I open my mouth to say more. To explain it better. To tell her all the other things I felt that night. The wrongness of it all. The urgency to find a mate. The certainty that Tansy was the only one for us.
But I stop myself.
I’ve already said enough.
Tansy exhales slowly, her eyes dropping to her nest before lifting back to me. “Cass says we’re fated,” she says quietly.
“Did he?” I say, not really surprised that our pack alpha would say that.
Under all those scars and barking orders, Cass is a sweet, hopeless romantic. He likes to believe that the universe has a plan and that the people he loves were destined to find each other.
I really love that about him.
“What do you think?" I ask Tansy.
She goes still for half a second, like she’s turning the idea over in her head. One shoulder lifts in a small, almost apologetic shrug.
“I don’t know. I mean, omegas have loved the idea of fated mates since forever,” she says. “Prehistoric times, even.” Her mouth twists faintly. “It makes things easier to accept.”
“Easier?” I tilt my head, my attention snapping fully to her. “What do you mean?”
She opens her mouth, takes a quick breath, then she shakes her head once, a sharp, dismissive motion, like she already regrets saying what she has. “Nothing.” Her fingers loosen from the blanket, then curl right back in, grip tightening.
I step a little closer, keeping my voice low. “Hey,” I say gently. “I really do want to know. Tell me, please," I add, giving her my sweetest smile.
It always gets Beck to cave.
“Okay.” Tansy looks past me as she talks. She stares at the shelves, shoulders rounding inward, knees drawing closer together. “It’s like with forced matings,” her voice is so soft, almost like she’s scared I’ll fly off the handle. “If you believe a higher power compelled an alpha to force a bond on you, then it hurts less. Or at least, that’s what omegas tell themselves.”
I take another step closer, slow and deliberate, careful not to scare her. Then I lower myself to sit next to her nest, bringing my eye line closer to hers even though she won’t look at me.
"But you don't believe that?" I ask, my voice a careful whisper. "You don't think a higher power would ever be that cruel."
Tansy’s gaze darts to me for a split second before flickering back to the shelves, a flash of surprise in her eyes. “Yeah,” she whispers. “I guess you could say that.”
I lean in a fraction more, my elbows resting on my knees. “Do you believe in a higher power?”
“I do.” Her throat works as she swallows hard. "But fated mates…it's just a coping mechanism," she whispers, the words barely audible. "A pretty story to make the ugly truth bearable."
I nod, encouraging her. "Even since prehistoric times?”
“Yeah.” Tansy nods again. “A lot of early omega art and symbolism frames mating as destiny.”
“Really?” I hold her gaze to encourage her to keep speaking. It seems to work.
“Yes.” Her voice rises a bit. “You can see it in prettymuch any prehistoric cave art depicting an omega. Omegas are almost always shown being pursued, cornered, or taken by a larger, alpha figure.”
I lean in, desperate to hear more.
“Early cultures didn't frame forced mating as harmful,” she says, her confidence growing with each word. “They framed it as a sacred union, a joining fated by the gods or Mother Earth herself. If a mating is ‘fated,’ then it’s not a violation. It’s destiny. It gives the omega a framework to process what happened to them, a way to find a sense of purpose or even honor in their own subjugation.” She gives a small, rueful huff. “It’s easier to survive something you can’t escape if you believe it was always meant to happen.”
Worry slips over me, and I stare at the omega, suddenly not sure if she’s simply sharing the fascinating things she knows or if she’s talking about what’s happening to herrightnow.
But I know Cass.
He wouldn't force a mating, not in his right mind. I think…
But the fact is, I wasn't there when his teeth sank into Tansy’s skin. And the thought is a poison in my gut, because while I’d love to believe that Cass would never do that, I also know what an omega can do to an alpha.
