Page 153 of Roulette Rodeo
"She was so beautiful too," Madison-Addison sighs. "So perfect. Exactly what an omega should be. Delicate, refined, knew her place."
"Nothing like some omegas these days," Brittany-Bethany says pointedly, and I can feel their eyes boring into me, waiting for me to react, to join their little gossip session.
I keep reading, finding the part where it's revealed the alpha who claimed to love the dead omega had actually been orchestrating everything—the affairs, the isolation, even staging evidence of her mental decline. My frown deepens as I process the plot twist.
Do omegas do that even now?
It would be easy enough. Fake a suicide, disappear, start over somewhere new with a different identity. Especially if you had help, or money, or just enough desperation to make that kind of gamble...
Could Sophia have done that to them?
The thought nags at me. If she didn't love them, if she felt trapped, if she saw no other way out... But they had a funeral, didn't they? Corwin had mentioned medical reports, official documentation. Still, documents can be forged, bodies can be misidentified, and people who want to disappear badly enough usually find a way?—
"HELLO? Earth to redneck!"
My head snaps up to find all three omegas glaring at me with identical expressions of irritation. The 'redneck' comment is new—apparently, they've decided my small-town origins need mocking.
"What?" I ask, keeping my voice neutral despite the urge to throw my book at Jennifer's perfectly contoured face.
"We were TALKING to you," she says, like I've committed some grievous sin by not hanging on their every word.
I shrug, marking my page with my finger. "Oh. I'm not intrigued by gossip, so you can discuss your own things."
The temperature in the coffee shop seems to drop ten degrees.
"You think you're hot shit, don't you?" Brittany-Bethany snaps, her sweet omega facade cracking like cheap paint. "Just because you're fucking those dangerous boys?"
"It's only because you have a curvy body that they're probably into you," Madison-Addison adds, her tone suggesting 'curvy' is something contagious she might catch.
"Curvy is so unattractive," Jennifer chimes in, wrinkling her nose. "You're completely unproportioned."
"Yeah," Brittany-Bethany agrees eagerly. "Fat girls just ain't it. No wonder you hang with Poppy. Two fat omegas pretending you're something special."
I close my book slowly, considering their words.
Fat?
I look down at myself—these jeans that hug my curves perfectly, the way this sweater clings to my waist before flaring over my hips. I think about the hours I spent kickboxing, building strength in my thighs, power in my core. Every curve on my body was earned through survival, through fighting, through refusing to break.
And Poppy? Poppy with her vintage pin-up perfection, her tiny waist and generous breasts, her hips that make men walkinto walls when she passes? The way she owns every inch of herself with confidence these stick figures could never achieve?
I smirk, meeting their eyes one by one.
"If you need to belittle others to feel good about yourselves, so be it."
Jennifer's mouth drops open. "You're being a total bitch!"
"So be it," I repeat, shrugging again. "I don't really care what you think. I'm pretty confident about my body." I pause, letting my smirk grow wider. "Plus, my men love it. Doesn't stop them from eating out my pussy every chance they get."
The horrified gasps and pearl-clutching that follows is so dramatic it's almost choreographed. Madison-Addison actually covers her ears like I've just recited satanic verses.
A low, appreciative chuckle from the doorway cuts through their hysteria.
We all turn to find Luca Ferrero standing there, rain dripping from his designer coat, that expensive hair somehow still perfect despite the storm. His green eyes are locked on me with an interest that makes my skin crawl.
"Luca!" The three omegas squeal in unison, their earlier horror forgotten in the presence of an available alpha with a fat wallet.
"Oh my god, what are you doing here?" Jennifer gushes, already fluttering her eyelashes.
