AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I swallowed thickly. Sabrina didn’t know anything about omegas, and I had never felt the need to tell her.
“Are you some sort of supernatural superhero and didn’t know it?” I asked. I was this far into it, might as well keep it up. “Are you wearing a cape under your apron?”
It was gaslighting and I knew it, but I didn’t want her to ask questions or freak out and draw attention. I couldn’t explain this to her.
“No, of course not.” Sabrina shook her head. “My parents are a hundred-and-ten percent human. You know that.”
Panic crept from my belly up to my chest, and my heart pounded in response. It pounded so hard, as a matter of fact, it hurt. I put my hand over my heart and willed the pain to stop.
How could I keep hiding the truth from everyone, especially my best friend? Was this an omega ability? I had no fucking clue, but surely Sabrina would recognize that I wasn’t a normal shifter.
Michael when he’d injured his arm and I’d cried, then again with the rabbit, and now with Sabrina. I’d cried over each of them, and they had healed. That was… weird, at best, if I was looking at it from her point of view, and this wasn’t best. This was the opposite. It was confusing. And scary. And fuck… so many things I couldn’t comprehend, how could I expect her to understand?
The weight of a thousand thoughts came crashing onto my chest, pushing the air from my lungs. Every breath I tried to draw was short and shallow as I struggled to refill my lungs with much-needed oxygen.
The room dimmed, and I grabbed my head, hoping to keep the world from spinning. An elephant seemed to be sitting on my chest. My fight-or-flight response kicked in. I needed to get out of the banquet hall immediately.
I stood, but the dizziness knocked me back into the chair. I slumped forward, trying to catch my breath and trying to make sense of my life.
“Hey. Calm down, Liza. It’s all right.” Sabrina stood and fanned me with her hand, which didn’t help at all and probably looked as ridiculous as it felt, but I didn’t have enough oxygen or energy to tell her to stop.
I was in the middle of a full-blown panic attack. All I could think about was my powers and the people around me finding out exactly what I was.
My thoughts were so loud, so all-consuming, I didn’t even notice Sabrina rushing away and grabbing her phone.
I couldn’t keep all of this inside for much longer. I dropped my head between my legs, not sure if it would actually help. I’d seen someone else do this on a lawyer TV show once. It had something to do with getting enough blood to your head.
Why did I have to be like this?
“Why couldn’t I have been born normal?” I didn’t recognize my own voice. It was so high-pitched and shrill.
“There’s no point in being normal when you were born to be so special.” A voice I didn’t recognize broke through my anxiety-ridden mind.
I looked up to find Stone leaning against wall next to the swinging kitchen door.
“What are you doing here?” Wiping my face, I tried to regain my composure. I didn’t know him very well, but I also didn’t want him to see me like this: weak, sinking into my own tragedy.
Unfortunately, trying to act as if he hadn’t already seen me with my head between my legs and crying like a baby probably wouldn’t do much to convince him of my mental stability.
“I’m accompanying a friend to the banquet tonight. Her parents are on the advisory board for the bank.” He paused and glanced across the room at Cecily, who stared at me with contempt.
I should’ve known.
Stone turned his attention back to me. “I was on my way to the restroom and saw you having a moment. Or should I say, a meltdown?”
“Not very gentlemanly to point it out,” I said. I shook my head, then cleared my throat and smoothed my hair back from my face. “I’m fine, thanks for your concern. You can go away now.”
Instead of leaving, he sat down next to me. “What happened?”
I turned away, clamping my lips together. Who did this guy think he was?
He sighed loudly, but when I turned to look at him, his gaze smoldered as if he was trying to entice me. “Someday soon you’re going to seek me out on your own, and I’ll be waiting with open arms.”
I held his gaze, unaffected, and proud of it. “I wouldn’t bet on it.”
Stone smiled and stood. “Your scent is getting stronger.”
His words made me stiffen. It was weird when someone randomly came up to me and mentioned my scent. It made me wonder if I needed stronger deodorant or different medicine. This time, I knew the answer.
