Page 42 of Broken Omega

The only thing that’s ever crystal clear is the memory of her sweet cherry scent.

I know when I see her again, she’ll perfume for me and that’ll bring everything rushing back for us both. We were always fated to be together, and now that I know she isn’t happy at the academy, our reunion feels closer than ever.

Unfortunately, she doesn’t seem to have accounts on any of the popular sites. I try a few of the more obscure ones that I can think of, but I can’t find any trace of her.

It’s disappointing, but not completely unexpected.

Considering how controlling her father seems to be, I doubt he let her use those sites when she was young. It’s entirely possible she never ended up using any of them.

When I attempt a google search, Goldcrest Academy is one of the first sites that come up, alongside an array of her father’s legitimate businesses. I look into him, first. Warren Corvina.

The man was born into money. He obviously had a good financial advisor, because when he inherited his parents’ fortune, he made some shrewd reinvestments and basically doubled what they left him within a year. He spent a few years bulking up his business empire before he attended Goldcrest to find an Omega.

Farrah Yates married Warren Corvina a few weeks after her eighteenth birthday. She died six years later of an aggressive form of cancer, when Brooke was probably around five years old, and she was only twenty-four. The same age Brooke is now.

That’s an odd coincidence, and I’m not convinced it’s entirely coincidental.

Why is he forcing her to choose, and why is he doing that now?

She’s been at the academy for years.

If he wants her to find a mate, why is he keeping her away from a fated match?

He knows that’s what we are. I don’t know how he found out, exactly, but I told friends after I met her, and eventually everyone at my high school in Crystal Lake knew I was holding out for Brooke Corvina, my one true mate.

If it’s so damn important that she find a mate, why can’t he accept me as that mate?

He doesn’t know me. He could have found things out about me, but even if he knew my standing wasn’t what he wanted for his daughter, he should know by now that I’ve made something of myself.

It doesn’t make sense, unless he’s keeping me from her because he thinks my family isn’t good enough, that I haven’t made enough money even now to make him consider allowing me to court his daughter.

That’s a possibility, I guess.

Instinct tells me it’s not the whole truth, but exhaustive searches don’t reveal any bad blood between our families, so I can’t find anything that might hint at a more personal objection.

Sighing, I get up and walk away from the screen. I need a break.

BROOKE

My gaze moves down the list I spent all week compiling. The name of every last Alpha who still frequents the academy is on there. Writing each one of them down was enough to make my skin crawl. The re-read to check I haven’t missed anyone makes me angry.

My hand grips the pen tightly, fingers shaking.

I want to shred the list to pieces. Set it on fire.

Anything to get it out of my sight.

I can’t stand the thought of being mated to any of these Alphas, yet I’m supposed to find a way to narrow the list down to acceptable suitors. I feel like scoring a thick line through all of them.

Instead, I go through it as if I’m trying to eliminate the biggest monsters first, starting with Lachlan Darvish, and moving on to the other known pieces of shit who should have been flushed away before they had the chance to commit any transgressions against any of the Omegas here.

A half dozen names are ruled out instantly. These are the worst of the worst.

The truly predatory Alphas. Men who have so much money and power that they will never be turned away, no matter how many Omegas they traumatize with their fucked-up behavior.

I would never let one of those men get close enough to touch me.

They’ve threatened and coerced their way into the beds of some of the weakest and most naïve Omegas at Goldcrest, and those girls were never the same afterwards. A few of them left the academy shortly after being targeted as prey by one of those Alphas.

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