Page 6 of Scapegoat

“Might have said you’d go on a date with Ashley at some point,” Xavier replied, tearing open a packet of chips and smiling as he popped one into his mouth.

“What the fuck…?” Jayden said, at the same time as Atlas turned to their brother.

“Move.”

“What?” But Xavier did as he was told, making a space between him and Atlas and then I was picked up bodily, stifling back a yelp, when he put me down into that spot.

“I got you a pack of Smarties.” Xavier was somewhat shy now, leaning too close, watching me too intently as he peered into my eyes. “I know you like them…”

I had when I was a kid, the crunchy sugary shell and chocolate interior driving me nuts and I still liked them now, even if they weren’t my favourites. But when Xavier offered the packet to me? They became the most delicious things in the world.

“Thanks,” I said, glad for the darkness, because otherwise he would have seen my cheeks as they blushed bright red.

“Anything for you, Kaia.”

He barely breathed that out, so I didn’t think his brothers heard him, but I did. He held my gaze, the smashes and crashes from the theatre speakers somehow a perfect soundtrack for the rapid beat of my heart. The packet crinkled in my fingers, the weight of it somehow heavy. Then Atlas let out a low grunt, wrapping his arm around me and tugging me close.

And suddenly I was in heaven.

The theatre was a dark cocoon and we were nestled down in it, tied tightly by bonds we didn’t quite understand, weren’t ready to articulate, not for another week. There was no point, not when our futures were in flux. The possibilities were dizzying. They might become the heirs to the current alphas’ throne or they might become outcasts. I might continue to be their childhood friend, my importance fading when they found their omega, just like Mum promised.

Or perhaps this.

Maybe one day we’d all walk in here on each other’s arms, sporting the mating marks that declared what we meant to each other on our necks. The world would know that we shared a bond that would never, could never be broken and we wouldn’t have to hide that from anyone. That thought was far sweeter than the chocolate I put in my mouth. With each crunch, each burst of sugary sweetness from the Smarties, I saw a different glimpse of what might be.

By the time we finally stumbled out of the darkness of the theatre and back into the lobby, I couldn’t have told you what the movie was about if I’d had a gun to my head. But as we blinked against the harsh artificial lights, I saw that the sun had gone down. Only recently, but that was enough to make me anxious. Mum would be expecting me to have started dinner before now and…

“I’ve gotta get home,” I told them.

“You’re coming to ours for dinner,” Atlas said, with just as much certainty.

I stared at him, Xavier, then Jay.

“But Mum—”

“Can make her own fucking dinner.” Jay’s easy smile was gone now, replaced by an angry, hard expression. “She used to before you were born, didn’t she? She used to actually do something.”

He was just saying something we all knew. While Mum had been bossing me around and forcing me to help with Anna from the moment my sister was born, she would have had to have been self-sufficient at some point.

“Mum’s got a lamb roast cooking,” Xavier told us, as he looked at a message on his phone. “She said you’re welcome to come over.”

I was always over at the Campbell place. The boys’ mum was a bit like the mother in Mean Girls, wanting to be a ‘cool mum’, but that was a relief when compared with mine.

“OK.”

The way they looked at me had a flush of pleasure, of excitement, that I felt, too. It was like I bathed in the afterglow, that it buoyed me up and carried me forward. I could pretend, just for a minute, that I was just a girl and they were just a bunch of boys, out having fun, before we were forced to shoulder adult responsibilities.

“Hello, Kaia,” Jenny, the boys’ mum said as soon as we stepped inside the house. She smiled fondly, though her keen eyes seemed to catch the way the boys were clustered close to me. “Your mum’s been on the phone to me. She’s looking for you everywhere.”

Chapter 5

And just like that, all pleasure evaporated. My fists balled, as if I could fight off this shift in mood and Jenny noted that with a slow nod, before breaking the tension with a smile.

“Don’t worry though. I was honest; said I hadn’t seen hide nor hair of any of you all day.” Her focus shifted to the boys. “Where did you get to?”

“Waterhole,” Jayden said, walking over to grab an apple from the fruit bowl on the kitchen bench. His mother slapped his hand away.

“You’ll ruin your appetite. Dinner will be ready in a second,” she said. “And what else?” She looked us over carefully. “You don’t look burnt enough to have been playing in the waterhole all day.”

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