30. Jade

thirty

Kandi slides her fingers into mine. I glance at her and can't stop the ridiculous grin. My cheeks burn as vivid flashes of memory slam into my mind. Jeez, I have to stop thinking about this stuff in public.

"This is a really nice park," I say in a low voice.

Kandi laughs. "Festival, Jade. It's a festival."

I look around. "Is that what everyone's doing here? I didn't notice," I admit, and it's true. How can I look at anything else but them?

"You'll love it. Trust me." She shoulder bumps me, and our fingers lace together.

We're standing across the road from the huge park. I'm looking at it with fresh eyes now. The balloons, the stalls, all the people. There are lots of cars on the street.

It's not an especially different day, it's because of the three people standing with me. They make the world exciting and exceptional. The last few days have been so blissfully normal that, somehow, they are easily the best days I've ever had. Dinners together, soft conversations, sharing secrets and desires. Exploring each other in a way that feels natural and normal and leaves me jittery with this joy I have never felt before.

"What are they celebrating?" I ask.

"They have one of these festivals here every three months where people can get together and sell their wares, catch up, get out. It's like a market but bigger and with games for kids and adults. It became our Season's Festival."

Oh. I stare with more interest. We could get Sven doing a self-defense class here for the kids. That would be so cool.

Adrian makes a sound and plunks a wide-brimmed straw hat on my head. "I don't want you getting burned. You're far too lovely for peeling skin."

My heart flutters. He's so sweet.

Sven steps into the path of a huge man who is barrelling towards us. The guy sees Sven, and though he's much bigger than my alpha, he veers off, going around us. Intimidated by my alpha because he is just so amazing.

My happiness is complete. My heat went so much better than I had dreamed. Everything I'd been afraid of, waking up and finding them hate me or not want me, has not come true. They are all here, smiling and happy. More infatuated than ever.

It's like we're a pack.

It's like this is the start of our forever-

"Jade Greenway!" The voice rips through my thoughts, pouring water on any fire of happiness in me. "Jade! Oh, lord, you foolish child! What do you think you are doing?"

I flinch, and then remember I don't care what this person thinks. I really, really don't care. Still, my hand tightens around Kandi's, and I break out in a sweat.

"Who are you?" Sven growls.

It doesn't even fathom on my mother's scale. She just elbows him out of the way. Sven is about to go apoplectic when she snaps a glare in his direction and gives him three words that stall him in his tracks.

"I'm her mother."

Sven and Adrian exchange a look, but I'm too busy watching my mother come towards me. Velma Greenway is a large woman. She's a full head taller than me, with wide shoulders, massive boulders for breasts, and tree trunk thighs. My mother uses her size as a weapon and her womanhood and status as a beta as part of her arsenal. She terrorized my childhood and made me this living statue too afraid to move.

Growing up under her thumb was hell. Breaking free of her rules and hate-filled speeches was the bravest and most right thing I've ever done. She is evil.

Her hair is steel grey, and she has muddy brown eyes and thin lips. She's dressed in a tight and very conservative suit skirt the colour of rotting apples. She looks exactly the same, down to the sneer across her face. My mother, who hates the world and everyone in it.

"Jade Greenway, you will get away from that…that woman right now."

"I won't." I tilt my chin up and narrow my eyes. It doesn't get easier to defy her. I have to watch for the consequences. If she thinks she's losing, she will attack me from another angle.

"You'll come home and call your alpha-"

"I will not!" I growl out, my heart beating fast. She would, too. She'd hand me back to him in a minute. I'd rather die!

"Are you aware that the alpha you supplied for her almost put her in an early grave? He beat her so badly it took weeks to recover," Kandi asks in a tight tone I recognise as one of deep warning.

My mother sniffs. "Jade has always been willful. Disrespectful. Undisciplined. Embarrassingly abrupt in public and, in general, lacking manners," my mother snaps at Kandi, "he just disciplined her."

I stare at her. She doesn't feel any remorse whatsoever. I mean, I didn't expect much, but he did try to kill me. Disciplined me? If I could make her vanish forever, I would do so in a heartbeat.

"Now!" my mother growls, "get away from that woman. You'll come with me. We can still fix this. Trevor may still take you back. He has a good family behind him."

Does he? We never met them.

"No, I won't," I say through my teeth, glaring at my mother. "Kandi is a member of my pack."

"Your pack? You don't have a pack." My mother scoffs. "You smell as unbonded as you always did."

"I clearly do," I argue, and wonder why I'm defensively arguing with her.

"If that was true, you'd have bonds, daughter, and you don't. So, quit wasting time living in a fantasy land with this pack. Can't you see they aren't the right people for you?"

My cheeks are flaming, but my anger has been doused with cold reality. I don't have bonds. They aren't my pack. I forgot.

"You're an omega, and you have responsibilities. You need to come with me. I just hope we can get Trevor to forgive you."

She grabs my wrist, her grip impressive. I let go of Kandi so I can grab my mother's hand and try to pull her off me.

"Take your hands off my omega," Adrian says coldly.

"My daughter is not yours," my mother growls at Adrian. "She is a useless, humiliating little trollop without a lick of sense. She's a toxic little pretender who is nothing but a selfish omega." And there is the point. I'm an omega. My mother has a peculiar envy and simultaneous hatred for omegas. My mother squints at Adrian. "I bet you didn't even want her at first."

Adrian's face is an impassive mask.

"You didn't, did you?" My mother crows. Her laugh is harsh and startles people around us. I catch the scent of prunes, her perfume, and gag. "She came along and told you she was your pack, and she just swept you all aside with her big eyes, her cute smile, and her omega manipulations. She's good for a fuck, yes? But she's not pack material. Look at her. She needs a firm hand. She's unnatural, weird, loud, and obnoxious."

My shoulders roll in, and I pull my hand free of my mother. I did that. My mother's not lying. I am all those things. And they…they didn't want me. It's all true.

"Why haven't you bonded her yet? Is it because it doesn't feel right? Because there's something missing? I implore you to think this through. She's an omega, but she's not necessarily yours. I found her alpha. She doesn't think he's rich enough. Jade threw a tantrum, ran away. She does this, manipulates people often. Sadly, I"m ashamed to say it's true. She needs a firm hand and to come home where I will take care of her."

I close my eyes because I had used that excuse to try and get out of a match with him, but I was desperate. She didn't believe that he was hurting me.

"I"ve read all about you, Mrs Greenway," Sven says coldly. "I can't say it's a pleasure to meet you-"

"Don"t you speak to me! What kind of alpha are you? A thug? A muscle for hire? Oh, a soldier? No, that's not good enough for my daughter."

I suck in my breath sharply. "Mother!"

"A woman and a soldier. At least this one's a doctor."

I narrow my eyes. My alarm jumping up and causing me to break out in a cold sweat. There are so many people watching us. So many eyes. "How did you know who they are?" Better yet, how did she find me? She would never come to a place like this. I glance around, wondering if there is anyone else here I need to be scared of hiding in this crowd.

"I do my research. You will not get involved with this pack, Jade. I taught you better than this. You can do better. It's your duty to our family!"

"Duty? What the fuck do I care about duty for?" I shift my shoulders, trying to ease the tension. "I'm just a fuck up of an omega. Selfish and cruel. I badgered this pack into taking me, so you shouldn't be rude to them. At least someone wants me. I'm no longer your problem. I'm just an omega whore," I whisper-shout at her.

"How dare you!"

"Mother, I'm not coming home. I don't care about your family. Consider me out of it all."

"Oh, I see, of all the ungrateful, evil moves. You shame your father."

"No!" I shout at her. "You shame my father. You shame me. I can't do this with you anymore. I ran away, and I'm not coming back. You don't understand, do you? I'd rather be dead than be who you want me to be. I'm not a good girl, I'll never be a good girl, I'm not a person who can sit and let the alphas make decisions for me. And hell, Mother, I love sex. I love knots and clits. I want to wear short skirts and have nests and blankets and pretty things. Being an omega is incredible. I love being cherished. This is my pack. I'm not giving them up."

We're all frozen, including the stunned audience around us. My chest heaves as I register how sore my throat is. How loud did I just yell?

My mother's eyes narrow, flinty with rage. "You'll regret this decision, and when you do, don't come crawling to me."

"I won't. Trust me. There is nothing on Earth that could make me go back to that." I spit the venomous words with all the truth in me.

All around me, people are silent, and I glance up to find dozens of people watching us. I can feel their disgust, pity, sympathy, and shock. They think I'm weird. They think I'm not right. My skin crawls, and I glance desperately around, seeking safe. I reach for Kandi's hand. She steps back.

I stare at the space for a heartbeat. And then two. She stepped back?

Pain slices me in two. Now my beta doesn't want me. Well, that's just fine. I'm not changing. Not for my mother and not for her. I know who I am, and I refuse to be ashamed. I lift my chin, turn on my heel, and stalk back the way we came.

"Jade, wait!"

I ignore her and keep walking.

"Jade! I didn't mean it like that. Jade, shit, just stop!"

I whirl on her and shove her back from me. "You pull away? That's your response to what just happened, after I all but throw everything away for you, and your reaction is to pull the fuck away? Fuck. You!"

I whirl and keep marching, but this time, Adrian gets in my way, catching me up, pulling me into an alley where he holds me against a wall and leans over me.

"Your mother is a beast."

I glare up at him. "Are you going to pull away, too?"

"I'm not going to pull away, Jade."

I try to walk away, but he throws me back against the wall and growls. "Omega."

"What?" I snap at him.

"You're upset. Talk to me."

I poke him in the chest. "I don't want to talk, Adrian." With a sob, I close my eyes and let the pain wash over me. "I want to go home."

He studies me for a long time, and then finally sighs and steps back. I skirt around him and leave the alleyway. Kandi and Sven are waiting for me, but whatever conversation they are having apparently doesn't involve me. They fall silent when I get close.

"Don't worry, you can keep talking. I'm not your omega, anyway," I snarl and lift my chin, refusing to acknowledge the hurt inside me.

Sven stares at me with no emotion, but Kandi flinches and looks like she might cry.

I stalk past them, my tiny skirt swaying with each step. It takes me forever to find my way back to the house. By the time I do, my feet ache, my legs are sore, I'm thirsty. I couldn't talk if I wanted to. And I'm so hurt and angry, I don't want to ever speak again.

My pack trails after me, not saying a word, and with each moment of silence, the wounds my mother ripped open inside me fester, growing darker and more painful.

What if I made them want me? What if they really are better off without me? I bulldozed them. They did nothing but take care of me.

They said we were pack. They said they were mine.

"Why don't I have bonds then?" I whisper.

My hand reaches up to touch my neck. Nothing permanent. Nothing to tell the other alphas I'm taken.

Is my mother right? What if I am this toxic person, and I just can't see it? I rub my face and press the alarm on the house, inputting my fingerprint and waiting while the door opens.

Could I say goodbye? Could I leave them?

My eyes fill with tears just thinking about it. I swallow hard and fill a glass with water as the pack files in after me.

"Jade, we need to talk," Kandi whispers, but I shake my head. I put the glass down.

"We don't need to talk. I think we've all heard enough."