Page 82 of Knot Your Pawn

People who’ve worked with Jorge and Riley in the past know that they have very loose connections to the law, but they also already know that they’re in Mathew’s pack.

So, photographing them together won’t make any difference for their jobs.

Though, that was when people thought Mathew was an Alpha. Having questionable morals and a reputation of being ruthless to get what you want is expected from Alphas, celebrated even.

For Omegas, not so much.

Some of Jorge and Riley’s clients who care about status might even drop them for ‘demeaning’ themselves for ‘working under an Omega’. Which is bullshit and I’d say, good riddance.

Those people are weird and probably have many other ideas about Alphas, Betas and Omegas that are gross.

And Luca...

The poor guy finally found some semblance of normalcy —as much as he can around us— and now everything is all getting messed up again.

His parents already called him, panicked, but once he explained that he was safe and that everything was being handled, they calmed down. His family is protected by Erika and her pack, so even if people know that Luca is their kid or sibling, they shouldn’t be in any trouble.

Since the initial article released a couple of hours ago, there’s been plenty of chatter online, and a couple of new articles too. Most of them insisting that ‘they always knew Mathew was an Omega’ when they very clearly didn’t and that ‘he’s only the pretty face, the Alpha who knocked him up must have been running everything behind the scenes all this time’.

Then there are the articles that insist that Derrick or Timothy are the ‘real brains’ of the organisation, since they’ve been with Mathew the longest. Those articles have been interesting to read because of how confidently they’re wrong.

There was one post I saw somewhere that said that I —being the tallest, oldest and most imposing— was ‘clearly’ the Alpha behind it all, and that I’d simply been ‘waiting behind the scenes’ until I got Mathew pregnant so I could take my ‘rightful’ place as the head of the organisation.

I have no idea what the logic behind that one was.

Why would I wait for a decade to show myself?

Why would I ‘let’ Mathew be the head of the organisation when I’m right there?

Why would I have to get Mathew pregnant before I take my place as the head?

None of it makes sense.

People are twisting themselves into knots to try and undermine everything Mathew has done for the last decade, trying to say that his achievements are ‘really’ the achievements of Alphas around him, that he’s ‘only’ a figurehead or that he’s a pawn.

It could be funny, if it wasn’t so sad.

This so clearly shows why Mathew pretended to be an Alpha, because it makes life so much easier and he’s taken much more seriously. And I don’t fault him one bit that he chose the path of least resistance.

He doesn’t have noticeable pheromones, he’s built like an Alpha and he’s got a presence like an Alpha. So, nobody even thought to doubt his words.

It’s not that different from what Vera and I did when we were on the run, though hiding our pheromones was more work.

Sometimes, hiding who you are makes life so much easier, and quite often safer too.

But we’re all out of hiding now. Those pictures and articles have exposed our secrets all in one go.

And now we’re going to have to deal with the fallout, whatever it may bring.

5

Riley

I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop at any moment, bracing myself for the impact.

The fact that Mathew is an Omega is now all over the internet. People everywhere are talking about it.

Within ‘our’ circles, people seem to mostly try to downplay the influence and power he has. Pretending that for the last decade, accidentally letting his name slip wouldn’t make half of them shit their pants and pray to whatever deity they worship for protection.