Page 35 of Seen Knot Heard

The guys earn another suspicious stare. “Are these the Alphas you’re terminating your courtship with?”

“No!” My shout echoes, earning the attention of other workers. I lower my voice. “No, it’s with a different Alpha.”

“I understand.” She holds out her hand. “Identification, please.”

My stomach drops with dismay. Why didn’t I expect this? “Oh, I don’t…”

“I have it!” Holden pulls my sparkly wallet out of his back pocket, and with a chagrined shrug, he passes it to me. “Tell you about it later.”

Relieved, I rise onto my tiptoes to kiss his cheek. “Thank you.”

Pink rises in his cheeks, and he starts to purr before he restrains himself.

The restrictive cast hinders me as I wiggle my ID free from the clear plastic sleeve, but it finally comes free, and I place it in her palm.

Lips pursed, she scrutinizes the ID before shifting her hawk-like stare to me, studying me like I’m a butterfly pinned to a board. But after a moment, she slides the card into a scanner.

The machine whirs and beeps, and I hold my breath, my pulse racing. This is it. My ticket to a new beginning, away from Louie’s interference in my life.

Please, please let this work.

The receptionist frowns at her screen, brows knitting together. “It doesn’t appear that we have you registered in the system, Ms. Richardson.”

I frown before realization strikes. “My mother registered me as a teenager. I didn’t have my license at the time. Check under Chloe Sinclair.”

Her frown deepens. “Do you have proof of your name change?”

“Yes!” I reach into the pocket behind my credit cards and pull out the certificate I shoved in there when I needed it for my license and never took it out.

I thrust it at the woman. “Here you go.”

She takes it and unfolds the sharp creases to read the print. “Okay, we will need to update your file…” The frown returns. “Your original registration appears to have a discrepancy. The blood type listed on your ID differs from what’s on record.”

The world tilts, and I grab the edge of the counter, the laminate cool beneath my clammy fingers. “Wh-what does that mean?”

Beside me, Dominic and Holden tense, growls rising from both men at my distress.

The receptionist ignores them. “It happens sometimes. Your sample probably got mixed up. We’ll need to collect a new one and update your record for future courtships.”

Dominic leans forward. “Can we do this today?”

“Of course. It’s a simple process.” She finishes scanning my documents and returns them to me. “It’s a hundred-dollar fee.”

“I’ve got it.” Dominic brings out his wallet.

“Don’t be silly.” I push his hand down and wiggle my credit card free. “I can pay for it myself.”

“Right.” He returns his wallet to his pocket. “My apologies.”

The receptionist runs my card and brings out a kit. “Clean your finger with the included alcohol swab, then prick it and fill the five dots on the card with blood. Once done, place the card in the protective sleeve. It takes two weeks for the results to be added to your file. Once it’s done, you’ll receive an email. Is the one on your account still correct?”

She reads it off, and I nod. “That’s the one.”

As I take the kit and open it, a sense of unease fills me. In the past, I didn’t do one of these, so how did my mother register me with the Omega Registration Center? Did she falsify my sample? Whose blood did she use instead?

Bile rises in my throat at this newest betrayal. How could she? Yet even as fury consumes me, pieces click into sickening place. Vivian’s eagerness to arrange my courtship with Louie. Her dismissal of my reservations. The glee when she told me Louie would take care of us both.

God, I’m such a fool. She sold me out, forging my records to trap me with that monster. All to fuel her addictions, shopping and guzzling away my future.

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