“I might be old-fashioned, honey, but I'm not blind,” she says and that annoying grin finds its way back to her face again. “I see the way they look at you… and I see the way you look at them.”

She doesn't take her eyes off me even for a second. I guess she's trying to catch the slightest expression on my face.

I stare back blankly, even though I know she's right.

“I know you know that what I'm saying is true,” she says to me.

For the next few seconds, I'm quiet, further buttressing her point.

“What are you saying, Mom?” I finally ask.

“What I'm saying is that both brothers are great options for a marriage. Although, personally, if you ask me, I'd say Jeremiah is a better match for you since he's an Alpha, and he's also recessive just like you,” she explains, clearly not thinking too deeply about her words.

Instantly, a dark cloud hovers around me and the air is thick with tension. The shame of what I am—a recessive Omega—comes rushing to the forefront of my mind.

That initial smile on my face has gradually vanished as the depression starts to sink in. Mom can sense the swing in my mood; it's very palpable. And this is why she's always very careful around me. She's selective of the things she does and says when she's with me because she might say something that will push me into a mood.

I'm trying to stay in control so she won't get too worried about being the reason I’ve lost my smile, but the more I try, the more difficult it becomes.

“Does it even matter who I marry?” I ask, my voice tinged with sadness, filled with the weight of my plight.

“Come on, honey. Don't say that,” she says to me in a comforting voice.

“But it's true, Mom.”

She shakes her head in disagreement, but I continue anyway.

“I mean, look at me,” I begin, trying not to snap at her out of frustration. “I'm such a recessive Omega that I might just as well be a Beta…”

“But you're not,” she cuts me off. “You're my special baby. You’re not a Beta.”

I let out a sarcastic laugh at this point.

“Am I not?” The question is rhetorical, and I continue, on the verge of losing my cool, my voice raised slightly higher than normal. “I don't even have a freaking heat period!”

The only thing making me different from a Beta is that I am able to smell pheromones.

“There’s nothing special about me.”

Mom is quiet and the silence that blooms between is deafening. She's looking at me in that manner that I loathe, but I won't snap at her again.

I inhale deeply and exhale slowly.

Much better.

Mom tries to change the subject.

“Well, the Jackson brothers definitely don’t see you the way you see yourself.” She smiles. “Both of them are head over heels in love with you. Inmybook, that's something very special.”

I laugh lightly at her words and a blush appears on my face just from thinking about them. I shovel the last of my food into my mouth.

“Stop it, Mom. Eric and Jeremiah don’t see me like that,” I mumble.

I wish they would.

Mom’s phone lights up on the table and I see the time.

“Oh my. I'm already late.” I pick up my backpack and swing it over my left shoulder. “Bye, Mom. See you later.” I kiss her forehead and rush out the door.