Page 61 of The Packaged Deal
I burst into giggles. It takes me a minute to calm down and wipe the tears from my eyes.
“I see,” I say, trying valiantly to pull myself together. “So, you should have been a veterinarian?”
“No. I contemplated it, but animals come with even more emotional and irrational humans.”
I burst into laughter that shakes my whole body. “That’s very true. People do love their,” I cast a look at the driver's seat, “kitties.” Sven chokes, giving away just how closely he’s been listening, and I snicker again, pleased with his reaction. I draw patterns on his arm. “So, why do you work at the Omega Refuge?”
“I work there because someone needs to. The women I treat are often afraid and don’t speak much.”
I stare up at him. I can’t tell exactly what it is, but something inside is saying no. “You’re lying,” I accuse softly.
He grunts, he’s not offended by my insight. “Fine, how are you so perceptive? When I was a teenager, I remember seeing a woman sitting on a building step. She was beaten up and sick. My brother, Simon, and I called and tried to get her help, but the police just came and moved her on. I felt helpless and full of rage that something like this could happen, and people could see it but not care. There aren’t many places that will help runaway omegas. When the refuge opened, I figured the least I could do was help people escape horrible situations. So, I put my name down.”
“Who was the woman?” I ask, following my instincts. Adrian is too calm, too still in the way he’s speaking. There is something he’s trying to hide.
Adrian gets really tense. I think he might withdraw from me, pull away and keep his secrets, but instead, he reaches out and covers my hand with his.
“My mother,” he says at last. “When I was sixteen, she left a note, and she ran. She needed to run, we’d told her to. He was going to kill her one day soon. I was so happy that she was away from my father. I took Simon, and we left two days later. We managed to find her four years after that, by chance. My father was dead by then, a cardiac arrest. He deserved worse. We were able to resume our relationship with her, now that it was safe for her to do so. She’s an enormous part of my life, we go and meet up with her often. I think you’ll like her.”
Kandi and Sven and listening intently. So am I. My poor alpha.
“That was so brave, Adrian,” I whisper. “I think what you do in the Omega Refuge is amazing. And I can’t wait to meet your mother.”
He softens and gradually relaxes entirely. I stroke his arm, telling him without words how I feel about him. Neither of us mentions the three weeks or our uncertain future.
“You love Simon a lot, don’t you?”
“He’s my family,” Adrian says simply. “I’m very proud of him.”
“I’d like to meet him one day.”
“I’ll arrange it,” Adrian says thickly.
Before I leave is left unsaid. But I ignore that. I’m not thinking about any of that today.
The car ride continues in silence, but it’s comfortable. We get to the shopping center, and I look out the windows. My nerves have ramped up.
“Nothing is going to hurt you,” Sven says and narrows his intimidating glare through the windshield to a kid who stares too long at us. The child lets out a squeak and turns away. Sven doesn’t turn and look at me, he just clenches his fingers around the steering wheel. “Nothing is going to happen.”
“Okay. I trust you,” I say to Sven and reach for the door handle, sliding out of the car. “I haven’t done this before,” I admit as we walk towards the white concrete building.
People are going in and out, absent-mindedly going about their business.
“Done what?” Kandi asks.
“Shopped like this, at a supermarket. It’s going to be so exciting!”
Kandi whistles and goes to touch me, only to hesitate and pull back.
I stop dead. Irate and offended. “What was that?”
“What?”
“Why did you do that?” I snap.
“Do what?”
I narrow my eyes. “Why did you go to touch me and stop? Are you ashamed of me?”