She gave me a tight smile. It was her typical smile, one where she never showed her teeth. Demure if you didn’t know her, bitchy if you did. “That's good. I do hope you'll try a bit harder this time. Like I said, you're running out of time, Jessica. By now you should already be in a pack and preparing for your first heat. Honestly, I don't understand why you feel the need to make things as difficult as you do.”
I matched her smile with one of my own. It was something I learned to do years ago. “I am not the one making things difficult. It's not my fault if there aren't any alphas that call to me.” That had been my excuse every single time, but I could tell that particular excuse had started to wear thin.
The look she gave me right then could cut down a lesser man in an instant. “You're an unmated omega. Every single alpha there should call to you.” And just like my excuse, her response was the same shit she said every single time.
But it's not my fault. My excuse was technically not a lie. There were no alphas that called to me. She should know better than anyone how true that was.
How many doctors had we gone to? How many times did I get checked out and looked at by so-called medical professionalswhose only goal was to figure out what was wrong with me? I lost count, and eventually we stopped trying.
The accepted explanation as to what was wrong with me went back ten years to the same accident that took my parents. I was a kid then. I hadn't yet presented as an omega, but my parents did some genetic testing after I was born, so they knew. The accident did something to me. The trauma from the impact, all the surgeries, take your pick.
The fact of the matter was alphas simply never called out to me. Not like they did to other omegas who were whole. I couldn't smell. Not a single thing. Despite all those doctor visits and all the home remedies my aunt tried on me, nothing worked. Nothing fixed me.
I didn't bring up the fact that alphas did not lure me in because of what happened ten years ago. I learned a long time ago that my aunt viewed all that as more excuses, and she did not accept excuses, especially not from me.
So instead I say, “I'm trying, Aunt Cecilia, I really am.”
Her tone was snippy when she responded, “I don't think you're trying hard enough. I don't think you truly appreciate the time crunch you're on. Even lower-class omegas manage to find themselves a pack before their twenty-first birthday, so I don't understand why you can't. You're a Dryers. You have old blood in you. Respected blood. Any alpha at the Omega Garden should go crazy trying to match with you. Frankly, I do wonder if you're pulling something when you're there.”
I acted innocent as I asked, “What do you mean?”
My aunt was unimpressed with my faked innocence. “I know you, Jessica. I know your games and your tricks. It's been you and me for the last five years. I know matching with a pack is one of the last things you want to do, but unfortunately you don't have a choice. You need to find a pack before your first heat.”
It took everything in me to bite my tongue and not ask about the clause in that will. Such restraint on my part to sit there and take it, especially when I knew her ulterior motive. My aunt was a cold woman. She probably never even loved my uncle. It was probably a good thing she couldn't have kids of her own. What kind of mother would she be if she was constantly judgmental and harsh while never giving praise or affirmation? Let alone a freaking hug.
I thought long and hard about what to say to her in response. “I'm trying.”
Okay, so my response wasn't going to win any speech awards.
“If you don't find a single match tomorrow night, I'm going to have to take matters into my own hands. I have done my best to respect your wishes, but you have proven to me time and time again you are still too immature to realize what's best for you.”
Right. Because omegas were too stupid, too childish to make their own decisions when it came to the rest of their lives.
It's not going to happen. Not on my watch. Whatever my aunt thought she was going to do, whatever insane fortune she thought she would take, she'd be real fucking sad when she realized I'd rather die than see her get another cent from my dead parents.
Call me immature. Call me spiteful. Call me the pettiest bitch around, I didn't care. Like hell was I going to find a match at the Omega Garden tomorrow night.
Chapter Two – Jess
It’s only been a week since I found that folder in my aunt's desk. Six days since my last stint at the Omega Garden. Six whole days since I had to act uninterested and completely bored at every alpha that wandered my way.
Don't get me wrong, alphas are nice to look at. They're tall, full of bulging muscles, and they carry around that smug sense of superiority that makes my inner omega crave certain things.
But they're all the same. They're all big. They're all haughty. They're a dime a dozen even though they think they're so damn special. Most of them get insulted when you don't trip over yourself under their attention. Like, come on.
Of course, since I'm an omega, it's really difficult to do anything on my own, including run away. It's why I had to contact someone I haven't seen or spoken to in years. Pretty much since the accident.
An alpha.
I didn't want to. I really, really didn't want to, but I had to. He was the only person I knew in the city that might help me, and thankfully he took a chance on a newly created profile and responded to the message I sent on my new burner phone.
Not trying to leave any trails, you see. Don't want to make things too easy for my aunt. As far as I see it, as long as I make it to my first heat unmatched, that money is mine by default, so I don't plan on staying away for long. Just a few weeks. Long enough I can get through my first heat alone.
Fortunately for me, the alpha I'm meeting has a cabin in the mountains his family only uses during the winter. Since it's summertime, that cabin is free for the taking.
My goal is to stay in said cabin for as long as I possibly can, maybe ride out my heat in that cabin before I make mytriumphant return home and claim my parents’ fortune for myself. My aunt will be super pissed off but I don't care.
The park in the center of the city only has cameras in certain areas. I'm no stranger to sneaking out of the house undetected, so I checked out the park a while back as the plan was formulating in my head. I also stopped at the local second-hand store and picked up some clothes I would normally never be caught dead in, along with a bag I stuffed everything in. I bought my burner phone with cash so it wouldn't be tracked, and I plan on leaving my actual phone underneath the seat in my car, along with the car keys and my wallet.
