Page 20 of Tying the Knot
“Mated,” I scoff, the hurt over the only omega that has taken over my senses has to already belong to another pack, claws my belly, making me feel slightly ill. Thirty-seven years old, and I want to cry in a corner when I think about her.
“One of us needs to remain clear-headed about this,” he says as if he’s trying to explain himself. “If the three of you have fallen like dickheads, then I need to be the one to give you a slap of reality.”
“Maybe that’s for the best.”
“Then come downstairs. The next omega is due.”
“She’ll be as bad as the others.”
“They haven’t beenthathorrible. Eli is ruining it with his questions that are throwing them off. They aren’t expecting an inquisition.”
“Maybe he’s right to want what he wants instead of settling. I didn’t think I would ever understand why he would choose to be unmated when he could have been mated a hundred times over by now. I didn’t think I would ever be as picky as him, but I can’t get past knowing she is meant to be ours and that fate has dealt us a really shitty hand here.”
He sighs and crosses his arms. “I obviously don’t know the ins and outs, but I know emotional abuse when I see it. She is damaged. She might never get over it. She might crawl back to them the second they get out because that’s how they’ve groomed her.”
“That’s fucking harsh,” I growl, standing up and crossing over to him to grab his shirtfront menacingly, ready to punch him in the face for talking about her that way. “She's stronger than that.”
“Is she? We don’t know.”
“Then we let Dylan find out. If anyone can, he can.”
“How do you know he went there?”
“Because I know him. He doesn’t have the alpha sense of steering clear of a mated omega. I don’t mean that in a nasty way,” I add when Nik raises his eyebrow. “I know he wouldn’t tear a family apart, but he can think with his heart. He isn’t lumbered with the weight of needing to be sensible and righteous.”
“Neither are you.”
“But we are. If the four of us went after her, who do you think they’d rake over the coals first? Hmm? Not him, that’s for sure. No, it would be us because no alpha worth his salt would take a mated omega. Remember, I’ve lived this. I saw my mother be alone year after year, trying to hide who she is but it always ended in tears. I won’t do that to myself, or any of us.”
He regards me closely, and I let him go with a huff. “You really feel that strongly about her? You don’t even know her.”
“Go down the road and catch her scent, then come back here and say I don’t know her.”
I push past him and disappear into the bathroom, needing to get away from him and his responsible attitude. He’s pissing me off even though I know he’s right. When Eli told us that Dylan had left, I knew immediately where he’d gone, and I’m rooting for him. Still, as much as I hope he gets the answers we’re looking for, I know it won’t make any difference, and even if it did, when the Happs pack find out, and they will, there will be fucking hell to pay when they come for her.
And that is definitely not good for her, or for us.
ChapterFifteen
Morgan
Crawlingout of my nest around the evening of the next day, I cringe at the mess. I’m not a naturally tidy person, but it was berated into me by Adam and the rest of the pack when I first started to live with them. I really had to stop and think a lot of the time and go back to tidy up to the point where I became obsessive about it, so I didn’t get whined to. Thinking back, it makes me so angry that I start to cry again.
“I don’t give a fuck that there are crumbs in the nest or that the magazines are strewn about or anything!”
I twist my lips after yelling out to nobody. The people in the rooms next door must think I’m nuts. I walk away from the mess, leaving it because who the fuck cares? Not me, I can tell you that for free.
I crawl into the shower, feeling weak and slightly off. When I turn my head, I feel the twinge over the mating bite that Adam gave me. It’s been about three years since he renewed the bite, that keeps us mated and bound. More so with the others, maybe even pushing four. I can’t really remember now that I have tried to think about it. My heart skips a beat when my stomach churns. Without them here, the mating will start to unravel. It makes me so sad at the same time as being apathetic if that’s even possible. I don’t give a shit at the same time, it hurts like fuck to my heart and my whole body. I loved them. For eight years, I’ve done everything for them and for what? To be treated like a piece of shit at the end of the day. Sure, I was taken care of, wanted for nothing, and was looked after, but the little things. The tender kisses, the cuddling outside of my heat and their rut, small tokens of affection that I didn’t miss because they were never there in the first place. Now, it’s all I can think about.
With a low growl, I snap off the taps and exit the shower under a cloud. I don’t want to think about them. I want to be free of them. I know if they arrived here now begging me to go back, I wouldn’t.
In theory.
I suppose I don’t know what I would actually do, and that’s what scares me. Would I go back to them because I’m too scared to be on my own? Starting over terrifies me. I don’t think I can actually do it. Not that I have much choice if they’re stuck in jail, but what if they get out and come for me? If they even do. They’ll come for their money, of that I’m sure, butme? The fact that I don’t even know the answer to that question is what hurts the most. I gave themeverything.
Feeling so low and alone, I get dressed in a pair of black jeans and the same long-sleeved tee I slept in. Again, who cares? I need to find where there’s a laundrette around here soon. But for now, I’ll have to re-wear what I can, when I can.
Sitting on the edge of the bed, I make a snap decision. I’m in too bad of a place to wallow up here on my own. I need not to have company but to be around people, so I don’t do something stupid, like pack up and go home.
