She then started talking to me about some of the friends of Kent’s she could recommend. It was super sweet of her, because I knew exactly what she was doing. As a beta, she hadn’t had to find an alpha mate, but it was strongly approved of by my family, so when she did so, she did it in a typically Cress kind of way. When alphas started sniffing around her, she profiled each and every one of them before going any further with them, looking for something much rarer than an alpha keen to take a beta mate—a good person. Cress was not going to settle, not for my father, not for anyone.
And the reason for that was about to make itself apparent.
A loud crash jerked our attention away from the dining room table and out through the doorway to the main staircase that led to the upper level of the house. And our mother. She’d obviously slipped on the steps. A maid rushed over to help her, but she hissed at the girl.
“Jesus Christ…” Cress said under her breath, throwing her napkin down on the table. “Mother, are you all right?”
We all moved, as was often the case, to go and help the queen bee of the house, but as she looked up at us, seeing us but not seeing us, her eyes glassy and red, she was a very dissolute queen.
“I’m perfectly fine.”
Mum’s cut glass accent and her slur made strange bedfellows, but they were all we’d ever known. Mother was an addict, pure and simple, but while the cocktails of pills her doctors prescribed were mixed heavily with alcohol to make her day bearable, her true addiction became apparent.
“And where are the two of you off to? More trysts with your little cabana boy? And, Cressida…” The look Mum gave her was an insultingly slow inspection of Cress’ impeccably tailored suit that spoke volumes. Of course it did. “How on earth did I end up with an omega daughter who refuses to take an alpha and a beta daughter who took a perfectly respectable alpha away from those that truly need him?”
“Gina, if you could take Mrs Greyson into the parlour and make her some strong coffee, I’d appreciate it,” Cress said to the maid, refusing to be drawn in.
“I don’t need your swill—” Mum started to snarl.
“And alert my father to the situation,” she continued, talking over Mum in a way she never would me. “He’s at work and will not be pleased, but he needs to know that Mum has fallen and hurt herself.” Cress’ focus switched back to our mother. “He’ll make the decision he thinks best for her.”
And with that, Mum paled, because she was just an omega. When she got too far out of line, a ‘visit’ to a sanatorium—strictly for other recalcitrant omega wives—was organised.
This wasn’t right. I’d spent enough time in the world to know addiction was a disease, that it deserved to be treated as such and the person wanting to get clean should be given the right kind of support, but that was the issue. Mum didn’t want to get clean, at all, ever, because facing a life without her drugs and alcohol? I looked around the grand hall of the manor, seeing the generations of wealth and beauty accumulated that so effectively hid the pain.
“What time is the floor talk on, Cress?” I asked.
“We
’d better go,” she said, looking at her smart watch. “Let me know if you have any problems, Gina. I’ll have my phone on me at all times.”
“No,” Mum said, but to what? “No, no, you are not doing this to me!” Did my voice sound as thready or as weak when I shouted? “No maid is going to… You aren’t going to… I forbid…”
My combat boots clumped across the marble floor, a much better counterpoint than the heels I’d worn last night, as we walked out of the house, away from Mum, from the house, from everything.
“Tristan will meet us outside the academy,” Cress said once we got out the front door. “But we need to talk, seriously, the three of us, about this offer. You don’t want to leave this in Dad or Theo’s hands.”
No, I didn’t. I wanted it left in mine.
Chapter 10
“Fuck, there you are.”
Tris threw himself into the backseat and at me, devouring my mouth with one long kiss. God, this. If there were any drug that replicated the feel of Tristan’s mouth on mine after a separation, no matter how short, I’d be a hopeless addict myself. I couldn’t get enough of it, straining against my seat belt to taste more, more of him.
“Have both of you taken your suppressants?” Cress asked, and we broke apart. She flicked us a look in the rear vision mirror before focusing back on the road. “You’ve been together a bit lately, and you always get close to frenzy when you’ve been playing.”
And there it was. My sister loved us and worried about us, that was apparent in the line of her shoulders, her grip on the steering wheel. If there was anyone to be concerned about, it was Theo, but no one said a thing. The assumption was that whatever he had going on, he’d deal with it. Then I remembered that cluster of dudes outside my brother’s playroom. My brother needed an intervention.
Tristan’s attention returned to me, his eyes glittering, and I saw that devilish light there, making me smile in return.
“Of course,” he said to my sister before moving closer and kissing me again, much more gently this time. “No alpha gets a whiff of my girl without my permission.”
He opened the centre console, pulled out the pack of suppressants in there, and then popped two, placing one on my tongue and then one on his. We swallowed at the same time and then went back to kissing.
“Jesus…” Cress hissed, but even that dropped away. Tristan, only Tristan, that was how it worked for me. I was prepared to walk away from my family, my name, my social standing for him, and I thought that was why my siblings tried to facilitate things as best they could. We kissed until we were breathless, then forced to pull apart. “Tristan.” Her voice carried its way through the interior of the car, firm and insistent. “We need to talk about an offer that’s been made for you.”
“I know,” he replied lightly, his smile belying the seriousness of the issue, his thumb rubbing across the back of my hand. “Sometimes they come, sometimes they don’t. There’s nothing new about this.”