Page 45 of Omega Forged (Hartlock Omegas #2)

Tully

I stepped outside the circle of my alphas as Seph, my former friend, glided toward me.

What was she doing here? They were meant to be in Astaly.

Seph had her sleek red hair pinned off her face, sharp cheekbones softened by a wide smile. She wore a black, strapless dress, showing off her freckled skin. No silver bites marred her slender neck. A beta couldn’t be claimed.

“Seph.” I swallowed a boulder in my throat.

She let out an airy laugh of surprise and I wished I could return her exuberance, but it was impossible. Not when her pack followed her through the crowd, with a mixture of curiosity and adoration warming their faces.

All except one.

My stomach flipped, and the acid burned a fiery imprint up my throat.

Walden pressed a hand against my back, his way of reminding me he was there.

I was glad my scent was gone, so they wouldn’t know how truly terrified I was.

My former friend eyed Walden with curiosity, tracking the movement with open interest.

She wouldn’t smile if she’d known what her packmate had done to me.

“Seph Campion, right? Your father is Don of Campion enterprises?” Ajax introduced himself and the pack, while I tried to gain control of my scrambled brain. “We haven’t met officially.”

“What are you doing here?” I interrupted.

My pack slid me looks, and I knew the strain in my tone wasn’t fooling anyone. Damn my inability to mask anything. I drew in a deep breath, determined to pretend.

“You disappear like a ghost and ask me that question?” Hurt threaded her words, and I crossed my arms.

She melted back into her pack. My stomach churned as Neil and Tomas offered a polite smile. They didn’t know me, except in a passing welcome. But their images burned into my brain. It felt like a lifetime ago when I’d imagined being their omega.

Chase reeled me in with his lies and I’d fallen headlong into daydreams about life in their arms. Before he found out the truth about my fortune. Seph’s cheeks glowed with a tipsy, tinged red and she exuded warmth, the type that came with the certainty of love.

“I-I’ve been dealing with some stuff,” I lied, a lame attempt.

Seph’s face creased, and I wished there was something I could say to iron out the little wrinkle between her eyes, but it was impossible. That would require telling her the truth.

“We’ve got so much to catch up on, like your new pack.” She dug at my expression for something she wouldn’t find.

The version of Tully she knew died the minute I realized Chase had been using me. That wasn’t Seph’s fault. Her parents were the only wealthy family my parents stayed in contact with, and we’d grown up together. Shared our hopes for the future, talked about our dreams for a pack.

I wanted a family where I was an integral part.

Not a third wheel, like the family I’d been born into. I craved the connection a pack promised. Chase latched onto my desires and coaxed me into his thrall before pulling the rug out from underneath me. When I realized what he’d done, swapped out one heiress for another, I ceased contact with Seph.

“I’m not making any rash decisions right now.”

“Like dumping your best friend for no reason?” Alcohol loosened her tongue and festering hurt bled out.

Seph wouldn’t have been so candid in public without it. She was elegant in a way I couldn’t emulate. What made her perfect facade crack? Was it something to do with Chase? He wasn’t here. I searched over her shoulder.

“I hear you’re trying to market to Astaly? They have interesting laws over there with scent marking. Has that been an issue?” Walden interjected when nothing came from my thin lips.

Neil and Tomas nodded gratefully. Detracting from the tension, thick enough to strangle everyone. Seph turned her furrowed brow away from me and I sagged against Pan.

I wanted to walk away. The idea tasted bitter in the back of my throat.

“It’s been a challenge, but the high prince is more progressive, which could take Astaly from being sheltered to a powerhouse. Which will benefit Starhaven,” Neil said.

He had chestnut hair, the only similarity between Chase and him.

“Are you going to ignore me here, too?” Seph whispered as her gaze flickered to my bracelet.

She knew Walden had given it to me, and her eyes misted. I couldn’t find a smile to placate her. Seph didn’t understand why I was being so strange, so cold. I couldn’t have prepared for the ice in my veins, the way it froze my tongue and flooded me with chilling memories.

Walden’s hand landed on my shoulder, offering comfort as he, Neil, and Tomas carried on their stilted conversation about Astaly. About the company that wouldn’t exist if not for me. My insides twisted. Ajax and Lloyd pressed in close, Pan plastered against my back.

I wanted to ask where Chase was. Sweat sprang on my upper lip and I couldn’t stop the shiver of panic that charred my spine.

What would Chase do when he saw me here?

He couldn’t claim me, had never intended to, but would he try?

Would he look right through me like he’d done the night he’d broken my naive heart?

I felt the fool again. Why did I let them convince me to come to this gala?

“I haven’t been a good friend,” I gritted out through my tight throat.

“I-I never thought I’d find out about you joining a pack from gossip. Remember when we were girls, and we used to write lists in our diaries? It’s everything you always wanted.”

My stomach cramped, and my teeth latched onto my tongue to stop whining. The glittering lights in the room spun, and I squeezed my eyes tight, sucking in a shuddering breath.

“S-Sorry.” My stuttered apology did nothing to shift the dark upset in Seph’s gaze.

“Do you need a break?” Lloyd whispered in my ear. His squeeze on my hip was concerned. “Do you need to sit down?”

I needed to be teleported anywhere but here right now.

I had to get over it before the acidic anxiety burned a hole in my stomach.

“Chase said he was looking for you earlier,” Tomas said to Pan.

“Oh, CJ met me by the bar, was trying to convince me to join him out afterward,” Pan said, and at Walden’s sharp look, his grin dimmed. “Or not.”

CJ. CJ. CJ.

I didn’t want to acknowledge the connection my brain made. I trembled on the edge of a wire stage, the spotlight harsh against my face. Sweat prickled a lazy, telling line down my spine. The room swirled, and it took everything in me not to collapse.

“Is Chase not with you tonight?” There was no heart squeeze when I thought about the man who’d used and tossed me aside. There was nothing but sickness.

Seph’s eyes lit up, her features so bright. “He’s just getting me a drink.” She waved a hand.

“Wait, Tully. Don’t tell me you know CJ? What a small world.” Pan let out a laugh. “Has he been at the bar the entire night?”

Something inside me snapped, and I felt the crush of phantom bone and tendons as Pan nonchalantly tore me down with his revelation. I blinked against the rising pain, let it swallow me whole.

Chase was friends with Pan?

The one who Ajax disapproved of. It might have made me laugh, if I hadn’t been on the verge of a breakdown.

“You know Chase, he’s the life of the party.” Tomas lifted a shoulder.

Pan stiffened behind me and his hand lifted into the air. “There he is, CJ. Come meet Tully.”

My knees became jelly, and I trembled as the man I’d run from came into view.

Chase. CJ. They were the same person.

Time hadn’t punished him for the things he’d done to me.

He slicked his chestnut hair back on top, shaving the sides short.

The bristles used to feel like velvet underneath my fingertips.

He walked with the confidence of a man who commanded attention all his life.

Blue eyes, like shards of a glacier, flashed with surprise and delight as they landed on me.

When he’d sought me out at my parents' funeral, I’d swum in the comfort he gave.

He passed a wine to Seph and brushed a kiss on her cheek. Seph beamed, and I clamped my tongue between my teeth at the rush of bile. Chase and I fucked in dark, empty rooms while he’d courted Seph, unknown to me. Did Chase enjoy the illicitness of tasting me when he confessed his love to my friend?

He’d lied to us both.

Guilt was a jagged wave of razors inside me.

Every turn unearthed long-buried shame. Sweat prickled down my back.

His betrayal killed the naive heat I nursed for him in my chest. The perfect symmetry of his features hid a selfish monster.

Chase aimed his trademark beautiful smile at me.

But it didn’t cause a riot of butterflies like it used to.

Before I could stop him, Chase leaned forward and wrapped his arms around me in a hug. His cheek coasted across mine. The heat of his skin was a violation, and I wobbled at the rude touch. Seph made a small noise, and Tomas hauled him backward. Chase’s glimmering smile didn’t falter.

I gagged, turning to rub my cheek on Pan, when Walden stepped up with a growl. Ajax cupped my cheek and replaced Chase’s crawling touch with his own. I was in a safe cocoon of my pack, but I didn’t feel mollified.

Chase was right there. I wanted to scream out what he did to me, but I couldn’t. The words clogged my throat.

“Don’t touch our omega,” Lloyd said, firm.

Pan let out a soft laugh, dismissing Chase’s gross overstep. “Are you drunk? This is the beautiful omega I was bragging to you about.” Pan dropped a kiss on my head, adding. “But it seems like you’ve already met?”

Rage flashed in Chase’s eyes, a potent jealousy that burned my skin to a crisp. But an effusive apology replaced it in a second.

“My apologies. I really embarrassed myself there, didn’t I?” Chase held his palms up in a gesture of peace. “One too many drinks tonight. You know how it goes, Pan. I didn’t realize you were talking about the Tully Hartlock. We’re old friends, aren’t we, Tully?”

His comment echoed in my ear, accompanied by the phantom feeling of his hands on my body. His breath hot in my ear as he panted.