“I’ve spent my fucking life waiting for that, Lennox. Yeah, I’m ready for that.”
“Well, that was a lot less painful than I thought,” James said, then he smiled, looking around the room with that particularly alpha sense of satisfaction, because when they were doing it right, this was how it went. They provided a strong framework for the other relationships to hang on, strength and direction where needed. I went loose in Jackson’s arms, his hand rubbing the outside of my arm.
Surrender, I thought. Beautiful, beautiful, surrender.
We sat and ate our breakfast, Jackson keeping me where I was when I went to go back to my chair, feeding me choice morsels with what felt like way too much satisfaction, until finally, it was time to leave.
Tristan pulled me into his arms as we went to jump into James’ car and go home.
“If everything else goes to shit, this is still the best fucking day of my life,” he told me. “I got to wake up beside you, Kit, rather than in the shitty bed in the academy. I got to wake up wearing your mark.”
James looked us over with a gentle smile, moving closer and then putting his arms around both of us, making us shiver with the way it made us feel so small. We stayed like that for a few moments before driving over to my place.
Dad was waiting for us on the doors
tep. I couldn’t work out how or why he knew when we’d arrive, but there he was, face like thunder.
“Mr Greyson,” James started in his ‘come now, let’s be reasonable’ alpha tone. “The omegas were with me last night. I hope that was all right. I notified the academy.”
“I know. You better come inside.”
“I was just about to take Tristan back. I applied for a dispensation to keep him out longer, but—”
“Bring Tristan too,” was all Dad would say before disappearing back into the house.
We walked in on feet of mice as we followed him to the library, finding my grandfather sitting there, and Theo and Cress, with one other guest.
“Hello, Grandmother,” James said, moving closer to kiss her on the proffered cheek.
“This must look terribly grim,” she said by way of explanation. “Sit down, sit down.” We did as we were told, and then she looked the three of us over with a keen eye. “Unfortunately, we’ve had a bit of bad news, and we’ve come here to discuss a way forward.”
“What bad news?” I blurted out.
Dad’s brows pulled ever tighter, something I wouldn’t have thought possible, but here we were.
“A video of last night has been brought to our attention.” Greta Chadwick was in full ‘talk the crazy people down from the ledge’ mode, her words precise, her tone overly sweet. “A video from a place called…”
When she turned to Theo, I felt a cold knife stab into my heart, only now catching the reddened state of my sister’s eyes, the skin puffy and her nose sniffly.
“Abaddon,” Theo and I said, my voice a mere whispered counterpoint.
I had floated into the car, feeling like I was on cloud fucking nine, which should have set me on edge for the start. We didn’t do happy in this house, just misery and reputation and stifled screams, muffled by expertly wallpapered walls.
“So have you told them?”
A slurred voice jerked our attention to the doorway, my mother standing there in just a nightgown and a dishevelled dressing gown hanging off one shoulder. Her perfect Stepford makeup was smeared now, all over her face. My grandfather noted her presence with just a press of his lips, but she paid him no mind, shooting me a sloppy smile.
“Baby’s first sex tape? Mummy couldn’t be more proud.”
Oh. Fucking. Shit.
Chapter 32
Never do anything, that had been my mantra before Tristan. Don’t care, don’t engage, don’t show enjoyment, don’t react, don’t speak up, don’t sit there silently, just fucking don’t. I used to create rules and rapidly amend them, trying to find the happy balance I needed so much as an omega, but with my mum and dad, there was no balance to be found. They were always at odds—she shrill while he was deathly calm, her comatose as he railed against her. Back then, Theo always tried to step up, to deflect their attention away from us, with mixed success. Then a boy was introduced to the household.
He was just as awkward and weird with us as we were with him at the start, but one look at those bright green eyes, and Mum and Dad’s bullshit didn’t matter to me anymore. Terribly co-dependent, I’m sure. He was a fae prince, standing in the doorway between realms, beckoning me out of my jail of a house and into…our yard actually. But under his leadership, it became so much more—Fairyland, Neverland, Narnia, and Middle Earth all rolled into one. Oh, and that goblin kingdom in Labyrinth. We both watched that video obsessively, which explained a lot really.
So when I had that fairy-tale experience last night—admittedly not one most people would equate with fairy tales, but they needed to read the better ones—it all made sense. Of course we would create magic, of course we would defy the rules of nature itself, but just as inevitable was this.