Page 46 of Knot Your Average Beta

“Ow! You asshole!”

“Who is she to you, Dox?” Lily asks, still fucking touching him.

The hands on my legs tighten, and then he says six words that rip out my little omega heart and stomp all over it. “No one. She’s nothing but trouble.”

All the fight leaves me, all the anger and jealousy and frustration melts. I whine before I can stop it. Tears stream from my eyes and drip over my forehead, wetting my hair line. Have you ever cried while upside down? I do not fucking recommend it. Not at fucking all.

Maddox’s hands tighten and then soften, stroking over my thighs almost in apology. But I’m sure he’d do that for any omega that he found crying. It’s impossible for an alpha to be around a distressed omega and not want to comfort them. Unless they’re bonded already. Then they have a greater chance of resisting a weeping omega that isn’t their mate.

And I definitely am not bonded to Maddox, probably never will be. So this gentle petting of my ass and legs is only because of alpha instincts for a weeping omega.

I become vaguely aware that we’re moving, that we’ve left Lily behind. I wish I had focused a little better, listened to the rest of their conversation, but my new little omega heart was shattering, so I’ll give myself a little grace.

Blood rushes out of my head as Maddox flips me upright, his arms coming around me. A wave of dizziness hits, making my head spin, and when I come to, I find myself in the back seat of a car, cradled on his fucking lap. I scramble off quickly, putting as much space between us as I can, pressing against the far door. But I’m not stupid enough to open it, even if part of me is desperate to run away. The car is moving, after all.

Maddox sighs and settles against his door, anger still pulsing out of him. “Seatbelt, Sadie.”

I ignore him and curl farther away from him, wrapping my arms around my waist and bowing my head, like that will help keep the whine that wants to erupt from me from doing so.

Conceal, don’t feel, I chant to myself in my head, turning into fucking Elsa, trying to shut down all these raging fucking emotions and become ice. A sculpture, something unbreakable. But then even a statue made of ice can shatter, can’t it? An ice pick thrust in the right place can create cracks, fractures.

“Heartbreaker,” Ethan’s voice draws my chin up enough to see him in the front passenger seat, twisted around to look at me. Luca is driving, hands so tight on the wheel his knuckles are white. “Can you put on your seatbelt for me?”

I blink, noticing the incessant beeping from the front of the car. The no seatbelt warning light flashing. Maddox grunts and leans over my body, getting too close to me for the man who just fucking called me ‘nothing but trouble.’ I shrink back, doing my best to not let him touch me.

But he doesn’t linger, just grabs the safety belt and tugs it over my body before clicking it in place.

Once he’s done, I pull my knees to my chest and wrap my arms around them, curling as tight as I can, trying to hold all of my pieces together and failing miserably. So fucking miserably.

My brain won’t shut up, running over all the shit that has happened recently. An ice pick breaking off pieces of me.

Fired from my job. Clink there goes one piece.

Sudden omega. Oops, there goes another.

Bonded into a pack that doesn’t want me. Clank.

Seeing the doctor that treated me for years on the street. Chonk.

Being left all by myself in a strange place and in a strange situation. Clang.

“Is your stuff in your car, vixen?”

Lily touching my alpha like she has a right to. Clink.

Maddox not claiming me as his. Clank.

Maddox calling me nothing. Clunk.

Maddox clearly not wanting me. Broken.

I’m fucking broken. No one ever wants me. Even when I’m their fucking scent match.

How am I so fucking unlovable? Unwantable?

“Sadie.”

Never good enough. My mother couldn’t even be bothered to sit with me while I underwent treatment as a child. Not once. She didn’t care for me enough to take two hours out of her day.

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