“It’s your house now, too,” Cam said, squeezing my hand. “And you’re right,wedo.”
Ben set up the food, laughing as he pulled out plastic drink cups. “Looks like our cocktails came with us.”
“Gimme,” I said, holding out my hand.
We all sat around the outdoor table, and Ben plated the appetizers for me. I stared down at the overflowing plate, mouth watering at the array of food. But I couldn’t get Sharon’s voice and my mom’s disappointed glare out of my head.
Cam moved closer and squeezed my thigh. “You need to eat, baby girl.”
I forced myself to take a bite of the fried mac and cheese and hummed in delight. I looked up and saw all three alphas beaming at me.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
“We like seeing you happy and knowing you’re safe and fed,” Theo said.
I blushed. “I haven’t had much of that in my life.”
“No kidding, if that’s who you grew up with,” Ben said.
“What’s the deal with them?” Cam asked. “Didn’t seem like your mom’s friends are very nice to her.”
“Yeah. I’m not sure they’re nice to anyone, but they’ve always treated her like an outcast.” I responded, taking another bite of the mac and cheese. “Sam and I call them the Omega Bitch Squad.”
Ben choked on his drink, snorting out in laughter. “Perfect name.”
“Why would they treat her like an outcast?” Theo asked. “I would have thought being bonded to your pack fathers would give her some clout.”
“It probably would have, except she ran away from the community with my father when she was young. No one could ever really forgive her for that crime,” I said.
“Wait, your father?” Cam asked.
“Yeah,” I said.
All three of them looked at me with confusion.
“Oh, I’m not related to Jericho or Richard. My mom fell in love with my father when she was seventeen.”
“Why didn’t she stay with him?” Cam asked.
“He died,” I said, a lump forming in my throat. “I’ve never even gotten to see a picture of him.”
I took a sip of water and blinked away my tears. Cam’s grip on my thigh grew tighter, his touch reassuring me I wasn’t alone.
“I’m sorry, angel,” Theo said. “Do you know what happened to him?”
I swallowed past the lump in my throat. “My mom never talked about him, except for one night. She came into my room and she was really drunk. She sat on my bed and told me about him. It’s the only time I’ve even heard her say his name. It was Jonas. They knew each other growing up, and she’d had a crush on him for years. He was an alpha but didn’t have a pack and wasn’t interested in forming one, so he wasn’t eligible to mate with an omega. But they loved each other, I guess, so they ran away. She said he wore a leather jacket and drove a motorcycle.”
A smile tugged at my lips. I couldn’t imagine my mom running away with a bad-boy alpha. It made me wish I could have met her before everything else happened.
“A year after they left, my mom got pregnant with me. She said that the pregnancy added stress to the relationship because they didn’t have much money. Growing up in a Designation Traditionalist community, she usually would never have been allowed to get a job, but she worked as a secretary until she had me. Then Jonas started drinking to deal with the pressure of caring for an omega and a child.”
“We’re not meant to do things alone,” Theo said. “They needed more support.”
I nodded, but deep down, I knew it was my fault. They were happy until they had me.
“My mom started crying, and she kept saying, ‘I love you, Jonas, I miss you, please come back,’ over and over. I didn’t know what to do. I’ve never seen her like that.”
“How old were you?” Ben asked.
