Chapter 11
Ophelia
"You're going the wrong way," I growl at Enzo. He glances at me through the rearview mirror but says nothing.
I shrug away from Sullivan and sulk. After a few minutes, I calm down, their scents mingling with mine, reminding me I'm safe, even if they're angry—hell, I'm angry—and I remember Stella threatened to tell Red.
That could be an epic problem, so I pull out my phone. Sure enough, I already have four missed calls and three texts. I return a quick text to Red, ignoring Sully's prying eyes.
Nearly half an hour passes when the familiar greenery of Haver Hill Road comes into view. For a moment, discomfort tightens my heart as we pass the bridge. They must be able to scent my stress. It's late, and though my scent-blockers haven't worn off since I just took some before my adventures this evening, the unmistakable burnt floral tinge in the air has both alphas tensing.
"You're safe, Omega."
"Ophelia," I correct, not for the first time. As usual, Enzo says nothing.
A few minutes later, we pass the bridge and climb up the side of the mountain past the river. Enzo takes a right and pauses at a gate to type in a passcode. 3467. We continue down the long, winding drive. I can't help it; my jaw drops in awe as the most beautiful, sprawling estate hidden amongst the trees comes into view.
It's low and covered in floor-to-ceiling windows, tinted, since we can't see inside; instead, the reflections from the trees and a massive water feature in the turnaround driveway mirror off the walls of the mansion-sized home.
"Where are we?" I ask, forgetting momentarily about the fact that they basically abducted me off the street.
"Home. Where else would we bring you?" Enzo speaks for the first time tonight.
Assuming there's nowhere to run, Sully and Enzo climb out, leaving me alone in the back of the SUV. I type 3467 with a location pin drop to Red, then climb out.
Sully waits patiently, still extremely pissed, Enzo having left the front door open behind him.
The other packmates are murmuring as I step inside, transported into, what might be, my absolute fucking wet-dream of a house. The floor is all-natural wood. It's minimal but masculine, somehow suiting all of their personalities, all rolled into one. There are cushions and patterned fabric in the curtains and throw blankets in the living room, but everything else is Scandinavian style, sleek and modern.
All four of their scents, steeped so deeply into our surroundings, make my knees weak. They smell like home.
Asher's wearing pajama pants, looking like he just rolled out of bed. Theo looks like he just came from the club, his top button undone, and I want to bite his neck for showing other women his beautiful chest and golden skin. He smells like betas, lots of them, but he doesn't smell like sex. Not that I care.
Sully grips my arm, tromping us over to a chair in the living room, unceremoniously pushing me into the seat. Before I can snap back, he grabs my backpack, genuine dread spiking my heart when I realize he's figured out what I've been up to.
This is bad. Very bad.
These are OFA alphas. Even if they don't punish me, which seems unlikely, someone will get in trouble tonight.
Shit. The implication that they saw me at J's with Stella tells me they must have been following me. From Queenie's. From the clinic. Janey, my best contact, risks her job every time she sells to me. She could go to jail for selling prescription drugs under the table—shit, shit, shit. I cross my legs, letting my foot bounce nervously.
Determined to keep my mouth shut and protect my girls, I sit straighter. Sully rips open my backpack as his brothers watch on. Enzo takes a seat closest to me, reaching out, gripping the hem of my shirt, holding onto a piece of me. It's weird but not threatening. His brothers eye him warily, but our attention is drawn to Sully, who dumps the boxes of pills and cash out of my backpack onto the floor.
"You're a fucking drug dealer?"
I scoff. Asher squats down, sifting through the boxes, reading off the labels. Finding nothing illegal—or not finding any heavy street drugs—he looks up at me, "Heat suppressants? Why do you have so many?"
I want to lash back. I want to scream that there's so much they don't get, that they'll never understand up here in their ivory tower. But I don't.
"I followed you." Sully stands there, arms crossed with a stern expression.
I roll my eyes, "Obviously."
"You're dealing prescription drugs? Why? Do you need the money? I told you, you don't have to work anymore."
The urge to scream burns hotter in my throat, but I don't.
"We just want to know what's going on, little one. Are you… you're on heat suppressants, I assume? You're dealing to other omegas? It's not that big of a deal. Why the cloak and dagger?"
Theo snorts, plopping down on their fancy-ass couch next to Enzo, who's still running his fingers over the hem of my shirt. We all ignore Enzo's odd behavior when Theo stretches his long legs out like he doesn't have a care in the world.
"Bratty little omega needs to feel important. She jumps off a bridge to scare her alpha. She illegally sells legal drugs to other omegas. She refuses to give in to her scent-match. Always with the drama, this one," Theo waves me off like I'm an insignificant bug.
I want to throttle him. He knows it, too, but I smell like plastic and floral candles, so he doesn't seem even remotely moved that I'm upset.
Just like an alpha, that one.
Mel's voice in the back of my head, telling me I'm judging them for their designation echoes, but Theo is only proving my point. "You don't know what you're talking about," I spit out.
He won't look at me, and my omega whines. His jaw clicks, like maybe I'm affecting him, but not enough to sway him into thinking I'm worthy of his attention. It's enraging for so many reasons.
"Please," he scoffs. "Nothing you've done impresses me."
"Theo, shut the fuck up." Sully growls.
Theo grimaces but, thankfully, for all of us, stays quiet. I glance at the front door, wondering how long it'll take Red to get here.
"Ophelia?" Asher gently prods. If anyone in this room warms my heart, it's him. Maybe Enzo. I don't owe these dicks a thing. But… Enzo's confession crosses my mind, how Asher looked for me, how he felt after he thought he had lost me. If anything, if anyone in this room is going to soften me, it's him.
"Yes, Asher. To answer your question, I am on heat suppressants. And scent-blockers. And birth control. And I'm not a virgin. Does that bother you?" I cross my arms, looking directly at Sully, then Theo.
"I am. Does that bother you?" Enzo asks quietly. Shocked, I look over, but he doesn't look embarrassed or ashamed like an alpha his age might. He looks thoughtful and curious.
I shake my head slowly. "No… not at all." In fact, my omega is suddenly preening, joyous that she could be his first. I shut her up, reminding her all about double standards, but she doesn't feel at all guilty thinking of sinking onto Enzo's cock, watching his expression as he gets to experience sex for the first time.
I have to change the subject before I start perfuming all over this house.
"Look, what I do or don't do is none of your business."
"It is when you're ours. Enough of this. Are you on something else? Is that why you haven't given us even a fucking inch? I've never met an omega so determined to pretend she doesn't feel something for her alphas. We're fucking scent-matched, Ophelia! That is so incredibly rare. Don't you feel anything for us?" Sully roars, no longer able to contain his anger, his worry, his hurt. He's taking the responsibility for our courtship and its failure personally, and while it makes me mad he thinks he's got that kind of power all by himself, I also feel guilty that he's hurting.
They're all hurting.
We're all hurting.
I don't tell them why I deal to omegas because they wouldn't understand, and I don't want the OFA involved in my business. But, maybe I can tell them something.
"I've told you before, you don't know what it's like for omegas who don't join the OFA."
"But I don't understand why you didn't join or why you fight so hard against them. Or why any omega would fight against them. They protect omegas, that’s the whole reason for the OFA’s existence."
I sigh. "Do you know why I was out at the bridge last year? On July 22nd?"
Unsurprisingly, Enzo's the one who answers, "Your family died on the bridge. We assume you went out there to be close to them?"
I nod slowly. "Yeah… did you find that information from old news articles?"
"Yes. After I learned your name, I researched you. Some information I found through the OFA database I hacked into." I file away the fact that Enzo is so cavalier about hacking for another date.
"And what else did the OFA have to say?"
Enzo's shoulders stiffen, and he adjusts his glasses, deciding what to share. It's Asher who speaks up. "The report said your sister was performing that night. Your dad had a little too much to drink… They left during intermission after an altercation with a pack. It said…"
I know all about what it said because it's what the OFA tried to shove down my throat after the accident. Only I knew it was a lie, and even when I told them so, they acted like their version was the truth.
"It's okay, you can say it."
"It said your dad was an alpha… had lost his pack years earlier, had a drinking problem… and made a scene after a few drinks during her performance. A pack tried to intervene, they argued, he took your mom and sister and left. Their car crashed over the bridge on their way home."
I nod, already knowing this version. It's the version Red heard, too, though he knew it was bullshit. He just doesn't know why it's bullshit.
"My dad had my sister and me with his first pack. Our birth mom and second dad died, then he met our mom, a beta, who raised us. It was just the four of us, but we were all blood as far as I was concerned. I loved them more than anything. Dad did have a drinking problem, but that was years earlier, after he lost his pack. He didn't drink anymore.
"Alma and Red were dating, but it wasn't serious. It was young love. He knew, we all knew, Alma wanted an OFA pack, someone from the Hills, someone sponsored. He didn't begrudge her, but he's always wanted the opposite. Anyway, she called me that night during the performance's second half; she was supposed to be on stage. She was crying."
I can't help the tears that form and all my alphas, even Theo, tense. Both Asher and Sully take a step closer, but I hold up my hand. I can't get through this story if they crowd me.
"I've never told Red this part. He'd fucking lose it." I shake my head, wiping the tears now streaming down my cheeks. I've not told this story aloud in a long time, and even then, only to the police, to the OFA. To the people who were supposed to care, to do something about it, not cover it up.
"She said she felt weird during the first half. She had this pull; she couldn't explain it. Then, all of a sudden, there they were. The Olcene Pack. Her scent-match. She said she knew it instantly, so did they. She was so excited. She thought they were, too.
"The four of them shuffled her into some old abandoned pool house, told her they wanted to talk. She was young, sixteen, and they overwhelmed her. The four of them—" I hiccup, "they rutted her. Took her, all four of them, right there in the dusty room. She was a virgin. I could tell on the phone she was scared. She swore she wanted it, wanted them, but they also took her by surprise. No nest, no thought to her comfort or safety. Afterward, they were just going to leave her there. She tried to go after them, to ask where they were going. They called her gutter trash. Do you really think we'd bond to a South Loop whore? they said. Told her to call if she was pregnant or the next time she was in heat."
A tissue appears in front of me. I can barely see anymore but wipe my face, scenting Asher's woodsy pine. The guys mutter and swear under their breath, and I can feel their outrage and worry.
"She was sobbing. So upset, she could barely tell me what happened. My parents found her crying after she stumbled back to the gala. They were so pissed. My dad went to find the Olcenes, got into a fight. The OFA officials, some teachers got involved, Fletcher included." I give Sully a pointed look, and he nods.
"But everyone played it off like she was at fault, and the Olcenes were just a victim of innocent omega perfume. The pack claimed Alma was lying about the scent-match. Anyway, she called me from outside; she and Mom were waiting for Dad to bring the car around. The pack must have followed her outside. She mumbled something to them and hung up the phone.
"I waited and waited. They shouldn't have been more than half an hour from home, tops. A couple of hours later, the police showed up. Said my dad drove off the road, and the Olcenes were on the scene, that they happened to be driving by." I grind my teeth at the memory.
"I don't know what the Olcenes did. I don't know why they were there, if they ran my dad off the road, or what. I can't imagine they hurt her on purpose; she was their scent-match, gutter trash or not—"
"She was not gutter trash!" Asher snaps. "Those spineless, useless motherfuckers." He gets up and stomps around the living room in a circle before ending right back in front of me. His eyes are wild, lost, confused. Sad for me, for Alma, too.
She would have liked him. All of them, really.
There's a loud bang on the door. All four men snap up, Enzo releasing me and letting go of my shirt. I take advantage since they're no longer looking at me and dart to the door, narrowly missing Sully as he tries to snatch me up.
I find Red on the other side, and when he takes me in—crying, red-faced—his alpha growls something fierce. I place my hand on his chest so he doesn't overreact, making my four alphas growl.
"I'm fine," I assure him. "I promise. Let's just go."
He bares his teeth but nods once, abruptly, stepping back so I can leave with him.
Asher looks crushed. He's the first I seek out, but I just don't have the emotional capacity to carry their heartbreak right now.
"Ophelia, I'm…" He shakes his head, willing the words to come.
"It's okay. So, you see? This is why I can't do this. Why it's so hard for me to be with an alpha that supports the OFA. They supported a lie that ruined my life, they let those assholes…" I bite back my words, remembering Red is listening.
Asher, who picked up the contents of my bag, hands it back to me dejectedly. "We're just too different. The very fact that you don't have any clue why this," I hold up my backpack, "is so important—that will always stand in our way."
Before I feel the need to spill any more of my life's secrets, I step outside, closing the door behind me. It's a miracle they let me go.