Chapter 3
Andromeda
My return to consciousness is slow. Like my entire body is stuck in a pit of tar.
“Get out,” an all too familiar voice hisses. Ah, mother dearest.
“But—but Ms. Sterling, if your daughter is starting to wake up, it’s my job to—”
“You’re just the nurse. The doctor checked up on her earlier,” Gina snaps. “Let me speak to my daughter in private.”
My mother’s voice grates against the inside of my skull like sandpaper.
Through the lifting fog in my brain, I hear the soft murmurs of my mother’s publicist, Stuart. “Gina here is just a concerned mother. I’m sure you understand. We just need a moment of privacy. We’ll call you in if we need anything.”
My eyelids feel like they weigh two tons each. I’m greeted by my mother’s glare. It’s a look I’m well acquainted with.
She was beautiful once. Maybe if you don’t know the darkness she carries inside her, you’d think she’s pretty now, despite the tax of age on her skin. But this life—the one chasing after fame and fortune—has left its mark on her.
All I see are the dark roots peeking past her dry blonde hair, betraying the fact that the color comes from a bottle, that almost grotesque thinness achieved with Pilates five times a week and the quarter of an avocado she counts as her first two meals of the day, and her thick lash extensions framing her muddy green eyes, that I know she wishes were blue.
And in those swampy depths, is a rage that I can practically taste at the back of my throat, even though it’s still on fire.
Her wine scent is sour and acrid with her fury. Her perfume was sweet once, like fresh grapes and juice, rather than what it is now.
“What the fuck did you do?” she hisses, her manicured nails gripping the railing of my hospital bed so hard her knuckles are growing white through her pale, paper-thin skin.
I know my mother. I wasn’t exactly expecting her to ask me how are you doing? But I was hoping—maybe naively—she’d ask what happened?
I try to swallow past the pain in my throat and wince. Damn, Ezra did damage.
“Can... I have some... water?” I croak out, sitting up so I can face everyone in the room.
“Priorities, Andromeda! Ezra’s team has barely said a word, and rumor has it he’s not responding to any calls. We need to strategize to figure out how to get ourselves out of this mess you have gotten us into!”
One of Gina’s many assistants lets out a quiet cough, making her turn and glare.
It’s funny, there are like, half a dozen people in here and none of them seem to give a shit about me.
I’m about to climb out of bed myself to pour myself a glass of water from the pitcher across the room when Stuart finally has mercy on me and brings me a cup.
“No simple gift basket will get him to take you back!” Gina continues.
Take me back?
I nearly spit out the water I’m drinking. I’m lying in a hospital bed, probably looking like I got fucking run over, and that’s all my mother can think about?
My eyes drift shut as I’m overcome by a wave of exhaustion. I shouldn’t be surprised. This is Gina Sterling we’re talking about.
“Don’t you roll your eyes at me, you ungrateful little bitch,” Gina hisses.
“I didn’t—”
“I don’t want to hear it!” She flutters about the room, the red-bottomed heels that are her constant companion clicking on the hospital linoleum flooring.
“He slammed my head into the counter,” I say slowly, through gritted teeth. “Like, four times. It’s over. I’m done.”
Her steps freeze. Her head jerks towards me like she’s possessed, turning at a freakish angle while her body stays stock still.
“The Fletcher family was supposed to be our golden ticket, Andromeda! What don’t you understand about sacrifice?”
Sacrifice? What kind of fucking bullshit is that?
“Didn’t you leave Dad when he threw you down the stairs? And you were bonded to the guy. Why’re you telling me to stay with Ezra when he fucking did this?”
Wrong thing to say.
“Don’t you dare bring up that good-for-nothing, abusive monster!” she shrieks. I flinch backwards, wincing as her scream pierces through my skull like an ice pick. “And don’t call him your Dad! He was never there, you hear me? Never! I was there for you!”
There’s a reason why my mom never wears the off-the-shoulder styles popular with all omegas. There’s also a reason why my mom is even this famous in the first place.
And she hates to admit it, but they both have to do with her failed bonding to my dad.
I haven’t seen the guy since I was a little girl. Maybe six or something. I barely remember him, to be honest. What I know of him comes from the way he still haunts my home to this day.
Gina Sterling found her fame initially on The Real Omegas of Beverly Hills. She cemented her legacy by being the first omega to publicly go through a chemical unbonding from my biological father when the technology was developed, seventeen years ago.
Maybe the unbonding fucked something up inside her, turned her bitter and mean. Because that’s all she is, nowadays. Sure, she has her cycles. I remember when there used to be periods of her being incredibly loving and fun growing up, but now, her default setting seems to be angry.
“I can’t believe this,” Gina sobs, fanning her face. “I’ve sacrificed so much for you to have the life you do, and all you have for me is disrespect!”
“I’m sorry,” I mumble, knowing my apology is what she needs in order to move on. There’s still a little bit of dried blood underneath my nails. Gross.
“You should be! You couldn’t have just fucked things up with the Fletchers, but you’re also ruining things with crazy headlines!”
“Crazy headlines?” I ask, my head jerking up so fast the room goes spinning.
Gina waves to Stuart, who pulls up his tablet and passes it to me wordlessly.
Oh no.
Beckham Knight, the Omega Knight in Shining Armor!
Beckham Knight to the rescue!
Grammy for Best New Artist and the Girl? What doesn’t Knight Have!
And then there are the pictures.
So many pictures.
Seeing myself in paparazzi photos is always an out-of-body experience, especially when I know my mom is hovering right next to me, dissecting them all. Normally, she’s picking apart my hair or my makeup.
There’s a lot more to tear into in these photos.
Beckham looks stunning in them. The streetlamps from above cast a halo-ish glow over his head, painting him as my knight in shining armor, just like those headlines claim.
There are pictures from after I passed out where he’s cradling me close to his chest. Pictures of him staring down at me like he’s heartbroken to see me in the state I’m in.
More pictures of him helping lay me down on the EMT’s stretcher.
And then pictures of him running his hands through his perfect-looking hair like he’s distraught I’m being taken away from him.
“What do you have to say for yourself?” Gina huffs, crossing her thin arms over her chest.
“Wow,” I murmur. “He actually looks worried.”
“Have you met before, Andromeda?” Stuart asks, clasping his hands in front of him. His faint beta scent of red onions makes my nose twitch. I’m glad he’s not an alpha, or his scent would seriously be overpowering.
“Beckham Knight? No,” I say with a small shake of my head that I instantly regret.
“That’s not what the media is saying,” Stuart says, reaching for his tablet.
I hand it to him, bracing for him to start reading out the actual content of the articles beyond just the pictures and headlines.
“The media are saying you two have had a thing for a while, and Ezra found out. That last night was the breaking point, and you made your decision.”
“Seriously?” I scoff.
“People are eating it up,” Camille, my mother’s stylist, pipes up from the corner of the room. She can’t hide the way her lip curls when she looks at me.
She’s the type of beta who desperately wishes she were an omega and hates any she thinks aren’t worthy of their status. Like me, for example. She’s made plenty of snide comments while helping me get ready for events about how bland my chamomile scent is for an omega.
“Which I can’t believe!” Gina says. “I mean, seriously, look at her! And then look at him!”
“Gee, thanks, Mom,” I bite out, taking a sip from my styrofoam cup.
She ignores me, instead turning to Stuart and clapping her hands together.
“What if we take advantage of this?” Gina says, all signs of her previous emotional freak-out gone, replaced by the fame-hungry manager I’ve known since I was a kid. “Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought that male omegas would be such a big deal—”
No one knows why male omegas started popping up within the last decade or so, but more and more boys are presenting with an omega designation after they turn eighteen, and society doesn’t quite know what to do with them yet.
But I know the tone my mother is using. It’s the tone of someone who feels threatened.
Since her unbonding, she’s been incredibly sensitive to any criticism around her status as an omega. She’s dealt with a lot of negative press claiming she was less of an omega because of the choice she made.
The media are fucking beasts.
But Beckham Knight was nothing but kind to me, and I don’t like the thought of her sneering at his designation like a slur.
“But if the media already thinks he has something with Andromeda, why don’t we see if we can get into contact with his team?” She’s fully turned towards Stuart now.
I guess my earlier snarkiness means she’s not even entertaining a conversation with me when the entire situation has to do with me.
“So, what... you want us to do some campaigns together or something?”
“You’re thinking too small,” Gina huffs, rolling her eyes like she thinks I’m stupid.
“Your mother is implying that we try to market you two as an official couple,” Stuart interjects, nodding eagerly, his expression growing soft when he looks at my mother.
Stuart’s had a hard-on for her for years.
Unfortunately for him, she doesn’t touch betas with a ten-foot pole.
“But we’re not a couple,” I say, tugging my legs up to my chest to ease the dread that’s starting to pool low in my belly. That headache that’s been plaguing me since I woke up only gets worse.
“So you pretend,” Stuart huffs. “If those pictures are anything to go by, then you two won’t have any issues.”
I have no idea how they think we’re going to convince Hollywood’s biggest heartthrob to pretend-date me, of all people. I don’t even know if Beckham Knight swings my way, considering the fact I stumbled onto him nearly giving another man a blow job in that alleyway.
“Can I have that tablet back?” I ask, an anxious buzz starting to settle in my fingertips.
Stuart hands it to me, and I immediately start Googling Beckham Knight.
I scroll through pages and pages of articles, scanning headlines and photos, seeing far too much of his beautiful face. There’s no mention of him with the mystery man—Eli—from last night.
Good. At least there was one positive from last night.
Gina and Stuart are already strategizing about the different brands we should work with. The sound of their excitement grates on my nerves.
“How are we supposed to make this happen?” I ask, my voice betraying how exhausted I feel.
Gina’s expression turns stone-cold. The sudden shift has fear skating down my spine. I don’t like that look.
“You make it happen, dear,” she says, her lips quirking up into a smile that doesn’t meet her eyes. “Because if you don’t, then we’ll have to go back to the original plan with the Fletchers.”
If I had anything in my system, I’d probably throw up at the thought.
This is who Gina Sterling is. This is what she’s willing to do to get what she wants.
I’m saved from having to come up with a response that won’t send her spiraling emotionally by a knock at the door.
“Hello there, I’m Leena, your nurse,” a young beta woman in blue scrubs says, shooting me a relieved smile. “It’s good to see you awake, Andromeda.”
“Call me Andi,” I say immediately, the muscles in my tense shoulders relaxing with the nurse’s presence. Gina always tones it down a notch when there are other people around. She has an image to uphold, after all.
“You got it, Andi,” Leena nods. “I have someone here to visit you.”
“Who?” Gina asks, spinning on her heel to face the nurse.
“He’s… Um…” Leena says, shooting me a hesitant look.
My heart stutters in my chest, and I freeze. He. Is Ezra here?
“The omega,” she continues.
I’m hit with an immediate wave of relief.
I don’t even have time to process that it seems like Beckham Knight is here to visit me before Stuart turns with a broad smile.
“Send him in! This is perfect timing. We have much to discuss.”
Leena shoots me a hesitant look before I nod.
“Alright, I’ll let him in.”
Leena shuts the door behind her, leaving me trapped again.
Gina turns to me, her expression cold.
“Remember what I said, Andromeda. Remember your options here. We all have to make sacrifices for the family, and this one is yours.”
“Yes, Mom, I understand,” I nod, the words leaving my lips on instinct.
Because this is how all our conversations end. With me agreeing to whatever she’s demanding, even if I have to bend over backwards to make it happen.