But still, there’s that small lingering voice in my head, only amplified now by everything that Mia just said.
If you’re not careful, you might never want to leave.
Cayde
The house is quiet when I get back from class. I’m unsure if anyone else is home until I walk into the living room and see Dean sprawled out on the sofa, one foot on the floor as he scrolls through his phone.
“Athena home yet?” I ask casually, dropping my bag next to the other couch and flopping down on it.
“Why? Need your dick sucked?” Dean rolls his eyes. “No, she’s not home yet,” he adds before I can answer. “Probably out with Mia, based on her phone location.”
“Already tracking it, huh?” I smirk. “Quite the stalker.”
“Oh, shut up.” Dean glares at me. “You’re telling me you haven’t checked to see where she’s at?”
“Actually, no, I haven’t.” I lean back, enjoying my moment of superiority. “But then, I guess I don’t have as much to lose.”
“Don’t you?” Dean raises an eyebrow. “Was all that talk of sharing her just that? Talk?”
“You tell me.” I feel a small pulse of hope at his response, an indication that maybe he’s come around to my way of thinking. I imagine the look on my father’s face, and his, if we stood up together and said plainly that we were done with all of this, that we planned to work as a team.
It’s a very pleasant thought.
Dean sets his phone down, straightening up as he looks at me carefully. “Can we work together, do you think? It’s never been done in the town’s history. It’s always been one heir who rules while the other two serve. But is that what we want?”
“No one’s ever asked that question.” I pause, considering. “Have you thought of that? No one, not our fathers or our mothers, no member of the families, no one has ever asked us if this is what we wanted. It’s what Jaxon has struggled with all our lives. You and I took it as something that we had no choice in—but maybe there’s always been a choice.” My throat constricts briefly as I look away, forcing down memories that I don’t want to think about. “I was never even meant to be the heir.”
“I know.” Dean’s gaze lingers on me. “It was supposed to be Daniel. What would he have done, do you think?”
“I don’t know,” I admit. “I was too young to think of that. Too young for anything other than surviving. My father made sure that I didn’t have the time or the energy to think too hard about it. I just accepted that this was how it would be.”
“So did I.” Dean looks thoughtful. “But that doesn’t mean it’s how it should be. Athena doesn’t want to be our slave. But if she had more agency, I wonder if she’d feel differently. If she’d want to stay, to give our way of doing things more legitimacy. She has more power than she knows, really.”
“I’ve already said that I think it’s time we make our own rules.” I lean back, lacing my fingers behind my head. “We focused all of our anger and frustrations and dominance on Athena, when in fact we should have been protecting her and demanding that everyone else fall in line.Weare the heirs. We are the new generation, the new way of doing things, the new law in this town. You know that Athena was taken for a reason. Not just to try to hurt her, but to break us too. To make us think twice about trying to change things.”
“I told my father at breakfast the other morning that I was done with his expectations.” Dean looks at me, his expression hard. “That I’m done with this arranged marriage he’s trying to force with Winter, done with being pitted against my best friends. He suggested to me that I needed to ‘do something about you,’ after what happened at the party.” He shakes his head. “I think that was the tipping point, for me personally. There’s a lot that I’m willing to do. I shot a man, for fuck’s sake. But hurting you? Or Jaxon, or Athena, if he asked that? No. That’s beyond what I’m willing to do, even for my birthright. Even for tradition.”
“We’ll ignore the birthright bit,” I say, smirking. “After all,myfather is the one who currently rules.” I hold up a hand as Dean starts to speak. “I know, I know. The town is named after you. But there’s still a third party in all of this.”
“Jaxon.”
I nod. “Did you know he was fighting? In those underground matches that the bikers hold?”
“No, I didn’t,” Dean says tightly. “But I’m not surprised. He’s always been more one of them than one of us. Why do you think it was so hard for him to make that shot that day in the warehouse? That kill was more important for him than either you or I. It was the day he cemented that he could never be one of them. But he still fucking tries.”
“The president was the only one who recognized him at their clubhouse,” I frown, thinking back to that night. “As one of us, anyway. He’s not a friend of theirs, that’s for sure. Not anymore, at least. If he fights, they don’t pay attention to who he is. Maybe he uses a different name. It’s not as if most of the Sons know us by sight.”
“Not yet,” Dean adds darkly. “But they will. Just like they know our fathers. We’re going to be the ones who rule very soon. And if they hadanythingto do with Athena’s kidnapping, then they’re going to pay.”
“We don’t know for sure,” I remind him. “Which is the only reason I’m even willing to entertain this idea of her fighting. It might be a good outlet for her, and she’s right that she might pick up some information. As long as one of us is with her—”
“You’re risking her life by agreeing to that.” Dean’s expression darkens. “You really think that’s a good idea?”
“I think we might be risking her life by not agreeing,” I say simply. “She’s at the breaking point, Dean. She’s endured things that no one should have to. If we continue to keep her locked up here, continue to treat her like our captive, then we’re asking for her to take the only way out that we’ve left her. Do you want that to happen?”
“No.” Dean shakes his head. “Of course I don’t.”
“I think our fathers chose poorly when they picked Athena to be our pet.”