Bird rushes to me, dragging me back into his arms. His cookie scent cocoons me, as he rests his chin on my head.
“You should have come to me, sis,” he says, fiercely. “I would have protected you. I would have?—”
“I know. That’s why I didn’t tell you. I didn’t want you to become…”
I gently pull back, placing my pale wrist next to his darker one. Our matching Rej bracelets jangle.
A twistedRhangs from each bracelet like an ugly charm, marking our low, permanent status.
TheRholds the technology inside that will alert the cops if we try to remove it.
Every Reject has to wear one by law.
There are two reasons to be marked as a Rej.
Be defective
Be rebellious.
We are both Rej2.
The Alcotts rejected me when they found their true scent match, despite the fact that I was pregnant. They used the excuse that we weren’t bonded yet, and my litany of cussing when they told me they were sending me back to my family, to mark me as rebellious.
Up until then, I’d successfully lived two lives; sweet and submissive in front of Alphas, and myself in private.
Or, as Cooper and the Third Omega, Jelani, who raised me and is just as much my dad, would say with indulgent sighs as I’d rampage through the penthouse, accidentally knocking over vases, or pranking Hatton again, anOmega imp.
Perhaps, I never had a chance of escaping becoming a Reject, as soon as I stepped outside my Omega parents’ protection.
Yet I blame the shock for my mask shattering.
I am more devastated that Bird was marked a Rej2 because of me.
“Look how well that worked out.” Bird’s eyes gleam with tears. He holds up his wrist. “When Mom told me that those dickheads were abandoning you and their own kid, I fucking lost it. I’d never talked back to Mom before. But I was feral. I told her that I’d share every secret of the hotel, unless she took you in. I guess that it worked, but she didn’t forgive me.”
Distress coils through me.
She didn’t.
Instead, she punished Bird in the worst way possible by not only marking him as a Rej Omega but making him work as a Hotel Omega as well.
Overwork himbecause he’s the most popular draw in the hotel: A Frost Omega, once in all of the PR campaigns but untouchable, now available to hire simply by calling reception.
Bird bites hard on his lip.
Instantly, I drag him to nuzzle against my neck in comfort as I have since he was born.
I remember how excited I was to stare down at the cradle, when my new brother was brought back from the hospital, tiny and adorable. I swore that I would play with and protect him.
I didn’t realize that he would do the same for me.
