Page 106 of Knot Their Girl
I worry about him anytime his parents get brought up, just as I worry about Gideon, but neither the alpha nor the beta near me flinch under the weight of the topic of conversation. Gideon says, “Even now, it’s something we’re still working through.” He looks at me, a warm smile tugging at the corners of his lips. “Your daughter, believe it or not, has helped something fierce.”
Awe, that lug better stop it, or I’ll start to blush.
Mercedes comes over, her mates in tow, and Daniel and Laurie join the group, too. The other omega gives me a grinbefore she introduces herself to my parents, “I’m Mercedes—Raeka’s friend.”
My dad throws his hands up in mock surrender. “Whoa, whoa, whoa. Afriend?” Just by the way he says the word, it makes it clear that he just can’t believe I actually have a friend. “First a pack and now a friend, I have to ask: who are you and what have you done with our Raeka?”
While Mercedes giggles, I shoot my dad a look and mutter, “I have friends.”
It’s Nicole who cocks her head and innocently asks, “Do you?”
Ouch, but fair, I guess.
Mercedes’s mates offer their names to my parents, and then it’s time to introduce them to Daniel and Laurie. The parents face each other and shake one another’s hand as I do the deed: “Mr. and Mrs. Alabaster, meet my parents.”
“Joseph and Amelia is fine,” my dad says.
Likewise, Daniel tells him, “And Daniel and Laurie is just fine, too. After all, we’re one big happy family now, aren’t we?”
My mom quickly says, “Well, not quite.” To me, “Your brothers couldn’t make it today. When I told them you found yourself a mate, they just couldn’t believe it—wait until I tell them you have a full-blown packanda friend.”
I groan. The way my parents talk about me, it’s like I’m some weirdo loner. I’m not. All my friends growing up were just… superficial. As a Whittenhall, surrounded by other kids who came from money, friendships were mainly a quid pro quo situation. Nothing real, not like what Mercedes and I have.
“Why don’t we sit down now that we’re all here? I can grab everybody drinks,” Gideon offers.
Pax sets a hand on his shoulder and says, “I’ll help.” When he does that, his parents trade knowing glances, and it becomesclear my parents aren’t the only ones a little surprised at the whole turn of events.
Pax being helpful must be new to them, just like me having a friend.
Nicole tugs on my arm and says, “I want to see the house. Can you show me?”
I laugh softly and give my sister a nod. “Sure.”
Mercedes perks up. “I’ll come.”
So, as the guys take everyone’s drink preference, the three of us head into the house. We start on the third floor, where I show them Colter’s studio and all of the canvases he has laying against the wall.
“Wow,” Mercedes says. “He’s really good. We should hire him to do some for N.O.A.”
Nicole’s brows furrow. “What’s that?”
My friend explains, “New Omega Academy. It’s something I’m working on with my pack. It’s where I spent the last few years of my life, where orphaned omegas go once their designation reveals. Before we took over, it fell into… let’s just call it, disrepair.”
Disrepair. A nice way of saying the alpha who ran it pocketed a lot of money once she sold her omegas off to unscrupulous packs. From what I understand, Darius had created an arm of Alabaster Security who’s working on tracking those omegas down and making sure they’re safe. I don’t know much about that, but I do know more about N.O.A.; I planned on donating enough to make sure each omega could have a closet full of nice, pretty clothes, but Gideon has taken that over.
Obviously, we donate a lot more than money for clothes now, and now that I’m bonded, I can go to N.O.A. without having to worry about random alphas smelling me on the streets and deciding to kidnap me or some shit.
Yeah, no more kidnappings for me, thanks. The one was enough.
“That’s so nice,” Nicole says. And then she whips her head at me and adds, “Dad’s right. Who are you?”
I playfully give my sister a shove as Mercedes pulls out a two-by-two canvas and holds it up, studying its contents. “This… I think I need to take this one and hang it in the main hall at N.O.A.” As she says that, she flips it around and shows me.
It’s nowhere near one of Colter’s most-detailed paintings, but there’s just enough detail on it I know exactly what day it’s from.
Out the window, overlooking the patio. Through the windowpane, two omegas sit side-by-side. Me and Mercedes. She hasn’t come over a lot, but when I freaked out, she was the first—and only—one I called. She predicted this whole pack-formation thing as it was happening, before I let my eyes see what was in front of me.
“Bring it downstairs,” I tell her. “We can ask Colter, though I’m sure he doesn’t mind. He used to throw them away—I made him stop that. He’s good, isn’t he? I told him we should do something with all his paintings, like open up an art gallery or something.”
