Page 42 of Brave New Omega, Part 2

Chapter 42

KATIE

I wrestle my clothes off, dropping them in a heap by the floor. Fuck him. Seriously, fuck him and the boat he sailed in on.

I try to stomp to the bathroom, but my knee aches, and my lower back is reminding me that I’ve spent a lot of today sitting and not stretching.

I sigh, and turn on the hot water. What a fucking day. I feel like a yoyo, being yanked up and down. First warm and comforted by my Alphas. Then, fucking eviscerated by them. Callum spewing all his hatred on to me and the others doing nothing.

Well fuck them. I don’t need this shit. This isn't love. It isn’t even kindness.

I step under the hot water, letting it wash away my anger. Genevieve sure did a number on them, Callum especially. She’s a creep, but what the fuck could make him think I’d hide my heat?

Like I could. Everything Aurelia says about it made it sound like the worst parts of my period plus being a horny teenager all over again. But, you know, worse than all of it.

I press my forehead against the cool glass of the shower, letting the steam surround me in a cloud. Why does everything have to be hard? Why can’t I just have easy love? Why can’t I just find people who care about me without asking me to rip out my heart for them?

A gentle knock interrupts my thoughts.

“Go away.”

I’m not sure which Alpha is outside my bathroom door, but I don’t want to see him.

“Katie, please.” Callum .

Nope. No fucking way. Let him go stew in his righteous anger. I don’t want him here.

“I said go away.”

I slide to the floor of the shower, tears mingling with the hot water. I’m glad he can’t see me, can’t see the mess my stupid feelings have made of me. Why bother with any of them? It was easier when I kept everyone out.

I wrap my arms around myself, knocking over the shampoo bottle. It clatters to the ground with a sharp thud.

Callum thumps again, calling my name but I close my eyes and block him out. This is why I always kept lovers at arms length, because in the end everyone will leave you. No matter how much they love you. Even my parents’ couldn't love us enough to stay alive.

Something slams against the door, and Callum calls my name frantically. I open my eyes in time to see the door explode off its hinges as Callum races into the room, yanking the door open and falling to his knees.

“Are you hurt?” He looks me over, his fingers running feather light over my body as he examines me for injuries.

I try to pull back from him, but there’s nowhere to go in the shower. The water is soaking him through, but he’s unbothered, completely focused on me.

“I’m fine,” I snap. “What are you doing? I said go away.”

“I heard the crash –I thought you fell. Gods above, I thought….”

I see it now, the fear still etched along his features. How pale he is even in the heat of the shower. His soaked dress shirt clings to his chest.

“You’re getting wet,” I say because I can’t yell at him anymore. I’m still angry, but I just can’t yell at a man who broke down a door because he thought I fell in the shower.

He crouches before me, hunching so we’re at eye level.

“I know you’re angry, no don’t turn away, please. Just, let me say this and then I’ll go. You’re right, Genevieve is poison. She… manipulated Loren and I into believing she loved us. She used secrets and lies to gain our trust, and then used chemical pheromones to dull our senses. We nearly bonded with her – do you understand what that means?”

I nod, but Callum shakes his head. “To bond it to be connected by blood forever. There are no take backs, no undoing the bond. Nothing changes a bond except death.”

He shivers under the heat of the shower. I should turn it off, but I can’t bring my limbs to move.

“Genevieve gave us our deepest fantasies. She’s a Beta, but she acted like an Omega. She promised us a true Pack, and–” he swallows thickly, “children.”

I still, watching Callum. Children .

“But all the while, she was stealing strategic information about military maneuvers in the north. We couldn't prove it, because the documents shouldn’t have existed. Didn’t exist according to the military analysts. So there was no way to expose her. When I discovered what she was doing, how she was using us for the intelligence and drugging us with lab-made pheromones, I… I lost part of myself.” He sighs, sitting back on his haunches.

“I promised that no one would ever manipulate me like that again. Then, in you come, perfuming like you were sent by the gods just to make me crazy with lust. You were nothing like Genevieve, all her false glamor pales in comparison to you, Katie. But when Aurelia told me that your heat cycle could start any day –and that she let you know days ago and you didn’t tell me, all I could think was that you were manipulating us. That somehow I had been fooled again.”

He covers his face with his hands, and takes a slow wracking breath.

The fist around my chest eases just a little.

“You shouldn't have accused me like that,” I say, wanting to hold the fire of my anger.

“You’re right,” Callum says, then slowly lowers his hands. My God, this man is beautiful. “I fucked up. I know, I just got swept up in my fears and anger. I’m sorry, Katie.”

Part of me wants to forgive him and soothe away his pain. But I don’t. Because fuck him. At least a little.

“Okay,” I say.

His face is drawn, like my words were a death knell.

“You’re alright?” He looks over me again, his eyes searching as though I could possibly hide an injury in this small space.

“I’m fine,” I huff. Callum nods then begins to withdraw, and I realize that I don’t actually want him to leave. Yeah, I’m still frustrated with him. He behaved terribly. But, I also understand it. Goddamnit, I want to soothe the bastard.

“Just don’t do that again. Okay? Don’t jump to conclusions about me just because Genevieve was a fuckwit.”

Callum nods, then blinks. “Fuckwit?”

“A fucking nit-wit.”

“Nit-wit?” He looks at me with confusion and I shake my head, my wet hair clinging to my neck and forehead. “Forget it. She’s terrible, and I’m not. Remember that.”

“I’ll never forget it,” he says earnestly.

He reaches a hand out, hesitating until I gently dip my face forward. He smoothes the hair off my forehead.

“Let me wash you?” he asks, his voice a quiet rasp.

It’s on the tip of my tongue to deny him, to rightly tell him to go fuck himself. But I don’t want to stay mad. I can’t, not with the way Callum is kneeling before me, like a supplicant before his queen.

“Okay, but no funny business.”

He nods gravely. Then reaches for a bottle.

“You can undress– your clothes are soaked."

Callum only shrugs. “The best way for me to behave is to keep everything on. Consider it a penance.”

I roll my eyes. These Alphas are so dramatic.

Callum helps me stand and squeezes the shampoo into his hands. With the right amount of pressure, he massages my scalp, working up a fantastic lather. I moan without thinking; his touch feels so good.

“Close your eyes,” he rumbles in my ear. Then he carefully guides me to the stream of water, rinsing out the soap from my hair.

He repeats his ministrations, this time with a luxurious conditioner, rubbing my scalp until all the hairs on my head prickle with a tingly kind of awareness.

God, I’m wet for him again.

But Callum only touches me on my head and upper arm to guide me to the water again. I dunk under, trying to regain control. But my body doesn’t want control. My body wants to hand the reins over to Callum. Right now.

Callum growls and I realize I’m perfuming. His wet trousers are plastered to his body, outlining the straining length of his cock.

“Katie,” he whispers. “I can go if,”

“No,” I grab him by his soaked shirt front. “Stay and make it up to me.”

“How can I make it up to you, Omega?”

I am wet with wanting. “More,” I command.

Without another word he shuts off the spray of water, before sweeping me into his arms and carrying me to the bed.

“Your wish is my command, Omega.”