Page 7 of Going Down Smooth: Part One

“I wondered the same thing, but it is not my place to tell her she might be approaching her heat. It’s not our place, Lox. No wonder she ran away from us just now, she probably feels it too and wants to keep her distance,” Trey says, the showoff, he’s so understanding, giving off ‘I’m a good guy’ vibes, that make me want to punch him as well.

I hold my hands up in surrender, if they want to play dumb then I will gladly be the voice of reason for once. “This is our chance. Possibly our only chance. We should talk to her. Offer our services, get her to stay. She’s not mated. We know that from all of Nate’s social media stalking.” Nate grimaces at my words but we all know he follows her every move on the internet. Hell, we know everything about her because he can’t stop talking about what he finds out about her on the daily.

“No, if Mercy wants us she can have us without being in a heat haze. I won’t take advantage of her.” Nate huffs and takes off after his brother. Ugh, those two. Trey follows them after a moment, leaving me with Shorty McBuffin’s.

I glance down at Stefan as he watches my brothers walk away. Then he looks up at me with those calculating beady brown eyes of his and frowns. “I don’t think it’s a good idea. I mean, you can have any Omega you want, why her? She rejected you. That hasn’t gone unnoticed in this city.” He shrugs, as if my girl is insignificant and below him.

“And you wonder why you’re not pack. Mercy Smooth is more than just an Omega. I didn’t ask you for your opinion, Stefan,” I reply, walking away from him without another word. If I say more, I will make an even bigger scene than Mercy. I guess I owe it to Benjamin to behave.

I have bigger things to do than beating the shit out of Stefan for opening his mouth.

I have a pack to convince and an Omega to catch.

I am coming for you, Mercy Smooth.

FOUR

MERCY

Istand in the circular driveway in front of my family’s home. I finally decide to get out of the car and go inside, considering there is a house full of people waiting for me. I drove straight here after leaving the church, having nowhere else to go. I sat in the car, parked amongst the trees as I watched everyone arrive. Both my sisters and their packs, and to my surprise a red SUV pulls up with Knight, Lox, Nate, and Trey climbing out of it. I guess they were invited here as well. I wonder if my father left something to them in his will. He always loved having the four of them around, especially Nate and Knight considering they lost their parents in a car accident when they were preteens. Even without me around, they were still family. My family. The family I chose and walked away from. The family I tried to forget over the years.

As soon as my mother steps out of the car, aided by my father, Edward. My heart aches because my intention had been to go to her back at the church, instead I got myself caught up in alpha-hole bullshit. My only thoughts are to get Faith alone so I can speak to her properly. She's wearing a collar for crying out loud! I worry for my sister’s wellbeing, and even if I am leaving later on today, I still want to help her. Hell, I would take her with me if I could. Why did my parents turn a blind eye to her situation? My younger sister Grace is the complete opposite, pregnant, mated, and happy. While Faith is crying out for help behind a silent mask.

I sigh to myself, shielding my eyes against the sun, letting my worry fall away as a sense of nostalgia takes hold. The long drive stretches towards the house with tall red maple trees on either side. I close my eyes, allowing myself to remember how enchanting the entrance felt in the autumn. The bright red leaves littering the ground always made the place a little less stifling with the changing of the seasons. The images of me and my sisters playing in mounds of leaves, tagging each other as we darted around the trees makes me yearn for a simpler time.

Opening my eyes, I let them travel up the road which extends to the circular drive with a huge fountain in the middle. The water shoots into the air out of the horse’s mouth almost ironically, the stone statue rears back on his hind legs kicking at an invisible foe. Pure spectacle, reminding me of just how over the top my father, Benjamin, was and how he liked to show off his wealth with the most outlandish of things.

The house itself is palatial, that is the best description I can give it. Grand and stately, way too big for my parents now that Faith, Grace, and I are gone. But I guess my mother is dreaming of all her grandkids now that her nest is empty.

Massive pillars stand at attention with limestone steps leading up to large black double doors. The door knocker, a gold tumbler announcing to the world that you’ve arrived at the home of the makers of Smooth Bourbon. The house positioned on thirty-five hundred acres of land, an oversized white and black ranch style home, surrounded by its own forest. My eyes immediately find the spot where I walked away from my Alphas. I regret what I had to do that day, it still eats away at me. Especially after seeing them earlier. Nate’s sad eyes, Lox’s hungry gaze, Trey’s calm, yet guarded demeanor, and of course Knight’s presence is always alluring, despite how we left things. I hate to admit it, but maybe I’d been wrong, maybe things could have been different. Now, we’ll never know.

The front door opens before my hand reaches the handle, strong arms gather me up, crushing my body to their chest. Another hand, softer, strokes my cheek, my mother’s touch fortifies me, piecing me back together when I didn’t know I was unravelling. I open my watery eyes and find her tearful brown ones staring back at me over my father’s shoulder, her lip trembling with pent up emotion.

“Hey, Momma, Dad.” I look up at my father, Edward, and I let myself be the lost girl that ran away from home. Who didn’t feel she had a choice. Who decided to leave to protect herself, and then I let my tears fall. I’ve missed so much. My parents are older and now I’ve lost one. I didn’t get a chance—

“We are just happy to see you, Mercy girl,” my father whispers into my hair as he rocks me gently in his arms. I want to tell them both I’m sorry, but I know that would be a lie. I can’t change what I did, and I can’t go back in time to make a different decision. I wouldn’t be who I am now. I wouldn’t have a life that is solely my own. The things that I achieved were gained by my own grit and determination. I would never have had that if I had chosen the expected road years ago.

“Oh, Mercy, baby. You stayed away. You didn’t come home. It hurt not to have all three of my girls here at home with me. Why, baby? You gave us no explanation. Your father—it—broke—him,” my mother said between sobs as I extricated myself from my father’s hold. He shifted and my mother came into full view. She is shorter now, but that comes with age. There are dark circles under her tired eyes, her long black hair hangs around her round face in waves, light brown eyes like my own blink back more tears as I wrap my arms around her. Her knees buckle but I hold on to her as she begins to cry harder. I swallow past the lump in my throat, letting myself grieve for the time I’ve lost but also for my dad. My father, Edward, closes the door behind us, coming up beside me to help pull my mother away, but before I let her go, I let my truth spill from my lips.

“I never meant to hurt you, Momma. I couldn’t be Faith or Grace. They presented early, they fell into their roles easily, following in your footsteps. Omega perfection. Me, I didn’t know who I was. I didn’t know how to be this person. All of a sudden my body changed overnight, and I was expected to change the very core of my being immediately. I am not a very good Omega. Even after all these years I still struggle to come to terms with what I’ve become. So, I ran. I ran so I could hold on to who I was, to protect myself from a society that wanted to place me in a box. If I had stayed, I would have tried and failed to be something I’m not. I don’t regret it. I wish it had been different but here we are.” I step away from my mother as my father wraps his arms around her waist. She leans against him with understanding in her eyes.

“I ultimately want you to be happy. I can’t say I agree with your choice, but you are here and whole, and that is all that I prayed for every night,” she says as she sniffs the air. “Mercy are you—”

“What is taking so long? We’ve waited for Mercy long enough,” my father, Christopher, arrives stomping into view, coming from the large open plan living room on the right side of the entrance hall where we are standing. He sees me and stops abruptly, eyes hard, lips turned down in the reproachful frown I am all too used to. “Mercy. I see you’ve finally decided to show up. After your little display in church earlier I almost wished you’d run back to Chicago. How dare you embarrass us that way? Omegas don’t—”

I raise my hand, stopping his words. I look at my mother and then my father, Edward, hoping they see the apology in my gaze before I finally turn to my father, Christopher. “First, hello, Father, it’s great to see you. Secondly, I don’t care what Omegas do or don’t do, or any of that bullshit you consider proper. I won’t apologize for standing up for Faith, and I don’t give a damn about congregational gossip. Maybe if you were paying more attention to your own daughter instead of worrying about the way I appear in public, she wouldn’t look so distressed.” I feel my anger rising with every word, but I don’t care.

“Mercy, not here. That’s enough,” my father, Edward, chides but there was no real authority behind it. He is weary and so is my mother.

“What happens between Faith and her pack is their business, not yours. Perhaps if you spent more time focused on your own—”

“Enough!” my mother finally shouts, her voice slightly hoarse from crying. “Christopher, please leave it. I can’t take anymore. Not today. Please not today.” She turns and buries her head in my father, Edward’s chest as he shoots my father, Christopher, a scowl over her shoulder.

“I’m sorry, Sen.” Christopher sighs. I can see the loss of their pack mate weighing heavily on all three of them. My father, Benjamin, was the glue, and they are falling apart without him. I found the courage then to be the bigger person. I clear my throat and my dad’s both look at me in question.

“Where is the reading happening?” I ask, feeling the need to move on and get this over with. My own emotions have me hanging by a thread, and I feel raw as I watch my mother’s vulnerability.

“The lawyers are waiting along with everyone else in Ben’s office.” Christopher frowns at me, gesturing towards the direction of the office, like I don’t know this place like the back of my hand. He can never leave things as they are, always having to have the last word even without speaking.

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