Page 21 of Claiming the Pack's Omega

“Here’s your toast, Mom,” Savannah says, taking a couple of slices of toast from the toaster and handing them to her. “And I didn’t mean Rey looks bad, I just meant she doesn’t look like she feels too good.”

“Thank you, sweetie.” Mom grabs her toast from Sav, glancing at the clock and cursing under her breath.

If she rushes, she won’t be late for work, but today is definitely an “eat toast while she drives to the diner” kind of morning.

She stops in front of me, her eyes drawing down in concern. “Savannah is right, you don’t look well.”

“Yeah, I’m running a fever. I think I caught whatever Daisy had last week.”

“Oh no! I can pick up medicine on my way back from work? I got paid on Friday so?—”

“No need, Mom, don’t worry about it,” I say, flashing her a reassuring smile. “I got some medicine on the way back home.”

Her brows draw down in concern. “I’ll give you the money when I get back from work.”

“Seriously, it’s okay, I had someone tip me really well last night at the bar.”

Someone did tip me really well. Just not at the bar. But she doesn’t need to know that.

“I’m just going to take it easy today, try and get some rest and stuff,” I say, trying to reassure her. “You should focus on getting to work on time, you don’t want to piss off your boss.”

“You’re right,” Mom sighs. “I just worry, it’s my job to worry.”

She leans in and kisses my cheek before heading out of the kitchen.

“Daisy! Eli! Breakfast is ready!” Savannah yells.

The two of us start plating up our breakfast.

“Rey!” Daisy says, running into the kitchen in her long-sleeved, button-up, cartoon strawberry pajamas. “Good morning!”

“Good morning, Daisy,” I say, patting her on her head. She takes after our dad, with her adorable curly ringlets of auburn hair, though Dad keeps his hair cropped short so it’s easier to getengine grease out of it. “Can you help bring this plate over to the dining table? This is yours.”

“Yeah!” She says, practically bouncing at the opportunity to help.

“Morning,” Eli, our brother, says as he joins us.

“Morning, Eli,” I answer. “Could you grab some forks for us?”

“Sure,” he yawns. “By the way, the wifi is down. Could you check it out?”

“Is it? I paid it on time,” I huff. “I’ll check it out after breakfast.”

“You should rest,” Savannah says to me, setting down our plates. “Eli can wait a few hours before playing his video games. You worked overtime last night.”

I work my ass off so that I can afford to get my siblings some small comforts, like the handheld video game console I bought for Eli’s tenth birthday. It has a small crack on the screen, but I’d say it’s well worth the ninety dollars I spent on it.

If I’m willing to work to make them happy and try and give them some semblance of a childhood that I never really got, then of course I’d be willing to spend time to fix something that’s broken.

“I’d rather just get it out of the way,” I shrug. “Plus, you’ll probably need the wifi back on to turn in your homework before you go to school tomorrow, right?”

“I turned in all my homework for the week on Friday,” she says.

“Not surprising, you’re a genius.” I start digging into the plate of eggs, bacon, and toast in front of me and sigh, relaxing into the rickety wooden chair I’m sitting in. I may have gotten sleep, but I haven’t eaten since lunch yesterday. I guess I didn’t realize how hungry I was until now.

“I can take care of lunch, then, if you’re going to fix the wifi now,” Savannah offers. “That way you can get some actual good rest.”

“You seriously don’t have to.”