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Chapter one
Bethany
The shattered screen ofmy cheap phone reflects the unending defeat that has been the last seven years. It’s another life line gone. All the contacts to the life I ran from are now trapped behind spiderweb breaks in a black void. Life is so disappointing. With all the possible futures I could have imagined for myself, this was not even on the list. A shitty hotel room that I have to check out of urgently, counting the last of my dwindling money, with no family or friends, only half a loaf of bread with some unappetizing suspect fruit, and a bottle of metallic tasting water is not the dream. It wasn’t even remotely in the cards.
Finding out I was being let go of the temporary job I had at the local factory making plastic bags this afternoon was just icing.
My stomach cramps, and I’m hit with a blaze of heat like I’ve stepped in front of a furnace. I swipe at my forehead as I crumpleto the floor, trying to ride it out. My heat, the first one I’ve ever had, is pushing up close, and I’m running out of time. It’s threatening to ruin everything I’ve been running from.
Bang.
I jolt and stare at the door with wide eyes. I don’t know who is on the other side. An alpha? Someone who wants to rob me? It wouldn’t be the first time.
“I need you out of here!”
I’m relieved that it’s the owner of this shitty motel, but then I remember I need to leave, and now I really will be homeless. I was paying this tight bastard three times what most hotels cost because it was close to work. Still, I lay there unable to speak, praying he doesn’t open the door. I’d be helpless, and a helpless omega can end up being a very broken omega if she’s not careful.
As the minutes tick by, my anxiety grows until I hear his feet stomp away. My relief is felt through my whole body.
I stand up and pace the ugly green carpet, limping and clutching my stomach. The comforter on the bed is almost the same colour. It’s a cross between grass and vomit green, intense and offensive to the senses, but beggars can’t be choosers, and I am clearly a very desperate chooser.
I scrub my hand through my still damp hair, biting my lip hard to stop the panic from rising like a tide inside me and sweeping me out to uncharted waters. What do I do? Where do I go from here?
I need to find safety first. I need the protection of a pack.
I hate it. Just thinking about giving myself over to anyone makes me want to vomit. I was saving myself. For love. Seven years since I ran from home, searching, seeking a love that I know is out there. But I’ve run out of time. My choices are gone.
The sun is going down, but I can’t afford to stay another night. I’m still clutching my phone. I’ve forgotten my dad’s phone number, and I can’t remember my stepbrothers’ numbers.Raider or Kelly would have come and saved me in a moment. Possibly seen me through this heat, but I’d rather take my chances on the street.
I don’t have the money to get back home, anyway. They would come rescue me if they knew I was here, in this kind of trouble. Raider with his jet black hair and his impulsiveness. He smiled too much. Kelly, who left before I did, a golden god. Everyone expected me to end up with Raider. I heard my father talking to him about it.
It’s why I left.
“Why are you thinking about this, Bethany? It’s the past. It’s long gone and over.”
I loved them, but not like that. How could I? We were family. I didn’t want to go through a heat and be bound to a boy I saw as a brother. I wanted something more than Raider and Kelly. To be honest, I wanted the love I see when my father looks at Aunt Auggie.
I grab the few things I own and pull the pretty dress I bought for this reason out of my backpack. I shove everything else back in and zip it up tight.
I was the child no one expected. My father helped a pack and donated his sperm several years before. Apparently, when I was two years old, my father found me on his front porch with a letter pinned to my jumper. Inside it said simply my name, date of birth, and a legal document signing me over to my biological father. No amount of investigation could find my mother. She simply vanished.
Because of Charles and Uncle Sol being so famous, I am my father’s daughter, but I call the rest of the pack that raised me Aunt or Uncle, and to everyone, I’m Raider and Kelly’s pseudo cousin.
It always made me feel a bit like an outsider. Maybe that’s why I can’t give up on this fairy tale dream of finding my true love.
Through the window, I spot the street lights flickering on, and that’s my queue. I pick up my ratty backpack and my long jacket. It’s been through everything with me. The last three years and all the travelling I’ve done, all the places that I’ve been, I’ve had this lucky jacket.
It’s my good luck charm.
“Come on, Bethany Raines, you can do this.”
My father used to say that to me whenever I gave up. I miss him so much. I miss all of them. Uncle Charles and Aunt Auggie, my dad’s pack mates. And Uncle Sol, who always had a guitar in his hands and would make up songs just to see me smile.
Ah, the past is weighing heavily on me tonight. Perhaps because of the imminent change that is going to happen.
I step out into the night, duck my head down, and walk with purpose. Confidence is the trick that has kept me out of trouble. Act like you have somewhere to go and strangers with murky motives will hesitate to harass you.
And if that fails, have a spray gun of something foul. I like to keep really strong perfume that I stole from a cheap shop inside it. It confuses the scents and messes with their heads long enough for me to run.
