Page 18 of For All My Effort
When she turned to him, resting her arm on his shoulder like a casual acquaintance, I knew the drama was about to start, my body leaning toward the TV in anticipation. “Representative Adam, what do you make of the protest that happened in your restaurant which led to the nearly fatal injury of an omega?”
Someone tried to speak, and I shushed them, waving a hand in the general direction of the noise.
“Obviously, something like this should never be allowed to happen again. Omegas need protection, we all know this. I’ll admit, I too was blinded to the fact that even betas posed a threat to our gentlest designation, but this is just undisputable proof. Change needs to happen. Safety needs to be ensured.”
She just let him prattle on, basically spouting his entire political intentions for the news audience. Who was this guy?
“Will you be shutting down your restaurant?” the reporter asked.
“Of course not. This is my livelihood, and I won’t let a failed mob control my decisions.”
“And what about the omega that was injured? Anything to say to her?”
He looked directly at the camera. His eyes seemed to find mine through space and time and cameras and internet and pixels on a screen. “I would recommend she stays with her alphas, if she has some, or to claim a pack of alphas soon. For her safety.”
Not even the pretend worried face he put on looked genuine. Honestly, it kind of creeped me out.
“Who is this guy again?” I asked.
“This is the asshole you were protesting,” Koda said.
Sebastian handed my phone to Han who gave it back to me so I could still see Koda and her men on the other side. They looked distracted, too, like they were also watching the shit-show that was happening.
“He wants to start an age limit where omegas have to be mated by like mid-twenties or else they’ll get assigned an alpha pack.” Koda’s words were surprisingly fierce, drawing my attention down to her and away from the ongoing reporter recapping the situation. “That doesn’t even include the ridiculous motion he wants to add that all new packs should be alpha only.”
I shake my head. “Aren’t betas the majority of the populace? How can he just cut them out of packs?”
“Most betas don’t join packs. We’re raised with a sort of disdain for pack life. Not good enough to be an omega. Not good enough to be an alpha.”
“That’s ridiculous.”
“I agree. But it’s very real. Which means most betas aren’t offended by not being allowed in a pack they never intended to join.”
The number of our potential supporters was shrinking at an alarming rate. Still, that wasn’t what my brain chose to focus on. “You’re a beta?”
Koda chuckled. “Uh, kind of?”
My next question about what exactly that meant was lost when Han spoke up. “The question is, what do they mean by ‘under investigation’? That rep already spoke with Hannah in the hospital. Either their sources are slow, or there’s still shit going on behind the curtains that we’re unaware of.”
I groaned, a disgustingly familiar conversation coming to the forefront of my mind. “That beta. From the compound. She told me she was going to be randomly dropping in. Do you think that’s what they mean?”
“I doubt it,” Sebastian said, coming to kneel in front of me despite the limited space between the couch and the little table. He plucked the phone from my hands, tossing it off to the side for another alpha to catch. “She told us, too, that she’d be stopping by, so don’t stress.”
“They haven’t said anything in a while about an update on the omega,” Han pointed out. “It’s all the same images, the same information about you needing to go to the hospital. Nothing after that. No status on if you’re going to live or not.”
Just the mention of my death had Jackson glaring at Han.
“Do you want to reach out to someone?” Koda asked, barely getting the words out before several alphas, both mine and hers yelled, “No.”
My eyebrows raised at the vehement response from Sebastian and Han. The former quickly explained, “Media work is tricky. At the moment, keeping them in the dark is the only option until we figure out the best route we’re going to take.”
“What does that mean?” I asked. “What routes are there?”
“Right now, they’re using you as a tool to push forward their own agendas.”
“Exactly. I need to stop them.” Even more, I needed my mate to see that.
“I know. And we will. But I promise you, if you reach out to a reporter, they might talk to you. They’d be sympathetic and give you a temporary voice. Then the cameras would shut off, and they’d switch back to the newsroom. You have a documented case of memory loss, which they’ll point out. On top of that, all it would take right now is a little investigative work to confirm that you are a bonded omega that was out, at a protest, without your alphas. They’d force you back to the OC, pull you away from us.”