No words could describe just how proud the women on the other side of the table were as they looked at us. "Well, all I had to do was tell you to sign some papers for my estate, and you signed anything I asked for blindly."
I closed my eyes, inhaling deep as I remembered the exact moment my mother began to pull one over on me. "Mom. That was months ago!"
"These things take time; I'm sorry I couldn't get her here sooner."
"You need to take her back," I demanded.
"Unfortunately, you and I both know that isn't possible."
I turned to Sophia. "I'm sorry, but you understand you can't stay, right?"
She tried to hold her face neutral as she nodded, looking back at her hands again, and fuck, I was furious at our mothers for bringing this innocent omega into this mess. "Yes."
"You cannot return her to the Industries," Cecil spat. "She was a final sale."
"She's a living being and shouldn't be sold," Bran fumed.
"You know that's not how the world works," Jane looked at her son. "Omegas are valuable. The cost of them is to ensure thatthey are going to be cared for, that the people acquiring them can afford to have them."
"But we can't, clearly," I roared. "We didn't pay that fee."
My mother waved her hand. "It was paid, same difference. We're all family here. And I know that without the fee, you can care for her just fine."
I was mortified to admit in front of the omega that we weren't capable of paying the fee to buy her. I didn't have to look toward her to know that her face was probably a mask of disgust. "She belongs with someone better than us."
"If there was someone better than you three, we'd not have paid the fee," Jane stated.
"This is a farm," I took a deep breath. "We have mud, and blood, and midnight cattle emergencies. This isn't a place for an omega."
"Did you even read her profile, James?" My mother crossed her arms over her chest.
"I don't need to read her profile to know that this farm isn't fit for her."
My mother laughed before addressing Sophia. "Anything you'd like to add to the conversation?"
She wrung her hands in her lap, nerves clear, and that alone should be reason enough to kick my mother out of my house. How dare she make the omega uncomfortable. How dare she expose just how weak of an alpha I was that I couldn't provide for my omega the way she deserved.
"I'm not afraid of dirt, or blood, or cattle. I don't care about the fees to acquire me; I'm only sorry that I'm not capable of meeting the standards of all alphas I come into possession of."
"Sophia," Bran tried to smooth it over, "it's not that you're not capable of meeting our standards; it's that we aren't worthy of yours."
Her voice was soft when she spoke, "And who gets to decide that?"
CHAPTER
SEVEN
SOPHIA
The edge of my thighs burned from the nearness of James's legs on one side and Leo's on the other. My omega practically purred her contentment, demanding I touch them so fiercely my fingers nearly ached with the need to place my hand on their legs and feel their body heat seep into my palm.
This feeling was new.
My omega was not fond of my other unit, but Bran and Leo, and even James... she wanted me to crawl up in their pallet and surround myself with their scents.
Our alpha does not think he's worthy of us, which only makes him more worthy, my omega cooed.
They mentioned a beta. Maybe he cannot want us when he wants her.
