Page 34

Beth

N o one was there to pick me up.

Jensen and I had parted ways at the airport, since he had to hurry to get to the game.

He offered to stay with me until one of my family members arrived, but I had practically shoved him into a cab.

It was bad enough that he wasn’t traveling with the team to be with me; the least I could do was make sure he got to the game on time.

I stood outside the airport for twenty minutes, and no one appeared. With a sigh, I pulled out my phone and dialed one of my dads.

“Hey, Bethy! You just landed?”

“About thirty minutes ago,” I confirmed. “Who’s picking me up? No one’s showed up yet.”

My dad was silent for a moment. “I think one of your brothers is supposed to be grabbing you. Your dad and I are both at work.”

I knew my brothers were pissed I’d skipped out on Thanksgiving, but this was a whole new level of petty. Spending the holiday without them had actually been amazing; I had gone with the guys and Joey to the restaurant, eaten good food, and taken a leisurely walk. It had been simple, but perfect.

“Well, they clearly decided they didn’t want to come get me because they’re pissed. A cab is going to cost an arm and a leg!” I growled.

“I’ll call the boys. Someone will be there within an hour!” he assured me.

Great. I had a whole hour to sit on uncomfortable airport seats.

Danny picked me up, but he wasn’t happy about it. “You could have called a cab,” he grumbled as he pulled up.

“And spend fifty dollars I don’t have? No, thank you.” I threw my bag into the cab of his truck and slammed the door behind me.

“Well, I had shit to do.”

It couldn’t have been anything that important, considering my brother hadn’t held down a job in years.

“You know Hayden is pissed that you didn’t come for Thanksgiving? You totally ruined things for him. We were all expecting you to come home, and you just abandoned us. So, yeah, everyone’s pissed,” Danny continued grumpily.

I sighed. “I told our dads that I wasn’t coming home weeks ago.”

“You’ve never missed a holiday, so why would you start now? Hayden brought the omega he’s been seeing, and thanks to you, we looked pathetic.”

I resisted the urge to snort. My family managed to make themselves look pathetic without even trying. They just liked blaming me because it made them feel better.

“What do you mean?”

“There was no meal,” Danny said, like the answer was obvious.

“You guys didn’t organize a meal?” I asked incredulously. I knew that cooking was beyond their skill set, but I assumed they would get some takeout or find an alternate place to eat.

Danny shrugged. “We all assumed you were coming home. By the time we realized you weren’t, we hadn’t done any shopping, and we couldn’t order out from anywhere. We ended up eating frozen pizza because of you.”

“I fail to see how that’s my fault. I told you guys I was staying in California.”

I was already dreading getting back to the house and seeing what state they had left it in. Looking out the window, I rubbed my stomach subtly. Nausea was swelling in my gut, and I wasn’t sure if it was residual morning sickness or nerves.

Even though logically I knew that none of it was my fault, I couldn’t help the guilt slowly washing over me.

I was the one who always managed the family holidays, and this was the first time I had been away.

I had made a promise to myself and to my mother when she had already passed that I would look after our family, and clearly I was failing.

Would my mother really want to see me doing this much for them, though? She’d managed to do everything and made it look so easy. Was that simply because she was an amazing woman? Or was it because I was looking at our past through the rose-colored glasses of a nine-year-old?

Taking a few deep breaths, I pulled out my phone and, thankfully, the conversation with Danny stopped as he focused on playing with the car radio while he drove.

The weekend couldn’t be over soon enough.

Naturally, the house was filthy.

Still, my heart sank as I took it in. Even as I considered what I needed to do in order to get the place in good condition again, I couldn’t ignore my exhaustion.

Why had my family never learned to do this themselves? Was it my fault for always cleaning up after them? I was pretty sure there was no changing them by that point, so I had essentially trapped myself as their maid.

The smell of most household cleaners made me nauseated, and the prospect of spending the weekend deep-cleaning the house felt like torture.

Then again, maybe this was my penance for abandoning my family over the holiday.

My eyes had been opened, though. I knew that my family took me for granted when it came to cleaning the house and looking after them. For so many years, I had simply assumed that alphas couldn’t do those things, and that’s why they had omegas.

Only, now I had seen how much different it could be.

When I had mentioned to Gideon that the smell of the counter spray in the kitchen was making me nauseated, he’d cleaned the entire kitchen while I was in class with an all-natural cleaner and opened the windows to ensure there were no residual scents to irritate me.

I never had to clean up after them. Sure, I would clean the kitchen or one of the rooms when Joey and I had been doing activities, but that was simply picking up, not deep-cleaning. Pack Noble was able to take care of themselves, and they had made it clear that it wasn’t what they wanted from me.

Well, if I was honest, I wasn’t sure exactly what they wanted from me. This tentative relationship we were entering was confusing, but I never felt taken for granted.

In fact, I felt cherished.

I had been standing in the kitchen, lost in thought as I assessed the room. The bathrooms and the kitchen were always the worst. Usually, I would dive right in and start cleaning, but something was stopping me this time.

“Bethy!” my dads greeted me as they arrived home, both pulling me into hugs. For some reason, their scents weren’t as comforting as usual as I pressed my face into their chests and I hugged them respectively, their facial hair scratching me as they kissed my cheek.

“Hey, it’s good to see you. Work okay?” I asked.

“Keeping us busy!” Frank said with a grin. “But I’m so glad we have our baby girl home. This place just isn’t the same without you,” he declared, pulling me in for another hug.

“I’m going to go lie down for an hour,” I told them as I pulled back, intending to head toward the stairs. I was exhausted and could do with a nap before dealing with all my brothers.

“You’re going to sleep?” Dad asked incredulously.

“I’m tired from the flight.”

Pa frowned. “Aren’t you going to start getting the dinner prepared for tomorrow? Heather is coming over, and you owe it to Hayden.”

I frowned. “You didn’t tell me you’re having visitors this weekend.”

“Hayden invited her over once he learned you were coming. After Thanksgiving.”

My dads sighed, looking at each other.

“Was it that bad?” I asked.

“Well, we’ve all been so busy with work, and we assumed you were coming home, so there was no food, and the house was less than tidy. Heather took one look at the place, and you could tell she wasn’t impressed.”

If I were her, I probably would have run for the hills.

“Why didn’t you order food? I told you I was going to be in California.” I ran my hand through my hair.

“We thought you would change your mind. You always come home for the holidays. We assumed you knew how important family is.”

I ignored that not-so-subtle dig.

“I had work,” I pointed out. “You told me if I wanted to stay in California and study, I had to pay for it myself.”

My dads looked horrified. “That’s cruel, even for you, Bethany. Don’t twist it back on us. We thought you cared about your family enough to make the time to see us for the holidays. You know how much your mother loved Thanksgiving,” Pa said.

Yet they had never made time to come and see me. Looking at the ground, I bit back tears. It felt like no matter what I said or did, it would never be enough for them. They would only be happy when I was back living at home, doing nothing with my life.

That was never going to happen, though.

I had a baby on the way.

And a life in California. A life that I loved .

“Well, we may have to order takeout tomorrow. I don’t have time to cook a large meal, and I’ve still got classwork.”

“Bethany…”

“No.” I glowered at my fathers. “If Hayden wanted me to cook a meal to impress Heather, then he should have asked me before I came here. He should have given me warning so I could do it. I am not going to stay up all night preparing food when I am exhausted. That isn’t fair to me.”

They shook their heads. “Your mother was so good at this…”

There it was again, talking about how my mother would be disappointed in me. They didn’t have to outright say it. They just had to insinuate it to tug on my heartstrings and make me do whatever they wanted.

What if I had a daughter? If the baby I was carrying was a girl, how would I feel if Pack Noble treated her the way my parents treated me?

I would be livid.

I would be so obscenely angry if any men in my family treated my daughter like that. Actually, if any male, regardless of whether or not they were family, treated my daughter that way, I would be feral with rage.

Would my mother have felt the same?

“I need to go get some sleep. I’ve been working and studying all week, and I need an hour’s rest.” My voice was firmer than they were used to, and I didn’t give them a chance to argue before I turned to the stairs and made my way up to the old sanctuary that was my childhood bedroom.

Dinner was oddly quiet.

The dads had ordered pizza, and we sat in the living room, eating. I did my best to ignore the glares from my brothers. Hayden and Danny were eating, and Jake had wandered off, probably to find a beer.

Eventually, the silence became too much, and Hayden put his food down. “So, what are you going to make tomorrow?”

I gave him a cool look. “I’m going to spend time with my family and relax. This is supposed to be a break for me.”

His face twisted in anger. “You know Heather is coming over tomorrow.”

“We can go out to eat.” I shrugged. “There are several nice places in town.”

“Yeah, but thanks to you, she thinks we are a mess. We need to show her we can do family dinners.”

The energy it took to spar with my brother far exceeded what my exhausted state was capable of. “You know?—”

“Bethany!” Jake shouted as he thundered down the stairs, his voice full of anger, cutting off our conversation. “What the fuck are these?”

I looked up and stilled when I saw my bottle of prenatal vitamins in his hand.