Maybe an alpha will never be the right fit for her after her experience. Maybe they’re not the end goal, the one I always thought I wanted. Maybe we just need somebody to love, and whoseesus.
“I know very little about them beyond their ability to change form, but I firmly believe that such a capability must significantly influence their personality,”Lilly said.
She doesn’t know half of it. I saw so many versions of Zeb that I walked away with mental whiplash, and it’s likely none of them were real.
He’s not an alpha, is he? And I still want him. Isn’t that ridiculous? He would never be my mate. What we shared was all fake.
I fucking hate that it was all fake, yet it felt so real inside.
I’ve been a fool so many times. Too old, overlooked, focusing on a distant dream without living in between. Yet those other alphas and what I shared with them pale beside the episode of crazy that unfolded after I met Zeb.
“Hey, Esme. How are you doing today?”
I look up from the book I wasn’t reading as Diana drops down onto the couch beside me, her sensitive eyes searching mine. She’s been my friend for a few years now, and we’ve often been deployed on the same missions. Pity they reassigned me at short notice without her for the last one. Diana might have talked me down from the edge before I charged recklessly behind enemy lines.
I shrug and indicate the book reader. “Just reading.”
“Oh yeah? Anything good? You know, Avery Sinclair has a new book out.”
I grimace. “I can’t read romance at the moment.”
“Ah,” she says. “You know that makes me cross.”
“Yeah,” I say dryly. “He ruined me and ruined me for reading knotting and breeding romance. I don’t know which makes me madder.”
“Hell no, we’re not going to let any man ruin you or your reading habits. Maybe you need to get your training wheels back on. Get out in the field. A hot controller who can show there’s more than one man who can give you the O.”
I chuckle, but the humor fades, and melancholy hits me sharp and fast.
“God, please ignore me,” she says. “That was shit advice, by the way. What you need is a toy. You can get them with knots and everything. Make your damn eyes cross. It’s like a spiritual revelation.”
I snicker.
She shoulder bumps me. “You’re not buying into the toy idea, either.” I hear the smile in her voice.
“Quick! Put the news on!” An omega squeals as she dashes into the room, another girl following hot on her heels. “They’ve just announced a new member of the ruling council, and it’s not an alpha!”
I blink rapidly, already rising, as is Diana, hurrying over to the viewer, caught up in this unprecedented development.
“Tell me it’s not a theta,” Daina says.
More omegas come rushing into the room. On the big screen, an anchorman is giving a spiel about this breaking news.
“Turn it up!” somebody calls.
“Today’s breaking story. Our first non-alpha member of the ruling council. Replacing Governor Wilder, who retired last month. We can only speculate whether this appointment is a one-off or the precursor to yet more changes. Will we see an omega next? Who knows? Let’s go to Sia on the ground.”
The camera cuts from the studio to a scene outside Government Tower where a crowd has gathered. GovernorBrach is on the podium. “Former Commander Zeb Thorne, now Governor Thorne, received his confirmation this morning in a unanimous vote.”
“Holy shit!” Diana mutters.
My hand goes to my throat, and every eye in the room turns my way.
They all know. Everyone here does. I returned in a blaze on a hijacked Uncorrupted vessel. The healer, who I now know as Aiden, told the whole community about Zeb carrying me into the medical facility in his arms.
Here it is, the news Lilly warned me about.
The camera cuts from Governor Brach to a man at his side.
