Page 7 of Omega's Runaway Love
“That’s what your parents pay me for,” he retorted as I headed towards the stairs.
I stormed back upstairs to my brother’s—who despite being older and an alpha, still lived at home—office.
“Door closed usually means knock first,” my brother Nate deadpanned as I flung the door open.
I ignored him, instead stomping to the couch on one side of the room, collapsing onto it in a pile of sulking omega.
Nate sighed. “What now, Zaya?”
“Did you know that dad and papa are keeping me prisoner in this house?” I asked, looking over at him to gauge his reaction.
One of Nate’s eyebrows went up, but that was it from the normally stoic alpha. “Wasn’t it you who went shopping for books all over the city yesterday? Or was that a brother I haven’t met?”
I whined. “They’re not letting me leave the city before we have some sort of meeting.”
“You know you did it to yourself. Papa spent months planning the perfect party for granddad, and you almost missed it.”
“But I didn’t miss it!”
“Only because you already had the plane with you. I looked up commercial flights while Gerald was on the phone with the crew, just to see if there was anything leaving sooner than we could get the plane refuelled and out, and everything else would have arrived at least an hour too late.”
“I forgot, ok?”
He glanced up at me, then back to his screen. “You forgot because you’re too caught up in galavanting all over the world.”
“I’m a travel influencer! That’s what I do!”
“You know dad and papa don’t buy into the whole influencer thing. As far as they’re concerned you’re flying here, there, and yonder just to flaunt the money.”
“I’m paying my own team for the work they do, and that comes from my income, not family money. It practically pays for itself at this point!”
Nate paused in his typing and made eye contact. “Does it Zaya? Really?”
“Yes!”
“Would you still be self-sufficient with it if you didn’t have access to a private plane? What about the five-star hotel suites?”
I swallowed. “I… well I do have several commercial airlines trying to get me to do some sponsored posts.”
He sighed. “At least that’s the one thing you did right about this influencer thing. You let companies come to you, rather than go around asking for handouts.”
I blinked. “Wait, people really do that? I thought it was just online gossip from jealous people.”
“You’d be astonished at some of the stories my friends tell me. They don’t even know how some of these so-called influencers get phone numbers for people in the executive chain, but they do. Plenty of them get nasty when turned down too.”
“You have friends?”
Nate growled. “Don’t be an ass. And don’t try to change the subject. Do you really think this influencer thing is self-sufficient as you’re doing it right now?”
“It’s not as if you, dad, or granddad use the plane all that often, and I always make sure to have it back in advance of scheduled trips.”
“But we do have to leave on short notice occasionally, and fuel isn’t free, nor is maintenance.”
I crossed my arms and stared at the wall across from me.
Nate sighed. “Zaya, I’m not telling you to settle down with a real job or anything like what dad and papa say. I know you can make money doing this, and I feel it’s better than you staying at home and spending money on new clothes and such every day. But maybe take up some of those airlines for sponsored post slots, especially for overseas trips. Give dad something other than a bill to look forward to.”
“That’s what I was trying to do!” I wailed, remembering why I’d stormed in in the first place. “I asked Gerald how long dad and papa expected me to stick around so I could book a car to do a Route 66 series, and that’s when he told me that they’re not letting me leave the city!”
