Page 134 of Curvy Quirky Omega

A legacy was a cruel burden and I’ve seen many people suffer under its weight. Gideon nor Melinda could handle it. Maybe it would have been different if Helen was the one Gideon had married, but that wouldn’t have changed his nature. He still wouldn’t have wanted to be the alpha of Valor, but who could say all the same choices would have been made?

I couldn’t make an accurate guess with so many variables at play and it didn’t really matter in the long run. This was the reality we were living in.

“I suppose it is karma,” Melinda murmured as she tossed her rose into the grave. “But justice? I don’t know about that.”

“Lotus flowers symbolize karma but they’re not in season until June,” I muttered, wondering if I should just throw these away. “This was the best I could do.”

She smiled slightly at that, surprising me again. “You’re quirky for an omega, but that’s probably why they love you.”

“Maybe.” I took her hand and placed the black-eyed Susan’s in it as well as Gideon’s wedding ring. “You should be the one to decide what to do with these.”

Nicolette may be his mother, but Melinda was the one Gideon had married.

I looked up to see both Cas and Liam watching me and I wondered if they could feel what I was feeling, how the emotions lapping against my bones like the waters of a lake on a stone shore were both calming and disturbing – on the surface it seemed tranquil and cool but the lake was so much deeper than I could ever fathom.

Today was going to remind me that some lakes were the size of the sea and I should be careful or I’d drown.

It was going to be a day full of goodbyes as well as new beginnings.

And no matter how much I was looking forward to those new beginnings, I hated saying goodbye.

CHAPTER 48

Lucy

Cas and Liam led me inside the prison’s visitor center, showing the guards our IDs before they went through the metal detector. I handed over my purse and the plant I’d brought to one of the security guards before stepping through the metal detector as well.

They didn’t give me encouraging smiles, but they stayed close as we went through all the requirements to visit someone in a place like this – a prison for the criminally insane…but a private one that was way nicer than I’d expected.

Francisco really had made sure my father was as safe and as comfortable as possible.

“Can you wait for me here?” I looked up at Cas and Liam, wishing I could take them with me, but knowing I couldn’t.

This was something I needed to do by myself.

Liam looked around the fancy waiting room and then at the massive window that would let them see into the visitor room where I would meet with my father for the first time in fifteen years. “Take as long as you need, Lucy. You know we’ll wait forever if we have to.”

I smiled and kissed his cheek before doing the same to Cas. “Stay where I can see you?”

“Of course,” Cas murmured. He grabbed me by the back of the neck and kissed me hard before I could move away. “That glass may be bulletproof, but it won’t stop me when it comes to your safety. So, you don’t have any reason to worry while you’re in there.”

They didn’t like this at all, but they weren’t stopping me either like a typical alpha would. I loved them even more for that.

I waited for the security guards to wave me through and then took a deep breath before stepping into the visitor room. It was bare other than the metal table bolted into the floor and the two chairs on either side.

Placing the aloe plant on the table, I sat down as carefully as possible so the chair wouldn’t screech across the floor. I wiped my sweaty palms on my black jeans and then unbuttoned my cardigan.

It was cold in here but I was nervous and on the verge of freaking out so my skin felt hotter than normal.

I reached up to touch the three black bands around my neck, making sure my scent blockers were still in place. I didn’t think my scent would bother him, but it was all mixed up with my alphas now…

A buzzing noise made me look up and the door opened. My heart stopped for a full second when two zeta guards escorted him in, cuffs around his wrists and ankles with a heavy chain to connect them.

I don’t know why I was more surprised he was wearing a white jumper instead of an orange one than I was that he still looked exactly the same as I remembered him, but I was.

My brain did that sometimes, focusing on the odd, inconsequential details so I didn’t freak out and have a panic attack about highly important, life altering information.

With the cuffs, it took him a bit to cross the room, but he seemed used to it. My eyebrows rose when one of the guards pulled out the chair for him and then pushed it in as he sat. Then that guard went to stand next to the door they came through while the other stood by the door I’d used.

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