Tilly

“No, he won’t,” Jackson said. “His services are no longer required.”

My eyes opened far too wide for comfort. My chest rose in a silent sob. Services? James never loved me, never cared for me.

“Services?” I said out loud this time.

“Sorry Tilly, but yes, until you were ready. Until then, he did the job we paid him to do.”

“You paid him to be my boyfriend? That’s perverted shit.”

Had they seen me with my bar flings? I thought I was careful, brief, discreet, and definitely didn’t take anyone home. The hook-ups were in the club and only the club, a beta-club.

“We paid him to stay close to you. To protect you, not get attached, but protect you from others, and he failed in that job.”

“He wanted me to run away with him.”

“Did he?” Jackson said, his lips curled into a snarl.

“He told me he loved me,” I whispered, suddenly realising everything I had with James was a lie.

Jackson looked at me with sadness in his eyes. “He drugged you.”

“I know,” I whispered. “But why?”

“He was betraying you. Betraying us. He sold you out,” he growled.

“To the men that killed my father?” I asked as I wondered who I had been dating.

Jackson shook his head. “And Cruz was not part of that gang.”

“He wasn’t?” And I felt the rising warmth that had been stirring in my chest, from him being too close, rushing into my cheeks. “Do you know what happened to Georgie and my mum?” I asked, glancing up at his face, which towered over me. I didn’t know if it scared me to hear what the gang did to them, but I could only hope, by a miracle, she got away.

He shook his head. “You’ll find out more if you let Cruz tell you his story,” he said, staring at me. I was blinking, trying to understand, trying to work out what was happening. “Come here,” he purred.

My legs buckled, but I grabbed the top of the table. Holding on as I stared at the floor. My body buzzed with the mere sound of the warm, soothing tones of my alpha. Or it was possible because inhaling had doused me in his pheromones?

“Jackson,” I whispered. There was a crack in my voice.

“Come to me, Tilly,” he barked. This time the words were an order, but his voice was soft and his tattooed arms held out in front of him. My stupid fucking legs seemed to follow that order, which was ridiculous since my brain was saying ‘No. No. No.’

He opened his arms to me, and looked as surprised as I felt by walking to him. Probably expecting me to protest. And I should have protested. I should have kept denying who I was when I met him.

But I was so tired of hiding, so tired.

If I accepted Jackson and Luca, maybe I could convince them to drop Cruz from their pack. Who did he want more, me, an omega or another alpha? Then again, if he wasn’t part of the gang, did I want to drop the man I knew was one of my fated?

Maybe it was time to work out what I wanted. Time to accept what I was.

As I tucked myself inside Jackson’s embrace, he was huge, and I should find him intimidating, but felt protected, like I had body armour.

A purr came from above me when I nuzzled under Jackson’s chin. I inhaled, and he smelled pleasant but cosy, his scent wrapping me in a blanket of warm chocolate.

He tilted my head back, his thumbs stroked my cheeks, and I thought he was going to kiss me as my eyes fell shut, waiting. But when he pressed his lips to my forehead, I sighed. Perhaps I wanted that kiss more than I realised.

He inhaled and growled. I peeked up at him. “You need to stop putting that shit in your body,” he said.

“I’ve only sprayed, and it’s not shit, it’s...” There was a moment of hesitation in my voice as thoughts of my mother and the work she was trying to do before she disappeared.

“It’s what?” Jackson muttered, his head tilted to one side as he considered me. Though I had almost admitted what I was doing.

“It’s all natural, nothing shit about it.”

“You are an omega. To be cherished and treasured... loved, but loved like an omega by her alpha pack.”

“Like my sister. Like my mother…?”

Bang. Bang.

We turned to the knock on the door.