Page 37 of Brandy Snap: Part One

My breathing grew heavier as I dropped my head, my heart pounding in my ears, staring blankly at the card.

“Melanie?” Sin asked. I didn’t want to look at him, but I couldn’t stop the need that flowed in me at his voice, my body answering for me.

All of that, everything, it was just a lie. The way Caspian threw himself at me, how Kai unleashed his fury on me, Sin’s endless strokes and touches filled with softness. I knew it was too good, that something like that couldn’t really be real.

I dragged in a ragged breath, but I couldn’t control it anymore. And Kai knew. He could feel everything that was happening because I was stupid enough to bite him. And now he knew how angry I was at myself for letting go for them.

“Brandy?” Kai hummed, a dark smile stretching his lips. “What’s wrong? Being paid to fuck isn’t a problem, is it? Seeing as you had no issue with us.”

With one clench of my hand, the card crumpled. I kept my mum fixed in my mind. I worked for her. I earned money so she could be comfortable. I wasn’t letting all of that go to waste because of some rich pack and their fantastic cocks, no matter how amazing their cum tasted.

I could have made a deal with them there, given them a price and agreed to their request, and then I would lose my job.

“What Kai really means is: we need help,” Sin said practically. “And I think the past day has shown we’re more than compatible. We need a female omega to present to our families at various social events. And even though the three of us are not in agreement with this particular method, I think you are the best person to ask.”

Every word he said just made it worse.

“I don’t feel it would be too taxing. All we ask is you pretend to be our mate. The Selection Ceremony is in a month, so it’s a time-sensitive offer. We can provide you with everything you need as long as you fulfil your end of the deal. Once we have attended the Ceremony, we can go our separate ways. It would just be a matter of discussing payment.”

I pressed my lips hard together. There had been times when I had so little money that I would sneak food from the staff room into my purse just to have something to eat later that night. When I’d been so desperate that I sold my last paint supplies just to buy pasta. For the first six months moving into my flat, I had no furniture and slept on a camping bed because all my money went to paying for Mum’s carers.

And, even then, after all that, I didn’t become a host and sell myself for sex. Because I knew I could survive. I knew I just had to hold on.

And it had come to this. To my heart breaking and my body shaking as I tried to control the rage swirling through me. Because I’d already sold myself to them; I just hadn’t realised it at the time.

“I told you, I need to keep my job,” I replied through gritted teeth. “I have a life beyond my vagina. A family, people who rely on me. And I don’t need your money,” I said coldly, lying through my teeth, and neither confirming nor denying I was a host.

We’d spent so much time making love, and they really thought that I’d been paid to fuck them?

“Well, whatever,” Kai brushed me off. “It’s not like you’d be good at the parties, anyway. We need people with actual class.” He smirked, raking his eyes over my naked body, making me feel like the ugliest thing in the world, especially when his gaze slid to my stomach, and the large horizontal scar that slashed under my belly button.

He froze, sucking in a breath at the sight of it. I gasped, slapping my other hand over the scar to hide it. I’d been so wrapped up in fucking them I’d forgotten.

I knew what he saw. Everyone who saw that scar assumed the same thing.

I was only twelve when Mum had crashed the car. Luckily, she and my sister only came out of it with some bruises and scratches. But I was in the passenger seat, and we hit the barrier at just the wrong angle. And everyone who saw the scar assumed that it was—

“You have a kid?” Kai spat, his lips curling, his eyes dark as his aura flared and his fury suddenly beat at me. “You have children and you’re out all day fucking us? What the fuck are you?”

I flinched back, my heart spiking in pain. He poked at the exact wound I hated touching.

The doctors had had to cut me open to get the shard of metal out of my stomach, and even at twelve, my body had gone haywire. I’d thought that’s why I never had periods, and why I hoped I was an omega back when I became of age.

I guess I had the real answer now…

It looked exactly like a C-section scar, and pain cut me whenever I had to tell people I couldn’t have children.

And I watched my omega sister find her pack and raise her Tommy in perfect bliss while I barely managed to scrape by myself, knowing I couldn’t ever have what she had.

“I don't have children,” I croaked, but they didn't hear me.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Caspian growled as he scanned me like he was looking for even more proof of my evilness.

“I said, I don't have children!”

They were throwing out assumptions with bitter hate. Like they were trying to do every single thing they could to hurt me. And not in the same way we were when we were fucking.

It was too much.

---