Page 17 of This Pack of Ours

Mortified, I dropped the handkerchief and darted out of the door, slamming it behind me.

What the actual fuck?

I stayed in the Safe House’s van while I waited for Kit to arrive. As soon as I got his text, I scrambled out and yanked open the car door. I threw myself into the passenger seat. Kit’s sweet almond scent was like a balm for my frayed nerves.

“Juni!” he said, leaning over for a hug. I finally relaxed as his warm arms circled around me. This was home. Safe. We’d figure this out.

“How are you doing?”

I groaned into his sweatshirt.

“It was awful,” I said, and he laughed.

“Okay, tell me everything.” He started the engine, and I relaxed back in the chair.

“I don’t know what happened. Maybe it’s because you weren’t there. Or maybe that they brought flowers?—”

“They brought you flowers?” Kit elbowed me. “Swoon.”

“No! Bad!” I protested.

“Heaven forbid some nice men bring you flowers.”

I sighed, looking at the floor.

“I don’t know.” My voice was quiet, and Kit took my hand, giving it a squeeze. “Ididlike them, Kit. Once I knew their names, it was all over. It wasn’t just me getting through a heat. It was what a heat issupposedto be. Oh god, Kit, they were being all polite and taking their time and I just wanted them so bad that I… just went for his dick.”

“Whose?”

“Thepack lead,” I groaned, covering my face with my hands. “I don’t know what came over me. He just kept stopping to ask me if I was sure and stuff, and I wanted to show him, so I did. With my mouth.”

“No way,” Kit said, eyes darting to me. He was practically bouncing in his seat.

“And they kept using my fake name and I couldn’t stand it, couldn’t stand the idea that they were with someone else, so Itold them my fucking real name.”

“Isn’t that a good thing?” he asked. My chest tightened, and I suppressed a sigh. That was the difference between us—his eyes were normal.

“No, Kit, what if they look me up and see I’m gold pack? They could report me. And they probably will because before I left, I yelled at them and told them I never wanted to see them again. And then I cried in front of the pack lead, and he made me laugh so I snorted snot all over myself.”

“What? He made youlaugh?!” His eyebrows shot up.

“You’re missing the point, Kit. What if I’m in danger?”

“What if you’renot, Juni?” His hopeful eyes met mine. “What if you give them a chance and fall in love and get a pack?”

It wouldn’t happen. Gold pack omegas were second-class citizens, banned from having children and resented by society. Packs didn’t want us. We couldn’t even rely on a scent matched pack to trust us.

See, a gold pack omega only had one way out of second-class-citizen-status; a princess bond. A princess bond was when a pack offered special status to their scent-matched omega. But even just offering it was enough—if the omega rejected the pack, they’d still get everything. Their status would change to adukeorduchess, and alphas would shower them with money to just have them near.

It was just another way the Institute fucked with gold packs; any relationship with a scent match was tainted by the suspicion that the omega was using them.

Some gold pack omegas had beaten the system anyway.

In the last few years, the Saint pack, Kingsman pack, even the Crimson Fury pack—who were major celebs—all had gold pack omegas who’d accepted the princess bond. But they were the exceptions.

Most gold packs didn’t get the luxury of dreaming of a pack. Only nightmares of a dark bond.

“I don’t want that,” I said. “I want to stay with you.”

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