Page 9 of Omega's Runaway Love
“I can’t imagine you behind a desk either.”
“Nope.”
“Scoot.”
“Ok, ok. I’ll see you at dinner.”
“See you then.”
I wasn’t happy, but somehow my talk with Nate made me feel better.
Chapter 4 - Cadence
My parents sat across the table, arms crossed and with scowls on their faces.
I still, for the life of me, had no idea what they were upset about.
“Well?” papa asked after several silent minutes. “Don’t you have anything to say for yourself?”
I shrugged. “I might… if I had the slightest clue what the problem was.”
“Don’t play dumb,” dad snarled. “It’s insulting.”
I spread my hands, palms up. “I really don’t know what you’re upset about. I wasn’t aware of any problems when I left work yesterday, and the only thing I did last night was go to the club to enjoy some music.”
“And pick up omegas again,” papa huffed.
I blinked in confusion several times. “No? I’m done with the random hookups. I just went for the music. I only even danced for one song.”
Dad slammed a grainy photo onto the table. “Do you really expect us to believe that? If that was the case, why are people trying to make us pay to keep this out of the papers?”
I picked up the photo and scowled. “Ugh, that omega was nuts and wouldn’t take no for an answer. I had to leave the club in order to get away from him.”
“So why do several people claim that he left with you?”
“Probably all the friends he had with him,” I grumbled, sliding the paper back across the table before leaning back in my chair and crossing my arms. “I only agreed to dance to get him to leave me alone, but it didn’t work. When I refused a second dance, and more, he got insistent and started yelling. That was when I left… without him.”
Papa sighed. “I wish we could believe you, Cadence…”
“You can believe me!” I argued. “Nothing happened. He badgered me into one dance, then I left… alone. Ask the VIP attendant or the waiter if you need proof, not whatever this crazy omega’s friends say. Hell, the attendant stalled them for me so that I had a few minutes to get away from that screamingbanhee.”
“Cadence!” papa scolded. “You shouldn’t describe people like that.”
“You’d probably agree with that description if you’d been there,” I countered.
“How you describe him is beside the point,” dad said. “What’s important is that this omega and his friends are threatening to take this photo, and supposedly more, to the papers if we don’t pay hush money.”
“Let them try! Nothing happened. All they’re going to have are some grainy photos taken with a cell phone in a dark club of a desperate omega grinding on me and me not even tenting my pants from it. That’s not newsworthy. And if they somehow get some desperate society reporter to listen, then all it would take is a couple of interviews with the staff to debunk the whole thing. Hell, they can check the security footage from the hotel, and see that I entered alone.”
Papa pinched the bridge of his nose, which was never a good sign. “Cadence, even if we believed you, which I’m not sure we do. There’s no way any reporter would do any sort of digging, not with your track record.”
I winced. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“What do you think it means?” dad roared, standing to loom over the table. “You’ve built yourself a reputation for taking home as many omegas as you think you might be able to knot. Who’s any reporter going to believe: the omega with proof of you two being together, or you and the people you might have paid off?”
“I didn’t have to pay off anybody!” I yelled, standing and slamming my palms onto the table. “That omega was nuts! For all I know this was planned out because he just refused to take ‘no’ for an answer!”
“And who do you think is responsible for that?” dad demanded. “Any omega who’s read the society pages in the past few years has likely seen your face with a question of who you’ve knotted most recently. It’s amazing you haven’t knocked some poor man up. Now that’s catching up to you because the ones who do want to get knocked up for a bite at the money are coming out of the woodwork.”
