She kisses my temple before moving to give me space. “And look how that turned out.”
“Turning out. Hopefully,” I clarify, pushing further out of our huddle. And before any of them can utter another word or give me crap about still being a little wary, I beam at them. “Give me a break, you girls know how it is sometimes. But with you here, you squash each and every one of those doubts, pushing me to believe my happy ever after is right in front of me. I know it. It’s just overwhelming, that’s all. Or it could be you bitches scenting up and feeding my sappy omega side, like you do. I love you guys, and thank you for being mostly amazing.”
“Mostly?” the three of them shout back before we move as one again and meet in the middle for an epic, and overly emotional hug, that is all about love and how far we’ve come together.
“We’ll always be this, won’t we?” I ask inside our huddle.
“We’re lifers, babe. You can’t get rid of us, even when you pack.” Simona kisses my cheek and talks on behalf of all of us.
“Thank god,” I whisper. “I can’t believe this is happening today. Now what are we going to do about the mess?”
“Whatever we do we do together,” Simona says back super quickly, beating the other girls who have their mouths open ready to talk.
I smile at the way they instantly jump in to support, and I shake my head to keep on track and not get caught up emotionally again. “You girls really are too good to me. Coming here was about packing, and yeah, I was hoping for answers or at least closure on why they left me. But now it’s like I’m closing one door but all these other doors are springing open. Obviously, there’s certain doors that are staying open.” I wiggle my eyebrows suggestively, but it fades when I remember them spending a little too much time eyeing up Puck. “I’ll try not to hiss at you looking at Puck, but don’t push me on that.” I’m jumping all over the place, but that’s how my head works and my girls know that.
The three of them chuckle, evilly, and don’t agree or disagree with my request.
“Anyway, I guess I didn’t expect Reid to be so… piss fucking weak. All these games and subterfuges are so damn pointless.”
“What did you have in mind?” Heidi asks, leaning through our huddle to start fixing my hair. She gives me a wink once I’m back to being perfect.
I walk out of the room, knowing they’ll follow. And I end up standing in the small cafeteria that Birdie uses for her clients, a place to take a breather and rehydrate and enjoy her hospitality. It’s not the food I’m after, it’s what I saw out the window earlier.
“The Waldorf is where Sharlene is hiding,” I say, pointing out to the landmark before swinging my focus to the Convention Centre where the Omega ball is going to be held. “I still want to attend. But I want to go after I’m packed.”
“Why?” Simona asks quietly.
“I think it’s time for the Anders family to get a taste of omega justice. Scorned style.”
And while I thought they chuckled like evil villains before, now they really do. Almost making the hair on the back of my neck stand up with their nefarious enthusiasm. Omegas might be easy creatures to meld, but the four of us are good examples of how hard we are to break. And while omegas generally are the comfort providers in our society, we can be vicious when our alphas are threatened, although Unity and the government try to keep that side of our winning personality under wraps for some reason.
“What did you have in mind?” Heidi asks, the twinkle in her eye pretty telling of her growing excitement.
“Koz, King, and I spoke about using a third party,” I answer. I don’t elaborate because my girls are smart as tacks, but it’s also not safe for anyone to throw the words Phoenix Group around. No one has a clue who they are, like quite literally, they are the ultimate vigilante group hiding in plain sight. “And despite Koz being who he is and King being who he is too, I was hoping this would end without lives being lost. Well, except for Sharlene and Andrea—but women going against women makes me especially vengeful, so I’m not including them in the no violence stipulation. But Reid made this all drag on.”
“Unnecessarily too,” Simona says, shuffling closer.
“Don’t kill them. Make them suffer,” Tristan adds, and I don’t need to see her face to know she’s smiling.
“Exactly,” I agree. “But then I think that’s such bad karma, except now I’m at the point where I’m ready to roundhouse karma in the face if she has any issue with me doing what I’m asking you to help me with.”
“What’s that?”
“Revenge. Pure and simple. Unrelenting, targeted attacks towards Reid. He’s the weak link in all this.”
“How?”
“Everything is pointing to him being a man happy for others to fix his problems. He’s spineless, and with a little pressure, I’m sure he’ll crumble and fill in all the gaps, finally putting an end to this.”
“Agreed,” Tris says. “Sounds like he’s always been a mommy’s boy.”
“Pretty much,” Simona agrees. “If you take her out of the equation, he’ll go to water.”
“Or he’ll throw her under the bus, which would save us time,” I suggest, because the more I hear of the boy I once knew the more I think he’s a self-absorbed cunt. “Best way to test our theory is put a little pressure on him and let him make himself the fool and hopefully expose his sordid family skeletons in the process.”
“Let me guess, you want this done before you walk into the gala tonight?” Heidi scoffs.
“Well, Ho, I like to think we’re very resourceful but even that’s a bit of a stretch. But imagine watching him flail in front of all the other packs and alphas there tonight. It’s almost a strange turn-on.”
