Page 9 of The Wronged Omega

I laughed again and covered my mouth with my hand as I made eye contact with Odie, who was turning a lovely shade of red while trying to hold her stern expression. So far, them being dicks but not being mean made perfect sense. Odie and Cy had been just that. They helped and explained but clearly wanted me to leave so they could be left alone. I wondered if that was why they quit being whatever they were for Gerard.

“Ellie, knock it off,” Odie finally said from her position behind the chair.

“Nah,” she responded. “Mine needs to know all the juicy details. Like how until a year ago, you were basically my sisters and had been near-mother figures my entire life, then you vanished to retire.” She did air quotes around the word retire. Did that not mean the same thing in the Primarchy? The issues between her and her family were definitely deeper than I thought. Not only was her father dismissive, her sisters left without explanation, and I haven’t heard about her other parent if they were even in the picture.

“Ellery Lorey.”

“Fine. I will keep it to the important parts, but I’m still salty about it.” Odie sighed but didn’t protest. “And yes, one day soon, I will be getting the explanation I deserve for that backstab.” This time, she groaned.

I signed to Ellie, asking her to focus before Odie got too angry.

She paused for a second, thinking about what I said before responding. “Like I said, they aren’t… cruel. Standoffish, scowly, so on, depending on the day, but despite what my father made it sound like, you’re actually safe here. Well, as long as you don’t try to run. They have a near-perfect track record in whatever it was they used to do.”

What did they do?

“Odie will yell at me again if I tell you what they did in detail, but—”

“Ellie.” Her scolding came right on cue, which made us giggle.

“See? But as my father already insinuated, they used to be guards-ish for him. Like Oliver but a million times better.” She rolled her eyes. Even with the limited time I had spent with any of them, I would have to agree that Oliver was horrible. I could get behind the whole not speaking thing, the strong silent type, for clear reasons, but something was off-putting about him. Something wasn’t right with that Beta.

They were around a lot, then?

“Um, yeah, if they weren’t on a job.” Ellie glanced back at Odie who gave her a reassuring nod. Turning back to me, she continued, “When I said they were basically my sisters, what I actually meant was Cy was basically an older sister, but Odie really is.” My eyebrows shot up at the reveal, but it didn’t stop there. “I don’t want to explain all the stupid details, but Odie refused to follow in our dad’s footsteps, so here I am, trial number two.” She awkwardly laughed, and Odie sat down in the wing-backed chair and placed her free hand on Ellie’s shoulder. Ellie let it sit there for a moment before shrugging it off.

“I figured it out when I was old enough to question why I was being trained for everything when Odie was clearly the better option. Anyway, Odie ended up doing the guard stuff, and so did Cy, and here I am, making a mess, finding my long-lost sister who abandoned me and dragging a new friend into this…” She flipped her hands into the air, referring to the entire situation. Truthfully, I thought she was just trying to not cuss because that was the only thing that came to mind when she started that sentence, which cleared up my thought from earlier.

She felt comfortable cussing around me, but she didn’t do it around them. I smirked and kept the thought to myself, enjoying the fact that I could pull this out on a rainy day if I needed a little blackmail to use against her. I wasn’t a monster who would fully blackmail a kid, but using it as a way to not have to get my own snacks in the future on a really lazy day? That’s totally my style.

Her eyes drifted to the TV, which was now on a scene about basking and whale sharks who were gentle giants. I could use a bit of that in my life.

As quickly as that thought came, it was gone. They were giants in my world now, but gentle wasn’t something I would use to describe them.

The room fell into an okay silence as Ellie and I sat back into our designated seats and Odie vanished to the kitchen again. It wasn’t comfortable, but it was more so than if I were here without Ellie, at least with Odie lurking nearby.

Ellie leaned in, whispering as quietly as possible so Odie couldn’t hear us, even though she was distracted with whatever she was doing back there. “That didn’t hurt me, finding out I was a final shot at having an heir. Well, it did a little at first, but I understood it. The council and my father needed someone to take over his position as aid to the council, and what better person than his child? But them leaving me like that, even if they weren’t working for our father and the council anymore, stung. It’s been a year, and I’m still not over it. I don’t think I ever will be. Who does that to their sister?”

I couldn’t imagine having two people who were constants in my life leave me at sixteen with no explanation, no words of comfort to hold on to. I knew what it felt like to have someone ripped away, but to leave on purpose? Unthinkable.

I’m sorry they did that to you.

She leaned away, speaking at a normal volume again. Ellie pulled a throw pillow over and wrapped her arms around it for comfort. “It’s okay. Like I said, I will get answers now that they are stuck with me. I know it wasn’t about me, but I can’t help but feel like it was in some way.”

I reached out and gripped her wrist, soothingly rubbing my thumb across the back of her hand. There wasn’t much I could say about this. It sucked, but I would back her up the best I could. If she was right, they wouldn’t do anything besides walk away and ignore her. Too bad that stung more than a yelling contest at times.

Pulling away, I said, Don’t blame yourself for their actions. You were sixteen. They need to Alpha the fuck up.

Ellie burst into laughter, drawing the attention of said Alpha. Her brows scrunched in confusion as she eyed us, trying to figure out what I had said to get such a reaction.

“I know that sign! Cy taught it to me.”

“Cy taught you what?” Odie boomed from right over us. When did she move from the kitchen?

I squealed, flailed, and promptly fell off the couch in a heap of pillows and a blanket tangled around my legs. My head missed the corner of the table by an inch, but the floor was solid and did nothing to cushion my fall. That wasn’t a normal reaction, but I blamed it on the day I had had.

The entire room fell into a range of laughter at my expense, not that I minded. I untangled myself and stood up, staring at each of them with a faux glare.

Cy taught her how to sign F-U-C-K.

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