My throat goes tight. I’m not built for these conversations; I’m built for choking out attackers and silently enduring the fallout of my own bad decisions. But I make myself saysomethingbecause it’s clear Kellen’s waiting for it.
“I don’t know if I can be in a pack.”
It’s more than the idea of sharing Kellen with veritable strangers. It’s more than the pressures of Kellen’s royal duties and the weight of Piper’s career.
It’s all of it.
I haven’t had time to consider what a pack might even be like because I spent my entire childhood hanging out with Kellen and then, when we were of age, getting certified to become his bodyguard.
Now there’sall of this.
But none of these thoughts make it to words out of my mouth.
Kellen seems to understand. He takes the bowl from my hands. His fingers brush mine. The contact is electric, even after all this time.
The corner of my mouth twitches upward, and I feel the skin around my eyes crinkling despite my best efforts to maintain composure. “That’s cheating.”
He grins, smug. “You love it.”
I love you.
Kellen spoons out cookies onto the tray, then glances at me sidelong. “Are you going to help or just stare?”
I could watch you all day long.
I roll my eyes and start flattening dough balls. When he puts the tray in the oven, I close my eyes and inhale. Melting chocolate and butter wrap around me like a childhood memory. My shoulders drop an inch. My fists unclench.
Peace.
When the cookies are done, we stand side by side at the counter and eat them hot, not caring that we’ll burn our tongues. Kellen rests his head on my shoulder for a minute, and I don’t move away.
“I meant what I said,” he murmurs. “I want this. All of it.”
I wrap an arm around his waist and pull him close. “I know.”
We stand there until the sun slips down over the palace roofs and the kitchen is nothing but warm light and crumbs.
CHAPTER 7
Piper
The afternoonand dinner were a blur between calls from Raelynn, my socials blowing up, and feeling a weird undercurrent of tension slipping throughout the entire manor. Many of my things have been delivered or repurchased as this manor estate is to be my “home away from home” for at least a few weeks. I didn’t truly feel that necessary, but if I’ve learned one thing about Raelynn, it’s to carefully pick your battles.
If it means I have a say in this entire fake-dating situation later, I’ll stay here with the prince. It’s not that big a deal.
Now, all four of us are parked in the living room of the manor’s east wing, on an L-shaped array of high-end sofas. Kellen sits closest to the fireplace. Elliot has staked out the corner with a book that he hasn’t turned a page of since we sat down. Nolan stands guard at the window like it’s a crime scene. And I’m curled up at the end, legs tucked under, fiddling with the leather tassels of a throw pillow that costs more than my first car.
It’s quiet enough to hear the faint ticking of the grandfather clock in the foyer, which just makes everything worse.
I can’t do this.
“So.” I pop the bubble of silence. “Now that there’s no audience, we can probably talk about the thing we’re not supposed to talk about.”
Kellen cracks a smile, but it’s a nervous one. “What are you referring to, specifically?”
Well, yes, there are more than a few possibilities, aren’t there?“Let’s start with the most important to me: No one outside this room can know I’m an omega, not even your parents, Kellen.”
“Especially not the king and queen.” Nolan turns from the window. “It’ll make my job and Elliot’s much harder.”
