Page 26 of Knot What She Seems
Another tremble ricochets through me.
Did he smell me, or were my scent blockers effective? Who is he? Will I see him again? I pray that I won’t.
It’s no secret that I don’t want a mate—or mates. The triplets were an exception, and one that cost me everything.
Trusting people only leads to pain. How can it not? Everyone has an ulterior motive. They smile when you face them and then stick a knife in your back the second you look away. What makes me think that the giant I saw would be any different? He’s wearing a mask, for fuck’s sake. That has to mean something.
My throat feels clotted, and an acrimonious tension seeps into my muscles.
I just have to stay calm.
Stay calm.
Stay calm.
No one will hurt you, Brylee. They can’t. They don’t know you’re an omega. If you keep up the ruse, you’ll survive this year unscathed.
But what if I run into the masked alpha again? What if he has a pack?
Oh god.
Panic beats in my chest, and I find myself dialing a familiar number before I can think better of it. She owes me. She fucking owes me. I’ll beg if I have to. I’ll?—
“Hello? Brylee? Is that you?” My mother’s cold, slightly accented voice isn’t the balm it should be. It doesn’t envelop me in a feeling of comfort or serenity. If anything, the sludge in my veins turns to ice, and that ice expands to my joints, which freeze over. My grip around the phone tightens.
My mother…the queen.
It’s not completely uncommon for a woman to be an alpha. We have schools for talented female alphas all across the country. However, while the men train to fight on the front lines, the women are taught how to analyze problems and solve them. They’re our best war strategists and negotiators. Yes, the male alphas are taught these things too, but the women areonlytaught them. It’s a fucked-up, sexist system that I despise but can’t change.
My mother was one of those alphas and quickly rose to the top of her class. It’s then she met my father, an omega, and the crowned prince of the kingdom. The rest, as they say, is history.
A part of me thinks my mother despises marrying my father. She loves him, but she hates being confined to a castle. She may not have been fighting on the front lines, but she wasthere, hidden away, devising strategies to ensure our side would win each and every battle. And I know for a fact that shedoesdespise having me and Teddie. She had to, as the queen, but she passed us off to nannies as soon as she could. She always regards us with thinly veiled distaste, as if we’re inconveniences she’s being forced to interact with.
She didn’t even care when Teddie got sick.
When I got…
I shut that shit down before it can fester.
Okay, maybe that’s not entirely true. Mother doesn’t know the extent of Teddie’s illness, but it’s only because she’s a judgmental shrew who never changes her mind after she makes it up, and she decided long ago that Teddie’s sickness was just a phase. Shedidsend a team to rescue me, but that was probably because she didn’t want our enemies to know we were weak enough to lose the princess.
“Brylee? What do you want? I’m terribly busy.” I can hear the telltale sound of my mother’s heels clacking against the floor in the background. Even though it’s barely five in the morning, she’s probably already been to three or four meetings. I swear she’s a robot. That’s the only logical explanation.
“I need a favor,” I blurt. No point in beating around the proverbial bush.
There’s a beat of silence and then a “I see.” That’s it. Nothing else.
Silence stretches as she waits for me to say more, to explain myself.
“I need to remove some professors at Eros Academy. Or maybe they’re students. Or maybe it’s just one person.” God, I seem to have a serious case of verbal diarrhea. What the fuck am I even doing? Why did I think this was a good idea?
Because you panicked, dumbass.
Yuuuup.
“What are you rambling on about, Brylee? Did something happen with some alphas?”
Am I mistaken, or is that genuine worry in her tone? No. Probably not. Maybe she’s just constipated and on her way to the bathroom.
