Who Wants a Broken Mate? (The Fae Omegas, #4) [SAMPLE]

Chapter 4

Nina

I woke up the next day to a text message from the Crescent Pack Luna asking me to meet her at the Alpha house after my first day at school. I knew what it meant. Pack chores.

Most pack omegas were given the dirtiest jobs in the pack to do. As the former step-daughter of a pack beta, I had seen it happen repeatedly. And I was ready to deal with the loads of work and insults.

I'd take that over pretending to be a man and working as a battle balloon technician in a dangerous supernatural trafficker's den any day.

And hopefully, I could work in a kitchen. That way, I could take home leftovers for my brother because, based on the breakfast of simple cereal and a cup of milk Mrs. Brown had given us, we wouldn't be getting enough food to cope with our fast werewolf metabolisms in the Brown house.

"Are you ready?" I asked, staring at my little brother dressed in the town's middle-grader uniforms.

It was stupid that middle graders in Caister town's middle school had to wear uniforms, but I still felt like the uniform looked super cute on my brother, whom I had never seen wearing a uniform.

As usual, he allowed me to pat his fluffy hair as he nodded, beaming at me. "Yeah."

"Remember what I said. Stay away from trouble, but if it comes for you, protect yourself first, ask questions later. Got it?"

"Noted, general." He stood straight and mimicked a soldier's salute while smiling at me.

I couldn't help chuckling as I pulled on my backpack, tucked a hand in my jean pocket, and walked him to his school.

The pack the Supernatural Council assigned us was called the Crescent pack, but they lived in a small town with two other packs. With that many werewolves in the same space; living, working, and schooling among humans; it was inevitable that the humans in this town knew about supernaturals or, at least, about werewolves.

Because I knew how bad my reputation was among those who followed Supernatural news, I didn't want my brother to suffer any bullying from being my sibling. So I made him tell anyone who asked that he had an elder brother.

He was also never to tell anyone that I was in any way related to him.

The only ones who knew we were siblings were the Browns and the Crescent pack's Alpha and Luna.

I couldn't bear the thought of my brother getting bullied, so this strategy was the best way to protect him, regardless of his protests.

After all, in this town, I was the loose girl who had lived and worked for supernatural traffickers, and discrimination based on that impression was inevitable.

After escorting my brother a few blocks to Caister middle school and watching him walk into the school gates, I walked to Caister high school, hoodie up and shoulders slumped.

If no one looked closely, I didn't look like a girl at all.

All day long as I went from class to class, the question remained, "Who's the new boy?"

With my head bowed, my short hair locked in a small ponytail, and the masculine gait and demeanor I had mastered, no one knew I was the girl from the 'pictures' and I hoped to keep it that way.

And because my previous pack had a similar setting to Caister town, Caister high school was familiar, making it easy to adapt.

Without a guide, I got my schedule and books from the school administration building and went about my day.

When I got to the Crescent Pack Alpha's house, I removed my hoodie, got rid of my confident-boy-from-the-slums attitude, and imitated the shy and weak pack omega demeanor that would make my Luna have mercy on me in the tasks she would assign to me.

Sure enough, as soon as she saw me, all she did was sigh as though she pitied me while I played along, pretending I couldn't see the indifference in her eyes.

Unlike Mrs. Brown, she wasn't hostile, but she was a seasoned actress. She pretended to care about how I was doing before assigning me to work in the cafeteria kitchen every day after school and during the weekends, as well as another chore to clean the pack public toilets on Saturday and Sunday evenings.

Although I was happy to work at the cafeteria, I didn't show my Luna that.

My former Luna was the kind of person who always tried to make others as unhappy as she was with her husband who was always cheating on her. And since she spent a lot of time picking on me, her husband's illegitimate daughter whose mother was mated to the Beta, I had to learn how her mind worked.

After understanding that she was the sort of person who would switch your chores or pack duties if she found out that you enjoyed doing them, I learned to conceal my feelings very well.

I wasn't sure what kind of person this new Luna was, but from her acting tendencies, I feared that she would be quite similar to my former Luna and maybe worse since my former Luna couldn't act that well.

***

It was late in the evening when I got back to the Browns' house, but as I walked in through the front door, I met a boy standing with Emery in the hallway.

He was very handsome with strong angular features and was definitely an Alpha Werewolf. He was the type of boy I used to swoon over in movies and magazines when I was younger.

But the older me just looked him in the eye when our eyes met and walked away without glancing back.

After all, I understood what Alphas were now. People with all the power.

If you were fortunate enough to be on the receiving end of their interest, even temporarily, your life could feel great. However, when they didn't want you anymore, your life could become as unfortunate as my mother's, who went from being the mistress of the pack Alpha to being his leftover thrown over to his Beta.

This didn't just apply to Alphas, too. It also applied to most werewolf men.

In my former pack, the way the weak like my mother were treated made me realize how important it was to never put my life or hopes in the hands of another person, man or woman.

Mating was no-go territory for me because It meant tying myself to someone else and giving them the opportunity to hurt me. Therefore, unlike other werewolves who had illusory dreams of meeting their true mates, I hoped to be single forever.