Theo. I’d told him to come find me, and he had.
“What the hell are you playing at, coming to a dive like this?” he snapped, unleashing the full brunt of his alpha bark. “And with…with an alpha?” His eyes narrowed, becoming hard and brittle. “Jesus fucking Christ, Kit.”
“For Tris,” I said, putting my hands up to placate him, going to rest them against his chest, but he knocked them away. “Len’s made an offer to court Tris, and I came along to help him feel comfortable.”
“Comfortable?”
His eyes sliced over my shoulder, and I saw the moment he realised what we’d been watching. Something shifted as he saw Glint and Tai make love, his face a mirror of the sky as the storms roll in, clouds forming and boiling, only to dissipate, then form again. As he struggled to smooth it out, donning the polite mask that was our default expression, I caught it, just a flicker.
Longing.
But for what?
I didn’t get a chance to ask, his grip on my arm tightening.
“I need to get you home right now. It’s the only way to get through this in one piece. Dad had an offer come through for you just now, and it’s not one he can brush off. I have a dress and some appropriate shoes in the car. You’ll follow me outside, the tinting is dark enough that you can do a quick wardrobe change in the backseat, then we apologise and come up with some suitably vacuous omega excuse for your tardiness. Why the hell didn’t you answer Cress’ and my calls?”
“I turned my phone off.”
“Well, that’s hare-brained enough to work. You’ll need to beg for forgiveness. He’s not that big a deal, but his family… The Chadwicks are old, old money, and we cannot afford to offend them.”
“Chadwick?” I said, feeling like he’d thrown a bucket of ice water over me. “Who?”
“That artist you went to see today, said he was quite captivated by you. That and Cress said some lunk dropped half a florist shop in your arms. You know how alphas respond to competition. If you don’t want him, just pretend you really like him and simper. It’ll drive him off soon enough.”
“No,” I gasped.
“Fuck, Kit,” my brother said, the mask slipping for the last time. He scanned the place, taking in the tapestry of freedom around him, and was only able to stare at it with weary eyes. “This isn’t our world—you know that. Maybe you should accept Chadwick, if this is your kind of thing. He’s part of the bohemian set, so a place like this must be right up his alley.”
And so my brother tucked my arm in his, ready to haul me out of this wonderland, kicking me out of heaven when I’d only just found it.
“Kit!” Tristan shouted, but Theo spun around, putting himself between the two of us.
“Kit has a prior engagement she forgot about, Tristan,” he said in an eminently sensible tone, “but you’re welcome to join us as my guest.”
I stared at Tris, his eyes so bright as his face paled, and knew what I needed to do. Normally, I wouldn’t care that he’d be required to hang off Theo’s arm, posing as his date for the night, if it meant he was near me, but even I wasn’t that selfish. I shook my head slightly, knowing what it would do to my brother when Tris rejected him,
and sure enough, Theo’s grip on my arm tightened to the point of pain when Tris stepped back, taking a place between Len and Jackson. His place, I assured myself, able to see it all—mating marks, commitment ceremonies, even adopting kids, if that’s what they wanted to do. Christ, they might even be able to go the same route as Marcus and his pack, creating a throuple with Jackson.
“Very well,” Theo said. “Have a good night.”
And with that, I was marched out of the club, out into the empty darkness of night. My ears rang with the reverberations of music I couldn’t hear anymore, the bass line thudding along with the rapid beat of my heart.
“How’d you know where to come?” I asked my brother, my voice breaking in the crisp air, knowing the answer but wanting to hear it anyway. “Abaddon, it’s not exactly on Google Maps. This is an underground club. Pretty sure this whole district is zoned for heavy industry, and the number of people in there would be well past what the fire department would safely allow.”
It felt like there was no strength in my joints, my arms and my hips swinging too easily as I waited for the answer. The artificial glow of the streetlights, they blasted my brother’s face, revealing all those micro expressions, but what wasn’t there was surprise—not at my actions, not at being at this club, not that this club existed. My lips thinned down, then relaxed suddenly, letting a peal of desolate laughter escape. I walked over to where the chauffeur stood, next to the double-parked town car, yanked the frock that was hanging up in the back of the car, and tossed it out onto the street, the blush pink silk instantly marked by pools of dirty water, the heels following suit.
“That’s just being petulant,” Theo said as we got into the backseat.
“James was ‘captivated’ by me in this dress, so we’ll see if he still feels the same way hours later,” I snarked back. “I’m pretty sure I caught some of Tris’ cum on the skirts and there’s some of mine on it from when he fingered me in the car before.”
A hand went around my wrist, biting hard enough to leave a ring of bruises in the morning. That was what let me know how serious the situation was.
“The Chadwick clan is in the house waiting for you to arrive. We’ll park by the servants’ entrance and you’ll scurry upstairs, spray yourself liberally with de-scenter, and find something suitable to wear, or I can promise you, you’ll regret it.”
I stared back at my brother, the urge to look away stabbing like knives in my skull, but I was well used to the pain.
“I guess there’s only room in the family for one omega slut, right, Theo?”