“I’m a beta,” I said, my voice barely a whisper, but I knew he could hear me. At my revelation, his eyes widened, and he took a couple of steps back.
My stomach twisted, disgusted with myself for lying to alphas. I was the lowest in the hierarchy, and I had no rights.
“I don’t know what to say,” he said in shock, simply staring at me as he handed the envelope to me. “I’m so confused. Take the money. The protection I’ve given you is over. Effective immediately.”
I could hardly breathe as I watched him get into his expensive car.
My heart felt like it was crumbling when I heard the sound of the engine one last time. He didn’t even look at me as he drove off into the night.
I felt like a piece of shit right now.
His words hung in the air, heavy and suffocating, as if the universe itself conspired against my happiness. The world around me blurred into a hazy mess of tears. The car was now a fading dot in the distance, taking away its promise of love.
I sank to the cold asphalt, the forgotten money on the floor as the world seemed to spin uncontrollably. My breath hitched as I gasped for air, the sobs tearing through my chest. The pain was physical, a dull ache that resonated from the pit of my stomach to the tips of my trembling fingers.
I had no idea how long I sat there. It could have been an hour or even three hours.
Slowly, I got up and walked towards the trailer, which was about a two-minute walk from where I was. I couldn’t stop thinking about how disgusted he looked at the thought of knotting a beta this entire time. Well, wouldn’t fucking a human be even worse? He just proved to me that there weren’t any good alphas in the world.
The front door was ajar, and I looked at it quizzically.
I thought I had closed the door to the trailer before I left. Walking inside, I found a mess of scratches on the floor that hadn’t been there before. I could even swear it.
Aunt Julie wasn’t inside, sleeping in her usual spot.
“Auntie?” I called out, walking through the rest of the trailer. Not seeing her anywhere, I began to panic and thought maybe Zaff had something to do with it.
She wasn’t outside for her smoke, and it was only four a.m. There was nowhere she could have gone.
I ran outside shouting for my aunt. I was about to call the police, but a female voice stopped me.
“I know where she is,” she said, stepping out of the bushes. It was a woman in an all-black leather outfit. She had long dark hair and perfectly tanned skin. She was a stunning beauty, and I noticed that she had a cotton candy scent to her.
She was an omega.
“Who are you?” I asked, immediately on guard. I had never seen an omega outside of the Alpha Compound simply wandering around.
“I’m Ruby,” she said, sticking her hand out, but I didn’t shake it. I was wary of her already. What the hell was she doing here? And did she have something to do with my aunt going missing?
“What are you doing here?” I said, getting right to the point. A sudden cramping took over my right side, and I leaned against the trailer for support, waiting for the pain to pass as I winced.
“They took her,” said Ruby with wide eyes. “My fathers were supposed to take her as a second omega.”
“What?” I asked. This wasn’t making sense at all.
“Henry’s orders. I can explain in the car,” she said, with an ardent look in her eyes.
“Fine,” I said, and I rushed to follow her to the small black car. Once we were inside, I started to question her. “Why are you even out here?”
“I want to help her,” she said. “Your aunt.”
“Why?”
“I’m sick and tired of omegas having their lives planned for them,” she said. “Now that it involves my family, I had to take some action. I heard my fathers’ phone call with Henry. Apparently, someone named Alan tipped him off that there was a runaway omega, and I was happy to hear she escaped. But my dads decided to take her on for her safety.”
“Oh no,” I said, as dread settled in my stomach amongst my sudden cramping. “Alan is my dad. He’s still such an asshole, what the fuck?!”
“I’m sorry,” she said, driving at high speeds down the road. “At least we’ll know where your aunt will be, and when nightfall comes, we can help free her.”
“Okay,” I said, somehow trusting this omega. She seemed intelligent and capable. “Will your family hurt her?”
“No way,” she said with a firm shake of her head. “I know my family. They will take care of her.”
“How about your mom? Wouldn’t she be upset?”
She started to become teary-eyed, and I began to wonder why that was the case.
“I’d rather not talk about that,” she said.
“Okay, sorry,” I said immediately, regretting that I asked. She drove down the road while we listened to the news on the radio. Another hard cramp hit me, and I groaned, holding onto the door handle.
“Are you in heat or something?” she asked.
“No, I’m a beta,” I gritted out through my pain. “Can we stop at a gas station real quick?”
“Alright, hold on.”
When we reached the gas station, I quickly went in and bought a box of pads along with a box of Advil. I ran to the bathroom. There was nothing on my underwear, but I still attached a pad to it just in case something happened later. Before leaving the gas station, I bought a bunch of snacks and water for our trip because it was a long trip to get to El Paso.
“That’s a lot of snacks,” said Ruby, eyeing the bags of chips and cookies in my hands.
“Yeah, I got some for you, too,” I said.
“Um, I prefer fresh fruit or vegetables,” she said. Oh, she was one of those omegas. The ones that liked to keep in shape, and she probably had a lot of money, judging from the type of car she was driving.
“More for me then,” I shrugged, closing the door. After taking the painkiller, my pain went away temporarily, and I was able to eat some chips. I pulled out my phone to try calling my aunt and then realized I hadn’t checked the trailer for her phone.
The phone rang, but no one picked up. I wondered if she was frightened out of her mind or scared. If only we had moved when she told me, all of this wouldn’t have happened.
My eyes started to water.
“Don’t cry,” said Ruby, who looked uncomfortable at my display of emotion. “My family won’t hurt her, and we’ll get her out somehow.”
I blew my nose into a tissue.
“It’s all my fucking fault,” I said. “She worked so hard to escape with me, and because I didn’t agree to move, she’s gone now.”
“It was bound to happen,” said Ruby. “Bad things happen to omegas all the time.”
“And betas,” I said. “Thanks for trying to help.”
“I don’t mind at all,” she said.
“By the way, cute scent,” I said, taking a swig of my water bottle.
“It’s lame,” she said, rolling her eyes. “Too fucking girly, and the alphas think I’m just dying for them.”
“Well, I think cotton candy is pretty cool,” I said, wishing I had a scent of my own. Then maybe Zaff and his pack wouldn’t have dumped me so quickly. If I were an omega, they would have kept me around. I shouldn’t have gotten attached to them at all, but I tried not to overthink it during the car ride to the place I grew up in. Dread filled me at the thought of going back there after escaping, but it’s not like I had a choice right now.
My aunt was in trouble, and she needed me to break her out.
Zaff
I couldn’t sleep all fucking night after she dropped that bombshell on me. Breanna was a beta.
Thoughts of her broken face invaded my mind, and the way she looked at me like I was a total stranger. I didn’t know what to say at the moment. I was the type of guy to process things before making such a huge decision like that.
It was seven a.m.
I couldn’t sleep anymore, so I took a long shower and contemplated what the hell had happened to us. The maid I hired was a beta this entire time. I wondered how she kept a straight face the whole time, thinking I was a fool. I angrily smashed the soap bar against the wall.
She had to think we were just a bunch of stupid alphas willing to throw away money for some pussy.
And she was probably right.
After my shower, I put on a pair of casual jeans and a white shirt. I couldn’t go to work today because I needed to think about everything that had happened. But my pack was downstairs waiting for me to give me a piece of their mind.
“What happened?” asked Oscar. “You look rough, man.”
“I didn’t get any sleep after what she told me last night,” I said, pouring out a cup of coffee.
“What did she tell you?” asked Ruston without looking at me. He was still pissed off at me for sending the breakup text to her. Hell, the entire pack was still angry at me. But he couldn’t hide it as he faced the television.
“She’s not human,” I said.
“Then what the fuck is she?” asked Chad.
“Beta.”
There was shocked silence for a moment.
“Am I hearing this correctly?” Oscar asked. “Is that why she lacked a scent? Betas have muted scents, though. She doesn’t have a scent at all.”
“I guess so,” I said, starting to feel a pang in my heart. Saying everything out loud made the hurt ten times worse, but it was better that they knew about it now. “But for some reason, I still…”
“You still want her,” said Ruston, finishing my sentence, and I nodded.
“We know why she lied,” said Chad. “She obviously escaped Henry. Anyone who leaves the compound is to be punished- so she was doing it to save her life.”
In my heart of hearts, I knew she wasn’t as evil as I pictured her to be.
“She’s a good person,” I said. “And if we were willing to love a human to death, there should be no reason why we can’t love a beta.”
“Are you serious, or are you messing with us?” asked Ruston, setting his drink down.
“I think we should go back for her,” I said to my hopeful pack. “Breanna will be ours. The thought of another man touching her makes me sick.”
“She’ll never forgive us,” said Oscar, rubbing his beard.
“We have to try,” I said, adjusting my shirt. “Let’s go.”
