“Cam, I know you would never hurt or abuse me. Since we met, you’ve been caring for me and protecting me. I trust you.”
I pulled her in closer until her head rested on my chest. She wrapped her arms tightly around me and squeezed.
The words I’d never spoken to anyone outside Ben and Theo started tumbling out.
“You know we all grew up in North Woods. My father was, and still is, one of the leaders. He and my pack fathers put a lot of pressure on my brothers and me to be the most aggressive, dominant alphas. They thought that any kindness or sensitivity was a weakness. My fathers tested me by forcing me to fight them all at once. I was a kid, so I could never overpower them. If I cried or backed down, they would tell me I was weak and often punished me by locking me out of the house for days without food. No one in the community did anything to help me because they knew they would have to face my fathers if they did.”
Josie jolted upright from where she was curled against my chest. Her eyes blazed with anger. “You were a kid and no one helped you? No one put a stop to it?” She was shaking with rage, her hands clenching my arms.
“They didn’t have much of a choice. I used to be angry with my mom because she just stood by and watched it happen. But she was abused, too. She couldn’t risk herself.”
“That’s crap,” Josie said, putting her hands on either side of my face. “Others should have stepped in. You didn’t deserve any of that.”
Warmth spread through my body at my mate’s indignation at what I had gone through.
“People should have stepped in and stopped what was happening to you as well, sweetheart,” I said, gently cupping her face with my hand and running my thumb across her cheek.
She leaned into my touch. “Yeah, well…” She took a deep breath. “Will you keep going?”
“Things got better once Theo moved next door. At the time, I was aggressive, getting into fights at school. Theo somehow saw through that, and we quickly decided to become a pack. It was the first time I felt like I had someone on my side, especially since my two younger brothers are fucking clones of our pack fathers. People didn’t mess with us once we formed our pack, including my fathers. Soon after, we noticed this younger alpha who was friendly and sensitive, all the shit alphas shouldn’t be. Oh, and he liked to talk all the fucking time.”
Josie smiled at my description of Ben.
“I saw him for the first time at school. He was a couple grades below us and was just a fucking nice person. He wanted to make friends with everyone, which put a target on his back.
“We decided quickly that we wanted to protect Ben. It was crazy shit to see this alpha be so happy and easygoing. He was getting bullied at school and we stepped in to protect him. He annoyed the shit out of me at first with his positivity, but we quickly realized he was pack, too. The three of us stuck together. Theo and I served the year of military service our community required. Theo stopped after the first year, but I kept going with it, not because I liked it but because I didn’t have anything else I was good at.”
“Did Ben do the year of military training?”
“We left before he had to,” I said.
Josie looked at me with such sweetness and curiosity. None of us had told her why we left, and I dreaded saying it out loud.
“We talked about leaving for years but knew it meant we wouldn’t have contact with our families anymore. We all had omega sisters we wanted to look out for.”
“You have a sister?” Josie asked, confused.
“No, not anymore,” I said. I looked away from my mate, trying to get my emotions under control. I never talked about my sister. It was still too painful, even over a decade later.
“Oh, Cam,” Josie said, pulling me in for a hug and placing gentle kisses on my face. “You don’t have to tell me what happened if you don’t want to.”
I took a shuddering breath. “No, I want to. It’s just hard for me to talk about.”
My voice was tight and I felt tears building behind my eyes. I wasn’t sure how I would get this next part out when I felt a slight vibration run through Josie’s chest. The vibration strengthened, and I realized my mate was purring for me. I held her close, allowing her purr to work through my body. I had never dreamed of being gifted an omega purr, and a tear spilled onto my cheek.
“Thank you,” I said gruffly. Josie pressed her face into my neck and intensified her purr.
“My sister’s name was Ellie. She was four years younger than me and the best fucking person in the world. She was an omega but was always really mischievous and a risk-taker. I would catch her sneaking out of the house to go to the movies or pull pranks, and she would just give me this haughty look and ask if I was coming with her. She became close with Ben’s sister, Lilah, and they were total fucking terrors. They had this asshole teacher they hated, so one night, we went to the teacher’s house and stole his car.”
“Wait, what? What did you do with it?” Josie asked, her eyes lighting with laughter.
I chuckled. Ellie had been fourteen at the time and very focused on righting injustices.
“We stole the car and drove it to the school so the teacher wouldn’t be able to get to school in the morning, but the staff would think he was there. Then we broke into his classroom, and the omegas rigged a glitter bomb so when the teacher eventually arrived at school and sat in his chair, glitter would rain down on the whole classroom.”
“Oh my god, that’s so ridiculous. Did it work?”
“Fuck yeah, it did. We recruited Ben and Theo to erase all the security footage and help us break into the school, but hot-wiring the car and rigging up the glitter bomb was all Ellie and Lilah. You would have loved them.” My heart clenched with the reminder that Josie and Ellie would never get to meet.
