Page 56 of Ryder

Ryder

Today was Emma’s graduation day, which I knew because Sloane was chatting excitedly about it over breakfast with Baby, one of our resident omegas.The two of them couldn’t have been more different—Sloane looked awkward in a borrowed set of jeans and T-shirt, while Baby Doll wore a barely there negligee that used to give me a hard-on from across the room…used to.After that weird rocky start when Sloane first fled, the two of them had put their differences aside to at least be civil.

“You’re in a miserable fucking mood,” Dane said, eyeballing me from the opposite side of the table.Ma, our stout matriarch, came bustling into the room bearing platters of bacon and eggs.It was fair to say nobody was starving on her watch.

“I’m not in a mood,” I said.

“Yes, you fucking are.”

I scowled at him, despite knowing Iwasin a mood, but I thought I had the right to be after three days of crazy monkey sex.Emma had just walked out, gone back to her happy beta world, and probably forgotten all about me by now.Maybe she was already getting cozy with some beta prick who could share a life with her beyond the chain-link fence.

She’d be back to see her sister, only I didn’t have a fucking clue what I was going to do when she turned up.Would she even speak to me?Would she ignore me and only talk to Sloane, or would she use me to scratch an alpha itch before returning to her home?

My inner beast was all up for option number three—putting a mark on her, even though she wasn’t an omega.I couldn’t claim a beta, because they weren’t like omegas.There was no bond, so they were permanently free to do whatever the hell they liked.

“So,” Dane started, grabbing a slice of extra crispy bacon from the platter and using it to point at me before stuffing it in his mouth, “you and Sloane’s beta sister.How the fuck did that work out?And how did you not get the shit kicked out of you by Jace?”

I shrugged.

“But she’s going to be back, right?”

“I don’t fucking know,” I said, snatching up my coffee and taking a gulp.I didn’t take it with milk, so it burned my fucking tongue and throat.

Dane chuckled.“You’re such an asshole when you’re in a bad mood.”

“She’s a beta,” I said.

“So fucking what?Not every alpha gets an omega.It works.I’ve seen it work for lots of people.I’ve never seen you like this ever over a woman—any woman, omega or otherwise.You may as well accept it.Don’t pull a Jace.You know how he was while he was living in denial.”

“Jesus!What are you?A fucking therapist of a sudden?”

“I’m just calling it like I see it.”He went to snag another slice of bacon off the platter and got his knuckles rapped by his mother, who was walking past.

“Eat it properly, Dane.And since when have you been plainspoken?More like borderline insulting—that’s your father’s fault.”She walked off to fuss over Sloane and Baby Doll before Dane got a word in.

I chuckled and went back to my coffee, which had cooled enough to drink, although my tongue and throat felt like a layer of skin had been removed and I wasn’t enjoying it anymore.Much as I wanted to wallow in denial, as Dane had pointed out, I wasn’t doing a very good job of it.

“So with you out of commission, it looks like it’s me dealing with the omegas in heat.”

“They’re not a fucking chore.”

“What?You don’t hear the way they talk about us?I came into the room the other day to find Baby Doll giving Michelle a rundown of our attributes and techniques.It made me fucking uncomfortable.”

I rubbed my jaw, smirking.“And what did she conclude?”

“Don’t be a bigger dick than you already are.”

I laughed and stretched out a phantom crick in my neck.“So that’s what they said?”

Dane chuckled.“Not every woman wants her internals rearranged every time they get dirty.”

I went back to my coffee, trying to shut down the playback of a shower scene where I pinned Emma against the shower wall and took her roughly after we’d already been through a fucking sex marathon.

Then, right after she saw her sister, she’d walked out the fucking gate.

I was distracted from my morose thoughts when Sloane stood, Jace right beside her, his arm sliding around her protectively.I didn’t want to stare at them, but I couldn’t fucking look away.So that was what being mated was like?A few alphas in Desparion were mated, not many, but a few.

There were too few omegas, which meant those who fell into less scrupulous hands tended to get passed around.

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