Brat Beta.
“I enjoy spoiling you.” Zero holds the lip of the champagne glass to my mouth, and I take a fruity sip. The bubbles fizz. “Ienjoy being spoiled like this. One positive thing I will say about the hotel is its incredible food. But that’s the only thing that I’ll admit. Well, apart from you and your daughter. Oh, and Icarus. Hmm, actually your hotel has amazing staff but pretty much everything else is bloody awful. What type of people put Omegas in a catalog like they’re items on room service? The owners are bastards.”
I shift, suddenly uncomfortable.
My cheeks flame.
Zero still thinks that I am no different to all the other Hotel Omegas.
I have to tell him who I am.
Dread makes me take quick gulping breaths.
Zero looks at me startled.
Hurriedly, he places down the champagne glass and pushes the plate of chocolate strawberries to the side. He turns me on his lap.
“Love?” Zero pushes the hair out of my eyes. “Sorry, did I say something wrong? Take some deep breaths, yeah?”
“I’m Mrs. Frost’s daughter,” I rush to get out before Zero can either apologize again or be even kinder.
I can’t take it.
I stare up at Zero, clutching my hands on my lap.
I hate how his expression hardens.
Here it comes.
To my surprise, he avoids my gaze.
“I may only be a Beta but I am going to tear out your Chief Alpha’s throat,” Zero says, low and serious in a way that I havenever heard before. My eyes widen with both shock and alarm. “Everybody in Haven knows that she has marked an Omega son and daughter as Rejs and sent them to work as staff and Hotel Omegas. It’s a scandal, love. Maybe you’d be surprised just how many people disagree with what she did. Did you think that any of us would care if you were a poor Hotel Omega sent here from the Institute or a daughter from the Frost pack? Pip is a Wolf, one of the most infamous packs in America. Lion grew up in one of the worst mob packs. It doesn’t make him a bastard. If people judge us for the actions of our packs, then we’d be fucked, right?”
I draw back from him, shaking.
I’m isolated here. The hotel is like its own universe.
A scandal.
It’s like a blast of wind has finally brought the real world rushing in after three years of being insulated from it, and it makes me tremble.
Memories of the Christmas ball, when I had newly discovered that I was pregnant and then my entire world fell apart.
…A month ago, when I was away at that medical conference, I ran into my true scent match at a local bar. It wasn’t planned. It was fate. John wanted to keep you on as a Second Omega, but my treasured scent match is adamant that she won’t bond if there is another Omega in her nest; she’s territorial. So, I’m sorry but I am rejecting you and your child. There’s room in that big, old hotel, right? I am certain that your mother will take you in if you beg…
Logan and John are somewhere in the hotel right now with the Omega who replaced me. I may even run into them tomorrow.
Am I ready?
Yet I have a new pack myself who have shown me what it is to be cherished in a way that the Alcotts never did.
If they hadn’t abandoned their daughter, then I wouldn’t feel such an ache still at the thought of them. For the first time, the wound that they inflicted by rejecting me is healing.
“Lion is going to spank me until I can’t sit down for a week.” Zero grips my shoulders, dragging me to his neck and soothing down my neck. “I’ve broken you. They’ll never trust me alone with you again.”
I give a choked laugh. “If I was broken, could I do this?” I lick down his neck, enjoying the way that he shivers. “Anyway, don’t try and trick me that you don’t want Lion to put you over his lap, bare your truly gorgeous ass, and spank you until you’re cherry red. I bet that he wouldn’t realize that he was actually rewarding you, until you came all over his smart trousers.”
Zero gives a filthy laugh, pushing me away from his neck to wink at me. “You understand me better than Lion already, love. But are you really okay?”
