Cecilia is everything I expected her to be: smug and superior, a beta acting like an alpha. The woman has to be near fifty, with short, pin-straight blond hair that hits her shoulders at a jarring angle. Her blue eyes are nothing but ice, and though she wears makeup, nothing can hide the deep frown lines around her mouth. She wears a light blue suit with a diamond pin of some sort on her collar.
Darius gives her a smile. I know it’s a fake smile, but someone who doesn’t deal with him often wouldn’t know that. “The police are not here because we have been working closely with them. In fact, our lawyers have been preparing a case against you, Mrs. Dryers.”
She scoffs. “Me? What are you playing at?”
“As you may or may not be aware, there have been quite a few recent court cases where omegas of age—see: older than eighteen—have been emancipated due to the fact that their guardians have abused them. Those omegas are often put into the care of companies like ours. We watch over them, do what we can for them, and expect absolutely no payment from them while we help them get their lives started.”
The more Darius says, the harder Cecilia glares at him.
“It was made clear to one of my employees—” Darius gestures to me. “—that Jess did not feel safe returning home to you until after her heat had passed.”
Cecilia chuckles, but it’s a mirthless sound that’s like nails on a chalkboard. Grating and unnerving. “Please. I never raised my hand to the girl—although with the way she’s been acting, perhaps I should have.”
The flippant comment nearly makes me growl, but I’m able to shove the sound down. Barely. Beside Jess, I see both Mason and Asher prickling, like they want to lunge over the table and attack the woman for saying that. They show remarkable restraint for two alphas that don’t have the training I do, especially Mason. If someone was to lose control, I would have assumed it’d be him.
“As I’m also sure you’re aware,” Darius plows on as he flips open the folder, “my company is licensed to take care of omegas when their parents or guardians fail them, as you have failed Jess. Hence the reason why the police are not involved in this dispute. Our lawyers have been working day and night to make sure our case is iron-clad if you force us to take this to court.”
She chuckles again, although this time she shoots icy daggers Jess’s way. “Jess, stop being dramatic. Just tell me what you want so we can go.”
Jess opens her mouth for the first time, and what she says must knock the air out of Cecilia’s lungs: “Everything. I want everything. I want the house, I want my inheritance. I want it all. Don’t act like you need any of it. When my uncle died, you got everything from him. You don’t need the entire Dryers’ fortune.”
“And you do?” she throws back in a huff. “You’re an omega. What will you do with that kind of money? Do you think I wanted to find you a pack simply to take all the money for myself?”
“I saw the will,” Jess says. “I know you’d get half, while the other half would go to my future alphas. I’d have no say in it… unless I’m unmatched and pass my first heat.”
Cecilia laughs. “Well, we know that’s not true. I can smell these alphas on you. Do you think you’ll pull a fast one over on me? Please—”
“Actually,” Darius interjects, “my lawyers have attained a copy of this will and have read over it, and the will specifies that, in order for you to receive half of her inheritance, Mrs. Dryers, Jess must have an official match before her heat. Whether or not these alphas helped her through her heat does not mean she is matched with them.”
“No,” the woman goes on to argue, “no, that can’t be—”
“We can have a third-party examine the will in court, but of course, you know you’ll lose, and therefore restitutions will be yours to repay. Are you willing to go through all that just to lose?” Darius asks as he cocks his head, and near the window, Pax smirks.
She sits straighter. “I find it hard to believe they helped her through her heat, as you said, and did not lay a single bonding bite anywhere on her.”
To Jess, Darius asks, “Are you willing to be examined by medical professionals?”
Jess nods. “Yes. I have no bites on me. Hell, I’ll strip down right here and now so you can see for yourself.” That last part is spoken to her aunt, who does not take the statement lightly.
“How crude,” the woman hisses. “You run off, and now you come back and think you can take everything from me? You’re so wrong, girl. That house is mine. The Dryers’ fortune? Mine as well. You are nothing but an ungrateful, spoiled child who doesn’t even realize how good she had it—”
Jess stuns the woman by standing. The feisty omega I met at the Omega Garden makes her triumphant return as she declares, “I’mungrateful?I’mspoiled? Please. Why don’t you look in a mirror? All I’m hearing is you describing yourself with amazing accuracy. You’re ungrateful for everything my familyhas provided you. You’re spoiled on money that doesn’t belong to you. I was just a kid who lost everything and you couldn’t be bothered to do the one thing you were supposed to: love me. Take care of me.”
Anyone could hear the emotion in Jess’s tone and know she’s not lying or making any of it up. She might act strong, she might hurl insults easily, but deep down she still wishes for the things she never had growing up.
“I lost my parents,” she goes on. “I nearly died myself. You were probably hoping I would, so you could take everything for yourself. You made me think I was broken, that no sane pack would ever want me. You said it so much I started to believe it. You know what? I’m glad you never had kids of your own. I can only imagine how fucked up they’d all be because of you. I’m done with this, with you. I never want to see your face again unless it’s in court where I publicly annihilate you and drag your name through the mud so hard you’ll never have a social life again.”
Jess doesn’t say a word more after that. She storms around the table and leaves the room, while everyone else sits there in shock. Pax gives me a nod, wordlessly telling me to go after her, so I do.
I slip out of the room and follow her into the hall. We’re about twenty or so feet away from the conference room, far enough that those inside it can’t see where we are, when I grab Jess by the wrist and stop her.
“Hey,” I say softly, “you did good in there.” I pull her into my chest and hold her there, and she lets me. I feel her sigh against me. The kind of strength it must have taken for Jess to finally say all those things to her aunt’s face… it was a long time coming.
That woman? I didn’t need to be a psychic to know nothing Jess said was a lie. The woman radiated a coldness that could in no way go hand-in-hand with raising a child, let alone a childwho’d just lost both parents. Some people were not meant to be parents, and that woman is definitely one of them.
Jess pulls herself away from me, angling her head back and gazing up at me as she whispers, “You know, I don’t even care about getting the money for myself anymore. I just don’t want her to get anything else from my family. I’d rather give the whole fortune away before I let her have another cent.”
I cup her face. “Everything is going to work out. Darius is a good talker—not something you’d say normally, if you know him, but when it comes to his job, he’s damn good at what he does. I wouldn’t be surprised if he gets her to sign the papers voluntarily releasing you and the money.”
