Page 3 of Knot Their Soldier: Part One
And no… mate?
My mind is stuttering, trying to comprehend what she’s telling me.
That’s not possible.
Omegas are in demand. Rare. Cherished. Wanted. Loved.
Surely there’s been a mistake.
Silence stretches around us, the porch floorboards creaking underneath the imposing woman’s stilettos.
“Unfortunately, due to the danger of abduction from unmated Alphas, remaining here will not be possible. You will be leaving with me today and placed into our Companionship Program.”
What is the Companionship Program?
I can’t think. My breathing is coming too fast and my heart feels like it’s going to burst from my chest.
“Now wait a minute, you can’t just take her without a mate to go to,” my father protests, and I have a spark of hope that he’ll fight for me.
Official Gould wordlessly gestures to her assistant, who passes a document over to my father.
Underneath the heading ‘compensation package’ is a number circled in red.
My father’s eyebrows raise and his features brighten.
I swallow the lump in my throat and blink away the stinging in my eyes. I refuse to cry.
The figure is more than my father will make in his entire life.
He’s always seen me as an investment. Twenty-one years of food and shelter pales in comparison to the hefty sum I’ll fetch in this Companionship Program.
Shock has me in a chokehold I can’t break out of. Her words swim around and around in my mind. Skipping like a broken record.
Defect.
I’mdefective.
“Halley?” My father’s voice snaps me out of the trance I’ve fallen into.
“Yes, Father?”
“Go collect your things.” His eyes bore into mine, and I know it’s an order. He’s not an Alpha, and it doesn’t compel me like I’ve read an Alpha Command would, but it works just the same. Twenty-one years of obedience have me leaping to do his bidding.
My bags are waiting in my small bedroom, carefully packed with hope and dreams.
Numbly, I pull them off my bed, drag them down the hall, and out the front door.
“Put your bags in the trunk,” Official Gould says from beside my father without looking up. She’s pointing at different places in the contract for my father to sign. The shiny fountain pen flies across the paperwork as he signs my life away without hesitation.
Like I’m property.
I do as she says and lug the flimsy suitcase down the porch stairs, my trusty backpack slung over my shoulder.
The mousy Beta assistant meets me halfway, taking the suitcase from my sweaty palms with something between a smile and a grimace.
Once we vanish behind the car with the trunk open, her demeanor undergoes an abrupt change. The simpering assistant is gone, replaced by a commanding young woman.
“Listen to me carefully, Halley,” she whispers, gripping my upper arm tightly, her fingers digging into my flesh, demanding my attention.
