Silas growls as Thorne frowns. Silas grabs hishoodie and lays it over himself like a blanket and stretches his legs out in my backseat. Thorne pushes back his chair, getting comfortable. “So, we are here on watch?”
I nod, pushing back my seat, watching her house first.
CHAPTER TWELVE
NOA
“This is fucking disgusting.” Jackson spat the food I’d spent all afternoon making out on the table as he stormed out of his chair towards me. This wasn’t the first time I had made a dinner he didn’t like, and at this rate, I’m sure it’s not the last.
I swallowed the building spit in my mouth, getting more nauseous with every step closer he took. His rosemary scent burns in my nose; it takes on a worse scent, like a burning chemical, as his face turns red.
“After spending a long day at work, I have to come home to a dumbass omega who can’t cook?” His voice bounces off the walls and hits me like slaps to my face as I quiver. My hands wring my neck as I look down at his feet. I’d never make the mistake of looking him in the eye. Not like last time. That earned me a punch to my jaw—a punch. I’d neverbeen punched before I joined the Fallon Pack, and I do everything in my power to never experience that again.
Except that everything I did was never enough.
Both his hands landed on my shoulders and shoved me down. Landing on my knees, my tears choke me as the pain spreads over my kneecaps. He pushes my head to the ground by my long hair, and my forehead burns as it meets the wood floor.
“The least you could do is fucking kneel for your alpha.” He turns around, and I know better than to move. I hear dishes clacking as the other two alphas, Derrick and Mayfield, sit at the table and watch. At least they are watching this time instead of joining in.
“Spent your whole life being a spoiled little omega who had cooks, and maids, and fucking tutors. Is that why you can’t do anything for yourself?” He pours hot chili over my head and down my back. He lets the bowl hit my head and crash on the floor, breaking into pieces I’ll have to clean up later. The beans and sauce burn as my shirt clings to my back. All I can do is stay still until the alpha is done.
Tears race down my face, and I’m grateful that my face is towards the floor so they can’t see.
I can’t muster the words they want to hear. It’s like a bullet is lodged in my throat, preventing me from speaking, and I can’t move. I can hardly breathe as I listen to their harsh breaths and mumbling about my incompetence.
I left that night.
Since that night, I’ve been hiding in Nashville, hoping they hated me enough to let me go.
I guess I was wrong. Not only are they hot on my trail, but so are my parents.
Two more text messages from them came through—one bright and early at 6 am, and the other at noon. I suspect, knowing my parents are punctual, that another one will come around four pm, and another at 9, right before they go to bed.
There is no way my parents found me on their own. So the Fallon Pack probably helped them.
They all know where I am.
I let the shower’s hot water pelt my back. The steam is so hot that I’m sure my hair is getting wet even under my shower cap, and that I’ll probably have to redo it once I get out of the shower.
I know Jackson was in my store. He probably wanted me to know. To taunt me. Let me know that he’s found me.
“Welcome to the real world, omega.”
Jackson had dirty blond hair and chilling blue eyes that would haunt me whenever I closed my eyes. As the Pack leader, his beatings were the worst of the three of them. He made me hate my designation. The vulnerability that comes with being an omega.
Whenever I did something he didn’t like, he slammed me down by my shoulders. Make me kneel for hours, well past when my knees would feel like theywould bust, and that was the lightest punishment I’d receive from him.
Derrick and Mayfield never started my torture, but they’d jump in. One look from their lead, and I had three grown men on me. They made the two years with them feel like decades.
I tried my best to be the prettiest, most docile omega. I did all the cooking, the cleaning, and when I wasn’t doing that, I was in my room.
I couldn’t figure out what I was doing wrong, and I don’t think I ever will.
I never liked the Fallon Pack, but I thought I could tolerate them. I thought following my parents’ orders to go with them was in my best interest. They swore it was.
I did what I always did and tried to be the perfect omega, the perfect daughter, and for my parents, too, I was never enough.
I’ll never forget their faces when I told them what was happening. I wanted to tell them everything. I needed their help. We had a brunch planned that first weekend after I moved in with the Fallon Pack. They hadn’t let me out of the house all week, and their abuse started the moment they picked me up from my parents’ house to live with them.
