Page 139 of Claiming the Pack's Omega
“You—you barely know anything about me,” I say, laughing bitterly.
“But the little we do know has swept all of us off our feet!” Theo says, his hands clenched into fists. His forearms flex as he seems to fight to stay rooted in place where he’s standing so he can give me space.
I shake my head, the first tear I’ve been fighting desperately to keep at bay falling.
“You don’t understand, I’m—I’mbroken. You have to know why before you can choose me.”
“You’re not broken,” Killian practically snarls as he grips the table so hard his knuckles go white. “I’ve never in my fucking life seen an omega—hell, anyone of any designation—as strong as you.”
I shake my head and close my eyes, my hands coming up to hide my face from their gazes. I can’t handle their eyes on me. I fear they won’t like what they see.
“I’m not strong—I’m not—I—” I grit my teeth together so hard my jaw creaks. “I need to tell you what happened, what fucked me up before I let you guys in. Because if I let you in and you find out and don’t like what you see, I—I won’t be able to handle it. Does that make sense?”
I feel a gentle hand on my wrist, tugging it away from my face. Milo’s gunmetal scent wraps itself around me. For some reason, his touch is actually comforting right now, instead of freaking me out.
“It does make sense,” Milo says softly. “You can tell us. And I promise that how we feel about you won’t change, but I understand if you need to get it out for you to believe that.”
My heart swells as I look into Milo’s kind amber eyes.
“O—okay,” I say, taking a deep breath. “I’ll tell you.”
CHAPTER 30
Reyna
Theo comes over with a glass of water before sitting down back in his seat.
“We’re here to listen, Spitfire," he says, softly.
“Thanks,” I say, nodding. “I think everything that’s happened can be traced back to when I was sixteen. It’s when I met my ex-boyfriend. We both ran in the popular crowd, back at the high school I went to, but there was just something about him that was special. He was nice. Not douchy, you know?”
The guys all listen intently as I take a sip of water to try and get rid of the lump in my throat.
“I was so stupid, looking back on things now. But he told me he loved me and showered me with attention that I never really got from my family. They love me, they really do, but my mom and dad were always busy at work and it was always my job to take care of my siblings, you know?”
“What happened?” Stone asks, his expression already growing dark and stormy like he knows what I’m going to say next is going to be bad.
“I went into pre-awakening when I was sixteen, so by the time we were dating, he already knew I was going to become an omega. I think that was part of why he pursued me instead of theother girls in our friend group. There were three of us, but the other two already had long-term boyfriends. Things went to shit when my first heat rolled around when I was eighteen.”
I bite my lower lip in an attempt to ground myself. There’s an almost electric buzz in the air. I don’t have enough mental energy to read into the guys’ scents right now. All I know is they’re growing in intensity.
“I—I loved him. Sure, it was puppy love, or whatever you want to call it, but he was the first person I ever thought I loved,” I say, my voice barely above a whisper. “When I started going into heat, I didn’t realize the signs. No one ever tells you that sort of thing. But I think he knew. He—He?—”
My entire body locks up as I figure out how to verbalize something I’ve never verbalized before. Not to my parents, not to my friends, hell, not even to Dom. The only reason he knows was because he was there to witness it happening.
“He brought me to a park we went to pretty often, but he brought a bunch of his friends. They—they tried to rape me as I was going into heat. He—He kept on saying this fucked up bullshit about how I was an omega and I was practically begging for it, that taking their cocks was what I was made for.”
I blink furiously, trying to clear my blurry vision as I stare down at the glass on the table, unable to look at any of them.
“He—he hit me when I fought back. That was the first time I was ever hit in my entire life. I—I don’t know why I’m even telling you guys this, it wasn’t like that was the main part of everything, I think it was just so shocking...”
“What happened next?” Killian growls, his voice so low and menacing that it sends a shiver running down my spine.
“My boyfriend—ex-boyfriend—he tried to go first, but someone heard me screaming. These guys were all high schoolers, so even though most of them were alphas, they didn’t stand a chance against an alpha twenty years older than them.It was—it was Dom, the guy I worked for back at the brothel. He beat them to a pulp. There—there was so much blood.”
“Shit,” Stone breathes out, running a hand over his buzz cut hair. “That’s why you freaked out when I punched that stupid beta at The Warehouse when we first met, right?”
I give him a jerky nod.
