5. Piper
CHAPTER 5
Piper
A ny optimism quickly plummets as I walk toward my new Pack, even though I’m trying to talk myself into thinking maybe I’m lucky for once in my life, instead of this is the worst pairing ever .
None of them look at all welcoming or excited to see me, and my stomach plummets to the ground as they just stand there like statues staring at me.
Not knowing what else to do, I stick my hand out at Rook, because I know he’s First Alpha.
“Nice to meet you.”
He sticks one of his huge meathooks out almost automatically, like how is this guy a politician with how stiff he is, but before we make contact, a harsh, arrogant voice cuts through the silence.
“There must be some mistake,” Erain says, his eyes flicking up and down my body.
And with that one look my blood turns to ice inside me.
“There was no mistake,” Rook replies, but it wasn’t quite quick enough. I caught the hesitation in his voice.
“You displayed at Card 7, correct?” the doctor says, his voice respectful but with a thread of confusion. “That was her card. Piper Ridenour. She is your fated mate.”
“I don’t—“ Erain begins, his lips pressed together, but Rook silences him with a First Alpha growl.
“ Stop .”
The poor doctor looks a bit bewildered, and rushes over his next words to make this better.
“Soon your Omega will perfume and then go into heat, and you will be able to claim her. Until then, enjoy setting up her nest. Many happy returns to Pack Skystone.”
But it doesn’t feel like happy returns.
Rook, Erain, and Teddy are still staring at me like they’ve never seen a tall Omega before.
And I’m trapped. What, am I supposed to turn tail and go back to my hometown and try to pretend like I didn’t just get scented and claimed by them?
It’s impossible. Once your Alphas have scent-matched with you, you’re legally bound to them.
We go off the stage to a thunderous round of nothing, and Rook says, “If you follow us, we can show you to your quarters.”
Wait, aren’t these guys supposed to, like, have some interest in me? Was that all just a bunch of bullshit too? What was the point of getting scent-matched?
Rook looks like he’s fucking stuffed into that suit, his hair slicked back like an Italian mobster.
Why did he even agree to take an Omega then? There are so many Alphas that it’s totally optional. If I hadn’t been scented by them or anyone, I could have gone back home. But now, I’m stuck.
I feel a hot flash of anger at them.
They obviously wanted someone else and got me.
The white-heat of my anger startles me, and I can feel warmth pulsing through my veins.
I wish omega suppressants weren’t illegal, because damn, do I not want to go into heat around them.
As we walk past all the other outsized signs of wealth and power and through the palace gates, nobody speaks.
Then Teddy asks me where I’m from.
When I name the tiny town outside the Capitol, there is more silence. I turn away resolutely. I’m not ashamed of where I come from.
The town reminds Teddy of a football game he played near there, and he begins to talk about football games he has played and what he did in them.
I have zero interest in football, but I see why he’s so popular. That wavy chestnut hair, the bright cornflower blue eyes, the dimples.
But he hasn’t asked me one thing about myself.
And neither has anyone else.
It’s hot and windy today, and I try to isolate their scents but I’m not sure I can and suddenly I don’t want to. I don’t want to find their scents appealing. I want to put that off as long as I can.
We walk up to the absolutely massive palace where the most elite Alphas live. It’s blindingly white and harsh, with bright lights in the massive windows showing the long dining areas, art galleries, and cavernous ballrooms where the status-obsessed Alphas play.
I’m instantly uncomfortable, an itchy irritable feeling all over my skin. I’m used to living outside the city, in a tiny country town surrounded by forests and mountains.
But of course, I’ll have to live here now. This is where Rook, Erain, and Teddy live and work, and once you’re claimed you have to stay with your Alphas.
Striding ahead of me down long halls dense with nasty-looking Alpha ancestors and unpleasant sculptures, they show me into my quarters.
“Our rooms are at the other end of the hallway,” Rook says, though by his cold and methodical tone of voice, he doesn’t consider that a perk.
They don’t walk in with me, just stand at the doorway. I think I catch someone’s scent. Wintry. Is that Erain? He’s standing with his arms crossed. Not even looking at me, just staring out the window.
This suite of rooms is huge. Massive living and sitting rooms, a huge kitchen with a ridiculously big middle island when I don’t even like cooking. There are huge ceiling-to-floor windows that look out over the shiny steel buildings of the Capitol and then the carefully manicured and tamed grounds around the palace.
I stop at the door to my bedroom, with its huge four-poster bed and fussy little floral bedspread. There must be 27 decorative pillows on this bed. Who the fuck decorated this place?
And I certainly don’t want to imagine actually knotting them on this huge bed.
“We will leave you to explore your quarters,” Rook says stiffly. “If you need us, feel free to contact us using this phone.”
He indicates a shiny new white phone.
Boy, this guy really is an emotionless automaton, isn’t he?
The room smells like nothing. They haven’t really been in here, just hired people for my nest. They didn’t add things to it themselves. It’s just filled with random rich people shit. A huge TV, a bunch of random shit like fancy blinds that go up and down with a button, probably expensive name-brand couches and furniture that I don’t care about because I like comfort. A jewelry table loaded with soulless gold and diamond jewelry that probably cost somewhere in the millions to load up.
Nothing is personalized, nothing is cozy. Nothing is how a nest is supposed to be.
And it doesn’t seem like my Pack has any intention of caring what I’d actually like to see in a nest.