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“Why didn’t you tell us?” Dad asked, his brow furrowed. “I assume you’re coming home?”

“Of course she is!” Hayden said. “She’s going to have to rely on us to financially provide for her bastard child, because there’s no way she can finish college now.”

I shrank back like his words were a physical blow. They were cruel, even for him. “You know what, Hayden? Get fucked. I have no intention of moving back here. I intend to stay in California with the fathers.”

“Fathers?” Dad asked quietly. “Are you dating a pack?”

I sighed. “It’s a long story.”

“She probably doesn’t even know who the father is,” Hayden said.

“You know what? That’s a lot of judgment from someone who had to go to the free clinic when he was only sixteen because he had slept with so many women, he needed a shot of penicillin.”

“It’s different for men,” he argued.

Well, that was a shitty double standard.

“I didn’t come home to be berated or to run around, cooking and cleaning for you guys.”

“Well, clearly, you’ve lost your way, whoring yourself out over there. We never should have let you leave!” Hayden thundered.

“Letme?” I asked incredulously. “I don’t know who you think you are, but you have no fucking say on what I do or where I go.”

“We are your family. Of course we do! You’re an omega and clearly too stupid to be left to your own devices.”

“You know what? I don’t need to put up with this bullshit!” I growled.

Danny’s eyes widened. “You think you’re so much better than the rest of us, just because you go to a fancy university!”

“No, I think I’m better than you because I can wash my own freaking underwear!”

Danny glowered at me.

Hayden spoke up. “Seriously, Beth, this isn’t cool. You fucked us over, and now you’re dropping this in our lap.”

“I came home less than twelve hours ago, and all I’ve done since then is run around, doing jobs that everyone in this house is too incompetent to do.”

“Okay, I think we are all getting a little heated…” Pa started to say.

“How far along are you?” Hayden asked, a look of pure fury on his face. I didn’t recognize the man in front of me. My brother was long gone and replaced by an angry alpha.

“Why is that any of your business?”

“Because if you’re not too far along, you can get rid of the fucking thing.”

I stilled, staring at him in abject horror. Everyone turned to look at him, shocked at his words. Had he really just said that?

“Seriously?” I said, my voice quiet.

“Honey…Do you really think you’re ready for a child?” Dad asked quietly.

I turned on him. “Are you agreeing with him?” I asked, my voice deadly calm. Although I expected a certain level of bullshit from my brothers, my dads were a different story.

“Well, you’ve clearly made some bad decisions. You can correct them…We can’t afford another mouth to feed.”

Staring at my father, at his wrinkled eyes and his salt-and-pepper hair, a sort of stillness washed over me.

It was as though all the years of emotional neglect crashed down upon me in a single moment. Not once had they asked about how I was feeling. They were only concerned about what my child would costthem. Fear was acceptable—I understood fear—but this wasn’t that. It was callousness that I didn’t expect from my own family, and it stung more than I ever could have imagined.