I almost miss Nolan’s next question. “Your alpha scent’s all over him. “Are you two?—?”
“None of your business,” I snap, then regret it. “Sorry. Professional boundaries.”
“I ask because you’re not masking it well.”
He’s not wrong. My control is decent, but Kellen brings out the worst in me: the want to claim and protect, to lean into every instinct that Ravenwood drilled out of us in training. But Kellen is off-limits, not just for the job, but because I’m not royal or even noble blood. I’m not even rich. I’m just good at what I do, and what I do is keep him alive.
And now I have to do that alongside a pop star’s bodyguard who’s already clocked the feelings Kellen and I share.
“Noted,” I say. “You planning on masking yours?”
Nolan actually laughs. Not a big sound—barely a cough. “Not when she can smell it a mile away.” He nods at Piper, who is now spinning a full circle in front of the fountain, arms thrown wide. If there’s a more obvious omega in this hemisphere, I haven’t met them.
“So youdidknow about her designation?” I ask.
Nolan shakes his head. “Not until you two did. She’s hidden it very well for as long as I’ve known her, and I think she’d rather keep it hidden.”
“Understandable.” An omega pop star would be quite the media spectacle. Even bigger than the one we’ve already got brewing right here.
If he’s anything like me, he hasn’t stopped thinking about the gala. “All I know is, she’s unbonded and unclaimed, and while we’re all scent-matched, that doesn’t need to change. Piper will be the one to decide.”
My jaw sets tight. “Agreed. We’re not animals.”
“Didn’t say you were.”
He didn’t have to. It’s clear how seriously he takes his job as Piper’s bodyguard and, inside that, how much he cares for her. I feel the same about Kellen. We have common ground, much as Nolan might be loath to admit it.
He’s silent for a while as we follow our charges through a series of hedges that could probably conceal a small army. My left hand hovers near my sidearm out of habit, though we should be safe on palace grounds. Anyone looking to start trouble would have to scale a fence and hide from guards posted high on the building’s roof. But never say never I suppose.
Unfortunately, said fence has enough holes for the press to snap photos through. Which is exactly what the royal PR department wanted.
“I’ll handle Piper,” says Nolan finally. “You focus on your client.”
“I plan to.” I have no interest in playing house with a bunch of unstable emotions and shifting social dynamics, but if anyone’s going to make this disaster work, it’s the two of us. Kellen and Piper will be the face of the operation per royal PR. But if Nolan and I can’t keep them safe, nothing else matters.
Nolan stops walking. He squares his shoulders and looks me dead in the eye. “Don’t make it worse.”
“I’m not the problem here.”
“I know.”
Great. Glad we’ve accepted this.
The rest of the walk is conducted in silence, save for the distant hum of the press and the sound of Kellen’s laughter carrying back to us on the wind. Occasionally, Piper glances over her shoulder, and for a moment, I catch her eye. She doesn’t wink or wave, but her eyes linger for three heartbeats longer than necessary.
As we reach the far edge of the grounds, I realize something beautiful in a deeply inconvenient way: Kellen and Piper really do look like a couple in love, even if it’s all for show. I don’t know. Maybe it’s the adrenaline, or maybe it’s just the fact that we’re scent-matched idiots pretending otherwise, but I feel a little bit of hope flicker in my chest.
Don’t.
I squash the feeling seconds after it arrives. There’s no room for hope ofanythingwhen this is all fake for PR.
But is it really that fake?
Nolan breathes out, long and low. “You think they’ll pull it off?”
“Probably,” I say. “They’re naturals.”
He nods. “So are we.”
