Page 87 of Two For the Show
“Nor am I Dexter Reynolds.”
The twins cross their arms smugly and raise their eyebrows at my confused expression.
“I didn’t much care about being Quinton Black, honestly,” my Rotten Alpha says with a cheeky grin.
Matteo kneels in front of me, taking my hand in his. “Matteo Veracruz is a fine name, Doc, but I much prefer the sound of Matteo Shields.”
It takes a moment for his words to register, but when they do, tears gather in my eyes, and I have to bite my lower lip to keep them from falling.
Culturally, we don’t have any hard and fast rules on naming packs. Some keep their original surnames and hyphenate them with a common name. Most take the name of the Prime Alpha as the pack name.
But not my pack of misfits.
I should’ve known they’d do things a little differently.
“Presenting, Pack Shields!” Trevor’s lightly accented voice crows from behind us. I turn around and watch as the entire troupe enters the ring, forming a half circle around us.
It’s cheesy. Super cheesy, over-the-top, and theatrical. It’s a performance.
But it means so much to me that I lose the battle with restraining my tears and let them fall.
Jude leans down and presses a kiss to my temple. “That’s our show, everyone. Goodnight.”
“That was quite a performance,”Warner Bradley says tightly. “You certainly got your point across.”
We’re sitting in the stands, Quinton on one side of me and Dario on the other, Dexter and Jude in the row behind me, and Matteo on Quinton’s other side.
Warner Bradley is handsome, with pale skin covered in freckles and a shock of red hair. He’s bonded, but even if I didn’t know that from researching his career, I would still be able to tell.
While Alphas and Betas who have an Omega bond them have a change in their scents, Omegas retain their original scent. However, there is something instinctual in all of us that allows us to recognize a bonded Omega, regardless of how many partners they have. It warns others to proceed with caution, because that Omega has someone on their side.
He has a pleasant scent that reminds me of key lime pie, but it has a rough edge to it at the moment. Something about it smells artificial, like a jelly bean meant to approximate the real dessert.
It doesn’t give me good feelings, honestly.
“We wanted to make sure everyone knew how safe she is with us, that she wants to be here, and that we’re Alex’s pack. We’re not going anywhere, regardless of what those cunts say.” Jude’s voice drips disdain, and it gets me so hot that I have to dig my fingers into my thighs to keep from jumping over the back of my seat and grinding against him.
I love it when he gets all growly and passionate.
“And you thought the best way to do that was to drag her around by her hair?”
Okay, so when he puts it that way, we may have gone a little overboard.
“To be fair, it was her idea,” Quinton says, pointing at me. “She learned how to deal with it without much pain after being yanked around by it by those assholes.” I love how none of them will say the name of the men who tormented me.
Bradley blanches. “Are you saying she had you recreate an act from her abusers?”
I rub my hand down my face. “I’m too tired to give you a lecture about how domination and submission can be healing for a victim of abuse. You can search on the internet and find a ton of research about it. Haven’t you ever heard about rewriting a narrative? It’s all about rewiring your brain to take something that was once a traumatic and painful event, and making it a memory of something good.” I can’t keep the smirk off my face. “Would you like to go the rest of your life without getting your hair pulled during sex?”
The Designation Director turns bright red, and he shuffles awkwardly from foot to foot.
I knew he was a freak in bed. The quiet ones always are.
“Be that as it may,” he says not unkindly. “This may have hurt your case more than helped it. They will most likely try to argue that a circus like this is no place for an Omega, and honestly, a lot of the country is going to agree with them.”
I try to look at the circus objectively, and I can’t see it the way he does. In my eyes, this is a place where people who had no other home found one, where artists with incredible skill have come together to entertain people day in and day out.
“Do you?” I challenge the other Omega. “Do you agree with them?”
