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“Papa told me he forgot to get suppressants,” she says. “I believed it—he was distracted, I knew, planning Momma’s funeral. Taking care of her will, all the things you have to do when someone dies suddenly. He told me that it was too late. Once my heat started, suppressants wouldn’t do anything.
“I know that’s wrong now. The suppressants wouldn’t have stopped it, but they would have helped the pain. I wouldn’t have craved a knot the way that I did. But when it happened, I felt like it was my fault. I brought it on myself—if I hadn’t been crying about Momma all the time, maybe I would have remembered. Maybe I would have asked for the pills.
“The pain felt like punishment. I didn’t have any toys to fill myself up with. I had to rely on my fingers, but they weren’t enough. I was loud, moaning all the time. They could hear me, outside my room. That’s how I made my…my stepbrother go into a rut. The need inside me was too much.”
“I wanted it,” she says, her small shoulders shaking. “When Grayson came to my room, I didn’t stop him. He took my clothes off, touched me everywhere and I…I let him. The pain was too much, but when he touched me, I stopped hurting. I started crying, but when he filled me up, I felt so good. I think I begged him to knot me. He gave it to me, and I…I orgasmed.”
Her brown and blue eyes shut, like she can’t bear to think of it. I can practically see the blame on her face. Like she thinks that her biological impulses were the reason, and not the fact that her stepbrother was a manipulative, evil piece of shit. I want to argue, to explain that it wasn’t her fault. But I don’t want to interrupt her. She needs to get it all out, now.
She takes a deep breath and keeps talking.
“Then, while he was knotted in me, he…he bit me. I don’t think he planned to, but he got carried away. The bond snapped into place, and I could feel everything. He told me that if I even looked at another male, he’d kill me himself. He said he was going to fill me with pups, to stuff me until my womb couldn’t take anymore. Because of the bond, I knew…I knew he meant it.”
“I tried to tell him no, then. I said I wouldn’t do it. He slapped me, split my lip open. He said I shouldn’t speak unless spoken to. That I was beneath him, just his whore. I had to call him ‘Master’ now, and I couldn’t look him in the eye. Ever. I couldn’t run, because he was still knotted in me. I knew this would be my life now. What Grayson was doing to me was just the beginning. He’d come up with more rules, worse rules.”
“What about Roger Castle?” Denver asks.
Brooklyn just shakes her head, mouth curving in a bitter smile.
“He didn’t stop him. I think he wanted Grayson to do it. Maybe he planned on it as soon as he found out I was an Omega. He was always a monster—they both were. But they were smart. They were good at hiding it from anyone who could stop them. Now that I know what they are, I think they were probably hurting Momma for years. And I had no idea.”
For the first time in the story, a tear falls down Brooklyn’s cheek. I want to wipe it away with my fingers. She’s so unbelievably strong—she saves her sorrow for her mother, not allowing any for herself, even after everything she’s been through.
Somehow, she finds even more strength inside her. She pulls her shoulders back, powering through to the end of the story.
“Momma was smart, though. She had an escape plan for me, one she’d been working on for years. When she took me hiking, it wasn’t just about getting fresh air. She taught me how to hunt and forage, basic first aid, and how to build shelters. I thought she was teaching me for fun. My real dad came with us, and he thought it all was a game. We’d joke about how serious she was when I mixed up salmonberries with toxic ones.”
“I understand now that she was preparing me. She knew that Papa and Grayson would turn on me, too, one day. She taught me what I needed to know to escape. I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for her.
“I waited until Grayson fell asleep. I didn’t waste time packing anything—if I took a tent or even a flashlight, they’d know what my plan was. Of course, they’d assume I would run to a friend’s place instead of going into the wilderness. It might take them a few days to run down leads and figure out where I’d really gone, and I needed every advantage I could get. I was lucky that it was summer, and it was easy to find food. I stayed away from people as much as I could, stealing what I had to, building what I could. It wasn’t long before the forest felt more like home than the Castle mansion ever did.”
“The bond with Grayson, it’s almost completely faded now.” Brooklyn’s voice is full of forced cheerfulness, like she’s trying to convince us that it all turned out alright in the end. Convince us…or convince herself. “That’s why you couldn’t sense it. I barely sense his emotions anymore. In a few weeks, I think, it’ll be totally gone.”
Finally, she looks up. She smiles woodenly, trying to put a bow on it. I can tell, she wants us to hear her, keep quiet, and move on.
Fat chance of that.
Denver’s face is practically white with rage, his lips pursed tightly together. Memphis looks like he’s about to throw up, like the whole thing has physically pained him. And me…
I want to punch something. Preferably Grayson Castle, but his father will do. I want to pummel his slimy face with my fists until I can’t even recognize it. I’m not a violent guy. Hell, I’ve never even been in a real fight. But that can change. It can change right fucking now. I’m ready to march right back to that fucking mansion and rip their throats out. They deserve all that, and worse.
But I dig my fingernails into my palm, forcing myself to calm the fuck down. Brooklyn doesn’t need me to turn into her knight in shining armor right now. She’s strong enough to fight her battles by herself?—
What she needs is someone she can talk to. Someone who can hold her while she lets her walls down, who can hear all the worst thoughts she has about herself and prove to her that they aren’t true.
She’s been brave for so long. I can help her to be soft.
I kneel in front of her, taking her hands in mine.
“None of it was your fault,” I say firmly. “You didn’t ask him to take your innocence. He stole it from you. Worse than that, he forced you to bond with him when it was obvious you didn’t want it. No decent Alpha would ever do that. Everything he did to you is on him, not you.”
“You don’t get it, Camden,” she says. “My Omega biology pushed him. He couldn’t control his reactions, and I didn’t fight him off.”
“Trust me, that’s not how Alpha biology works. I have three Omega sisters. I’ve been near them when they were in heat, and I can tell you, the way your body reacted to a nearby Alpha was totally normal. You couldn’t control how much you wanted a knot, even if you wanted to. It was your first time—you barely understood what was happening to you. And your…”
I can’t bring myself to say the word brother. It sickens me, knowing what he did.
“What Grayson did was his fault,” I say, starting again. “He was the one who should have stopped himself. I have never wanted to hurt anyone like that, especially my sisters. Hell, I’ve been with an Omega in her heat before you, once, and I didn’t force a bond. It wasn’t his biology. It was his choice.”
