Chapter 12
CHAPTER TWELVE
NOA
“This is fucking disgusting.” Jackson spat the food I’d spent all afternoon making out on the table as he stormed out of his chair towards me. This wasn’t the first time I had made a dinner he didn’t like, and at this rate, I’m sure it’s not the last.
I swallowed the building spit in my mouth, getting more nauseous with every step closer he took. His rosemary scent burns in my nose; it takes on a worse scent, like a burning chemical, as his face turns red.
“After spending a long day at work, I have to come home to a dumbass omega who can’t cook?
” His voice bounces off the walls and hits me like slaps to my face as I quiver.
My hands wring my neck as I look down at his feet.
I’d never make the mistake of looking him in the eye.
Not like last time. That earned me a punch to my jaw—a punch.
I’d never been punched before I joined the Fallon Pack, and I do everything in my power to never experience that again.
Except that everything I did was never enough.
Both his hands landed on my shoulders and shoved me down. Landing on my knees, my tears choke me as the pain spreads over my kneecaps. He pushes my head to the ground by my long hair, and my forehead burns as it meets the wood floor.
“The least you could do is fucking kneel for your alpha.” He turns around, and I know better than to move. I hear dishes clacking as the other two alphas, Derrick and Mayfield, sit at the table and watch. At least they are watching this time instead of joining in.
“Spent your whole life being a spoiled little omega who had cooks, and maids, and fucking tutors. Is that why you can’t do anything for yourself?
” He pours hot chili over my head and down my back.
He lets the bowl hit my head and crash on the floor, breaking into pieces I’ll have to clean up later.
The beans and sauce burn as my shirt clings to my back.
All I can do is stay still until the alpha is done.
Tears race down my face, and I’m grateful that my face is towards the floor so they can’t see.
I can’t muster the words they want to hear. It’s like a bullet is lodged in my throat, preventing me from speaking, and I can’t move. I can hardly breathe as I listen to their harsh breaths and mumbling about my incompetence.
I left that night.
Since that night, I’ve been hiding in Nashville, hoping they hated me enough to let me go.
I guess I was wrong. Not only are they hot on my trail, but so are my parents.
Two more text messages from them came through—one bright and early at 6 am, and the other at noon. I suspect, knowing my parents are punctual, that another one will come around four pm, and another at 9, right before they go to bed.
There is no way my parents found me on their own. So the Fallon Pack probably helped them.
They all know where I am.
I let the shower’s hot water pelt my back. The steam is so hot that I’m sure my hair is getting wet even under my shower cap, and that I’ll probably have to redo it once I get out of the shower.
I know Jackson was in my store. He probably wanted me to know. To taunt me. Let me know that he’s found me.
“Welcome to the real world, omega.”
Jackson had dirty blond hair and chilling blue eyes that would haunt me whenever I closed my eyes. As the Pack leader, his beatings were the worst of the three of them. He made me hate my designation. The vulnerability that comes with being an omega.
Whenever I did something he didn’t like, he slammed me down by my shoulders. Make me kneel for hours, well past when my knees would feel like they would bust, and that was the lightest punishment I’d receive from him.
Derrick and Mayfield never started my torture, but they’d jump in. One look from their lead, and I had three grown men on me. They made the two years with them feel like decades.
I tried my best to be the prettiest, most docile omega. I did all the cooking, the cleaning, and when I wasn’t doing that, I was in my room.
I couldn’t figure out what I was doing wrong, and I don’t think I ever will.
I never liked the Fallon Pack, but I thought I could tolerate them. I thought following my parents’ orders to go with them was in my best interest. They swore it was.
I did what I always did and tried to be the perfect omega, the perfect daughter, and for my parents, too, I was never enough.
I’ll never forget their faces when I told them what was happening.
I wanted to tell them everything. I needed their help.
We had a brunch planned that first weekend after I moved in with the Fallon Pack.
They hadn’t let me out of the house all week, and their abuse started the moment they picked me up from my parents’ house to live with them.
“Then do a better job. Being an omega isn’t hard, Noa.” My mother’s voice rings in my head. At that brunch, I knew I was alone. Truly and utterly alone.
She’d never understand, not as a beta. She always had an agenda against alphas and omegas. Both my parents are betas, and for them to have an omega was their greatest failure.
I knew then I had two options. Let them kill me or save myself.
I did the latter first.
And now I’ve built a life with friends… okay, two friends, and am running my business. I’ve built my dream life, and I can cook.
Why do they have to come barging into my life now that I might have found my missing pieces? My scent matches?
Silas used Havoc’s phone to call me. He didn’t want to scare me by stealing my number from Havoc, so he said he had asked to use his phone, but Havoc did clear up that Silas had stolen his phone.
They invited me over to their house, and to say I’m scared is an understatement. The last time I was at an alpha’s house, I ended up living every omega’s worst nightmare.
This time, I’m driving my car. I also have Ollie and her Pack on speed dial with my location turned on and a tiny tracker device in the bottom of my shoe under my toes.
Just in case.
Silas, Thorne, and Havoc haven’t given me a reason to distrust them.
The Fallons were always assholes who didn’t hide their aggression.
They weren’t outright abusive at first. They’d hug me a bit too tightly, or grab my arm too roughly, but nothing I could explain out loud without sounding like a sensitive omega.
The heavy abuse started when I moved in.
I’m slow to get ready, so they sent me their address after I firmly said I was driving myself and I did not need a ride. To be demanding with alphas is unheard of, and the fact they backed off so quickly was… shocking.
A cute sweater and a mini skirt seem to be where my comfort is lately. I pull on some tights, and my thoughts race as I remember the ripped tights from our first date.
My face is hot as I pull them on. Promising no ripped tights for this date. I like these men for more than … a fun time.
Sliding into my car, I type their address into my GPS and arrive at a house considerably bigger than mine. It has at least two levels, and the front has a large C-shaped driveway that also leads to a garage attached to the house.
I took a single suppressant before coming today. A single one, since my insurance doesn’t cover much and I couldn’t foot the bill for more. My heat is coming any day now, and I don’t want every encounter I have with this Pack to be sexual.
I want my scent mates to know me for more than my body. My jumping them every five seconds will not get me any closer to them.
The front flower beds are immaculately done, and the black-and-cream exterior is downright dreamy. These guys are definitely in a different tax bracket than I am, and I certainly make an acceptable amount of money now.
But any amount of money I make will always seem significant, since I was literally making nothing most of my life.
I presented at 19, and my parents shipped me off to the Fallons pretty much immediately after.
Two years with them, two years in Nashville, and now I can support myself and my business.
After parking my car, the guys wait outside their front door for me. I assume they are excited, but it makes me nervous as I get closer. I guess it’s better than knocking and waiting by the door with my mind racing, thinking they changed their minds about me.
“Hi,” I say breathlessly. Their scents mix in my nose, and I instantly relax, feeling like I’m walking into a luxury coffee shop. With Silas’s deep, rich coffee scent mixing with Thorne’s cherry and Havoc’s white chocolate, I think I’m in heaven for a second.
I meet each of their eyes, falling deeper into my coffee shop fantasy. One with browns and greens coloring the interior, and me plastered on a table—
No. No. No. Be a good girl, Noa.
“Hi, Noa,” Silas is the first to welcome me. He’s freshened up his cropped curly hair, and his light brown skin appears so tantalizing in the warming sun. He wears a graphic shirt and cargo pants, and he pulls this look off so well that I will myself to stop staring.
Thorne isn’t a fashion guy, and yet pulls off sweats so well. I think he knows I’m hot for them. Havoc, the gentle giant, has an athletic shirt on so tight I can see his slutty little waist, and I nearly drool at the sight of him.
How did I get so lucky to have caught their attention? After my… time with the Fallons, I thought… I thought I would never find a Pack.
Silas takes my hand and guides me inside as the other two follow behind me. He gives me a quick tour of the rooms we walk past before we are back outside, sitting at a cute table under a pergola. It’s got beautiful vines and sunset-colored flowers everywhere that pop as the sun sets.
“Something to drink? We have literally everything.” Silas asks as he leans back in his chair. His eyes pierce into mine, and I blush under his stare.
“Um, water?” I ask, my gaze moving to Thorne as he gets up. His black hair is thick and messy in waves, and it looks so damn good. I bet he does nothing to them, being blessed by the hair gods.