Chapter Twenty #2
“Nothing.” I was getting worked up like I was a teenager again, not an adult. I turned, wanting to pace, only to slam into Everett who hadn’t moved away. His touch only made me angrier—not because of him. But because of how perfect he was. An alpha who cared about his pack, not just Atlas.
I forced myself to take a deep breath and to relax my grip on the stuffed animal I was nearly squeezing to death. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that. I just want to explain my reasons for calling and I got frustrated because you all weren’t listening.” There, that was an adult statement.
“All right then,” Mom Elizabet said. “Tell us what’s so important.”
I didn’t know my mom well enough to know if she was being serious or if her tone was sarcastic.
Either way, I took the opening she’d created.
“The real reason I was let go from the OC is because I deleted a file on an omega without proper authorization. The omega—you all remember Hannah from the news a few months ago? Well, she was being investigated. Or I guess, the investigation hadn’t started yet, but people had created profiles on her so that when the investigation did start, they’d have a history already in place. ”
“Wait, wait, wait,” my dad said, not quite interrupting me. “I’m confused. You deleted the file? Why?”
“Because it shouldn’t have been created in the first place. Hannah was essentially being stalked by the upper echelon in the OC because they wanted to eventually bring a case against her pack.”
“What kind of case?” Mama Ruth asked. Or at least, I thought it was Mama Ruth. My heartbeat was in my ears making it hard to hear clearly.
This was it. The moment that made or broke my relationship with my family. I stared at the stuffed keychain in my hand.
I didn’t know how much to say about Hannah since I didn’t want to expose her own secrets in order to appease my parents.
So I kept it vague. “They were tracking her, wanting to claim that her alphas were neglectful. The whole thing was wrong. They just wanted to break her and her pack apart because they don’t like Hannah.
I can’t go into the details, not without breaking her trust, but know I only did what I did because I was protecting her. ”
“Eve.” The stern tone of Deborah-Ma’s voice was not encouraging. “If you suspected foul play, then you should have reported it.”
“To whom? The file on Hannah was still open, still being consistently added to. That meant that someone at a higher level than me was allowing it to continue. So who could I trust?”
“This isn’t some spy-game,” Momma Abigail admonished. “There is no large conspiracy, Eve. There’s a reason chains of command exist. Or HR. If you had concerns for this omega, there was a proper way to handle it.”
I started pacing. I even tossed the keychain onto the bed and gripped the Wilder name around my neck.
“But it shouldn’t have existed in the first place.
You don’t understand. The pages of her file weren’t filled with abuse from her alphas.
It was literally a conspiracy to get her pulled from her pack. To punish her for—for being different.”
Someone on the other end gasped.
“Eve Tellus,” that was Mom Elizabet. “Are you trying to tell us that you’re the beta in Adam’s case?”
“No.”
Someone sighed with relief.
“I’m telling you that Adam is using me to create a strife between the designations, claiming betas are the cause of all the problems within the other designations.
I’m telling you that Adam is a liar. He’s an elitist and a bully.
I’m telling you that you can’t believe what he says about the OC, about betas. ”
“I can’t believe this,” Mama Mary said. It was her first time speaking up since we’d started talking. “We raised you better than this, Eve.”
“Better than what? To protect an omega?”
“No. Absolutely not. You don’t get to hide behind your actions. You broke the rules, Eve. You have caused other betas—the whole designation—to be scrutinized—”
Everett growled, the sound angry as he pulled me against his body. I was surprised he didn’t pull the phone from my hand, but he merely clung to me, like having me close calmed his raging emotions. His syrup scent was sickly sweet with his anger, nearly making my cheeks ache just with the smell.
Leaning against my mate, I found my voice. “I didn’t do anything. Adam did all of that.”
“Because of you!”
“Because someone was trying to tear an omega from her pack because she dared to not want to be caged at home all the time.”
“And what exactly do you know about omegas, Eve?” Mom Elizabet asked.
Her words were so ridiculous, I laughed.
“I know a fuck ton. Even more than Adam, who has never spent a single day at the Omega Compound caring for omegas, ensuring their safety directly. He can spend all day, every day touting laws that supposedly protect omegas but he’s only guessing.
He doesn’t know what keeps an omega safe and happy. ”
“All of a sudden you do? Tell me, what does your omega think about what you’ve done. Hell, I’d be surprised if your pack even knew the true reason you were let go .” The way she said those last two words, I knew she’d really wanted to say fired.
“I’m not the one claiming to know everything about omegas,” I reminded her. “That’s Adam. All I’m saying is that, truthfully, I do know more than him.”
“He’s an alpha.”
“Without an omega!”
“You sound just like those idiots on the news,” dad said.
“Is that what this is? You’re listening to all that garbage?
Adam is an alpha, with a pack, who has spent his political career taking care of omegas.
The fact that he’s gone so long without bonding one shows his dedication.
You’re talking about a man who knows he wouldn’t have the time or effort to properly care for an omega and therefore hasn’t bonded one he couldn’t protect.
That should be applauded, not villainized because it’s not done on some proper timeline. ”
I was shaking my head. I honestly couldn’t believe he’d said that. That he’d fallen so far down this hole all he saw was Adam’s white ass and he thought it was the goddamn sun. “Do you all think this? All of you?”
The murmurs of agreement didn’t break my heart. How could it? They were wrong. Dangerously wrong. And honestly, I didn’t feel like I’d lost my parents, mostly because I hadn’t felt like they were still my parents in a long time.
I wonder when I lost them? Was it the day I turned thirteen and didn’t miraculously start my transition into an omega designation?
Was it when I turned sixteen and all the pamphlets and studies and doctors claimed that I’d already gone through the start of puberty and wouldn’t be presenting?
Or maybe it was when I’d turned eighteen and left the house.
The only time I’d ever been back was for the parties I continued to throw on my family’s behalf.
“You know,” I told them. “In that entire speech you gave about Adam, you referred to omegas like toys. As if Adam gets to choose when his pack gets an omega, not that it would be a group decision. I mean, not even that it would be an omega’s decision. Tell me, does Adam’s future omega get a say?”
“Don’t be ridiculous, Eve,” Mom Elizabet snapped. “Of course they do.”
“Really? Because Dad just referred to omegas like you would a pet. Omegas can take care of themselves, at least if they want to. They aren’t babies that need to be attached at the hip, watched over for fear they’ll sleep on their stomach and suffocate.
Plenty of people with important and demanding jobs have bonds.
I mean—Adam has enough mental and emotional width for his packmates. So what makes an omega different?”
My voice was rising in volume, but I couldn’t seem to talk myself down now. I was angry at them for falling for these lies. For just ... being this way. “Unless you’re telling me that Adam has never fucked?”
“Eve!”
“What? He’s courted omegas, that’s plain to see.
He’s more than likely fucked them. He has a pack.
So what is it exactly that’s stopped him from claiming an omega?
Oh, I know—no omega has chosen him because he’s a fucking villain.
They can see it. Scent it on him. Because regardless of what you think, it takes two to bond.
Unless you’re all about forcing omegas into packs. ”
My rant was effectively cut off. They’d hung up.
On me.
They’d hung up on me.
My jaw dropped as I stared at my phone. I just stared at the device as if the call log would suddenly reappear. Did I lose the connection? That seemed ... unlikely. I couldn’t even remember the last time I’d actually lost a call because of bad service. Was that still a thing?
“They hung up?” I asked the question, looking to my pack for clarification.
No one answered.
“That...” I wasn’t sure what to say. Who just hangs up on someone? On their daughter?
“You did good, pet.” Atlas stood and came to cup my face, pulling my attention away from my phone which was still shining brightly back at me—not in a call. “It was actually such a turn on to hear you fight back.”
I laughed. “I’m pretty sure you’re just always horny.”
“What can I say? Being around you all the time means I’m constantly hard. But when you’re passionate?” He dropped his head back and groaned. “Fuck, pet. When you’re passionate? I thought I was going to come in my shorts.”
I glanced down at the thin fabric covering him. There was indeed a small wet spot that I imagined was from his pre-cum.
Oaks reached out to grab at Atlas’s shorts, forcing Atlas to turn back or risk his shorts being torn off. When Oaks saw the wet spot, he groaned, reaching out to rub his hand over Atlas’s length. Watching them together was the perfect distraction. Oaks and Atlas were a beautiful image.
I was still leaning against Everett, my mate’s arms coming to wrap around me, his hands flattening against my lower stomach. It wasn’t a sexual move, but his hands were big which meant the tips of his fingers were dangerously close to the apex of my thighs.
It didn’t take any convincing for Atlas to quickly drop his shorts, his cock already hard and leaking for pleasure. My own inner muscles clamped greedily on nothing just at the sight of his length, at the dark brown skin and slight curve.
Everett’s hand came down to cup me between the legs. I felt the heat of him even through my dress pants.
“Come here,” Oaks told Atlas. “I’m going to suck you off before I stretch you open.”
Oaks rolled onto his back only to swear and roll back to his side, reaching behind him to grab my stuffed keychain, dangling it from his fingers.
“Well, okay, then.” He set the keychain on the pillows and then rolled onto his back, his head at the edge of the bed so he could take Atlas into his mouth.
That was how we spent the rest of the day.