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It had been a year since I’d seen her, but my feelings about the termagant hadn’t altered. I desired her in all ways. Her body, but that was only natural. Her talent, which I’d not seen the like. And then, of course, that fire in her manner which called to me. I wanted to see how hot it could burn, how long the embers would radiate heat so intense that you dared not get too close. She’d shot me and it might as well have been with cupid’s arrow, for she was mine from that moment.
Then, of course, I’d bungled it like a cow-handed youth’s attempt to overtake a rumbling stage coach. Now an even greater obstacle was in my path…
A mate!
Goddess, the knowledge made me sick with jealousy that she’d shared her heat with another alpha. One I wanted to trounce and send far away from here.
“Was that the fiery Miss Hartwell?” Jack asked, as if it wasn’t plain as a pikestaff. I looked over my shoulder to see him trotting up the stairs. He patted my back in a friendly, familiar way, but all his focus was on the door through which the omega had gone. “Congratulations on the race. But I believe you have earned my sympathy for scaring her off?”
“I did nothing of the kind. She fled… You wanted us to forget her.”
“You’ve seen a lot of her back. How does that make you feel, alpha?” he smirked. Jack was the only one who knew everything about my interactions with Beatrice Hartwell. From the moment I’d seen her presenting her paintings, to the second when the other alphas had noticed the change in her scent, and finally to the following events that ended up with my getting shot and then having her turn down my request to buy her paintings. She bewildered me, attracted me, and mastered me in a way that only sparked the need in me to master her in turn. “Come out of that brown study, Benedict,” he said more softly. “We must go greet our hostess and then get out of these things. I’m starved, and it won’t do to sit through lunch covered in dust like a chimney sweep.”
He was already shrugging off his driving coat, which had just the correct number of capes. I’d bought it for him because it pleased me to see him in something I could claim ownership of. That line of thinking must be put aside during our visit. I needed all my wits about me, now that I knew Beatrice was here. Each presented a set of variables, the most pressing being the secret of their past relationship.
“My sister-in-law runs like a rabbit from hounds, yet the hounds don’t give chase.” Orley watched us with a quiet smile brightening his eyes.
“She ends our every conversation by running off,” I told my host. “And I’ve hunted enough in my time to know when a trap is better than flushing out my prey.”
Jack growled next to me. “You can’t trap her, Pax. We agreed you’d put her out of your mind.”
“Me’thinks you both need a drink if you are to survive this visit,” Orley observed. “The last Orley pack stocked such a good cellar that even my father failed to put a dent in it. It’s yours, if you require something to calm your nerves before attempting to woo the lady.”
“No taunting him,” Jack barked, surprising both of us. “We discussed it as we came up the drive. Leave us well enough alone with his frayed nerves and my desire to… To box Beatrice’s ears. But we won’t. We leave her alone, like we agreed.”
I blinked. It was so unlike Jack to assert himself when he could normally throw out some silly rejoinder. And why did it sound more like he was trying to convince himself, rather than warn me off?
“I’ve enough—” He bit off his next words with a curse.
He stared at me, a muscle in his jaw ticking and nostrils flaring, scenting the air. With another curse, he threw his hands in the air and stormed inside. I shared a glance with Orley, whose eyes were wide.
“I should want to rip his head off for barking at me, but I’m too shocked,” Orley admitted. “I suppose the sight of you holding Beatrice set him off.”
“And what do you know?”
“No more than you.” He shrugged. “You might even know more. Viola… Dammit that whole family seem to enjoy secrets and cryptic hints. I know Fordom was acquainted with the family in her youth, though she don’t remember him. But ain’t you curious about how well he knew her?”
We climbed the stairs together in silence until we reached the Great Hall. I looked down at my boots. “Orley. He told you not to provoke me, but know Jack had a mate. So I won’t have you baiting him.”
“What?”
“Jack had a mate,” I repeated. I don’t know why I withheld the information that Beatrice had a mate. Perhaps I wanted to be the keeper of that information. Regardless, I wasn’t inclined to tell him. “She died. He won’t talk about her.”
Orley frowned and returned to my side. “Viola never said…”
“And how would she know about Jack’s mate? And likely for the best. You and she organised this little contretemps between the three of us? It will end with Beatrice killing someone. Make no mistake, there is no path through this maze without someone getting shot.”
“Goddess, why? Why did I, why did any of us, have to become involved with this family? I’m starting to think I committed some grave sin in a past life, for whenever I think to have a moment’s peace, some Hartwell omega appears ready to create chaos as easily as some take their next breath.”
“Your Grace, I am beginning to believe that being an alpha with an omega removes all possibility of serenity. Not just a peculiarity of the Hartwell omegas, but of the dynamic as a whole.”
“Tis a sobering thought. Come, my duchess will be anxious to see how her meddling is progressing.”
I refrained from commenting on my host’s encouraging of his wife’s behaviour. I doubt he could help himself. The pair were sickeningly in love, but I envied him. His omega stayed to fight, while mine left me without any compunction when the ground became rough. What I’d give to finish a conversation with her that didn’t result in her fleeing or informing me she hated me.
Yet it would be hypocritical of me to protest at the duchess’ meddling, when I could only be grateful she’d provided me with the opportunity to teach Beatrice that her actions, her provocations, had consequences. Consequences that her absent mate could not save her from.
Besides, if she was an omega open to a pack, that meant I was compatible. Her mate didn’t need to save her after all. I’d mate her, Jack would mate her, and instead of being rejected by her mate, she would have two alphas who would never let her go.
