Page 26 of Claiming the Pack's Omega

I get that he wants to help, but he can’t help someone like me. Not when he can’t relate to being a fraud in the pack like I feel every day.

CHAPTER 9

Reyna

Ican’t fucking believe it, but I haven’t hated going to work. It’s been two weeks since Theo slipped me five hundred bucks along with some medicine.

Theo’s bought my Saturday nights twice, just for us to cuddle. His favorite thing to do seems to be petting me until I fall asleep.

Petting is such a weird way of putting it, but I don’t know what else to call it. He’ll stroke his hands up and down my arms or back, or run his hands through my hair until I fall asleep. So far, he hasn’t pushed any further than that when it comes to touching me, even though he could be doing a lot more. Especially for the amount of money he’s been throwing at Dom to book me.

Plus the money he’s slipped me as a tip every single time he’s been here. Five hundred each time.

It’s been such a bizarre experience. I actually find myself interested in getting to know him and hungry for the little bits of personal info he’ll drop about himself during our conversations.

I think back on one of my favorite conversations with him.

“So,I know you know about my family,” I say, playing with one of the buttons on his white dress shirt as I lay on his chest. “What kind of family do you come from?”

“You want to learn about me, do you?”

“Of course I do, you’re this strange question mark. You don’t fit any of the ideas I have of Northside alphas.”

“I hope you don’t want to just get to know me ‘cause I’m different,” he says, playfully.

I flash him a smirk in return.

“Okay, I’ll play your game Theo, I don’t mind inflating that ego of yours. It’s ‘cause I like you. I’m curious about you. I want to get to know you.”

“Good to know,” he winks. “And my family… things were difficult for a really long time. My mom was an omega with three alphas of her own. They… they didn’t care for her very much, from what I remember. They were always off ‘working.’ It wasn’t a happy bond. I’m pretty sure my fathers were… seeing prostitutes outside the marriage.”

My throat closes up and it takes all my willpower to keep my hands from trembling.

His fathers—his fathers probably saw someone like me. Have I ever stopped to consider whether any of the alphas that came to see me were bonded or had children waiting for them back home?

Not really, and technically, I haven’t really had a choice, but still. Seeing this man I’ve come to respect, come to care about, hurting, makes my heart wrench in my chest.

“Oh my god,” I whisper. I blink, trying to process what he’s just shared. “Is that—is that why you came—fuck, I don’t knowhow to ask this without sounding like a fucking asshole. I don’t really know what your dads were like, but I do know you’re nothing like them.”

He lets out a soft laugh. It’s an exhausted sound. Like it drains him to talk about his past.

I can relate to that.

“Are my fathers why I came to a place like this? I guess, in a way, yes, a little bit. I wanted to see the kind of place they might have frequented. And then I saw you dancing on the stage and couldn’t look away.”

“Are they why you don’t, you know, do more than cuddle?”

He shrugs.

“I don’t know. If you’re asking whether I have an omega waiting for me at home,” he meets my gaze, his amber eyes boring into mine. “Then no.”

“Okay, good to know,” I whisper, my eyes darting down to his lips. I can’t help it. He’s so close and his smoked cardamom scent smells so good. I just want to comfort him in the only way I know how.

He settles back onto the pillows before I have a chance to lean in and close the distance between us.

“My mom was an alcoholic for most of my childhood. Then she got addicted to pills. She overdosed when I was twelve. My dads wanted nothing to do with me and renounced their parenting rights. I bounced around in foster care until after the riots, fifteen years ago.”

“Oh my god, I’m so sorry, that—that sucks.” My hand fists into his dress shirt as I imagine a small Theo, all alone. At least I’ve always had my parents, who I know love me with all their hearts. And I’ve never felt alone with my three siblings in the house.