Page 101 of Generation Omega: Claimed
“Okay, fine, then tell me you want to leave.” Tillie doesn’t even raise her voice or seem to give a fuck what I decide. She just wants to check this meeting off her list and move on to whatever comes next, which is likely the ragey mountain who just startedsniffing things like he’s a wolf tracking his prey or his next rutting partner.
“Ultimatums,muffin? Really? What makes you think you get to create all the pack’s rules? I’m your alpha.” It’s not lost on me that anyone who has to repeat their title more than once probably doesn’t deserve it.
“That’s a good point, and it’s why I ran this past Gideon, Ory, and Ethan. Kazimir backed me up too. It’s a pack decision to sever ties with any packmate—I believe that’s how it should be.”
“Nepo babies are easily disposable, huh?” I’m so fucking cold… so fucking alone.
This time, Tillie flinches. “That’s not what this is about.”
“Then explain it to me.” I’m emotionally flailing, and I can’t stop—how fucking embarrassing.
Tillie warily eyes the sides and the back, before refocusing on me. “I will, just as soon as you come sit with me. I’m worried Gideon or Ory will sense my feelings, and you’ll become the ping-pong ball they toss around for fun.”
Now, I glance suspiciously at the interior of my cage and understand exactly what she’s thinking. Those fuckers would totally beat me senseless without even getting their hands dirty. It takes an act of will, but I approach and sit on the other mattress, as far from Tillie as I can get.
“Thank you,” she whispers.
“Talk,” I bark, and she winces again.
“Careful,” Tillie warns in an almost threatening tone.
“About what?” Flippant again—I do have a skill set, or is it just an unavoidable default?
“You don’t have the right to compel me right now, and if you do, I’m calling Ory to deal with you. I thought we could have a conversation, but if you…”
Tillie shudders, and I realize the vulnerability she’s facing alone in this box with me. I could fuck her six ways to Sundaybefore they could get back here. I could even coerce her into loving every second of it and then make her forget it after we’re done. Holy crap—I’m a damn date-rape drug if I want to be. I almost hurl at the thought. What the hell is wrong with the omegaverse to create this fucked-up dynamic and call it progress? The clenched fist around my heart compresses, reminding me that it’s more complicated than I’m making it sound.
I scrub my hands over my face, and while it’s still covered, I mutter, “What do you want from me, Tillie? I explained about my limitations. Why are you now pretending they don’t exist? Or that I kept them from you? Why are you acting like it’s fair to expect more than I have to give?”
Tillie wraps her arms around herself, seeming even more fragile. “I acceptedyourterms of being my alpha, untilyoubroke them the second I needed to create one boundary.”
“It was an enormous boundary, sweetheart, and you fucking know that!” Still lashing out—still a dick. “You got your first alpha to block me from your mind. It wasn’tmewho broke the terms of our bond—it wasyou.”
I want her to fight back. I want her to yell at me. But she just sits there thinking about what I said, every one of her thoughts poison because I can’t hear them. I can’t refute them. She shut me out, and I’ve been struggling to survive ever since. The damn woman relit the lighthouse inside me and then took it with her when she left. And now she has the nerve to blame me for instituting the boundaries she forced on me. That’s fucking rich.
“I guess that’s it then.” Her words falter, and my hands ache in their tight fists.
“What?”
“It doesn’t matter now. It’s done.” Her silence is a threat, because I don’t know whether she’s communicating with Gideon right now. Or god forbid, Ory.
“What doesn’t matter? Tell me.” I’m two seconds from begging just to hear her voice.
“Maybe you’re right.”
Maybe you’re right—words that cause a smart man to brace for impact. “About what?”
“About me breaking the terms you set.”
You set… those words are heat-seeking missiles aimed directly at me. Didn’t she set them too? Didn’twemake them? But even asking those questions in my mind makes me the idiot, because I was there when I declared the rules and shoved her off balance, forcing her to accept my way or the highway. How the tables have turned, says the man who may literally meet the highway in a second or two. Combative, little details emerge, presenting a solid judgment—what I did and how I did it prove I didn’t view Tillie as my equal. I fell as hard as the professor for my elevated role, missing the same damn point of these bonds as that total asshat. That seriously blows.
When confronted by faults you aren’t ready to own, there’s really only one thing to do—cheat. I affect the gentle tone Gideon used in one of his most famous roles, Tillie’s favorite. It turns out my range is too narrow to manufacture such an earnest attribute on my own, soparrot life, it is. “Why couldn’t you just accept my terms, my limitations? Can you just tell me that?”
Tillie drags her gaze from the floor and looks at me. “Yourtermswill get us all killed.” She’s practical, not melodramatic, as she speaks.
Like a fool, I seize the drama. “What the hell does that mean?”
“It doesn’t matter now. No matter how much I want you to be my alpha, I can’t let you destroy this pack and the omegaverse with it. So, I’ll just reach out to Gideon and…”
