Page 69 of Drown My Sorrow

“What if she’s got kids or is older than us?”

Shale snorts. “She’s our omega. We only get one.”

“What if she’s got a pack?”

“Then we’ll kill them.”

I finally smile at Shale’s increasingly irritated answers. “So, she’s ours, no matter what?”

“No matter what. I don’t care about anything but the fact that she’s ours.”

Keagan gets up and claps his hand into Shale’s palm. “She’s ours. And may the poor bitch hide forever.”

“And anyone who dares get in our way!” I shout and turn the music up.

We dance around the fire and laugh and drink until the early morning.

In the dawn light, I feel kind of sorry for the omega that belongs to our pack. But not enough to change my mind, and just thinking about the fight coming our way makes me smile.

PresentDay

I can still remember the vile things we said about our omega that night as we drank around the bonfire. Maybe it’s the universe hitting us with swift justice. Maybe it’s karma. But we thought we’d get an omega we’d terrorise.

Instead, we got one who’s spent years being terrorised. She needs us, and we had no choice. We became what she needed from us. Protectors, guardians, guides, the safe space from a violent and aggressive world.

I stand in the hotel lobby and look around. It’s like one of Silas Hastings’ elaborate hotels. The carpets are this slate gray, and they feel soft when you step on them. Everything is marble. It reeks of money and sophistication.

“Yeah, are our boards here?” Kelly pauses, glancing around as he talks into his phone. “I know. But they’re gone. Just get the spares here.”

I ignore them and the slightly startled and frightened looks some of the staff are delivering.

Shale and Keagan look like they want to start cracking skulls, but I’m trying to stay appearing like I’m relaxed. It’s a mask, but it’s keeping Aspyn calm as she clings to my hand and looks around with enormous eyes.

“You’ve never seen this place before?” I murmur to her.

She shakes her head. “This place would be more than my rent for a month, and I can’t even afford my rent.”

A woman who was walking past snorts and bursts into mean laughter, but I draw Aspyn into my arms and level the woman with such a glare that the sound dies almost instantly.

“Come on,” Ezy says with a smile.

I’ve noticed the three of our pack that were so uptight on our island have relaxed a lot now that we’re here. Ezy is smiling more, standing taller, and his whole demeanor is much happier. Kelly laughs at whoever is on the phone and wanders back over to us with this fucking grin that shows off his dimples.

Who even are they?

Aspyn doesn’t appear to like the change either because she is refusing to let go of me, not that I want her to. What are they up to now?

Gael comes back from talking to one of the girls in their tight black uniform skirt suits. He grins broadly.

“I have seven rooms.”

“No!” I say instantly.

“No?”

“No. Three rooms,” I say with no wiggle room at all.

Gael looks between us, and I think I see a moment of jealousy on his face before he locks it down.

---