“He is going to find buyers for it.” She takes a shaky breath. “Think about moving to Dallas, sweetheart. We miss you so much. You could start over here. Fresh beginning.”
“I’m not moving to Dallas, Mom.”
“I love you, June. More than anything.”
“I know, Mom. I love you too.” I sigh heavily.
I hang up and sit here in the silence, staring at the road ahead.
Everything is falling apart. My body. My home. My business. The careful life I’ve built is crumbling around me, and I don’t know how to stop it. Shit!
I don’t recall how long I’ve been sitting here, parked on the side of the road, but I start driving again until I find myself parking in front of The Rusty Spur, knowing that Hazel is here most mornings.
So I get out and drag myself in there, spotting her at a table in the middle of the room with an open laptop, her blonde-and-pink hair pulled into a high ponytail.
She glances up at me. “You look like death warmed over,” she announces as I slide into the seat across from her. “You okay, hon?” She gets up and gives me a big hug before I can stopher. Then she pulls back, and her brow furrows as she sits down again. “Why does your scent smell different?”
“I need to tell you something.” The words come out in a rush. “Please don’t be upset with me. I should have told you years ago, but I convinced myself it didn’t matter, and this whole week has been chaos, and I think the universe is finally done letting me pretend?—”
“Breathe.” Hazel reaches across the table and grabs my hand. “Whatever it is, just tell me.”
I take a shaky breath. “I’m an Omega.”
She blinks.
“Or I was. Or I am. I don’t know anymore.” The words tumble out faster now, seven years of secrets spilling onto the sticky bar table. “When I was younger, doctors diagnosed me as dormant. Said I’d probably never have heats, never form proper bonds. My parents convinced me it would be easier to just… take suppressants to conceal my Omega side and pretend to be a Beta. Avoid all the complications of a designation that didn’t work properly anyway.”
“June…”
“I know. I know I should have told you. But I wanted to believe it myself, you know? Wanted to just be normal and uncomplicated and not have to deal with any of it.” I swallow hard. “And then those three Alphas rolled into town, and suddenly my suppressants are making me sick and my body is doing things it’s never done before, and I think they might have woken something up inside me that was supposed to stay asleep.”
Hazel is quiet for a long moment. Then she stands up again, comes around to my side of the table, and pulls me into a fiercer hug. “Oh, hon.” Her voice is thick. “I’m so sorry. That must have been so lonely.”
I didn’t realize how much I needed to hear those words until tears were spilling down my cheeks.
“I didn’t know who I was supposed to be,” I whisper. “My parents made it sound so easy—just take the pills and live a normal life. But it wasn’t easy. It was pretending every single day. Hiding. Lying to everyone, including myself.”
She strokes my hair. “I know.”
We stay like that for a moment before she pulls back, keeping hold of my hands.
“Okay. Tell me about the guys and how they’re impacting you. Tell me everything.”
So we take our seats and I let it all out. The way their scents overwhelm me. The pain that flares when I’m near them and fades when they touch me. Last night with Carter and how his presence was the only thing that made the agony bearable.
“I think they’re my scent matches,” I admit. “All three of them.”
Hazel nods slowly. “That would explain a lot.”
“But what am I supposed to do about it when they leave? I have a life here, or I did, before everything started falling apart. And even if I told them the truth, what then? I’m a dormant Omega. I might never go into heat properly. And maybe I’ll never be able to give them what they need.”
“You don’t know that.”
“The doctors?—”
“Doctors are wrong all the time.” She squeezes my hands. “Listen, I’m an Omega. I know what this pull feels like. When I found my fated mate at eighteen, it was like the entire world narrowed down to just him. Nothing else mattered. Nothing else existed.”
I nod, knowing she’s experienced a tragic past.
