Page 35 of Slick Handling

Cheese and crackers.

Sometimes, I miss how easy life was before I knew I was an Omega. The simplicity of having my life mapped out for me in a community that needed me. When I presented as an Omega it changed everything.

We stopped moving, and I risked cracking my eye open to see what was going on after the door opened.

Gas station.

It didn’t seem like Apollo would be the type to forget to gas up before getting on the road, but I didn’t know them that well.

My body shivered and a wave of annoyance rolled through me. A pout secured itself on my face. The feelings of my bad mood digging their claws in.

I wanted to be in my nest.

The problem was I didn’t have a nest.

Back at the academy there had been a makeshift one that the girls had helped me with to help settle me. There was no place at the pack house that really felt like mine enough to make a nest.

How was I supposed to ask a pack that didn’t want me for space to nest?

A whine slipped through my lips making me sit up, touching my mouth. Where did that sound come from?

I want to go home.

I want to be back in my house with Grammy. A place that is familiar and at least feels like home.

The house wouldn’t be mine anymore because I wasn’t a Beta. Because I was wrong. I had presented wrong. I had been bad at what I had been raised to be. This was all wrong.

My scent stunk of sour lemons and it upset me more. Pulling my jacket tight around my neck. I zipped it all the way up before diving into the backseat, needing to go through my bag, and find something that could fix this.

Maybe I packed something to soothe me. Something soft or familiar. But all my bag had was a hoodie I had gotten from the academy and a pair of clothes for tomorrow.

I hadn’t thought to pack a blanket or a stuffed animal to cuddle with if I needed a little mood boost.

Stupid Omega.

I was failing at this too.

That terrible sound came from my mouth again and I dove behind the passenger seat. Scrunching myself up in the smallest ball that I could. Maybe if I just held myself then I would start to feel better about things?

The driver's side door opens and I hear Apollo curse before the door slams again. He opens the one close to me and I feel a cool breeze over my skin. A few snowflakes falling to touch me where I’m laying on the vehicle's floor.

“Clover?” He says my name so softly, like I’m made of glass.

As a Beta I had more respect.

People didn’t have to talk to me in a certain voice. They could just speak to me like I was a person.

They had gotten it wrong back home. Betas weren’t the end of the food chain, that was Omegas. Omegas are treated terribly by everyone. Either people want to force me to be in their pack or they don’t even want me in their pack. They throw out so many mixed signals and they even-

“I’m going to get in the back with you and pick you up. I don’t want you laying on the floor like this. It’s so scratchy and not good for you, okay? Do you mind if I hold you?” Apollo is using his kid glove voice and that sound comes out from me again.

“Leave me alone!”

Was that me yelling?

Something warm is wrapped around me that smells like that amber and tea scent again. My body relaxes into it, but then I realize they’re not my Alphas and I push it off.

“What do you need, Clover?”

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