach around her head and undo the knot of the gag Swift tied in her mouth.

“Sadie, what are you doing with this madman?” she asks immediately, her voice harsh, sharp enough to cut.

I glance over at him to gauge his reaction to her insult, but he just grins at me. “Swift is one of my alphas,” I say softly, keeping my eyes on him and the smile blooms into something even better.

“Your alphas? You have a pack and you didn’t tell me?”

I straighten and fold my arms over my chest, looking down at her. “I don’t really think you have the right to be upset about me keeping secrets, mom. Seeing as you’ve spent most of my life lying to me.”

She sniffs like she’s the queen of England and I’m a lowly servant, looking away from me with her chin tipped up. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. But whatever it is, it can’t be worse than you not telling me about being an omega and having a pack.”

I almost laugh at her. Almost. But I’m also pissed as hell that she’s kept this from me, that she refuses to tell me what was done to me. “Oh, well, that happened in the last three days, so I haven’t had the time to tell you. If you’d spoken to me on the phone earlier instead of berating me, I might have told you then.”

Her brows arch. “Three days? What changed? What triggered it?”

I frown at her eagerness. It reminds me uncomfortably of Dr. Schwab’s… well, the fake Dr. Schwab. I ignore it. I’ll deal with it later.

“What did you let him do to me?”

She stares at me, faded blue eyes shrewd, no doubt trying to figure out the best way to handle me when I’m like this. The problem is she has years’ worth of knowing how to manipulate me under her belt. She spent years lying to my face, patting my hand and telling me not to worry about it. Every time I told her I wanted to know, she told me I really didn’t, that it was better for the adults to handle it. And after enough time passed, I believed her.

What difference did it make?

Only now I’m suddenly an omega and bonded. And I need to know what the hell is wrong with me. I need to know if it’s hereditary, if there’s a chance I could pass it on to any children we might have. If we have them. If we stay together.

I glance over at Swift while she deliberates and then up to the camera blinking in the corner. Maddox, at least, is watching. Maybe the rest of the pack as well. I kind of wish they were all with me, with us, down here. But I understand why they’re not.

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