Page 73 of Knot Their Princess

When we arrived at my parents’ home on Long Island, my mother was being tended to by her nurses, so I took Sin to the other side of the house to show her my childhood bedroom while we waited.

She returns to examining the space once she steps out of my embrace.

“You played soccer?” She gestures to a shelf of trophies and framed team photos.

“Yes. All through school, in fact.”

“You must have been good, given all this.”

I chuckle, some long forgotten memories returning to my mind. “I was okay. It was a team sport, after all.”

Sin shoots me a knowing look, and walks around the perimeter a bit more. “Graduated from Yale?”

My response is an affirmative hum.

“And you’re popular in the news, apparently. I never really read the papers much, and didn’t have internet access. TV was it.”

I walk over to join her at the wall of framed newspaper articles, highlighting the changing of the guard at Helix, and how the public believed I’d been too young when I took over. My family put these up in here long after I’d moved out, like some kind of shrine. “There’s an old saying that ‘all press is good press,’ but I believe that’s categorically false. There’s plenty of bad press, but it’s how you handle it, if and how you grow from it, that determines if the outcome is good or not.”

She turns to me and wraps her arms around my ribs from the side, and I let my arm wrap around her in kind.

“What do you think the press will do with our story?”

My huff of laughter is humorless. “I honestly don’t care. But, they’ll sensationalize, like always. Make a huge fairy tale story up about the lost heir’s return and how this entire generation of Helix are a fated pack.”

“That doesn’t sound too bad.”

“Not until they start digging into your past. Tell everyone what you were doing in L.A.”

She stills in my embrace, but it’s thoughtful. “We should get out I front of it, then. Why don’t we hold a press conference or something? I’m not ashamed of who I was—who I am. Are you all?”

“Not in the slightest, little one. You’re the fiercest Omega we’ve ever met. And that’s why you fit with us perfectly.”

“It’s so wonderful to meet you, Sindella.”

My mother was looking ill and pale when we arrived in her room, but speaking with Sin has brought life to her face that I haven’t seen in years. The sight makes a lump form in my throat.

Sin and I sit in chairs beside the bed, Sin closest to her head and me next to her. Sin is all smiles and kindness, and my mother takes her in with joyous acceptance.

Mother still wears the scarf around her head, hiding what’s lost beneath. Her frail body is lying on the converted bed, surrounded by monitors and I.V.’s, tubes and wires connecting her to them.

Every time I see her, my heart breaks a bit more. And my anger grows. At the universe for afflicting my mother, at my father for being absent far too often. At everything, really.

“It’s so nice to meet you, Mrs. Solonik.”

“Please, call me Anna.”

“Anna.”

My mother turns a playful smile up at me. “So, you held a ball at my request, disappeared for a month, and come back with a mated Omega. I don’t know I could have planned this any better.”

“My mother, the mastermind,” I hum.

Sin lets out a laugh. “So, I have you to thank, then?”

Mother turns to her with a conspiratorial smile. “Oh, yes. If I hadn’t pushed for the New Year’s party, your mates would have all been hidden away in their penthouse where no one would see them.”

“I don’t like parties,” is my grumbled reply.