34. Family Meal
Family Meal
Kelya
Breakfast with my family and former pack alphas is a sick joke. I need to get to my nest. I’m not here in this high-end Vegas restaurant to play make-believe with all these people. My insides are drying out, and I’m probably going to have an episode, but this time it’ll be my last.
So, I order a Diet Coke and tell them I’m not hungry. Roman doesn’t like this, so he orders me eggs and toast. This is one of their restaurants, so while eggs and toast aren’t on the menu, it’s still on its way from the kitchen after Roman used his “owner” status to get them to make it.
After everyone is finished sharing how upset they are at how difficult I still am, I look around the large dining room. The eight of us sit in the center, and there are only a few other patrons in this massive restaurant.
“Sweetheart,” my mother says from across the table. “Roman and his alphas have something very important they want to talk to you about.”
I stay silent.
“Yes, while we are happy to have you back, we are in a little bit of a time crunch,” Roman says.
A time crunch?
“You see,” my mother says, “Roman and the boys are sick. It’s probably because you were taken away. They tried to get better with other omegas, but the omegas said…” She looks to Roman, who finishes her thought.
“They said we had a rotten smell. We looked into it, and we think you did this to us. We talked to a lot of experts, and we think bonding with you will fix the rot.”
“I’m sorry.” I put my hand up to stop them from talking. “I’m having trouble understanding.”
“Our scents have blight. They will soon be replaced entirely by rot. It was probably a by-product of upsetting you at one point or another.”
“Our working theory,” Hollis pipes up, “is that by not bonding you when you lived with us, it negatively affected our health.”
That’s not where the alpha rot comes from; it’s from mistreating an omega. Hollis sounds so sure though. His gray hair and way of speaking makes him seem more wise than he is.
“We will bond you, and then our scents will return. Omegas heal their alphas.” Roman’s voice is filtered through his alpha voice. Everyone at the table bows their heads.
Including me.
Even though I’m shaking in fear and frustration, I say, “When we get back…”
“No. We invited your parents to witness us bonding you here, in Vegas.”
Fuck.
“No,” I say.
“No?”
I didn’t tell them about my Nest Waning Syndrome and neither did Tony. The worst thing you can do is let this man know you need something he has. So he won’t know I am actively dying unless we get back to his house.
“I am not interested in bonding with you or your alphas…”
Noble reaches across the table and puts his hand on my arm, rendering me speechless.
There was a time I thought Noble was my friend, or at least an ally, and looking at his kind face with his dark beard and soft round cheeks, staring at me with his sweet brown eyes, I can see why I thought that. But it’s just a way to lure his prey closer before he strikes.
“Kelya, I’m so sorry.”
Ew. What?
I look at Hollis who also is attempting a “contrite” face. Roman nods to Noble to continue, like they practiced this.
It’s hard to believe these guys own restaurants. They have three in Vegas and two in Saint Kane. They also run kitchens in private schools and care centers. Hollis was a chef once upon a time, and yet it was me who was making all their fuckass meals.
“When you left, we all had to face how we let you down, and we want to be better for you.”
Noble’s words make my skin crawl, but I can’t start a fight with them now.
I still need to get to my nest. If I could say what I wanted, I would tell him all of that is bullshit.
They didn’t let me down; they fucking stomped on me!
I slide my hand against my stomach and feel the ropes under my clothes. Just breathe.
“Can we please discuss this tomorrow? I just need to rest.”
I open my mouth to say more, but I don’t want to push my luck, so I close it.
I also close my eyes. Besides the sounds of the restaurant, it’s silent.
Finally, Noble takes his hands off of me, and Roman says, “Omegas are sensitive. I suppose all the traveling has worn you down. Let’s take you to our hotel… ”
My eyes fly open.
“I just want to go…home. Please can we just go to Saint Kane?”
None of their faces indicate to me I’m going to get my way, especially now that I’ve made it known I want to go to their house. I can feel Roman growing excited next to me now that he knows I want something.
This was a bad fucking idea.
I left Tony behind at the airport. I left my life, traveling and being free.
I should have just died on the run, like I thought was going to happen. I sigh deeply, resigned to what I need to do next.
“Did you pay the private detective?” I ask, straight-up.
“What?”
“He did a lot for me in PR, and he did a lot to convince me to come back. I hope you paid him for all that effort.”
Roman scoffs. “That’s undetermined. Part of his job to bring you here wasn’t to keep you during your heat.”
I react as violently as I did when I first heard this hairbrained theory.
“I haven’t had a proper heat in two years, Roman! Tony didn’t keep me in PR because of my heat.”
His cruel smile spreads as he adjusts in his seat, getting comfortable. I brace for a speech.
“Omegas can be so overly protective over the wrong people. He was handsome, wasn’t he?
I never got a good look at him when I hired him.
His website said he specialized in scent detection, and I knew he would be the right man to find our missing omega.
I didn’t realize how young and handsome he was.
It’s fine if you fucked him, but I am not going to pay a man to fuck my omega, even if he did bring her back to me.
I paid that bounty hunter enough to make sure he made it home, and good thing I did.
I got word that Tony bit him so hard he’s bleeding all over the plane.
Alphas don’t often let a beautiful thing like you go easily, I would know.
You know, when we found you missing along with the contents of my safe, I tore your nest apart trying to find a clue and found nothing.
” He shakes his head, like we will discuss it later.
“Hollis and Noble cleaned it up for me so I wouldn’t lose my temper again.
We tried letting another omega stay there, Petra, and she said it gave her the creeps, so we set up for her heat in Noble’s room.
She had a heat spike and changed her mind, wanting nothing to do with us.
All because of our scent, which you are the reason for it going sour.
When we get home, you’ll take turns staying with each of us, helping fix our scents and making up for the company we lost. That being said, we are not going home without a bond.
We require bonds before anything else. Fix our scent, and then for your next heat, we can open up the nest. Good omegas do this for alphas. ”
Our food arrives, so the asshole is compelled to stop talking.
It’s been so long since I’ve been talked to like this, the shock of it is extreme.
I can’t believe I used to let him go on and on like that for hours.
Looking at my parents, I see no objection.
If anything, one of my dads looks proud of Roman for speaking up for alphas.
I hate all of these people.
If I were younger, I would be shaking in fear.
But I have looked down the edge of a volcano and screamed at the torrid lava hissing in the air.
I dove in shark-infested waters and held no fear in my heart.
I’ve walked onto a boat owned by the FBI, confident I’d be able to steal it.
I was offered a bond by the most powerful clan in Puerto Rico.
And I threw myself into the dark waves of the ocean, cleansing myself of any doubt, before I knew I could even swim.
I’m motherfucking Kelya.
They don’t know who I am.
I don’t need them. I just need their house and car keys, which I’ve already stolen. I set the rest of the keys on the table in front of me.
Roman just stares at them. It takes him a second to recognize it has half of Noble’s set of keys.
I sit back and take the most refreshing breath of my life.
“Two years ago, Noble assaulted me under the direction of Roman and with the help of Hollis’s alpha bark.
This was after months of verbal and psychological abuse.
That’s why you guys stink. Eventually, your unique scents will be replaced with the rot you’ve sown with your actions.
” The food sits untouched in front of every soul at this table.
Looking at their shocked faces brings me immense joy.
“Kelya, omegas do not talk…”
“Shut up, Roman. Shut the fuck up. You actually don’t know shit. I have more business to take care of, so I will be leaving now, but be fucking warned—leave Tony alone. I will ruin you if you don’t.”
I stand up, pushing my chair back, look everyone in the face, then turn and walk away.
Noble’s convertible is parked in the underground parking garage below the restaurant, exactly where I anticipated it to be. Saint Kane is three hours away, and I need to get going now if I am going to see what’s left of my nest.
As I slide into the car smelling of Noble’s lily scent, my heart beating out of my chest and my hands and feet numb from adrenaline, I wonder if they realized I could just leave. I can’t believe I did it.
Things are going to be different.