The Arrangement (Omegas of Hunter's Point Book 1)

Chapter 27

She'd heard that word, once again used by Aily as a spear meant to wound. On instinct, her gaze fell to Damian, and she watched, almost in slow motion, the changes that came across his face as he continued to stare at Aily: uncomprehending disbelief, realization, horror, and finally disgust. When that turquoise stare found Von, the look in those opaline depths was nothing but pity. A pain she'd never known, comprised of equal parts shame and loss, scythed through her, leaving her with a heart that was no longer in one piece.

He knew. He knew, and he didn't want her anymore.

She finally understood why it was that she hadn't been able to tell him. She'd never wanted him to look at her like that, as if she were somehow less.

From far away, muffled by the rush of blood pulsing in her ears, she heard her father's voice: "She didn't tell you? Typical."

"Aaron," came her mother's plea.

Von's months with Damian, the intimacy they'd established, she felt it slipping away. The full weight of what she'd done hit, a lightning strike. She'd misled him. She'd allowed him to think she was normal. She'd allowed him to parade her on his arm as if she'd belonged there. She'd humiliated him.

And now he knew it, too.

She didn't scent anger on him, but it was only a matter of time. An angry alpha was to be feared. She wanted to run, to hide, to disappear.

Rule #1. Be Omega. Don't run. He'll chase.

Alpha, predator. Omega, prey.

Von, exuding a calm she did not feel, made her exit. Her steps were measured, her pace leisurely.

"Von, wait!" Damian called.

She didn't dare stop, not now. Granted, she was safer in a crowd, but the last thing she wanted was to be around others. She gripped the small, white clutch until her knuckles were bloodless. All the impractical purse had in it were lip tint and her phone, no credits and no transit card. She hadn't thought to bring them, thinking herself safe.

Safe. What a joke. As her father and sister had just so amply demonstrated, there was no safe, not for her. Von doubted either of them knew precisely the kind of danger they'd just put her in, revealing her to be a liar and a fraud in front of the alpha she'd been living with. Or worse, they knew and didn't care.

Either way, she expected Damian to come looking for her. When he did, she needed to be ready for him.

***

It had taken half an hour of almost frantic searching, but Damian located Von sitting alone on a bench at the rear of the museum.

"You don't have to say anything," Von assured him, her eyes focused on some distant point. "I think I have a pretty good idea of what must be going through your head right now." There was no hostility in her voice. Grim resignation left her tone flat and devoid of emotion.

"Oh? What is it that's going through my head? Let's compare notes."

She drained the champagne from the glass she'd been nursing for most of the night, downing it in two gulps, as though the alcohol would give her the courage to carry on with a conversation she'd been dreading for months. "That I lied to you. That you deserved the truth about me from the beginning. That you resent me for letting you pretend I was something that I wasn't." Anger. The beginnings of tears. "That I'm defective, and-" she sniffed, "and worthless, and you never want to see me again."

He winced, his eyes pricking. Those last few verbal blades had shoved home in his gut, sharp things that tore at his insides. "Stop. Just...stop."

She took a shaky breath, tears falling in earnest as she still refused to meet his eye. "I'm sorry."