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The last thing I want to do is get a front row view to this shit show. I consider my options. I could tell Dylan the truth and watch him run and be miserable again. Or I could try and find a way around Grayson and his fat mouth, but one look at him torpedoes that idea. I have no choice. I’m moving in with Treyfield Pack. Grayson is sneaky and underhanded, and I don’t approve of his methods. At all. But I turn with a smile and beam.
“That sounds wonderful.”
“No!” Dylan growls.
I glance at him and shrug. “You don’t have to. You’re not employed as The Customer Satisfaction Officer.”
Dylan’s unhappy rumble echoes around the room. I turn away so I can look out the window again.
I feel him approach, not hear, I don’t see it, my body feels his. The hairs rise, my skin feels the air displacement. Everything in me is attuned to this man.
“Do you really want this?”
I reach out, and his fingers slide between mine. “It’s a really good offer for a beta like me,” I whisper.
“You can do better,” Dylan whispers.
“It's nice that you believe that. But the reality is that I can’t. I rented a crappy one-bedroom apartment that didn’t have a kitchen, heat, or electricity. I can barely make ends meet, and I work two or three jobs a day and barely sleep. This job is security and stability and a warm, safe place to sleep. I’d be an idiot to turn this down.”
I hesitate.
“If you want me to tell them to go to hell, I will. I’m on your side here, Dylan. Your opinion is the only one that matters to me. So, tell me, are we doing this, or are we taking our chances out there?”
He stares at me for a long moment and then startles me by tugging me into his hard chest and wrapping his arms around me. I hesitantly lift my arms and encircle his waist. Wow, he smells good and feels incredible. But what’s worse is how my eyes prickle, and I want to just stay in this moment forever.
“I’m doing this for you,” He whispers. “Everything I do is for you.”
His lips land on my forehead, and something inside me tilts, and when I feel steady again, I realise my entire world has changed.
nine
Onyx
The sunshine is like a warm blanket that keeps trying to lull me to sleep. I could almost pretend that the last couple of days hadn’t happened. Could almost forget the rollercoaster of highs and lows that’s been my existence. I tilt my head back to get some more of the sun and catch motion out of the corner of my eye. Dylan shifts his weight again, leaning towards me, removing my ability to pretend with one sexy wriggle of his shoulders.
Damn him. Why am I so affected by this omega?
“You don’t have to stay with me. You can go and get involved.” I gesture to the lawns where groups of people are laughing and talking.
He snorts and folds his arms over his chest. Somehow, I know his answer, and I can’t help but be grateful. I follow his gaze and want to groan. The omegas and alphas are all on the wrong side of tipsy and are getting creative with the croquet mallets. One young alpha has his mallet between his legs and is thrusting his hips as he chases a giggling omega around.
“Does anyone even like croquet?” I ask absently. “I don’t even know the rules. What’s the point of it even? If I had a mallet like that, I wouldn’t want to softly tap a ball. I’d want to whack it and break things.”
Dylan snorts and gives me a sidelong glance. “We can come back tonight and smash things.”
“Promise?” I ask and frown as an omega falls sideways, giggling when she hits the ground. It takes five people to haul her up.
I search until I spot Silvie hanging off a different alpha from the ones she’s spent the last four days with. He leans in and kisses her neck. She laughs loudly. The impulse to rush in and protect her is strong. She doesn’t know him. Why is she letting him kiss her so intimately? But I restrain myself even while I keep an eye on her. Would I care if she was making out with strangers if she were a beta? No, but an alpha has the power to lock her into a life of their choosing forever.
It doesn’t matter. I don’t think she’s going to hear anything I have to say. She hasn’t even spoken to me since the office. I’ve tried, but she’s pretending I don’t exist. I’ve worked at dozens of venues with heaps of different kinds of people, serving them, knowing I was going home to a ruin with no food, but not a single person has made me feel the way she’s made me feel. Like I’m two inches tall. Like I’m embarrassing.
It’s humiliating, but I can understand why she’s doing it. Oh, boy, does that make it all worse. Understanding sucks.
There have only been a few times in my life I’ve been disgusted by my sister’s behaviour. This is one of them. Maybe she was like this at the Omega Academy? I didn’t attend the school with her; I went to the normal school with the rest of the betas. Even then, before the fire, I kept my head down.
Silvie is the extrovert.
Dylan’s knuckles brush the back of my hand. “Don’t go into your head, Nyx.”
