Page 103 of Chosen Beta

“Oh my God,” she murmurs. “I’m so sorry.”

“I walked out of the house that night, letting them think I was going to the academy, but I left the city instead, and I never once looked back.”

“That must have been hard.”

“It was the easiest decision I’ve ever made.”

They showed they didn’t care about me. I walked away.

It sounds that simple, because it was.

I’d already spent years mourning the loss of them as real parents.

They weren’t around much, never when I was hurt or sick.

I’d gone through the pain of that loss long before it was time to walk away.

“You really didn’t want to come out here, did you?” she asks, sounding concerned.

I shake my head slowly. “I hate this city. It’s full of awful people like my parents. People who think their wealth makes them better than everyone else. The kids I grew up with were entitled assholes, the way my cousins were starting to talk about women and girls was disgusting, and I just couldn’t stand any of it anymore.”

“Was it better, where you went?”

I laugh. “It was different. Kind of. I met Ezra. And I went wherever he needed to go, for a while. Moving around, it’s easier to pretend towns and cities are nice places to be. You don’t get as much time to find out about the awful stuff.”

“There’s good and bad wherever you are,” she says. “It’s just about finding ways to make the best of the good stuff and doing what you can about the bad. I know this place hasn’t been good for Omegas in the past, but I’ve already cut off the old donors, and I intend to make sure the Omegas here know I’m their guardian now and I’ll let them know what that means for their freedom of choice. I want to keep them safe from predatory Alphas and help them figure out what they really want out of life.”

“And you’ve been working with the Alpha Alliance, helping the women they rescued from that trafficking situation. I know that’s why Ezra’s out here, helping those Omegas recover from what they went through.”

“And that,” she says with a laugh. “It’s been pretty full on from day one, I’ll admit.”

She’s making a real difference here.

What she’s doing will change the lives of the Omegas in her care.

It’ll stop people like my parents from pushing their elitist bullshit onto future generations.

She’s breaking the system and putting it back together, discarding the rusted old parts in the process.

It’s admirable, and it’s impressive, but it also puts a large target on her back.

Powerful people don’t like to have the rug pulled out from under them.

They think the regular rules don’t apply.

Some of them will do anything to get their power back.

No matter how she feels about it, Lana needs to be protected at all times.

“The donors you talked about, those people who used to control who would be allowed to attend socials, I’d like the full list of them.”

She blinks at me. “Um, what?”

“I’ll need to check if any of them are likely to attempt a retaliation.”

She pales slightly. “You think that’s necessary?”

“These are people who think money can buy anything. You’ve changed the rules on them, virtually overnight. It’s completely necessary.”

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