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“Five men. Rough and smelling like the stews.” Tod piped up like he was used to talking over alphas. “They dragged the lady out the wreck, hit her over the head and into another carriage. She was screaming fit to raise the dead. Got a pair of lungs on her that one does.”
“And no one raised an alarm?” I asked. “What—”
“We were on the Heath. Dead is what it was.” Tod sneered as if we were idiots. I want to throttle the child but if he’d been mine, I’d be buying him sweets or whatever reward he wished for the defiance that came so naturally to him.
“We go to Drexler,” I decided. In Tod I had a trump I’d happily use if it meant securing Beatrice’s safety. “You, Jude, go back—”
“I’m not leaving you—” Emotion choked off his words. “Not if you are going to Drexler’s.”
“It’s an order.” I gave him a look that had made alphas quake, but not my Jude. He met my stare full on. I threw him the kind of bone men of his ilk liked. “I’ll be with my sister’s mates.”
Jude released Tod, who was quickly caught up by Prog, and crowded me against the mantle. He might be the largest body in the room but when our eyes met we were equals in all ways. “You will go home. Or, if you prefer, go to the house and look after the boy.”
Home was our rooms not far from here. The house, of course, was Omega House, a place I’d never let him enter before. He knew it to be a bribe and spun away from me, anger darkening his features.
“You want—” He clenched his jaw. “After everything, you want to send me away?”
“This is about my sister. Not me.” I reminded him. We knew I was walking into the Hell. A place I’d promise him I’d never go.
“We’ll take care of her,” Jack assured Jude. I couldn’t help notice he looked at Tod like he was a puzzle to be solved. I must get the boy out before Jack saw what I did beneath the dirt. The boy looked too like my youngest sisters at that age.
In all the ages there was only one way to distract those under great stress: cause a distraction. I used that knowledge now. Striding over to a still angry Jude, I stood on my toes and pulled him down so that I could kiss him. After so many kisses, his hands instinctively gripped my waist, anchoring us together. In all our time together, I had never once planted any claim on him. Admitting the newness of such public affection, Jude tightened his hold on me until I could only breathe through our kiss. A hand threaded through my hair and twisted me to his liking, deepening the kiss. All worries melted as I gave into the bone deep security I found in his arms and constant pressure of his lips against mine.
“Well, if that don’t beat all!” Tod gasped breaking the spell that threatened to ensorcel me. “An omega lady kissing a beta lackey. Mighty fast for the Quality.”
I raised an eyebrow at Jude, daring him to say something. I could feel the hard press of his cock against my belly and could smell his arousal. Would he try to tell me what to do? I dared him to defy me.
“Fine—” Jude bit off whatever rider he intended to tack on. The promise to take Tod to Omega House was bright in his eyes. Jude stepped back, tilting my chin until I could not avoid his glare. “But on your own head be it.”
With a suppressed growl of frustration, Jude caught Tod about the waist and carried him out. True to what I’d seen of him so far, boy fought like a wildcat. Last of all was Prog who trailed after them, amused at the pair who were being sent away like naughty children. The meddling creature would let everyone know I’d kissed Jude in public. They’d be teasing me for the next year. But the commanding kiss shored up my resolution to do what needed to be done. I turned to the mirror above the mantle and grimaced at the mess Jude had made.
“Now,” I said smoothing away the loose hairs. “Now, we shall go and make Drexler food for worms.”
4
Polly
Oberon had taken over White’s old premise on Chesterfield Street for his Hell and in a flair for bad architecture had thrown up a white painted portico. What had been an unassuming bastion of alpha dominance had morphed into a gambling den and general house of pleasure. White’s might host the most powerful, and in this modern era where money’s power reigned, Oberon could be considered to hold London in the palm of his hand.
But like every other creature, he breathed air, bled blood, and ultimately would underestimate an omega, even when he knew me to be as dangerous as he was himself.
I leapt out of the carriage and rushed through the Hell’s door. The doorman was a large beta and former prize fighter… and one of my men. I called him Moth. Drexler had another name for him—Bruiser. Very unimaginative. But my normally composed friend’s face dropped as he stood aside to let me push my way into a place where omegas were not welcome. Not even my youngest sister who liked to go about in clothes drenched in an alpha’s scent had made it into London’s most notorious gambling hall.
This haunt for fashionable alphas and betas was bustling and only luck allowed me to race up the first flight of stairs without meeting one of society’s dandies, rakes, or chinless wonders. Still, the stench of alpha was overpowering. Like drinking rancid milk, it would not kill me but I might be sick for days afterwards.
My information from Moth told me Oberon’s office would be at the head of the stairs. I didn’t wait to learn if he was in the brightly lit and crowded rooms. Instinct told me he would be in his office, waiting for me. A thrill, if I was honest with myself because in Oberon and Puck, I knew I would meet my match.
I jerked the door open, drawing in a breath to bark orders at them, demanding the return of my sister and Sarah. And if they didn’t do as I commanded, my brothers-in-law and I were armed. I’d happily put a bullet in either alpha and send a mourning wreath for the sake of propriety.
But seeing him in the flesh after nearly two years, brought me up short. How had my memory so exactly preserved his satanic countenance?
Oberon Drexler sat behind his giant desk looking like a grim reaper—a beautiful one but still an agent of death. Black hair, black brows arched at an angle that turned him into a devilish figure, but it was the lack of emotion on his face which made my eyes flash. That and the sight of Robin Puck standing at his shoulder. To the unobservant, one might think Puck merely a creature of strong passions—an emotional foil to Oberon. I knew better. Not from personal experience of course. Sarah, our shared lover, adored discussing Puck’s quiet, tender moments. The lazy days they’d spend together. I was under no illusion that he was ignorant of my time with her. It built an uneasy kinship between us. Lovers by proxy. And in this light, knowing the stakes, I was still distracted by his beauty. The black skin that shone in the candlelight, the sensual fullness of his mouth, and the heat of his dark brown eyes.
If Oberon’s furious growl was to be believed, he had not been expecting us. Then, registering who’d broken into his office, his and Puck’s faces blanked, reminding me how little I knew of the intricacies of them. Their expressions, their scents, how their tone of voice might change and reveal something… I had no advantage. I sucked my lips between my teeth to prevent my own growl from escaping.
Another, defter and more subtle approach was necessary. And I still had my trump card. Tod was now safely bathed and fed at Omega House. But if I must lie and say his life was in jeopardy, I’d feel no shame. Because Moth had made one thing clear. Tod was the only creature in the world these two unscrupulous alphas cared for.
“I call your bluff,” I announced.
