AllFreeNovel
Share Us
BEATRICE
I spentthe day doing the mending. Goddess, I hated the task but there were certain things I’d blush to have any servant touch. In this case, the ropes and ties Jack went through faster than I think he intended. But the alpha was too impatient after using them that right after the opera and, rather than waiting for knots to go down, he would cut us loose. I wondered if that was part of the allure for him as if in sawing through the ropes, setting us free from the bonds he had created. He figured in this fantasy as both captor and knight-rescuer. Whatever his motivation, I had taken to sorting the rope into what we could salvage and what must be discarded. Then there was the creating new sleeves for the rougher ropes because they wore down faster than I could have imagined.
Today I did the task in the drawing room. Since the card party, Pax had come to terms with the bulk of his collection living in storage in the other bedrooms. And there lay a task for me once these were finished. For I’d not had time to fully explore what he owned. I wanted to catalogue everything. Ensure he knew what he owned, what he might want to get rid of. He claimed to know every object in his collection, but no one who struggled to read a chapter from even the lightest novels or treatise in a week could have that good of a memory. He claimed the words swam before his eyes. I threatened to purchase spectacles for him… I grinned at the memory. What a perfect little moment. Just the kind I remembered from my parents when I was a child. The thought of my mother and father brought a sharp twinge in my heart. My mother’s presence at the card party had left me feeling confused. She’d ruined my life, Jack’s life, for her ambition. I loved her still, but she had proven herself a poor parent and unworthy to be an alpha in my life.
“Thinking hard Bea.”
“Polly?” I straightened and cast a panicked look at my mending–would she know what it is? “What are you doing here?’
“I wanted to see how you were getting along.” Goddess, she sounded tired. When she stepped into the room, her bearing only lent to my conviction that my sister had finally found her limit. Her hair hung loose and her men’s clothes were rumpled. “Mind if I sit?”
“Sit. You know I am well. I’ll ring for some tea.”
“No tea.” She sank onto the sofa next to me, closing her eyes and not speaking for a moment. “Why were you talking with Eliza Brown at the Mountview ball?”
“I know her from my first season. I rejected her suit.” I withheld seeing her talk to Stimpson. “But that was weeks ago.”
“Stay away from her. She is on the look out for an omega. I’m hearing rumours that I don’t like. Omegas are having their heats forced.”
“But how could they force a heat? Surely that is impossible.”
“There is a drug. Some sort of poison. I don’t know. But alphas are hurting omegas,” she snarled, her eyes glinted. I wanted to touch her, purr for her as I had when we were younger, when her eyes took on the appearance of a feral alpha. Except Polly was very much an omega. Papa had called her a pure omega–though her condition was more commonly referred to as Apex Omega. One driven to protect omegas as an alpha. She rarely had hearts and her last one had lasted a month, only made tolerable because of Jude. But her greatest burden was the hatred she bore towards alphas. “They want to enslave omegas… Talking about alpha rights as if our society weren’t built around alphas. Show me a civilisation, a tribe, family even where omegas sit at the top and I will abandon my life here and go there.”
“A sweeping statement, Pol. And I don’t disagree with you, but not all alphas are like that. Orley for instance…”
“I’ve information that there are…” Her words trailed off as some invisible thought caught her attention. I was forgotten, and her mind elsewhere—on to the next plan more like. “Your alphas plan to draw out Stimpson. They’ll keep you in the dark thinking it safer, but you must know. Ask them questions. They will tell you even if it takes pushing. But do not permit them to hide behind their alpha pride.”
I set my jaw. They were doing what? Hunting Stimpson after I told them not to? And behind my back? Conspiring? Since when? Hippolyta watched me closely, but her telling me had me almost as furious. She tried to put a wedge between me and my mates. I took a deep breath. I’d confront them. But in front of my sister, I’d present a united front. I had to. No. I wanted to.
“Why is it wrong for them to do that?”
“It is wrong they have not told you already. If you still believe they think you equal to their alpha–”
“Naturally, I know they know me their equal. It is as you said, their alpha pride means they act like over eager pups, believing that begging for forgiveness is easier than asking permission. Yet I suppose you don’t mind them killing Stimpson.”
“I would rather you do it.” She said with such a cold ferocity that I sat back. “Don’t trust Drexler. He only thinks of himself and his innermost circle. Your alphas went to him today. That is why I am here. Drexler is… dangerous. I don’t trust that he will act in your best interest. But alphas must always stick together. Holding each other’s opinions in higher regard–”
“Don’t. Polly, don’t finish that thought.” I felt her withdraw and, for the first time, told her how concerned I was. “I worry, dearest. Something happened and along the way I missed it. Trust me with your secret? Trust someone with your secret.”
“I must go.”
“Please—”
“Don’t try to step into our father’s shoes now.” She gave a mirthless laugh. “I’m sorry you had to learn how flawed they were. I’d rather that none of you had learnt… But I suppose that if you are so… You’re in love with two alphas. You deserved the truth. We are weak for them…”
“Polly, you can’t just say those things and expect me to let you walk out.”
And just like that, she seemed to evaporate. I kept my eyes on her the whole time and yet missed the moment she left. There was something otherworldly about her. Jack had called her the Faerie Queene for her seeming magical powers. I liked to believe she was human, but if I’d learnt my sister was a changeling, in fact the heir to some Faerie throne in the Otherworld, I’d not be surprised.
I rejected any question about her information. She’d to yet lie. I did not think it possible for her to do anything that might put an omega at risk.
Now, what to do with the news she’d brought? That the alphas intended to take on Stimpson head on and without giving me the details did not surprise me. Nonetheless, it hurt they had charged ahead despite my desire to put the event out of mind and that they had excluded me from their plans.
I found my old clothes. The breeches and jackets I had not worn for weeks but which were stashed in the back of my wardrobe. I’d learnt my lesson from Viola and instead of my own shirts, I borrowed Jack’s, using his alpha scent to mask my own sweet omega roses.
Slipping from the house proved easier than I expected when a grumbling Meeker offered to escort me to my mates.
“Goddess bless ye’, my lady.” He enunciated each word like I couldn’t speak the language. “You cannot go about risking my position like this. What’s a wounded soldier to do if he finds himself without honest employment? Turn to drink and debauchery is what. Won’t do. I like having a soft bed and decent meals. Shan’t give ’em up for the world.”
