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He would prefer not to that was as clear as daylight. “I’ll fetch you a glass of champagne.” Was all he said. “I won’t be gone long.”
My bother-in-law waited until we had some privacy before speaking. “Hippolyta. You look well.”
“My sister?”
At my question, he grinned.
“She’s gets on. Bored and writing letters to the Prime Minister” He surely knew I had no need for his answer. I kept in close contact with my sisters and on the chance they lied in their letters, my spies reported regularly. “She’s determined to kidnap you back into the family fold. Why don’t you return?”
“I have someone who needs me. And leaving him would break my heart.”
“Puck,” he growled.
“No. But why should you disapprove of Puck?” I asked, itching to defend, itching to deny all attachment. Pulling in a calming breath, I reminded myself of one simple, incontrovertible fact: omegas when surrounded by a large group of alphas became aggressive. My omega instincts paired with my very character and nature could lead me to behave irrationally. Like taking the side of the alphas who had locked me in a cage and never once apologised for the inconvenience.
“Of Puck? No. But if he keeps you from my wife and makes her cry, I’ll make sure you regret the day you stepped into the Hell.”
“Not Puck or any alpha,” I told him. He looked as stern as a schoolmaster. Some part of me, perhaps the part that longed to give Tod the family he deserved, wanted to reveal at least a sliver of the truth. “There is a boy. Oberon’s nephew.”
“The urchin? Jack mentioned him.”
I did my best to hide my reaction. Jack was the last person I wanted thinking about Tod. “He met him the night Bea went missing.”
A familiar, heady, delicious scent bloomed behind me: Jude.
“Good to see you, Orley,” he said with such alpha possessiveness that I wanted to snap and snarl to prove to these men I was not to be ordered around like a child reluctant to go to lessons.
The duke quirked at eyebrow at Jude’s familiarity. Had they even spoken before? Been introduced?
“I shan’t be far,” Orley warned me. “Should you need me, I can take on Puck and this lump.”
I huffed a laugh. What nonsense was this that I permitted alphas to behave as if I, Hippolyta Hartwell, queen of the high toby, who had put a stop to the life of more than one alpha, needed their assistance in any circumstance? Still, I found myself thanking him and encouraging him to lose as much money as possible.
Silently Jude led me to Puck who handed me a flute of champagne. The bubbles danced upon my tongue and the warmth of the alcohol was far more powerful than I remembered.
“There you are.” Oberon joined our little group and caught my free hand drawing me close. Quite unexpectedly, the ease I felt around Puck; the unwanted familiarity of Jude’s presence vanished. In their place an itch to battle with this imperious alpha. In its own way the fight he sparked in me was comforting. Even when his smirk told me he was about to irritate me, the tension in my body melted away. “You have behaved with more discretion than I thought possible.”
“Oh?” I downed the contents of my glass and held it up to the light. “Shall I smash this over your head?”
“I warn you, such recourse to violence will only be met with having all your clothes removed. And for Tod’s sake, I would prefer you wear even the plainest weeds rather than alarm a child. Come, there is someone I want you to meet.”
Oberon’s hand burn through the thin fabric of my dress, and to stay ahead of the intimacy I kept myself moving. Then he caught my elbow, whirling me around to face an alpha I knew. Lord Chester was a blustering alpha had been a regular at my parents’ dinner table when I’d been a girl. A notorious rake in his day he winked at me conspiratorially, making me realise Oberon clearly did not know we were acquainted.
“I must introduce you to this dazzling omega.”
“Woman.” I rushed to correct him. Both alphas looked at me as if I’d just declared the sun was green. “Woman…or, if you must, creature.”
“Creature? What’s wrong with omega?” He chuckled as if he didn’t know why the appellate irked me so.
“We’ll talk about it later.” I turned to Lord Chester and held out my hand. “Lord Chester, so lovely to see you again.”
He caught my fingers in his beefy hand and planted a kiss on them. “Always lovely to see my favourite Hartwell!”
“Favourite?” I couldn’t stop that the smile which broke out was not entirely a society smile. Loathe though I was to admit it, I enjoying myself. Not just the thrill of occupying this alpha dominated space but in exercising the social graces I had long since given up. “You’re such a flirt. You used to say the same to my father.”
“Now, he was an omega that broke many an alpha heart. I was one of his victims. Alas, your mama convinced him that life as a diplomat’s spouse was the only life.”
“You may release my creature’s hand,” Oberon purred but the underlying growl heated my cheeks. As did the proprietorial way he removed my hand from Lord Chester’s grasp. I opened my mouth prepared to set him straight, but was rudely prevented from speaking by the press of his lips to my palm.
