“You would have said no, and besides, where is the joy in it if I simply tell you all the fun stuff? Now, you get surprised, they get surprised, and you can have three weeks tripping them up and walking them into hornets’ nests.”
I burst out laughing. “Hornets?”
“Ants? Spiders? Put a snake in their pants?” My dad’s voice drops to a conspiratorial level. “Think of the evil you could do, spawn of my loins.”
“Ew, never ever say that again.”
My dad just laughs. “You need this, daffodil.”
I sigh, knowing he’s right but hating it anyway. He knows I know, too, because he huffs out a big chuckle.
“I love you, wild child. Your mother loves you. Go and have some fun, and come home. We’ll see you in three weeks, and you know the drill.”
“I know. I’ll call if I need you. I love you, Dad.”
“Be safe or get even.”
I snort out a laugh at his violently playful tone.
“I will.”
“Call me when you get back; I’ll come get you.”
With that, the phone goes dead. I switch it off and put it in my pocket. I turn around and find Vale five feet away, staring at me with far too much interest. Where the hell did he come from?
“Interesting career for an omega,” he says nonchalantly.
My heart pounds in my chest, though I know he can’t see any sign of it on my face.
“Well, you know, there are no cameras and a whole world where I can exist without asshole alphas ruining my view.”
He grins wider like my snarky response amuses him. “And here I was thinking omegas liked attention.”
Icy rage slithers up my spine, and I look at this alpha with all the contempt I can muster. “Of course, because any attention is good attention, right?” I step towards him. “It was the absolute thrill of my life. My fifteen minutes of fame. I even got to become a meme. Highlight of my life, woo! I won’t ever be able to top it.” I step closer to him. “Let me be clear, Alpha Prince. You are an adventurer on this tour; you aren’t Mr. Big Shot CEO, and you aren’t the alpha who rejected me. It’s a day long in the past, ten years past, and I love my life because you aren’t in it. But here, out here, we need to be focused, we need to trust each other because our lives are in each other’s hands, so let’s put it all aside and just agree to be strangers until we can go our separate ways.”
His eyes flicker. “There was so much emotion in that speech that I have trouble believing you.”
My breath stills in my lungs as my temper ignites further still, but I force it down, let calm steal over me and shrug.
“Believe whatever you want. We are together for three weeks, and then you can go back to your cities, and I’ll be out here doing my inappropriate omega job.”
I stalk past him, refusing to acknowledge his presence. We took enough parting shots at each other through the media for me to know that any sign of engagement will start a war I can’t win.
One thing I’ve learned from experience, it doesn’t matter how right I am, only how rich they are, that is how the world will always judge us.
I’ll never be anything but the omega who lost her pack.
I’ve heard it all: faulty, broken, deformed, cheater, gold digger, whore. Every boyfriend I never had came out to speak against me. All and any friends I had told all my stories. My teachers got paid, my doctor came out and spoke about how I have this and that diagnosis, which was an utter lie. He even told the press I had a sexually transmitted disease.
He died in a car crash a week later after spending the money he got from his lies on a hooker and a night of debauchery. He had a medical episode and just…poof, gone. But his words; immortalized.
The only people I could depend on not to say anything were my family. They closed ranks around me, and together, we weathered the storm, or tried to. I am not going to drag them back into the thick of it.
I get back to the camp and freeze.
Two tents are up, but they look like they’ll collapse in a stiff breeze. Meg is red faced, and I can see her temper is about to burst at the seams. Desi is setting up a tent for the incredibly beautiful Tiffany Woods. She’s got ridiculously long nails that I’m positive will be torn off halfway through, and her clothes are tight, showing off her body, which isn’t at all practical. Tiffany is a pretty beta with an incredible ability to manipulate alphas. She is currently flirting her little heart out with a panicking Desi, who is just trying to just get on with his job and avoid the eye of his omega mate.
I sigh and intercept Meg when she loses her hold on her temper.
