I tell myself to ignore the laugh. Nothing good will come from going to investigate what I heard. I know that in a deep, secret place in my soul.
This has the ability to hurt me.Badly. Maybe even scar me. Better to ignore it, go to my room, and pretend I didn’t hear anything.
But I can’t do that.
I have to know.
With my heart in my throat, I take my hand from the balustrade, turn around, and walk along the hallway to one ofthe living rooms I never use. The door is open, and my scent matches are not alone.
A beautiful woman, delicate, with long dark hair and China-blue eyes, sits on an armchair. My scent matches stand around her, smiling down at her as if she means everything to them.
An omega.
They sent me to a heat clinic.Alone. And they were here…
Withher.
My eyes burn as I swallow more tears, nails digging into my palms. It doesn’t hurt;nothingcould hurt me as badly as this.
They never even look up.
They don’t see me walk away, cross the entryway, and run up the stairs with tears soaking my cheeks as I struggle to build a solid ice wall around my heart.
It still hurts.
I don’t know why I go to the small room off my bedroom. Autopilot really. My heart hurts, and when an omega is hurting, she crawls into her nest, a place of comfort, and it comforts her.
But this nest brings me no comfort, and no joy.
Nothing but pain.
They built this for me, and I will never know why they gave me a nest this beautiful when they’ve done nothing but hurt me. I’d rather have no nest at all than this hollow, empty, superficial thing.
I see the silks and the cashmere and the fur and I wonder if this nest is identical to the one they made for her. And if that’s why I never see them in the house. They’re with her.
I tear into it as fat tears roll down my cheeks, my heart ripping in two. I shred the silks. When it isn’t enough, I hunt out a pair of scissors. I stamp on the cashmere; I rip and tear and fling everything around.
I destroy.
And when I’m standing in my destroyed nest, I sink to my knees, cover my face with my hands, and sob for the girl I used to be. The girl who wanted love and passion and something real.
But all I got was pain.
Chapter 13
June
Present…
Aknock sounds at my door. “Juniper?”
I close the book I borrowed from the library downstairs and stand, smoothing the wrinkles on the skirt of my dress. My clothes are perfect; my makeup is immaculate. They are the only things I can control in this life, so I focus on those things and not on the things I can’t control.
Like my scent matches betrayal.
My life since I walked in to find my alphas laughing with an omega after they sent me alone to a heat clinic has been cold.
I don’t smile.
