Page 13 of Knot Their Girl
“Hush. Like you know what you need. When I was your age, I was completely lost until I found your father.”
I look at my dad down the table. “Why can’t we petition the court—” As I say it, my mom rolls her eyes and shakes her head once. “—I’ve already proved I can handle my heats on my own. If I’m emancipated, I’ll be able to have my own bank account, start up my own business, do whatever I want.”
My dad, the fifty-some-year-old alpha, is tired of hearing this conversation. He sighs and says, “She does have a point, dear.”
My mom, ironically enough, is the stickler out of the two of them, and what she says next is what I feared she’d say all along: “Nonsense. She needs a match, or a pack. I’ll start asking around the country club to see if anyone knows of any suitable alphas that don’t frequent the Omega Garden.”
I bury my face in my hands. Having my mom try to make a match for me? Talk about embarrassing. “Mom.”
“Don’t. You were given some freedom, but obviously you aren’t taking it seriously. You aren’t getting any younger. I want grandchildren before I’m sixty—”
“Zane and Brent already gave you grandchildren,” I remind her of my brothers, of her sons, who had immediately gotten busy once they and their packs bonded with their omegas. “You have grandchildren. You don’t need me to pop them out.”
“Yes, but you’re an omega. It’s your—”
“Job?” I cut in. “Duty? My only purpose?”
My mom closes her eyes for a moment, then is slow to open them. “Raeka, your life won’t feel complete until you’re bonded. It might not feel like it now, but it will. Omegas who don’t bond don’t live happy lives—is that what you want? To be miserable and alone?”
I’m about to mutter under my breath something along the lines ofit’d be better than being miserable with a pack ofalphas, but right then breakfast is served, so my acidic retort is cut short.
We are served our breakfast, and thus the quiet meal begins. Somehow, some way, I know this isn’t the end of it.
And it’s not. Within three days, my mom tries to set me up with not one, not two, but three of her friends’ alpha children.
I can only dodge it for so long.
Damn it. What am I going to do?
Chapter Eight – Raeka
I’m sitting in the living room, watching some stupid show about omegas being airlifted to an island and then set free, where packs of alphas try to find them, totally ignoring my mom’s dour looks from a few feet away. She stands with her hands on her hips, her red lips curled in a frown.
“Raeka, I made a lunch date for you. You can’t just not show up. You made me look like a fool in front of Lorain—”
“Mom,” I tell her, “I said I’m not interested in meeting any of your friends’ kids. They’re probably as lame as your friends, no offense.”
She pinches the bridge of her nose. “There is only so much I can do for you. The next time I set up something, you’ll show, even if your father and I have to drag you kicking and screaming.” For an omega, my mom sure has an alpha’s attitude sometimes. If Nicole were here and not at school, she’d probably be the meek little omega and agree with everything our mom is saying.
“You’d be better off knocking me unconscious first,” I mutter.
My mom lifts a finger at me, probably about to wag it, but our family butler comes out of nowhere and politely interjects: “Excuse me, Mrs. Whittenhall, Ms. Whittenhall, but Alan outside claims there is someone here to meet with you.”
“I have nothing scheduled,” my mom is quick to say.
“Not you,” he says, and then he looks at me. “The caller is for Ms. Whittenhall.” Our butler, Henry, is a meek beta who never kicks up a fuss about anything. He’s happy to be of service as he’s packless, never bonded to another. For a man who nears sixty, it must be a little sad.
Or not. Maybe he’s fulfilled. I don’t know. I’m stuck on the whole caller-is-here-for-me thing.
“An alpha?” My mom is suddenly in a good mood, just like that.
Henry nods once.
“His name?”
“A Mr. Gideon.” The moment he says the caller’s name, I perk up a little. I can’t help it. Gideon was a no-show at the Omega Garden after the restroom incident, and I assumed I’d never see him again.
What’s he doing here? Why does he want to seeme?
