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BEATRICE
The last barriersmelted away after that. And with their intensity in the bedroom came softer moments. A brush of hands in passing. A kiss on the stair. An alpha purr in the evening while I sketched.
My days too changed. The dust covers were removed, and I began to have mornings at home. And if it was someone they trusted, I could go to my own social gatherings. There weren’t many my alphas trusted, but those they did, they did explicitly.
Amongst the remnants of our luncheon, near two dozen hot pressed cards from various London omegas littered the dining room table. In the week I’d spent waiting for my new wardrobe and as the dresses, chemises, stockings, and other sundries to arrive, I’d begun collecting invitations. On arriving in town, Pax had put a notice of our marriage and mating in the Times, and society had taken note. They’d waited the requisite fortnight afforded the newly mated before requesting the pleasure of our company at a ball, concert, breakfast, outings, salon, and more. But until I had a wardrobe, I refused everything. None would be surprised. Our mating-moon made an easy excuse. Yet the moon had not completed a cycle, and I longed to return to society and show off my mates and reconnect with friends I’d not seen for over a year.
“Have you picked?” Pax asked. He lounged on the sofa, which I’d turned into a nesting space, in which my alphas enjoyed leaving their scents for me to curl in to while we ate.
“Hmmm… The Carmichaels have a soiree, which would be perfect as I came out with their omega.”
“But?”
“Oh Pax. I just want to dance! I’ve not gone dancing in a year or more and I miss it.”
“My dear, you are a constant surprise. Do you miss it? I’d no notion.”
“If I fence, I enjoy dancing.”
“Hmmm.” He stood. Goddess, dare I say it, but he prowled towards me. His eyes dark and hair falling loose around his face. In the quiet of our home, he’d begun to leave it loose. I half suspected because he liked the way Jack or I ran our fingers through the silky locks. He looked more like the alpha I remembered on my first visit to this house. I craved that version of Pax but had yet to learn to ask for him, instead taking advantage of when he was in the mood. “I still want to see you fence. With a sword in hand, a look in your eye that you are ready to murder me,” he smiled.
“Murder?”
“You see, Vixen, I delight in your casual aptitude for violence. Watching you the other night. When you toyed with me”
“Jack told me to…”
“Perhaps, but you loved every moment. You flooded our room with the scent of your slick. Neither of us touched you and you got wet doing those depraved things to your mate. Your alpha…”
“Pax,” I wanted to warn him off, needed to accomplish a long list of tasks, and the minute his scent reached me, I was lost. “Please, you must think for us. I must speak with Hubbard about the menus. Iffley is complaining about the new footman making eyes at the nightwatchman. And the letters that need answering—”
“You can write letters while I’ve my knot in you…”
“My Lord,” I squealed as he pulled me into his lap. “This is undignified.”
“Hardly. What did I tell you a year ago? If you are a mate, you are a member of the aristocracy. Nothing you do is undignified.”
“There you are!” Jack closed the door behind. His hair was wet and pushed off his face. “Never seen such rain before. Trix. You are a menace. Do you hear me?”
“What has our mate done now? Does she need to be punished for it?” Pax’s clever fingers slipped under the low-cut bodice of my dress to play with my nipples.
“I doubt she’ll believe what you are doing a punishment. As you ordered, I was at the tailor. That Dalzell fellow found me. Seems the tabbies have learnt about our bites and are, in his words, agog to see a Lovers Circles.”
“We were just looking over invitations.”
“He compelled me to accept his sister’s invitation. Mountview Pack. It is the favour we owe him. He gave the impression she was too young for all this and needs a friend.”
The point was clear. I was to be that omega friend, the calming influence.
The evening of the ball, I emerged from my nest after a long nap. Jack had kept me with him for most of the afternoon while we talked of nothing in particular. More delightful than his stories from his time in the army, Jack served as the most perfect model, one I could sketch for hours and still learn how the light played across his face. Pax, meanwhile, had been holed up with his man of business. It seemed my oh so noble mate was—despite his thoughts to the contrary—an indifferent and neglectful landlord, and at my urging was looking over his estates to better understand his deficiencies. I felt no urge to join him—country estates and crop rotation seemed about as enthralling as sitting next to an omega whose only pastime was their indifferent health, or the health of their child. I’d happily allow that burden to fall on his shoulders, or, more likely, the shoulders of his steward.
“Mi’lady.”
I turned at the unexpected noise in time to see a sturdy beta enter the room. I gave him a flicker of a smile.
“You’re my new dresser?”
“Miss Hippolyta… My letter of reference.”
