I can’t let them walk all over me like this, and leaving isn’t the answer. Not anymore.
Like it or not, these four idiots are mine. If our Pack is going to work, I can’t let it be like last time. Knox might be the Prime Alpha of Scorch Squad, but the hierarchy of power needs to look very different in our Pack.
I squeeze my eyes tightly and count to three. It doesn’t work, I’m still fracking infuriated.
“I take it back,” I say low and slow, enunciating each word.
“You take what back?”
I don’t know why I let myself think I was the sole problem… the broken Omega that ruined everything else around her. When had my self-esteem sunk so low?
“Everything I agreed to. I let you chastise me and I took it on the chin. I admitted and apologized for leaving, and agreed to earn back your trust.”
I breathe heavily through my nostrils as my inner Omega paces restlessly within.
Show them who’s in charge. Make our mates respect us.
“But you know what? I’m not a ‘bad Omega’and Idon'ttake full responsibility for our Pack failing to launch.”
Knox's muscles bunch, and his jaw ticks, his Alpha rising to my Omega’s challenge.
I don't let him cut me off. I'm on a roll, and my list of grievances is long.
"You say I need to earn your trust, but what about you? How are you going to make it up to me?”
“What are you talking about?” Shade asks, an incredulous expression creeping over his face.
For someone who is renowned for being smart, he’s being rather dense.
So I spell it out for him.
“I. Don’t. Trust. You,” I shout. “I don’t think I ever have!”
‘Pretty girl…’Viper protests in my mind, but I mentally slam our connection shut. I didn’t know I could do that, but I guess anything is possible when an Omega is mad enough.
“What? Why?” Shade exclaims.
“You want a list? Fine!”
I whirl back to the Prime Alpha, who has red splotches of anger and indignation on the apples of his cheeks.
“Knox, you treated me like dirt from the first moment we met, and Shade, you let him! Viper, you might be an absolute sweetheart, but you avoided me like the fracking plague and made me feel like I was crazy for thinking our connection was real. How do you think that made me feel?”
Blaze claps his hands and cackles. “This is getting good. Do me next, Sparkles! Tell me how I’m a bad, bad boy.”
“Sure. Are you listening Blaze? Focus right here,” I point between my eyes and whistle, like an owner summoning a dog. He laughs harder, like he’s in on a personal joke. “You say you fell in love with me the moment you met me, right? Are you sure it wasn’t just because I’m an Omega. Did you try to get to know me as a person, like at all?”
He stops laughing.
I sigh and run a hand through my hair. “Did any of you ever want to know how I was coping with the messed up situation?”
They stare at me. The fire pops.
“My whole world was ripped out from under me. The lives of the people I love most were threatened, and I was told the only way to save them was to become something I’m not. To choose violence over every Omega instinct to nurture and protect.”
I can feel my anger dissolving into hurt and sadness.
"When you met me, it was the first time I’d been outside of Barkrood Base in my adult life as an Omega."
