My mother’s face returned to her usual scowl when I didn’t respond.
“You better change that attitude if you want to attract a good pack. We just met with the director to ensure you get interviews with the most prestigious packs, at least those who would deign to accept an omega likeyou.”
“Lucky me,” I said, hoping my sarcastic tone covered the fact that I was on the verge of tears.
My mother grabbed my arm, my skin stinging under her hold. “It’s about time you proved to the world you’re not completely defective. Twenty-three and no pack—it’s an embarrassment,” she hissed.
And there it was. All she cared about was how my actions reflected onher. I’d spent my whole life hearing all the ways I was a disappointment. Getting out of my parents’ pack house saved my life, but it was a massive scandal and my mother still wasn’t over it. Most days, her phone calls to me ended in her shrieking at me and crying about what a difficult daughter I was. I had tried blocking her number, but that led to her showing up outside my apartment and shouting loudly enough for all my neighbors to hear. Mrs. Hughes, an elderly beta next door, had thought we were under attack and came out into the hallway with a metal baseball bat to defend herself. She’d looked ridiculous, being close to seventy and wearing a fluffy bathrobe, but even with all that, she’d been a badass and scolded my mother for her behavior. After that day, I decided to just suck it up and answer her calls.
My mother was waiting for a response, but I was worried I would start crying if I spoke. I just shrugged, averting my gaze.
She huffed, eyes burning with anger. “Your late heat has put scrutiny on all of us. I don’t know what I did to deserve such an ungrateful daughter,” she hissed. “Catherine’s daughter found her pack at nineteen and she’s already pregnant. Christine’s daughter has six alphas and is already on her second baby. I don’t know why my daughter wants to punish me like this!”
“Angeline, calm down,” Richard said tersely.
My mother’s husbands were so cold italmostmade me feel sorry for her. She stopped speaking, meekly deferring to her alphas in a way that made me want to defend her even after the way she had spoken to me.
“Josephine, we need to talk to you in private,” Jericho said, gesturing between him and Richard. “Angeline, stay here.”
“They told me to wait here for my interview,” I said, trembling.
My omega cowered at the thought of being alone with them, the memories of what happenedthat dayflooding my mind—the smell of antiseptic, the cruel laughter, their stares. I dug my fingernails into my palms so hard I thought they might draw blood, the pain the only thing keeping me tethered to reality. I couldn’t let my mind go back to that place. I refused to show weakness in front of them.
“Today is not the day to disobey us, Josephine,” Richard snarled.
My hatred for the two of them grew as they placed their hands on me and marched me towards a closed door in the small hallway. They opened the door and practically shoved me into the small meeting room. There was a table in the center with metal chairs around it, a TV mounted on the wall, and no windows. I forced myself to keep breathing.
“Let’s not waste any time, Josephine. You have been a disgrace to this family long enough, and we cannot allow it to continue. We know you’ve been taking black-market suppressants. The only reason you’re not in jail right now is because we didn’t want to subject your mother to such humiliation,” Jericho said.
“You have no proof,” I said quietly. I knew I was pushing it and should just shut my mouth, but I also knew this was a scare tactic. No medical tests could detect suppressant usage.
“You fucking ungrateful bitch,” Richard shouted in my face.
I tried my best not to cower under his aggression. Richard had always had the shorter fuse. Jericho, ever the politician, was more subtle in his manipulation. He placed his hand on Richard’s chest to hold him back. As first alpha, everyone in the pack deferred to him.
“We want to be clear, Josephine. You are going to bond with a pack immediately. You will stop rebelling. You will obey your new alphas. You will be the picture of a perfect omega. We have had to put up with you for years. If you continue to cause problems for us, we will escalate things,” Jericho said in his dangerously calm voice.
Their hatred towards me was a weight on my chest. A desperate longing filled me, and I wished I’d gotten the chance to know my biological father, the alpha my mother ran away with at seventeen. I couldn’t imagine my critical, image-obsessed mother rebelling, but I used to fantasize as a child about what my life would be like if my dad hadn’t died. Anything would have been better than being raised by my hateful pack fathers actively fighting to strip omegas of our rights. They had never treated me with any affection, even as a young child, and their anger towards me seemed to only grow throughout the years as my mother failed to get pregnant again, a shockingly rare occurrence for an omega. They saw me as a nuisance, a reminder of my mother’s failure. And then, at the DA… my stomach roiled and I breathed through my mouth, trying to block their scents from reaching me and keep myself from vomiting.Don’t think about it. Never think about that day.
Jericho reached out and grabbed my chin harshly. “Do you understand?”
I ripped my face out of his hand and backed up, holding back a whine. I forced myself to meet his glare with a nod, knowing there was nothing else I could do. I needed to get out of here, to be far away from them.
Richard’s phone went off, and he jerked his head at Jericho, who cast me one last look of scorn before sweeping out of the room. I kept as much distance from them as possible, and we returned to the sitting area just in time for a woman to call my name.
ChapterFive
Josie
Ihadn’t expected the person doing my interview to be so friendly or, for lack of better words,cool. She introduced herself as Clementine, and I almost smiled when I got a whiff of her faint, sweet citrus scent. I wondered if her parents chose her name because of it. I liked her already, mainly because she saved me from my mother, who was still sniffling and throwing me dirty looks, and my fathers, who seemed to be on the verge of deciding if it’d be easier to just kill me.
Clementine led me down the hallway without filling the silence with small talk, allowing me to sneak some glances at her. She was a beta, probably around my age or a few years older, with wild, curly red hair that framed her face and set off her freckled skin and brown eyes. Her dark green jumpsuit made her look chic and put together as her heels clicked down the hallway.
Jealousy surged through me—as a beta, she had so much more freedom than I would ever have—but I tried to squash it down. It wasn’t Clementine’s fault.
I followed her into a large office with dark wood furniture and a large window on the left side, showing off a view of the bay. I took in the room, still reeling from my conversation with Jericho and Richard when I realized Clementine was speaking.
“I’m looking forward to talking with you privately, Josephine. I work with the assistant director, Amirah Raven, to match omegas with their packs. We wanted to take some time to meet with you before scheduling your interviews.”
