“Oh god please don’t,” Esme said with a laugh. “Then you’d have to deal with Katarina, and she’s the worst. She would absolutely not approve of you, which is only a plus in my book.” After a second, she remembered we had no idea who that was. “Katarina is a pack matchmaker my mother hired in a desperate attempt to find a pack for me. Because being a single Omega in my family isn’t okay.”

Luke chuckled. “What about your mother, then? I don’t want us stepping on any toes.”

She shook her head. “No. You won’t be. Frankly, I hope Mom will be happy a pack is actually interested in me for me and not—” she cut herself off and cleared her throat. “She’ll be happy. Maybe not at first,” she glanced at me and I couldn’t help but smile. I knew I wasn’t the kind of Alpha you brought home to mother. I looked the part of the intimidating and scary, which had served me well in my life. “But she will be. My mother is an Omega too, but she didn’t have a pack. Just one Alpha. And he died a couple of years ago.”

“I’m sorry,” I said.

While pack life was the norm, there were those who found a single person they wanted to partner with and were happy. Ben’s sister was one such person. For myself, even with the frustrations and trials of pack life, I couldn’t imagine myself without it.

“Thanks. But I think in the end she’ll be happy to have me happy, and that will be the end of it.”

“Does anyone have any more appointments left for the rest of the day?” Ben asked.

“No,” I said. “I’m done.”

Everyone else was the same. Knowing this might happen, we’d all kept our schedules light out of sheer hope.

“Would you like to come back to our house?” Ben gently pulled Esme back against his chest. “If you want to call Eva to come with you to make you more comfortable, you can do that. Or anyone.”

I saw her think about it. Of course we knew we wouldn’t do anything to hurt her, but I was glad she was taking it seriously. As much as I wanted to believe every pack in the world would cherish an Omega like her, I knew it wasn’t true.

“I think Eva will distract me,” she said. “But if it’s okay with you, I’ll ask if she can spare someone from her security team. Not that I think of you like that, I just—”