Tattoo Necklace

It’s been eight years since I last visited my birth pack.

The day I caught Nate lip-locking with Rebecca solidified my resolution to leave and never return, and I did for eight long years.

No one but my parents asked where I was, not my best friends Kiley and Nate or my alpha. Unless it was my mother calling, everyone from my past left me alone.

At first, it broke my heart. I hated what Nate did to me. How he threw his relationship with Rebecca in my face on my eighteenth birthday. It was meant to be the happiest day of my life.

The day I was officially able to take a bite.

Instead, I raced out of the house, grabbed my go-back, and left for college without another word.

When I arrived, I shoved my face so far into my books I didn’t make friends until sophomore year.

Graduating at the top of my class meant nothing when not even my parents showed up to celebrate with me. They said they couldn’t make it—something to do with Nate. They didn’t elaborate on what was going on with him, but it wasn’t good.

I never asked. He wasn’t part of my life anymore. I didn’t have the right to know. Even if every fiber in my body demanded answers to the unasked questions.

I secretly didn’t want to know if he found his mate. Which is why I’ve never asked.

The thought alone crushes my heart whenever it grabs my attention.

Plans change, and not for the better.

The hospital I worked at for the past few years went on a firing spree. Twenty nurses were fired without a severance check two weeks ago.

I’m one of the unlucky ones.

I was on vacation while it occurred. No phone call, no text, no email. Not a damn thing was sent to me notifying me that I needed to search for another job. When I walked into the hospital, I had the shock of my life being fired in front of other staff members. The other nineteen nurses were hired by other hospitals without difficulty.

Not me.

No one wanted an omega nurse caring for their alphas.

They said it wasn’t personal when they shut me down when I called about a position.

I took it personally. Still do.

Yeah, I know alphas can get a bit handsy when they come in, and scent an omega, but nothing has ever happened that couldn’t be solved with a bit of brute force from our security team. They are the best at their job.

Pulling up to the pack house, I sigh when I see my mother standing on the front porch. I didn’t want to ask her for help, but without a job, my savings dwindled fast, and without money, I couldn’t pay my rent.

Being homeless isn’t for me.

Which is why I sucked up my pride and called her.

The moment I told her, she screamed bloody murder for my father. Apparently, the pack has grown since I last was here, and it needs another nurse and doctor to help out around the clinic.

Today is my interview with the alpha. I’m dreading it, to say the least. Nate’s father scared the shit out of me when I was a child, and I can’t see him changing in the past eight years.

My door is yanked open forcefully, ending my brooding.

“Your interview is in fifteen minutes. If you stay any longer in there, you’ll be late. Get out before Mom drags you out and marches you into the alpha’s office herself. Now, I’m not the alpha, but I don’t believe I’d hire a nurse if they were forced in by their mother,” Clark states, holding his hand out to me. There’s no warmth in his tone.

My heart sinks as I realize all my worst fears are true.

Was I ever truly loved?

Tears threaten to spill. Not wanting to give my brother another opportunity to hate me, I squeeze my eyes shut and take a deep breath.

“Long time no talk,” I grumble. He never called me. Not once in eight years. The only time I heard his voice was when he was at the house when Mom rang me.

“Noelle,” the strain in his voice has me crawling out of the driver’s seat and shoving him away. “Don’t be like that, sis. You don’t know what it’s been like since you left.” He runs his hand down his face. “Shit got bad there for a minute. If you’d have come back, you wouldn’t have faulted us, especially not Nate.”

Gulping, I close my eyes, inhale sharply, and exhale slowly. “Nate isn’t my business anymore, Clark. He picked Rebecca over me. I wasn’t going to stand around and watch them be lovey-dovey.”

I slam my car door shut before heading toward our mother. I can see the fury in her eyes for cutting it this close for the interview with the alpha. At the same time, she’s rocking side to side, waiting for me to reach her. The woman is a hugger.

“There’s no time for hugging or chit-chatting. You have an interview to get to, Missy. Now, go to the alpha’s office.” Mother links her hand with mine and drags me through the pack house to an office where I spent half my childhood being scolded.

It wasn’t my fault that the alpha’s son picked me to be his best friend. If the boy had kept us out of danger, I’d never have walked into the alpha’s office to start with.

My mood sours just thinking about Nate.

Mother brings a doorbell next to the alpha’s door before opening it when a familiar voice rings out over an intercom. She shoves me over the threshold without so much as a warning.

Not expecting it, my feet trip over the rug, and I go flying. I don’t hit the hardwood floor, though. Instead, calloused hands grip my forearms, keeping me steady.

I don’t dare look up at the man holding me. I’d know his musky scent anywhere. With the hint of forest rainstorm mixed in, there’s no mistaking the man for anyone other than my childhood best friend and teenage crush.

“Noelle,” the voice is gravelly, strained.

“Nate,” I whisper, horrified at my entrance. I’m going to kill my mother.

“It’s really you.”

Confused at Nate’s sudden shift, I peek through dark lashes at him. The shock is noticeable.

“I’m here for an interview with your dad.” I look around Nate to the office chair his father spent half his life in. When I don’t see him, I search the room. “Where’s the alpha?”

Nate clears his throat. “You’re standing in front of him.”

I jerk back in shock. “You’re the alpha?” Gulping, I realize what this means. “Rebecca.” Her name tastes like the hospital’s back alley on trash day. Vile.

“What about her?” His body goes stiff as his hands tighten on my forearms.

“You can let go, you know. I’m no longer falling.” Why is he holding onto me when he has a mate?

“Why do you ask about Rebecca?” He drops my arms, only to wrap them around my waist, pulling me flush against his muscular chest.

Warm, muscular chest that has me thinking dirty thoughts.

I squirm in his grip, not exactly comfortable. I’ve gained weight over the years. They say omegas who are thick have an easier time birthing large litters of pups. From my experience in the labor and delivery ward, it’s true, but only when it comes to omegas. There’s just something about us that needs that extra bit of cushion.

Not that it got me a shit load of dates.

“You picked her, Nate. I saw the way you two were making out on my birthday. Why do you think I left in the middle of my own party?” I try to rip myself from his grasp, but he refuses to let me go.

“What are you talking about, Noelle? I’ve never kissed Rebecca, and I certainly wouldn’t have done it on your eighteenth birthday, the day I’d been waiting for.” In a blink, my back is against the door, and my legs are wrapped around his waist. When he cups my face, his eyes plead with me to listen. “You have to know what you mean to me, Noelle. There’s no way in hell you didn’t feel the connection we had while growing up.”

“I saw you, Nate. I watched silently as you shoved Rebecca against a wall and devoured her mouth while grinding on her. You were wearing the same clothes you picked me up in. The same clothes we picked out together the day before, because we waited too long to go shopping and had nothing spectacular to wear. And as for a connection, you were my best friend, Nate. When you sucked Rebecca’s face off, you became my ex-best friend. Especially when you never once called me.” I close my eyes. Being this close to Nate is exhausting.

I knew this could happen. Well, not the confusion. That wasn’t in any of the scenarios filling my head over the last two weeks.

He presses his forehead against mine, breathing me in and soaking up my scent. “I’ve called you every single morning and night for the past eight years, Noelle. I got your address from your mother and sent you Christmas and birthday presents. During random human holidays, I’d send little knick-knacks to remind you that I’m always thinking of you.”

“I never received any of your calls or presents, Nate. Not a single one.”

“That’s impossible. My calls would go to your voicemail. I’d leave you a message, reminding you how much I love you, how deeply I miss you, and how much I can’t wait for you to finish college and come home to me.”

“Nate,” I whisper, the dam breaking within my once-sealed soul. He can’t be telling the truth. All these years wasted, and for what? “I never received anything from you or anyone other than my mom. She’s the only one I’ve heard from for eight years. Why do you think I haven’t been back?”

I feel the shudder that shakes his body before he pulls away. “Someone did this to us. They wanted us separated.” The anguish in his tone sends me spiraling.

Without his weight holding me up, my legs fall from his waist. On my feet, I realize how much I’m physically shaking.

“Noelle,” he whispers, cupping my face, his eyes hollowed from eight years of missing me and yet bright with hope. “I will get to the bottom of this, but you have to promise me you won’t leave me. I won’t survive for much longer if you do. Fated mates can’t live without each other this long without suffering dire consequences. Now that you are back, if you leave again, my beast will eat me alive. There will be nothing left of my soul. Nathan and Rebecca would have to step up and lead the pack in my stead.”

I jerk away in shock. “Nathan and Rebecca are mates? Why was she kissing you then?”

“Woman, listen to me.” His thumbs rub across my lips, shutting me up. “I’ve never kissed a female in my entire life. I knew you were my fated mate since I was twelve years old. Why in the hell would I jeopardize our future by making out with a female I find revolting?”

He finds Rebecca revolting.

This wasn’t part of the plan.

Holy shit, this is so far from the plan.