Page 59 of The Twelve Knots of Christmas
“Nice to finally meet you. All three of you.” Mom kept harping on that fact. She, too, had aged. There were more wrinkles on her thin face and her makeup barely hid the circles under her eyes. “Mariska barely tells us anything about her life, but it seems you’re all doing very well. Your house is beautiful. It’s good that Mariska is now living in a place that isn’t a tiny apartment suite.”
She never had a good thing to say about Primrose House. Miss Eloise and my friends there were my real family. They loved and supported me when no one else would
Balthazar was still grinning as if everyone was about to break out in a happy song and dance. It had been him who had gone on about how important family was, and I lost count the number of times he mentioned babies. He brought them here. I didn’t even have to ask.
None of them had listened to what I said. No one cared about how I felt about it. The farmhouse had been a happy place, a sanctuary. Now it was tainted.
Something shattered inside of me.
The cold shards of my life imploded with a thousand cuts.
Fuck all of this. “I don’t live here. There was no news to tell you. I’m moving to California as planned.”
My mother gasped and the men sucked in sharp breaths. Charlotte finally looked my way with wide eyes.
“Mariska.” Balthazar’s grin vanished as he moved toward me. I stepped back out of his reach.
“What’s going on?” Dad’s brows furrowed. “Balthazar, I thought you said Mariska was your mate. An Omega can’t leave her Alpha once that’s declared. That’s how it works, right?”
My fury turned to Balthazar and his every family should be together bullshit. “You told them I was your mate? What the fuck?” If he cared for me like he claimed, if he really knew me, he would have never done this. “I am not your mate. I never gave you or anyone permission to claim that. I said from the beginning that this was temporary.” I yanked off his flannel shirt and threw it at him. I didn’t want his scent on me anymore. “I’m ending it now. You don’t get your twelve days.”
Jasper put his hand on my shoulder, but I shrugged him off.
“Baby, calm down.” Balthazar caught the shirt and stepped closer. His six foot four loomed over my five foot five, but he didn’t scare me. Nothing did. “Let’s all go into the living room and talk about this. Your hormones are making you act—”
“Like what? Like you didn’t lie to my parents?” I shot back. His jaw hardened. The blow I struck was hard, but I wasn’t done yet. “You want to have a mate so badly and fill your house with babies, but that’s not what I want. So you try to make it come true by telling other people that I’m already yours, but I’m not the Omega for you. If you had paid an ounce of attention to who I really am, you would have figured that out by now.”
Artemis let out a whine, pulling at the hold Lucian had on her. He lowered himself to one knee and stroked her. I wantedhim to jump in and defend me. He was the one who told me not to give up on my dream job. He was the one who knew me best in the pack.
But instead, he didn’t say a thing.
Jasper, too, remained silent. His deep blue eyes were glimmering with some sort of fire, but he wasn’t defending me. So fuck him too.
Fuck them all.
“Mariska.” My dad folded his arms. A hint of the stern man returned, but it no longer had an effect on me. “That’s no way to talk to him. Apologize now. He was kind enough to invite us to his home. Clearly there has been a misunderstanding, but you’re a smart girl and can work it out without all this yelling.”
“Apologize?” My death glare swiveled to my father. The little girl in me still wanted his approval, wanted to be loved, but it wasn’t happening. “He straight out lied. A smart girl knows to have nothing to do with a man who is a liar.” I flashed Balthazar a fierce glare. “I’m leaving, and I’m not coming back. I suggest you get back in your car and go home. I won’t be visiting this Christmas or ever again.”
“Be reasonable.” My mother huffed. “This pack, these three men, will take good care of you. It’s what an Omega needs.”
“How do you know what an Omega needs?” The idea that she even thought she knew a single thing about being an Omega blew my mind. “You never talked to me about what it’s like. You don’t know how being an Omega has made my life that much harder, and how I’ve had to overcome those hardships alone because my family has no interest in me.”
“That’s not true.” Dad grunted.
“It’s absolutely true. After Grandma died, our family broke. You sent me away to Saint Margaret’s and never even brought me home for the holidays.”
“Well, the cost of it…” Dad started, but thankfully didn’t finish. Perhaps he was finally realizing he was an asshole.
“I was left there for seven years. Seven years.” I emphasized, hissing through my teeth. “You never even came to visit. Then when I graduated, I had to find my own way with no help from my family.”
“They sent me to Northwestern military school for a year.” Charlotte piped up, nodding as if she’d endured as much bullshit as I did. And the only reason I didn’t say anything was because she probably did.
“Your behavior sent you there.” Dad snapped at Charlotte and then stiffly turned back to me. “Well, what did you expect us to do? We didn’t know what to do with an Omega.”
“I’m your daughter. You couldn’t love and support your own child?” I wanted to scream and attack him like a feral cat, but I didn’t. I wouldn’t waste any more energy on a family who wanted nothing to do with me. Instead, I went to the mudroom to put on my boots and coat.
Balthazar and Jasper started to come toward me, but I held up a hand. “No. I never want to see either of you again.” My shards shuddered within me, stabbing me anew. I glanced at my family. “Go home. I don’t want to see you either.”
