Page 58 of Claiming Their Omega

He watches me eat it. I can feel his gaze on me the whole time, and it’s a struggle to keep from doing something insane like lick my fingers. My entire family is right here, I can’t flirt with him like that in front of them.

But god, is it tempting.

Desperate to hide what I’m sure is my bright red face, I help to clear the table with Aiden while Dad brings out dessert. Everyone’s grinning, excited, and I don’t blame them. My father’s always been a fantastic cook.

To my surprise, my desserts are brought out along with some others, but there’s also a three-tier chocolate cake that has thank you written on it in icing. Dad places it in front of the four Alphas with a smile on his face.

Jesse groans. “Oh, really… you shouldn’t have…”

“Hush, if we want to celebrate your kindness, we will,” Mom insists.

“Kindness?” I look back and forth between them. “What kindness?”

Please don’t have this be about me. If it’s about me and how they’re courting me then I’m going to combust from guilt and embarrassment. I don’t know if I could handle my parents thanking these Alphas for being so generous as to help them keep their daughter close when it’s all a lie.

“It’s nothing,” Jesse mumbles.

Cade looks like he wants the earth to swallow him. Easton’s cheeks are pink. Even Hendrix is avoiding making eye contact with anyone.

“It’s not nothing,” Dad insists. “We appreciate it deeply.”

“What are you talking about?” I ask.

“The land,” Mom says, beaming. “You know, the extra land that we showed you when you first got here? The expansion? Jesse and his pack bought it and gave it to us.”

My jaw literally drops. I wasn’t sure that was a thing people did in real life, but here I am, mouth gaping like a fool.

I turn to look at the four Alphas, who all look incredibly embarrassed. “It was nothing,” Jesse reiterates.

“We were happy we could help out, is all,” Hendrix adds.

Still, that’s absolutely huge that they did this. I can’t even imagine how much that would’ve cost and all the trouble they had to go through.

“Well, anything that can be done against those goddamn McAllisters is a good thing in my book,” Aiden mutters. “And we also got to benefit, which is just icing on the cake.”

“Literally,” Dad teases, gesturing at the dessert.

I frown. That last name is familiar. The three McAllister brothers were in the same year as my brother in school, but I crossed paths with them a few times even though I’m a bit younger than them.

“Wait, wait.” I shake my head. “What does this have to do with the McAllisters?”

Everyone’s faces darken.

“You remember them. That group of Alpha brothers,” Dad says, in a tone of voice I haven’t really heard from him before. “They tried to take the land to squeeze us out.”

My jaw drops open. Oh my god.

Chapter 19

Grace

Silence reigns for a long moment as I stare around the table at everyone.

“Is that true?” I finally sputter out.

And am I the last one to hear about it?

“It is,” Aiden says grimly. “They’re the worst kinds of Alphas, the kind that give us all a bad reputation.”

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