Page 264 of Omega for the Pack

“You said my name,” she whispered, looking confused.

“You’re not just any random omega,” I said. “Today wasn’t your fault at all, Jade. I will find a pack worthy of your attention.”

Jade looked down, her face falling.

“What is it?” asked Bruce, crowding in next to us.

“I don’t want to go through this process again,” she said. “To get my hopes up and then crushed because I’m not a virgin.”

I was curious about her past and who in the hell she slept with. And who she deemed worthy. But it didn’t matter to me at all.

“If it had worked out, you would have been stuck with the gelled eyebrows guy, Brent,” said Nick.

His comment made her smile, and I was glad it did. She would get over this.

Eventually.

After lots of comforting and hugging her, we managed to pull her away from the closet and onto the bed. Nick and Dravin sat on either side of her. Nick dabbed at her tears with a tissue, and Dravin purred into her ear.Damn, my pack is ready to take care of an omega. But I couldn’t take on a new omega. I wasn’t ready.

“I’ll be back,” I told them. They were too entranced with Jade, and that wasn’t good at all. We would lose potential business.

When I left the room and went downstairs, I noticed Bruce had followed me. Bruce’s whole demeanor changed. He looked anxious and upset for some reason.

“I think we should keep her,” he said.

“Are you talking about Jade?”

“Of course. Who the fuck else would I be talking about? Stop dodging the question, Caleb.”

I rubbed my eyes. It had been a tiresome failure of a day, and I lost a cool million-dollar deal already.

“I’m not ready to take on a new omega,” I explained for the hundredth time.

“But we are. It’s been five years since Glenda was murdered,” said Bruce, with no mercy in his eyes. “We need to move on and take a new wife.”

My heart ached at the sound of her name, but it wasn’t as bad as it had been when it was fresh. I found her in our backyard, completely mutilated by something wild. Found with wolf claw marks all over her. Her body was nearly unrecognizable. I failed at my job of protecting her.

And I wasn’t going to let that happen again.

“We cannot,” I said, shaking my head.

Bruce let out an audible sigh. “If you’re not taking on an omega anytime soon- I’m not sure I want to stay in this pack any longer.”

What the fuck was he thinking?Leaving a pack was unheard of in Howl’s Edge.

“A pack stays together and loyal to whatever the pack leader decides,” I said, hackles rising. “I don’t need to tell you that, Bruce.”

“I need time to think,” said Bruce, leaving out the front door without another word. “You’re being unreasonable.”

He was the most emotional alpha I ever met, but his heart was in the right place. He was frustrated with me, but I would give him time to cool off. He would be back.

And if not…I would be furious if he left over an omega.

“Hey Ma,”I said, walking in through the front door of the guesthouse when she didn’t answer the door.

I had a plate of food from Dravin’s feast, and I wanted her to have some even though she isolated herself from people living in this tiny house. It was a two-room building with a modest pink couch in the living room with a fireplace. She had hung curtains everywhere to block all sunlight. I couldn't find her in the living room or her bedroom.

Looking in the second room, I saw her sitting cross-legged on the ground in her patterned dress, surrounded by candles and a marking of a circle around her. Her dreadlocks were covered in multi-colored beads, and her face was shiny with sweat.

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