SHADE POV -
I turned the corner just as Brooke's hand came down fast, aimed straight for the omega kid's face.
The omega boy froze. He didn't cover his head. Didn't move. Just stood there, small and wide-eyed. He couldn't have been older than ten and clearly had no idea how to process what was happening.
I never understood why my mother liked Brooke. They couldn't have been more different.
My mother had her faults. Plenty of them. But she'd never raised a hand to an omega. Never would've let anyone else do it in her house, either. No matter what went wrong between us, she still held the line on things like that. She expected us to behave better than the royals before us, even when she barely held herself together. That meant something to me. Still does.
I reached out and grabbed her
