Page 137 of The Heat of Us

“I know you think I’m the bad guy with the whole situation with your sister,” Dad said, trying to mollify me. “But surely now that you’re an alpha you understand that omegas need the stability of a pack. I was just looking out for her.”

I scoffed derisively. “Nice of you to completely ignore the fact that your gambling debt was erased at the same time.”

Dad looked away, his ears and forehead going red. My mum flinched slightly when I swung to face her. “And you! I’m sure Ba will give some bullshit excuse about Juno not being his ‘real’ daughter but you just let her go to them? And if you hated Ba enough to have another man’s child twenty five years ago then why on earth would you stay together?”

My family drama could probably span a whole week’s worth of trashy daytime TV at this point.

“We don’t divorce.” Mum whispered the word like it was sullying her mouth just to say it out loud. “People would’ve talked.”

I almost had to laugh. “So that’s it, huh? Everything you did — hiding Ba’s gambling, you having a child with another man, selling your daughter off — it’s all fine so long as no one finds out?” I suddenly had a thought and leaned in. “How many of your friends know that I’m a doctor? And how many are you planning to tell that I’m an alpha?”

I didn’t even need an answer. The weighty silence said it all. All of them. Because that gave them prestige and social currency.

No wonder they wanted me to move back.

“We are your parents,” Dad huffed. “You are our child. You don’t have to understand our decisions but you still need to respect us.”

I drew myself up to my full height. “I don’t have to do jack shit.”

Mum gasped. “Don’t swear, Ben.”

They were never going to learn. Never going to see things from any other perspective other than their selfish narrowed one. “You need to leave,” I told them calmly. “You need to get on a plane, go home, and never contact me again.”

They exploded in a cacophony of excuses and explanations.

There was a frantic knock on the door before it swung open immediately. Aleks fell in, panting heavily like he had run the whole way from the other side of the hospital.

“Ben, what the fuck, I’ve been trying to reach you. Did you not hear your phone?” he said in a rush. “Remy’s frantic. I think Hazel’s in trouble.”

Nothing else mattered in that moment.

My omega needed me and I had to go to her.

“Ben, are you going to transfer the money?” Mum called after my retreating back.

I didn’t even dignify them with a look back.

48

HAZEL

“So, since you’re going to be my alpha and all, what did you think when you first saw me?” I twirled my hair in my fingers and batted my lashes. Flirting with the alpha advancing on me with a syringe loaded with a substance designed to throw me into a chemical heat. “Did you think I was pretty?”

Yes I was being crazy. I had nothing else left.

Damien stopped short, looking stunned. “What?”

I averted my eyes bashfully. “Oh come on. I know you subscribed to me.” I ran my hands down my thighs as I leaned forward, letting my tits push together a little. “Which video did you see first? One of my earlier solo ones? I know the spontaneous phone one with Ryder was very popular.”

“Hazel,” snapped my mum.

I ignored her.

His eyes hardened. “Whores like you need to learn their place.”

“Yeah, but you watched me, didn’t you?” I let my gaze travel up and down his body. “And you commented on every single one of my videos.”

There was a thin sheen of sweat forming on his brow. His metallic scent thickened, unable to hide his aroused state.

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