I expected lust and envy, but there’s a different story playing in Carver’s eyes. He looks disgusted and enraged. I’m lost for words, thinking of a way to defuse the situation, but he’s faster, crowding me into a corner, his eyes full of hate.
“You took that girl, Major? You fucking paid for her?”
“What?” I push him away from me, but he doesn’t budge. “I don’t fucking know what you’re talking about!”
“That’s an Omega!” He points at the closed door. “I can fucking scent her, Major. Don’t lie to me.”
“I’m not lying, and lower your voice. She doesn’t know.”
That takes a little off his steam. “She doesn’t know you paid?”
I push him again, and this time, he lets me put space between us. “She doesn’t know she’s anOmega.”
If anything, it’s obvious that Veda doesn’t fully understand our reaction to her. She shuts down every time she perfumes, as if shame has to follow her most natural instinct.
“And what are you talking about paying for an Omega?”
He narrows his eyes as if to assess if I’m telling the truth or not, and his shoulders relax with whatever he sees reflected on my clueless face. Carver walks away as he rubs his mouth in thought.
“There are rumors out there, Major.”
“What kind of rumors?"
“It took a long time to get where we are right now. We were all in small communities, and we didn’t see the big picture. It was all over the country, and people took notice. And what do you think the rich and powerful did? That they accepted there were no more Omegas?”
He’s talking nonsense. “I need you to just tell me with all the words what you mean.” Before my anger takes over.
He sighs, as if I’m the difficult one. “There’s an Omega trafficking ring. It’s a big operation. And I thought—I thought that’s how you got yours.”
My blood heats up, fists balling as he spells it out for me. They’re selling Omegas? Selling women like they’re fucking cattle? The news is distressing, but I should have been smart enough to see this coming. Of course, people didn’t watch a whole classification become extinct with sad eyes like the rest of us.
Omegas are the pillar of our society. They are the reason we’re here. The majority of us are lost now, unable to be without what makes us who we are. Living in a world of Betas, knowing how it should be, is hell. Hell that we all have endured for so fucking long.
We were not put on this world to serve and work and die. We are here for love, family, and community, but those values are lost in the wind, forgotten even among packs.
It’s been a long time since I really thought about the world we live in now and the desperation of our condition. My heart feels heavy insidemy chest, and I have to push away. Carver knows all this. We all feel it thick in the air. Every unmated Alpha knows this pain too well.
“She’s not mine.”
The words taste like ash in my mouth, but they are true nevertheless. Veda is here, and I want to protect her, but fuck, she’s not ours to keep. There’s nothing I want more than to scent-match, but it didn’t happen.
“Are you sure?” he frowns.
I swallow the bitterness, but give him the fucking hard truth. “She’s unmated.”
Once I figure out what’s happening, I might not ever see her again.
thirteen
Veda
Idon’t see Major for the rest of the day, and I couldn’t be more thankful. His words cut my skin, and his tone makes me feel wrong even though all I did was walk there. Jesse tried his best to distract me, telling stories about when they just got the ranch and knew very little about tending to animals. He’s adorable, but it’s hard to concentrate when shame rolls off me like steam.
I wish I were the type of person who got angry when an asshole screamed for no reason, but instead, I got the gene that goes straight to shame. Even a while later, my cheeks are still burning.
Jesse takes my hand in his. His warm palm is a wake-up call, and I look at our linked fingers, feeling a fuzzy sensation in the pit of my belly.
“Come on.” He drags me away from the barn and back to the house.
