Page 4 of Hard Knot

More whispers reach me from the shadows.

"Five years," someone explains in a stage whisper. "Can you believe it? Five years, and not one pack has claimed her."

I channel the words into fuel, using them to power my movements as the music begins to shift. The haunting strings give way to a pulsing beat, and I let my classical form dissolve into something rawer, something that belongs more to the streets than this pristine academy stage.

“And every day that I get older. I guess my blood’s running colder…”

My pointe shoes strike the floor in sharp staccato as I transition from ballet to hip-hop. I've practiced this fusion for months, drilling the transitions until they felt as natural as breathing.

The gasps from the judges' table tell me I've achieved the shock value I was aiming for.

"Show off," someone mutters as I drop into a perfect freeze, balanced on one hand while my legs create geometric shapes in the air.

They're not wrong.

I am showing off.

Every move is a carefully calculated display of what I can do, and what I've become in my five years at this academy. I'm not the same scared Omega dropout who arrived here fresh from Harvard, thinking my academic credentials would somehow make up for my other...deficiencies.

If you can even call them that.

Little Elizabeth with all those hopes and dreams died long ago.

Defiant Abbie who thrives for herself in a world that gives nothing in return is here…and will remain.

I vowed to never cower like someone’s prey.

I’ll always keep that promise to myself.

The whispers grow more venomous as I move through my routine.

"I heard she tried to bribe a pack last year."

"Really? I heard she begged them on her knees."

"Pathetic. Some Omegas just aren't meant to be claimed."

The words should hurt.

Maybe somewhere deep inside, they do. To that girl with the big blue eyes like her mother’s and platinum blonde hair like her father. The freshmen straight out of high school with a 4.0 GPA and over 2 million in offered scholarships.

The golden child of the Abercrombie Family, destined to be a millionaire by twenty-two and be a rich housewife who cooks, cleans, and ensures her husband gets everything he desires from his obedient wife.

A painted lie of hopes and dreams, groomed by parents who decided thatrevealing to their daughter her “Omega” statuswasn’t an important memo to give before she got hit with her first heat.

In the middle of Harvard’s courtyard during an assembly.

Guess I should be thankful we were forced to leave behind our phones that day, or I would have been the golden trending Omega racing away from every Alpha I could.

And then…what’s supposed to be some glorious moment filled with love and support from a group of Alphas who wish to pleasure you became nothing of the sort.

So far from the idea painted in books and read to us like some sort of fairytale.

All that did was make me never want to experience my heat again.

Never.

No one will hurt me like that again.

---