Natalia’s P. O. V

I interjected, begging Jenna and Lucy with my eyes to go along with my lie, “I met them at a library I’ve been going to and we just seemed to get along pretty well. I went there today cause I thought you guys were busy and saw them, so I brought them over.”

I held my breath, waiting for someone to continue the conversation.

“Yeah…” Lucy started, “she told us about her birthday and we offered to come over.”

Jenna nodded, “Ari’s always got her nose buried in a book, so it’s nice to see her in a different environment like this.”

“That’s so nice.” Hailey smiled, likely pleased with the idea of making more friends.

I suppressed a sigh and turned to her, “Hailey, I think we should get started on the food. Do you want me to help?”

She shook her head, “You just have fun and talk to everyone, we’ll handle the party.”

I thanked her and she wandered off, motioning to Kaesha and Timothy to help her with the food.

I turned to Jenna and Lucy, hoping the panic wasn’t showing on my face, “Thanks, you guys, for going along with it. Besides my sister and the two people she’s with right now, all the other people here think I’m turning nineteen, so please… I don’t know. Don’t lie, I guess, but they can’t find out the truth cause they go to my college.”

Jenna laughed, “It’s cool, really. You’ve got stuff you don’t want causing issues with the human institution you’re attending. We can understand that.”

Lucy nodded.

I thanked them some more and took them around the room, introducing them to everyone. Like Hailey, most of the people present were in awe of Jenna. Lucy was definitely beautiful too, but Jenna seemed to stun everyone with her looks. I guess I was witnessing the allure of an Uncovered Syren in action. I bet if they could see her hair colour, they’d be even more fascinated, not that her airy, gravity defying hair wasn’t entirely showstopping without the hot pink look.

Looking around, I watched as all the aspects of my life blended together in my living room. I tried my best to ignore the panic lurking around the edge of my mind. This party was exactly what I didn’t know I’d desired the entire day, but something deep in my chest felt like it was a disaster waiting to happen. The humans could hear or see something they shouldn’t, the Werewolves could find out I was a Syren, the Syrens could find out I wasn’t just in the city at my pack’s behest, and I still had to remember to make sure that Trevor and Greg didn’t suspect me of being a Vampire.

I spent a lot of the party running around and corroborating stories. Trevor, Greg and my study group friends just knew of me as their friend and fellow student, so I kept them out of everything Supernatural related. Everyone besides Timothy, Jenna and Lucy could relate on the topic of Killdrain, so I steered the conversation towards that. When the question of how I knew Timothy at all came up, Kaesha jumped in to say he was a relative of hers. And as far as anyone who wasn’t a Werewolf or Syren was concerned, I was turning nineteen today.

By the time the present giving part of the celebration rolled around, I was somewhat satisfied that none of my secrets would spill over to where they weren’t supposed to be.

I opened the first present to find a pair of light blue running shoes.

“Hailey said that you usually go on runs in the morning.” Trevor explained.

“Yeah,” Greg added, “and I remembered your shoe size from when we went shopping the first time you got here.”

I smiled up at the both of them, “Thank you so much, guys. I’ve almost worn my shoes out from when I first got them.”

Ada and Annya stepped forward, handing me a flat, rectangular gift. I opened it to reveal a laptop case.

“It’s from all of us. We figured you might need one, since we’ve never seen you with one in class.” Annya explained.

“Yeah. We don’t know very much about you, but you can never go wrong with a gift that’s useful. Happy birthday.” Ada said, smiling.

“Thank you so much, but you guys didn’t have to get me anything, really.”

“Think of it as a thank you, for all those detailed notes. They really help with the more particular lecturers.” Nathaniel said.

I shrugged, “I guess that works.”

Timothy and Kaesha stepped up, and Kaesha’s hand lightly brushed my arm.

‘Your real gift is upstairs, in your study.’ I heard Timothy’s voice in my head, ‘It’s a wooden scale model of the plans I have to turn the ghost town you sent me to into somewhere fitting of a halfway decent Werewolf Pack.’

Out loud, he said, “For when you get to the top, and need to stamp your logo on some paperwork or something.” Then he handed me an ink pad.

I laughed. The others shared confused looks, but my future pack members got the message loud and clear.

The next gift came from both Kaesha and Hailey. It was a beautiful silver bracelet with tiny blue gems embedded in the intersections of the chain.

“I thought you’d like it, and Kaesha added a few tweaks to it.” Hailey said shifting on her feet and looking slightly unsure.

‘I redid the spell on your jacket on this bracelet, so you won’t have to wear that jacket in the summer.’ Kaesha explained in my head, ‘Hailey picked the bracelet, and she’s been freaking out about whether you’d like it or not since we walked out the jewellery store.’

I caught them both in a hug, whispering into Hailey’s ear, “I love it, thank you.”

When I pulled away, her grin was in full force, and Kaesha was smiling warmly at us.

“Why don’t we all get in for a picture as the birthday girl cuts the cake.” Beth suggested.

Hailey set her phone atop the fireplace and started the timer. Everyone squeezed into the frame and I placed my hand on the knife handle protruding from the cake.

“Everyone say ‘cheese’!”

The timer finished its countdown, and we all yelled ‘cheese’, grins wide to various degrees. My own smile looked happier than I’d seen myself, surrounded by people that I meant something to.

Callum’s P. O. V

I woke up to another day in hell.

My tears had dried up days ago, so my showers now consisted of me staring blankly at the wall as the water ran over me. I’d finally figured out how to fix the hot water to my bathroom after Brittany got Harry to make someone cut it. It had taken over a week and my new status as the pariah of our pack meant nobody was willing to help me and risk persecution by association.

A shoulder rammed into mine as I shuffled down the corridor. I kept my head down and held my breath, praying it was just one of the ordinary pack members. I heard a scoff and the person continued on their way.

Since the night of the fight, I’d pretty much been reduced to the status of an omega in all but my title, and even that wasn’t guaranteed right now. I’d hurt the Alpha’s precious daughter and the future Alpha’s little sister. If Brittany wanted, she could demand to have me, and maybe even my dad, stripped of our titles.

And she could be successful.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

Anywhere with a person other than James or the new Omega was a no-go zone for me. I slipped through the kitchen, grabbing something to eat on my way, and found my way outside, to the forest of our territory. After walking for a few minutes, I found a nice tree to climb and rest in its branches.

Half an hour into the scanty meal that I was trying to make last as long as possible, I heard footsteps approach. I stopped chewing and remained silent, hoping the person would just pass through without spotting me.

The footsteps stopped a few feet away from my tree. After too many seconds of the person not moving or speaking, I dared to peek through the leaves to check for who it was.

Kirstin was standing there, eerily quiet and dazed. Her eyes were clouded over and out of focus, moving back and forth like she was watching a movie. After several minutes of her trance, she suddenly became alert and walked over to a bush to her left. She got a Ziploc bag out of her pocket and put a single disposable glove on her free hand, then reached into the push and pulled out a crusty, used condom.

My confusion grew as she placed it in the bag then reached back in to retrieve an earring. She removed the glove and closed the bag with an expert like efficiency. Once she was done, she turned on her heel and left, on her way back to the pack house.

When she was a safe enough distance away, I slid down the tree and tentatively approached the bush.

‘That earring looked awfully similar to the pair you got Brittany for her birthday.’ Cade mused, ‘Wouldn’t it be amazing if the girl you drove your mate to her death for was cheating on you?’

I shook my head, my eyes locked on the bush.

It couldn’t be possible.

Brittany couldn’t be cheating on me.

She wouldn’t have been so furious at my drunken kiss with Kylie if she were engaging in worse behind my back. She’d never even kissed a person before me. She always said we were meant to be together. She hated that La Luna hadn’t made us actual mates.

She loved me.

Cade laughed, ‘Are you forgetting what she told you at your birthday party?’

‘She at least cares about me, we’ve known each other since we were born. She wouldn’t hurt me like that. She’d at least tell me if I’m not satisfying her…’

The scent from the bush stopped me dead in my excuses. It was old and fading, and undeniably Brittany’s, intertwined and mingled with the scent of some other guy, both shrouded together by the musk of sex.

My head was suddenly swimming, and the scents where all I could perceive. How could she do this to me? I was giving up everything for her. She’d been the second voice of pressure in my ear after my dad, requiring and expecting and demanding the world of me, from the moment we were old enough to understand the concept of our roles in the pack.

“Be the best Beta you can be, for me and for yourself.” She’d whispered in my ear at night, over and over again. She’d painted elaborate pictures of us as the most perfect power couple, playing vital, irreplaceable roles in the Pack and taking the Lightwood and Howling names to greater heights in the Werewolf world.

‘Those were all her dreams, genius.’ Cade scoffed, ‘Since I’ve been in your body, you’ve never actually followed your own will. It’s always what dad wanted, or how mom would have felt, or what Connor would have done, never what you want, or how you feel, or what you want to do. And now you’re shocked that the girl who’s made her aspirations more than clear, is just in it for the status you could have?’

I treaded over to a tree and sunk to the forest floor next to it, my head pressing against the bark. My mind raced back to every major decision in my life, and I hated to admit that Cade was right, about all of it.

My life wasn’t my own.

I belonged to those around me. I belonged to the grandiose expectations of my father, to the spectral worry of my dead mother, to the larger-than-life ambitions of my girlfriend, to the interrupted greatness of my dead brother, and to the shackling reputation I had in this unbearable pack.

I wasn’t a person, I was a marionette.

And a hundred different people had possession of my strings.

The realisation had my head in my hands, lamenting at my wasted life.

What did I actually want?

What did I really like?

Was anything in my life even mine?

‘Oh, so you really didn’t know all this?’ Cade taunted., ‘You never suspected this? Not even a bit? Not even after your weak-willed ass led my mate to her death? Do you think you would’ve dared reject her if you had any clue of what’s good for you?’

As he spoke, the world began to grow dimmer and unhinged, my vision swinging back and forth with tears and the kind of pain that left your head spinning.

‘No… I- I want to be a good Beta. Being with her would’ve put that in jeopardy… I never should have rejected her, I know that, but I thought I had to at the time. Kylie was right there, she would’ve ratted me out and ended my future in the pack.’

‘And what future would that have been? What kind of future do you want in this fucking pack?’

My mind came up blank at his question. What kind of future did I want?

He scoffed, ‘You don’t know, do you? Do you even know what you want now?’

Right now?

Right now, I wanted to storm into the pack house and hunt Brittany down, to ask her why the hell she would be so callous and selfish, to pry the answers out of her lying, treacherous jaws. I wanted to air her filthy laundry to the entire pack, along with everyone else’s. Harry’s aconine dealing and his ties to Rogues, Kylie’s fondness for older men in power, all of it.

In the depth of my sadness turned rage, I didn’t hear a single thing till I turned around and came face to face with Kirstin.

The look on her face was a mixture of pity and a hidden glee that my instincts told me to be wary of.

“I’m sorry you had to find out this way.”

She barely seemed sorry at all.

I regarded her without a word, my anger moving aside for a massive dose of suspicion, “How did you know where to look for Brittany’s… trash? Did she send you to get rid of the evidence of her cheating? Also, how did you know I’d be here?”

She’d just been standing there, like she was waiting for me to finish processing everything and turn around to see her.

She shook her head, “Brittany normally leaves it to her boys to clean up after their escapades. If the place has any trace of their fun times, she blows a gasket. She’s cut some of them off for that.”

Boys?

The word had me forgetting to breathe.

Boys? Plural of boy? Meaning multiple?

She had multiple guys she was cheating on me with, apparently enough of them for her to cut loose when they didn’t do something to her liking. And it happened often enough for Kirstin to know their clean-up routine.

The world was spinning again.

Of course she had a harem of guys at her disposal, this was Brittany we were talking about. It was always go big or go home with her, she could never do anything in moderation.

‘Not even cheating, it seems.’ Cade snickered.

Kirstin glanced over her shoulder, back at the pack house then refocused on me, “I don’t have much time. You’ve been sneaking off here for at least a week, so anyone who’s paying attention would know where you’d be. I had one of her guys bring Brittany here for their session and leave evidence behind.”

My feet took a step back.

Was she telling me that she’d orchestrated this whole thing just for me to find out?

Reading the look on my face, she sighed, “Yes, I needed you to find out. I couldn’t just tell you, cause you’re so trusting of that demon that you might not have believed me.”

My mouth opened to argue, but my brain caught up and I closed it. She had every reason to believe she needed proof, I’d been too trusting of that she-devil.

“I need to get back to Brittany now, but let’s meet here at midnight. Till then, do not let anyone catch on to the fact that you know, or she’ll find out.”

My brows furrowed, “Anyone?”

Pity flitted across her face again, before she nodded, “Anyone. Most people know and they’ll tell her if they know you found out. I’ll see you later.”

Then she was gone.

It took me a while to process this new information.

Everyone knew?

Like, all the members? Even Harry?

‘Wow, you really were dense…’ Cade mused.

What the hell kind of pack was this? Where someone cheats and everyone knows, but no one does the right thing? Where if the victim of the cheater found out, the default action of the pack members was to tell the cheater?

I wanted to shift and run away. To get the hell away from this place, my future as Beta be damned.

My panic only briefly paused to think of Jessica, my niece. A succession needed to take place within the next few years and she was too young to be ready to assume the position anytime soon. Things might get harder for her without an acting Beta to look out for her, but she was adorable and well liked, so I was sure she’d be fine eventually. Besides, she still had Kylie’s family to watch over her and they were still oddly influential, even without an official title in their lineage.

‘So you’ve moved straight on from people’s opinions to fear driving your actions? You’re not even trying at this point.’ Cade’s painfully disapproving voice filled my head.

‘Fine! What do you think I should do, since you’re so full of ideas?’

‘Make up your goddamn mind by yourself, that’s a start. Not from fear, or disgust, or panic, or anything but what you think is best for yourself. Maybe then you’ll be worthy of being in charge of this body. Cause you’re not even in charge of your own actions anyhow.’

I scowled into space, before taking a heaving breath and turned my glare on the bush, ‘I want to hear what Kirstin has to say. She seems to be up to something against Brittany.’

I could almost hear a smirk in Cade’s voice, ‘That’s more like it.’