Page 81 of Pack Baby for the Silver Foxes

Maeve reached for my hand. I pulled it back before I could let her have it.

“Then Artem refused me because he already had his omega.”

She smiled. “Wasn’t I lucky. And so were you.”

I sighed. “But they’re Damien’s dads. And they never once said they’d told him, which means they don’t want me. They only want the baby.”

“You don’t know that.”

“I’m rubbish at this. I’m not even a wanted omega.”

Maeve’s mouth pursed. “Now you’re being dramatic.”

“And you know that Damien cheated,” I said. “Constantly, apparently. And he wasn’t even an alpha. He was a beta with a complex and a face that tricked me into thinking loyalty might be reciprocated.”

“Mary.”

“I’m the only omega in the world nobody wants.”

Maeve smiled. “That’s quite the statistic.”

“I told you. Cultural exaggeration. It’s in the genes.”

“No.” She shifted closer. “That’s pain dressed up as theater.”

I pressed my lips together. It didn’t help because the tears came anyway. I wiped them with the heel of my hand before they could become a whole event.

“I hate this,” I said.

“I know.”

“I hate being pregnant and frightened and stupidly attached to men who have had whole adult lives before I even worked out how to use the university printer.”

“Printers are designed to humble us all. It was fax machines before that. And pagers.”

A laugh broke out of me, wet and unwilling.

Maeve smiled faintly.

“And I hate that they keep calling,” I said. “Because part of me wants them to stop so I can be right.”

“And the other part?”

I looked down at my phone. “The other part keeps reading the messages.”

Maeve took my hand then.

This time, I let her.

Her fingers were small and warm around mine. “You’re not unwanted,” she said.

“You have to say that. You’re my sister.”

“Yes, which means I’ve seen you at your worst and am still sitting on your bed voluntarily.”

“You once tried to sell me to a visiting cousin for two packets of crisps.” I swallowed. “I was only six.”

“I admit, that was a poor business decision on my part.”