Page 29 of Omega Shattered
"Lake didn't deserve to be left like that. He didn't deserve to die. And you didn't deserve to live a life without your brother." She slid off the bed and tentatively wrapped her arms around me, her body heat warming the front of my body. "I'm sorry. But that's one very bad mother, not all omegas. I understand why you hate us, though, with that experience."
There was nothing to say. Technically, she was right. My mother had been one omega. But . . .
"She wasn't the only one. I dated two different omegas at various points in my life and both of them left me for a pack. They said one knot wasn't enough for them."
"So now you don't want any omegas." She stepped back. "That makes sense. I get it."
"You do?"
"Yeah. I don't want alphas. I've been hurt, too. I know there are good packs out there, but I don't trust them enough to find one. And now that choice is gone anyway." She let go of me and sat back on the bed, against the headboard. "I don't want to go back to the Omega Center, River."
"It's the only place you can go," I told her. "What are you going to do out in the world? An unmarked, unclaimed omega? You'll be eaten alive by the alphas out here."
"Exactly why I don't want any alphas." She smiled sadly. "It's better to be free and suffering than trapped and suffering."
"You sure about that?"
"I just spent a year in that place. Yes, I'm sure."
"I can't just not do my job," I told her. "And I'm not letting you go."
"I know." She leaned her head back against the wall and stared at the ceiling. "It's just . . . thinking about alphas using me for the rest of my life," her voice trailed off as her face paled. "I don't think I can do it. That's not living."
Again, I had nothing to say. Some part of me still wanted to protect this woman, despite her being an omega. Probably because she was an omega. My alpha instincts weren't completely dormant just because I detested her designation. But then again, no one, not even an omega, deserved to be raped daily.
"I'll talk to the director," I promised once again.
Quinn's face was desolate. She obviously didn't believe me. Or maybe she didn't believe it would make a difference.
"There must be rules in place. They can't legalize rape," I pointed out.
Her eyes shuttered, and she looked away. "Okay. If you say so."
"It must just be during heats," I reasoned. "When omegas are begging for it anyway and want a knot, so any knot will do."
Silence.
I watched her hands clench into fists by her side and resolved to look further into this. There was no way this was legal.
We spent the rest of the day upstairs, where she couldn't trick my brothers with her scent. The sweetness flared every hour or so and she went into the bathroom a couple of times to splash water on her face. There was no escaping it. The omega was going into heat.
"Stay here and I'll go get dinner," I told her when Orion sent me a text that food was ready.
She didn't answer, curled up on her side in the bed, staring at the wall, her fists between her knees. She hadn't talked since our conversation and I wasn't about to start that up again.
Downstairs, I found the guys in the dining room, eating at the table again.
"Where's Quinn?" Archer asked.
"Sleeping."
"She's been perfuming all day, what are you guys doing up there?"
"I'm working on paperwork. She's just . . . there."
Orion gave me a strange look. "Are you certain she's alright?"
"Yeah, she's fine. She just lying on the bed."
