Page 77 of Drown My Sorrow

Kelly stares at me with an expression I can’t determine. He shakes his head just the tiniest bit.

My hope crashes violently, shattering like a piece of glass.

That’s when the cameras start flashing.

Chapter eighteen

Aspyn

Aspyn-Aged17

On the tarmac, she tells me everything.

My mother made a deal with Typhor Raines that we would leave and never, ever come back. She insists we need the money and that we need to get away from Kelly. He’s a bad alpha.

The deal she made is simple. I would never reach out to Kelly, never look for him, never approach him. There would never be a day I returned home. And, in exchange, I get to live in peace.

In return, for her side of the agreement, she got a mere few thousand dollars, two tickets to nowhere, and a ride to the airport.

She cries when she tells me she sold me out. The car stinks so thickly of shame that the driver of the filthy vehicle had to open the windows.

I’m trying to understand, but I keep the way I feel under wraps where she can’t see it. Where she can’t hurt me.

She’s stolen something vital from me.

My scent match is now forever out of my reach.

I can never come back?

I can’t breathe.

PresentDay

I stand where they put me, numb to everything. The world without my Daane, without Keagan, Shale, and Beau is miserable. It’s excruciating. I’ve never felt more alone. I have no protection, no kind words. It’s like they’ve died. They won’t even let me see them. Inside, the storm is raging. I can hear the torrents of water, the howls of the wild winds. The rain is falling faster and thicker than ever.

I’m drowning in the dark.

People mutter as they walk past me. I can see them distantly like I’m watching a screen. It’s the same hate and disgust that always comes my way, except now my shield is gone.

Kelly, Gael, and Ezy are out surfing the big waves, riding to glory, while their supporters spit slurs at me. I’ve been reduced to an omega pet on a golden chain. I can’t even leave them. There’s nowhere for me to go.

I am numb to it.

The reporters have spread the story across the world already. The heir to Boothe fortune and Alpha Labels have been taken off the market. Even Gael is from a long line of respected packs. They are innocent, fun-loving alphas who deserve so much more than an omega like me.

I heard Kelly and Ezy arguing this morning. Dissension in the pack? I don’t give a fuck. Ezekial Boothe didn’t share his status with his pack. Or the fact his parents had died recently.

I might have cared, but that was yesterday, when I was trying, when I thought scent matches were good people. My scent matches were worthy of getting to know.

One of the local reporters who hated the Daane dredged up my past as easily as a child turning over a rock, searching for crabs. It was easy to write about my poor family tragedy. My father who died and how his business went under, leaving hundreds out of work. It was easy to talk about my sister and imply my family had problems of abuse and neglect. My mother’s alcoholism and whorish tendencies got splashed across the news. I got to sit at the table and listen while Kelly read the article out.

He’d said very unconcernedly. “I’ll fix it.”

I’d looked at him flatly and told him. “Why bother? It’s all true.”

They went and interviewed people on the island. Gwen, oh, yes, somehow they managed to interview Gwen, and she spilled a sickening tale that was corroborated by her friends. I’m the crazy con woman omega who is broken and abandoned, claiming to have psychic abilities and scamming the poor people around me with my sob story of woe.

The images are cruel and paint me as unworthy.

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