Page 14 of Sweetheart: Part One

I shifted the number until the silver lock clicked open.

Within were three things.

First was a box of contacts. The GPRE had ridiculous regulations on contact lenses so that gold pack omegas couldn’t mask their eye colour. I.Ds were needed to purchase coloured contacts, and even then, most only offered subtle shifts in colour. The brightness of a gold pack omega’s eyes was hard to hide.

Black market contacts were something I’d managed to keep on hand for years, though. It was how I’d stayed safe for so long. And they weren’t like normal coloured contacts. Instead of a solid colour placed over mine, they were coated in a sheen that created just the slightest colour shift, dampening brightness and neutralising the signature gold people noticed so easily.

They were the weakest when it came to eye colour changes, but the most reliable. They turned the bright gold of my eyes to a rich chocolate brown. Up close, no one would notice a thing.

Beside the contacts was a bottle of powerful scent blockers. They were enough to mask my scent for days. I shouldn’t have needed another so soon, but I swallowed one down anyway, hating that I had to. But I’d been scared enough to faint, which meant I likely needed it. Beside the scent blockers, was the cherry blossom spray I carried around. Even betas had faint scents, so to avoid suspicion, I used this spritz to hide my designation properly.

Lastly, was the little silver pouch containing a single heat suppressant.

I stared at the pill.

Before, I’d looked at it with hope, believing maybe there was a happily ever after in reach. My heat was a marker.

The pack who owned me didn’t want me just tomeetmy mates, they wanted them obsessed enough to trade anything the day I went into heat and discovered the truth of who I was.

It was perhaps a month away, though I could delay it with that pill.

Taking it would be the conclusion of this nightmare, one way or another. With my heat on the horizon, my mates—if they wanted me—would have to come to the bargaining table. It was why I had to survive this week, get the contract, and stay on. My mates had publicly claimed they didn’t want an omega. Staying with them as a Sweetheart—long enough to make them fall for me and offer an impossible bond, was the only option I had.

My touch drifted to the back of my neck where the foundation thankfully remained in place. Tears pricked my eyes again. There was nothing worse than the thought of heat with the pack I was bonded to.

Thatwas what last resorts were for.

Slowly, I turned, leaning against the mirror and dragging my knees against my chest. I fought to contain the second round of tears I couldn’t afford.

I hated that I’d become so desperate.

I was everything I’d feared: dependent on alphas.

Drake had seemed nice. He’d been concerned. And the others had tried to protect me from Ebony… But it wasn’t enough.

My fingers trembled as I slipped the little silver packet back. I removed my contacts and washed them. I paused for just a moment before I replaced them, staring at myself again. At the eyes that looked like my old eyes before they’d gone golden.

My mother’s eyes.

I had finally found my mates, and I was showing them the person I wished I was, not the person I’d become.

I took a breath, trying and failing to steel myself. I was worn so thin, alone for so long with nowhere safe to hide. But this bathroom locked. I had true safety in here that I hadn’t had for months.

And my phone was on my bed outside—the one my pack had given me. In this room there was no phone. No texts. No Ebony.

Take as much time as you need.

That was what Drake had said.

So I went over my hair and makeup, singing quietly to soothe my nerves, and pretending I was back in my room with Aisha.

Back in a place where I felt safe.

When I was done I washed it off, and did it once more.

The time ticked, and I couldn’t stop, knowing how pathetic I was, hiding in here. I had one week to seduce my mates, and I was too afraid to leave this bathroom.

When I finally slipped out to the huge empty room, and fell asleep, it was to be met by more nightmares.

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