Page 75 of Rocked By the Alpha
“Ruby. He embarrassed us.” Her mom’s eye’s narrow. “Was this your plan? Bring the most unsuitable scoundrel you could pick up just to annoy your parents.” She throws her perfectly manicured hands into the air in frustration. “I thought we’d got past all this. That you’d grown out of this childish need to aggravate us.”
“It was never about trying to aggravate you! It was about being true to me!” Ruby says, thumping her hand against her chest.
“And that man is being true to yourself?” Her mom grabs her shoulders. “He doesn’t know the first thing about music.”
“He’s a musician.”
“Oh sure, he’s in some rock band. But he knows nothing about real music.”
“Rock music is real music, Mom.”
Her mom’s hands drop away. “We both know it’s not. But what you choose to do with your life is your business. You are old enough to make your own mistakes.”
“I’m not making any mistakes.”
“He seems like a pretty big one to me. How much does he respect you, Ruby, if he can’t even make an effort with your family? If he sits there making crude jokes about you? He isn’t even wearing a suit!”
“West doesn’t wear suits. He’s a rock star.”
“Yes, exactly. Irresponsible and rude. That’s the type of man you want to be with, is it? Although why am I surprised?” Her mom shakes her head. “It started with that ridiculous girl and ever since it’s been a train of unruly men who are only after one thing. You’re nearly twenty-five now. Isn’t it time you grew up!”
She stares at her mom and the hostility in her eyes. Ruby’s lip begins to tremble and her vision swims with water. She doesn’t want to cry. She doesn’t want to fight. She’s exhausted. She hasn’t slept since that fight with Nat and her mind hasn’t stilled for one moment.
Everything seemed so perfect. Life was going exactly as she’d always hoped, and now it is cracking and falling into pieces before her very eyes.
“I really thought we were over all this,” she says, a tear wetting her cheek. “I believed you’d finally accepted what I do, who I am. That you’d come to peace with it.”
“Why would I ever come to terms with my daughter throwing her life away? With throwing away the perfectly good education we gave her? You could be a star like your brother now!”
“I am a star!”
“And do you think they come to see you for your music? Or for your low-cut dresses? Do you seriously believe a man like that is with you for anything more than the sex?”
She’s not listening to any more of this. She’s listened to it too many times before. Why does it still hurt her? How does it still cut her to the bone?
Striding past her mom, she pushes against the door and spills out into the corridor. West is waiting there for her, leaning against the wall, scrolling through his phone. He looks up and strolls towards her, hooking an arm around her waist, and reaching down to give her ass a firm squeeze.
“Can I take you home now, Omega?” he purrs into her ear.
Ruby can hear her mom’s clipped footsteps behind her. She twists her head. Her mom’s staring straight at the hand gripping Ruby’s backside. A frown descends over her mom’s face and then she looks up and meets Ruby’s gaze. Her left eyebrow rises and Ruby knows exactly what that look means:See?
A wave of heat rushes through Ruby’s whole body and she pushes West away. She walks past him, ignoring the few remaining guests mulling about collecting their coats and saying their goodbyes, and falls out onto the warm street.
She takes a deep inhale. But the air is awash with car exhausts, stale piss and overcooked food. She wants to spit it all out.
Everything is falling apart.
Everything.
“Ruby?” he calls, jogging out to meet her on the sidewalk. “Where are you going? What’s wrong?”
“Why?” she asks him. Her heart pounds in her chest, anger in her blood. Right now, she’d like to rip the nearest fire-hydrant from the sidewalk and toss it into the road.
He stops in his tracks and peers down at her. “Why what?”
“Why did you have to be so rude?”
“Me?” He points to his own chest, looking genuinely surprised. “I was rude? Are you fucking kidding me?”
