Chapter 7 Rose
Rose
Kai and the other alphas in his pack looked pretty stunned to find me sitting in the hall outside their suite.
I was quickly swept into the rooms, and now I’m perched on an expensive wingback chair while the five alphas Kai introduced stare at me.
“How can we help you, Miss…?” Harlan, the dominant alpha, trails off, leaving me to answer. So, he doesn’t remember me. Good. I don’t need that kind of conversation right now.
He’s exactly as I remember him. Incredibly broad, even for an alpha. Dark brown skin, smooth shaved head, and a neat beard.
“I heard you’re looking for an omega to bond with.” I aim the statement at Kai. It’s easiest. His soft eyes catch mine, confused and hurt. The look breaks my heart. I never wanted to hurt him. It all just became so messy, so dangerous, so fast.
“Where did you hear that?” Harlan asks. I glance back at him. He’s just as intimidating as I remember—his stone expression giving nothing away.
“I’m friends with Sunny,” I say. “She’s the Night Pack’s omega.”
Logan, Cole’s brother, swipes a hand through his hair and mutters a soft, “Damnit.”
“So, you heard we needed to bond an omega and decided to—what? Come rub it in?” Evander asks.
He has a definite air of directness that I like.
I can understand it. I was never one to keep things to myself before I fled home.
Keeping secrets for the last two years is part of why I hide behind my phone. I hate lying.
“No. I came to offer to fake bond with you and solve your problems,” I reply. Evander’s eyebrows shoot up to his perfectly styled hairline and his mouth quirks. Apparently, he appreciates directness too.
Harlan raises an eyebrow. “Forgive my bluntness, but—you’re a beta.”
A giggle bubbles in my chest. Hysterical, stressed. I just manage to keep it from escaping.
I look straight at Kai, hoping the next words out of my mouth don’t have him throwing me out—or worse, calling his family to out me.
His warm eyes hold mine, steady and encouraging.
“I’m not,” I say. “I’m an omega.”
The confession feels like it’s being carved out of me.
After hiding for two years, saying it aloud makes me feel raw and exposed.
Kai’s brow furrows. He looks confused but not angry.
That’s understandable since it’s been four years since he’s seen me and two since I’ve seen him.
That last Christmas party still haunts me.
“If this is some kind of joke from my brother, you can tell him to fuck off,” Logan says.
Kai’s growl rips through the room. Logan’s eyes widen before he puts his hands up.
Slowly, as though reaching toward a skittish kitten, Kai takes my hand. I don’t pull away.
“Why should we believe you? Why would you hide something like that?” Harlan asks.
“Harlan,” Kai growls, protective.
I lift a hand. “It’s okay, Kai. This isn’t exactly normal.
” I turn back to Harlan. “I thought I was a beta for a really long time. Everyone did. I never designated as anything else. Turns out I was just a late bloomer. A little over two years ago, my designation came through—very late. It was at this party. My parents like parties. They use them to make connections.”
I take a deep breath. My heart races, the room feels claustrophobic. I wish I were only telling this to Kai. I wish we were alone. But they all deserve to understand why I’m doing this if they’re going to get dragged into my mess. Even if it does benefit them. It’s a lot to ask.
Kai smooths down some of my wild curls and tucks them behind my ear. “It’s okay. Take your time."
I close my eyes and breathe deeply.
“My family doesn’t really have a use for betas. As a beta, I would have just been expected to look nice at parties, marry well enough, and have babies. But as an omega—” I glance at Kai. He knows. He grew up in the same world.
“You became a bargaining chip. A means to more power for your family,” he says.
I nod.
“I tried to leave before they could find out, but they caught me. I couldn’t get away.
” I suppress a shudder. No need for grim details.
“My family negotiated my bond to an established pack that could help with their future business aspirations. It took a while, but my brother eventually found a way to help me leave. He also got me in touch with a dealer who could provide me with an experimental drug meant to suppress my omega hormones. To silence the part of the brain where omegas reside.”
Every alpha expression changes—shock, disgust, sadness. Kai looks devastated.
“You what?” Harlan demands.
“I had to. They would have found me so much faster if I’d been trying to hide as an omega. We only make up twenty percent of the population. Less in Michigan.”
Harlan snaps his mouth shut, jaw grinding. Finally, he exhales. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to insult you.”
“Not that it matters,” I say. “Government crackdowns on experimental drugs mean my supply is gone. I’ll slowly revert over the next few weeks. On top of that, my brother says the PI my parents hired is close. He’s going to find me any day now. He may already have.”
I look around the room, meeting each gaze. “That’s why I’m doing this. I need protection—from my family and from the pack they sold me to.”
“Who’s your family, Sugarplum?” Wyatt asks. That Oklahoma drawl could drown me.
I open my mouth, but Kai answers for me. “The Morales family. Enrique Morales is Rosie’s father.”
Harlan jerks back as if struck, glaring at Kai. “In all the time you talked about this girl, you never once mentioned that little detail.”
I glance at Kai, question in my eyes. He’s avoiding my gaze. He talks about me? Why?
Harlan’s eyes return to me, assessing. The last time he’d seen me, I was eighteen and a college freshman.
Two years later Kai left for a big job opportunity.
Two years after that I designated at a Christmas party at my parents house.
Then I moved here and it's been two years since then.
Six whole years and a lot of change. I look completely different now.
I can see the moment he dismisses the memory. We met only briefly, in a garden.
“Who’s the pack, then?” Logan asks. There’s calculation in his cool blue eyes.
“They arranged a bonding with the Blackbear Pack.”
Kai looks like he’s been slapped.
“That’s ominous. Why can’t packs have names like the Bunny Pack or the Cheery Pack?” Evander mutters.
“The Blackbear Pack is part of the Russian mob. They’ve already bonded three omegas. None lasted more than a year.” Kai’s voice is grim. “They all met horrible ends.”
Harlan shifts. Wyatt frowns. Logan crosses his arms. Even Evander has nothing to say.
“Your father was fine selling you to a pack like that?” Harlan asks.
“My father was fine selling me for the right price,” I reply coldly.
Harlan takes a deep breath. “Any terms?”
I blink, confused.
“You need protection. Anything else?”
“Okay.” I gather my thoughts like snow in my hands. “I’ll pretend to be bonded, however long that takes, but I will not actually bond to you. I didn’t escape one bond to be trapped in another.”
Kai flinches.
My heart cracks, but I stand by it. “I also want to live here. If you want me to pretend—do whatever it takes to convince the media and your cousin—” I gesture to Logan, who shifts uncomfortably, “then we live here.”
“Here?” Wyatt asks. “Like, at the hotel?”
I roll my eyes. “No, in Lakeside Point. My whole life is here. My job. My friends. It’s the first thing that’s ever been mine. But my family is close to finding out where I am. So either I do this, or I leave. And if I leave, it won’t be in a fake bond. So if you want me, it’s here.”
Evander unexpectedly comes to my side, kneeling by my chair so that we're eye level. “And living here means so much to you that you’ll pretend to be bonded?” he asks softly.
“Yes,” I answer without hesitation. Haven’t they ever had a home? I hadn’t—not until I came here two years ago. I won’t give it up for anything. “That, and not having to look over my shoulder anymore.”
“Won’t your friends notice if you go from being a beta to an omega?” Logan asks, his voice cold, his fists clenched.
“I’ll worry about that. No one will say anything, I promise.” I have no idea if that’s true, but I’ll do my best.
“This isn’t short term,” Logan warns. “We need a bonded omega by the new year or we lose the business we built with the inheritance my father left me. There will be press and family scrutiny. We’ll all have to sell it.
In a few months, once it’s out of the papers, we can begin to drift apart.
But until then it has to look one hundred percent legitimate. ”
Harlan shoots him a look I can’t parse. Logan goes quiet.
“I understand,” I say. “I can do this, if you can keep me safe.”
Harlan grunts. “I can handle Enrique Morales. And I understand how Blackbear works. They're most likely to take out a broken deal on your father.”
I nod, though something in his gaze makes me squirm.
“What about bites? How the fuck do we fake bites?” Evander asks.
Him being this close is too much. His sharp jaw and sparkling smile were pretty hard to resist from across the room but close up he’s something like a Greek statue, chiseled and cut just right.
I fight the urge to run my hands through his multicolored waves.
Something in my expression must give me away, because he winks. My face flames.
“I’ve discreetly looked into it—we could—”
“Tattoos,” Harlan interrupts. “I’ve got a guy who can do that.”
I deflate, but Harlan’s shrug is friendly.
“So you’ll pretend to be bonded to us, with tattoos.
You’ll live with us and play the part of our omega anytime we’re in public.
You’ll do this until the clause is satisfied in a year.
We can start drifting apart in six months.
In exchange, we’ll protect you from your family and make it clear you’re off the market to the Blackbear Pack.
Is that all?” Harlan asks, summarizing with brutal clarity.
“Is that all?” I squeak in indignation. “Isn’t that enough?”
Harlan holds my gaze. “I guess we’ll see.”