I ripped the piece out of my ear and handed it back to Jasmine, hands shaking. “I’m sorry, I just realized I have to be somewhere.”

“Oh. Everything okay?”

“Yeah.” My voice squeaked, high-pitched and scrambled. “Sure. I’ll see you later.”

Bile was rising in my throat. I was going to throw up, and I had to be away from everyone when it happened. The rest of me was numb. Like I’d been struck so hard I couldn’t feel anything.

Mom was right. All they wanted was her. Eva and her connections so they could make it bigger.

I ignored the paparazzi as I moved away from the studio. One of them went to follow me, and someone else pulled them back. The warning had stuck, and they weren’t going to follow. Thank god.

Speeding up, I power-walked around the corner and bent over, vomiting onto the sidewalk. There wasn’t much for me to lose, but it was all gone.

I needed to get the hell out of here. And somewhere they weren’t going to come find me. There was nowhere. They were in everything in my life and I let it happen. I let them in and believed them.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

A cab was coming down the street, and I hailed it. It stopped, and I hoped it wasn’t someone who recognized me. I realized my face was wet. I was crying and couldn’t even feel it because I was trying to hold my soul together with both hands.

“Townsend park,” I told the driver.

I hadn’t been to the place where I ran since I met the pack. First because of the press attention and then because… I didn’t know. I’d been busy. Where Kade took me hadn’t been the park. But it was the one place in my life they hadn’t touched. They’d even found me at my father’s grave, and I’d believed everything they told me.

Stupid, naïve, hopeful Omega.

Turning my face away from the driver, I tried to keep myself calm. It wasn’t working. This was everything, everything, I’d been afraid of. The fact that Mom and the press were both right on top of it only made the knife twist deeper.

Can’t trust your pack?

They’ll make excuses and string you along until all the contracts are signed and then leave you.

Maybe Aaron was right. Maybe I was only as good as being Eva’s knock-off, but he would still never have me. I would simply be alone. For one brief, shining moment I thought I had a future, and everything I’d ever wanted.

But like everything, it was too good to be true.