Page 135 of Chosen Beta

“She’s here for good reasons. That’s enough for me.”

It’s kind of hot that our new mate is doing something no one else before her could do, or would do, and the fact that it’s something that’s going to help Omegas gain independence is fucking amazing.

“Can you imagine how different things could have been if she’d been the one in charge of this place ten years ago?” I ask, knowing it would have changed things for both of us.

He smiles wanly. “Maybe if she had been, and if I’d known it wasn’t the same hell hole where my shitty parents met each other and struck up the business deal they called their marriage, I might have been tempted to come to one of those socials.”

“If you had, we might never have met.”

“Right, because I never would have met Ezra.”

“Everything happens the way it happens for a reason.”

He nods slowly. “I was always going to have to come back here.”

“You were, so you can’t be mad at me for it.”

“I was never mad at you.”

“Prove it.”

I get to my feet and hold out my hand.

He sighs softly before he takes my hand and stands up.

“Where are you taking me?”

“You’ll see,” I tease, leading him out of the gardens.

Chapter Forty-Nine

Owen

Shadow walks me down the path that leads us out of the academy’s gardens.

I feel numb about my surroundings now that I’ve started to process the feelings I was left with when I walked away from my asshole, elitist parents.

It’s pretty out here, I guess, but it’s a manufactured kind of beauty, everything deliberately positioned and planted to look perfect.

It reminds me of the yard at my parent’s house.

I made the mistake of picking my mother flowers once.

The gesture put a smile on her face for a few precious seconds.

It died quickly when she realized where I’d gotten them.

Two seconds later, she was calling our gardener to go buy new plants.

She didn’t speak to me for a week after that fuck-up.

Wouldn’t look at me or acknowledge my existence in any kind of way.

I was five, but I learned my lesson. It never happened again.

I did everything I could to please them, and none of it was ever good enough.

Anything I achieved or earned at school was met with indifference or one of my parents telling me they were sure I’d do better next time, as if winning a football game, or going up a grade in Math was the bare minimum they expected from me, and I should always be trying harder.

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