Page 57 of Claiming the Pack’s Omega (Riverwell Omegaverse #2)

I reach up and brush the back of my fingertips against her collarbone, desperate to touch some part of her. She looks so perfect that part of me is afraid that my touch will do something to taint her.

A brief flash of anxiety appears in her storm gray eyes, but she's quick to mask it. It's not surprising that she's nervous. I'm certainly nervous as well.

"Ready as I'll ever be," she says.

"Then we should get going," I say. I turned to face the rest of the guys. "Let's do this."

The drive to my parents’ place is uneventful, though my hands do get progressively more clammy the closer we get.

"Damn, this place is crazy," Reyna says as I drive us past the gates and up the long, winding driveway to their mansion.

Because that's really the only way to describe my parents’ house.

They've always been incredibly conscientious of status and do everything in their power to show off their own. The three-story mansion with ostentatious pillars and a long marble staircase leading to the front door is no exception.

I put the car into park and all of us move to get out. Milo extends his hand to Reyna to help her down and she smooths a hand down the crimson fabric of her dress.

"One of us will be with you at all times," I say to Reyna.

Reyna holds onto Milo's arm as we all walk the steps to my childhood home. The moment the door opens and I see the expression of the butler I've known for as long as I can remember, I know things aren't going to go well.

"Good evening, young master Killian."

"Good evening, Arthur," I say. "How have you been doing?"

"As well as you can likely imagine," Arthur says. There's a tightness around his eyes that betrays his true feelings. While my parents pay the help well, they don't make it a habit of making their jobs easy. "Please be cautioustonight."

"You know I will be," I say softly as I walk inside.

"That's not ominous at all," Reyna whispers to Milo behind me.

As the five of us walk into the foyer, I instantly know what Arthur was talking about.

My mother comes strutting down the staircase in an incredibly pretentious cream color dress.

I don't know how she makes something that likely cost a ridiculous amount of money look cheap, but she's been very successful.

It then hits me that this dress looks suspiciously bridal.

I'll have to keep that in mind for when we have our wedding, because I won't stand for her ruining a day that should be all about Reyna.

I don't know why my mother would choose to wear a dress like this, knowing that I'm introducing the only omega that I've brought home in nearly a decade, but she's always been the kind of person to make a scene.

"Damn, that dress is ridiculous," Theo whispers to Reyna. She tries to stifle a giggle—rather unsuccessfully, I might add—but luckily, my mother is far enough away for her not to have heard.

"Oh Killian!" My mother says, throwing her arms around my neck the moment that she makes it down the stairs to us. I stiffen under her hold, but still wrap my arms around her like a good son should.

I pull away at the first opportunity, taking a large step back.

"It's been so long!" She holds my cheeks in an undeniably maternal way. I feel like bugs are crawling across my skin where she's touching me. She never held me like this as a child, so why is she doing so now?

It dawns on me then, when I notice the way that her eyes keep on drifting over my shoulder and to Reyna. She's putting on a show. A strange, territorial showto prove that she's the more important woman in my life.

Unfortunately for her, that's a spot in my life that will never, ever be hers again.

I reach up and pull away her hands from my face.

"Hello, mother." I don't say it's good to see her. Because it isn't. But there's still a level of formality that I have to adhere to so that she doesn't throw a fit.

"How cold of you," my mother says. "You think you'd show your mother some affection, considering how long you've stayed away from home. But I see how things are."

Well, looks like she's still throwing a bit of a fit. If nothing I ever do will ever be good enough, then why should I continue pouring the amount of effort I have been?

"How about you introduce me to this new omega of yours?" She says the word omega like it's a curse. As she turns her gaze to Reyna, it grows so sharp it could cut glass.

Despite this, Reyna keeps her chin up. You think she's grown up surrounded by the catty Northside omegas all her life, with how well she carries herself.

"Yes, I'd love to introduce you. Mother, meet Reyna, the omega my pack is courting," I say. I'm about to tell her that Reyna is our scent match, but we're interrupted by a loud commotion.

"Oh, look who it is, looks like my little brother decided to show his face after all." My older brother's voice cuts through the foyer.

I feel every muscle in my body lock up in preparation.

"Hello, Maximus," I say through gritted teeth.

He walks towards us a smug smile on his face as his omega date follows behind him. I feel all of my packmates stiffen when we catch sight of who he's brought to dinner tonight.

Angie Winters.

He fucking brought Angie Winters. The girl who falsely accused Milo of touching her inappropriately when they were in middle school. The girl responsible for the endless bullying he experienced.

Of course. Of fucking course.

The smug look on Maximus's face makes me wanna punch him until he’s unrecognizable. He knows exactly who she is to our pack. He wanted to create chaos tonight, and given the furious expressions on Stone, Theo, and my face and the terror in Milo's, I think he was successful.

This is the kind of shit he lives for. I swear, he spends more time trying to ruin my life than he does trying to build his own.

"Is that her?" Reyna whispers, her voice an almost deadly, eerie sort of calm.

"Yes," Milo whispers, his voice so shaky he can barely get the single syllable out.

There's a flash of anger that appears on Reyna's expression. But then she catches sight of my brother, and she goes pale. I don't miss the way that her hand trembles when she clings to Milo's arm.

My gaze immediately jerks to my brother's face so I can try and gauge what he's thinking. He looks shocked, which is incredibly rare. Then his expression goes hungry, and he's staring right at Reyna.

"What the hell did you think you were doing by bringing her as a date?" Theo growls, stepping in front of Milo and Reyna, hiding them from sight.

"What, am I not allowed to go to places I've been invited?" Angie says, examining her nails.

"Know your place," my brother sneers, eyeing Theo up and down. "I can have whoever the hell I want over to my fucking house. Right, Mom?"

"Of course, son. Now, I don't know what in the world is going on here, but you should put your differences aside," she says, narrowing her gaze on me and my pack.

"You heard her," my brother says. "Now, little brother, introduce me to this date of yours. I'm very interested."

Reyna's throat trembles as she swallows hard. She's doing her best to hide it, but all four of us can tell that there's something wrong. She's never reacted this way to another alpha before.

The four of us move closer to her, almost instinctively. With the way that we're all clustered around her, Maximus likely can barely see her.

There's a bit of awkward silence that goes on a bit too long, so my mother interrupts with a huff. "You've brought her here, you can't hide her now," she says, rolling her eyes.

My jaw clenches as I stare down my brother, trying to figure out what in the world he's trying to do. There's a glimmer in his eyes that I know all too well. He knows something that I don't. He also knows that I don't know what he knows, and he relishes that.

"This is silly," Angie says, rolling her eyes. "I was the victim, so why are you acting all protective of her ?"

Now it's her turn to glare daggers at Reyna.

My brows draw down and confusion as I jerk my gaze towards her. I was so consumed with my brother and trying to figure out whatever plan he has in his head that I forgot for a second that she was there.

Of course, she would think the awkward tenseness only has to do with her.

She's the kind of omega that lacks the ability to see beyond herself.

Just like my mother. If my brother is serious about her, then maybe this would be a viable match, but I'm not confident he has any interest in her outside of using her to get under my skin.

Looks like she doesn't like my brother's attention being drawn away from her.

"Shut the fuck up," Theo snarls.

"Don't talk to my date that way," my brother says, getting into Theo's face.

There's so much alpha dominance flying around in the room, that I'm sure a fight will likely break out soon.

"Why are you always like this?" My mother cries, her voice reaching the same grating pitch it does before she throws one of her big fits."Why can't you just have one peaceful dinner with your family, Killian? Would it kill you to treat us like family?"

My brother says something stupid under his breath about Milo, and Theo looks like he's ready to swing.

"What in the world is going on!" My father's booming voice calls.

I scrub a hand down my face as everyone around me starts yelling and screaming at each other.

I feel a small hand brush against my back and watch as Reyna and Milo hurry off to the balcony off the living room. Good, they shouldn't be here for this.