Page 71 of Pack Rivals, Part One

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My auntand cousin are both waiting for me in the apartment when I slump back in.

They let out a collective sigh as I walk through the door and head straight for the sink.

"Thank goodness," Aunt Julia says, her hand to her chest. "We were on the verge of calling the police."

"Really?" I say, filling a glass with cold water and spinning to face them. I lean back against the counter and sip the water.

"You weren't answering your phone!" Courtney says.

"I had it on silent."

"Do you know how dangerous it is to go out jogging in the city alone?" my aunt says.

"There were other people jogging."

"Were they women?" my aunt asks. "Were they omegas?"

I think about this. "No, both men."

My aunt's face pales and I decide to put them out of their misery.

"I wasn't alone. Silver came with me. On my run."

"Jesus Christ," Courtney says, looking like she might strangle me, "you might have included that bit of information in the note you left me."

I cross the apartment and drop down on a chair beside her. "It wasn't planned. He showed up. Seems he's had those guards watching the house." I frown, my emotion still all tangled when it comes to that fresh piece of news.

"At least someone's thinking with some sense," my aunt says.

I look at them both over the rim of my glass. "Is it really that dangerous for omegas?" I ask. In all truth, I don't want to know the answer. It's been easier to pretend everyone is overreacting than to live up to the reality. It's clear to me now that my life with Karl was a grotesque sort of cage, one I hoped I'd escaped. But being an omega seems like it might be a cage of its own.

"Yes," my aunt says truthfully, meeting my eye.

"But you wander about on your own. You're here now without an alpha. You teach and–"

"I'm bonded, Bea. My pack may no longer be with me but I still have my scars." She points to her neck. "My scent still says I'm bonded. Mating gives me some protection. Besides, as you may have noticed, I'm old." She smiles. "Long past my breeding prime."

The water in my mouth slides down my throat with difficulty. Breeding? Oh lord. Even Karl didn't talk like that.

"So you're saying if I want to have any chance of living normally, I have to keep taking a truckload of pills and either shack up with a pack or get old quickly?"

"No, you just need to be careful with your safety."

"I took my rape alarm. Courtney showed me how to gouge out eyes with my house keys."

My aunt twists her head to stare at Courtney with disapproval.

"What?" Courtney says. "She has to walk to work on her own."

My aunt rolls her eyes and fiddles with the necklaces around her neck.

"Maybe Silver could arrange–"

"No way," I jump up from my seat. "I'm not some superstar. I don't need a bodyguard or a babysitter." I thump my glass down on the table. "God, being an omega really, really sucks. All these restrictions, these dangers. All these stupid feelings and hormones and desires crashing through my body." I dig my fingernails into the palms of my hands and try not to scream; all the soothing effects from my run quickly unraveling. "Are you sure there isn't a way they can turn me back into a beta?"

Courtney snorts. "No one wants to be a beta, Bea. Everyone wants to be an omega."

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