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“Please Madam,” Lexington said, smoothly breaking in. “Don’t blame Prince Rory. It was entirely my fault for detaining him to talk outside. I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to make his acquaintance, but I’m afraid I may have been selfish in keeping him away from his dinner so long.”
“But I thought you didn’t know who he was,” Callista said, with heavy reproach in her voice.
He didn’t even look at her but kept his gaze on me. “You were mistaken then, weren’t you?”
The internal struggle Berinda suffered then was amazingly fun to watch, and it was all right there on her face for the world to see. On the one hand, she wanted badly to take off my head for being late and for showing up in this suit. She wanted to snap at him for being rude to Callista too, but she didn’t dare do either one.
Despite her attempts to mock me, it fell short, because I was getting some very obvious, admiring glances, her reference to leprechauns notwithstanding. She also desperately needed to stay in Lexington’s good graces and get him to marry me. I thought for one moment that her head actually might blow right off her shoulders and steam would shoot up out of her neck. The effort she made to suppress her rage was sublime to watch. In fact, it was touch and go for a moment there, but in the end, she persevered, her extreme greed coming to her aid at last. She couldn’t let these Alphas see what a true bitch she was. At least not yet.
Callista had said Lexington’s was the only offer they’d been able to get, after all, considering their unique criteria, so she certainly didn’t want to chase him off with an ugly display of temper. She choked down her rage at me and actually gave him a smile. A somewhat grisly effort, but she did manage.
“Of course, Lord Lexington. You’re so kind to overlook my stepson’s shortcomings, numerous though they are.”
“On the contrary, Your Majesty. If I may say so, I find Prince Rory…charming.” The words were right, but the look on his face and the way his lips twisted as he gave me the compliment, made me think the words were like ashes in his mouth. How had this gone so wrong so fast? What had I done?
The word “charming” still almost got Berinda, though, even if Lexington did have to force it out of his mouth. She fell back in her seat like he’d struck her, but I was pretty sure she’d recover. More’s the pity.
Lexington, who still had my arm, turned and led me over to the three Alphas who’d been at dinner the night before. They all rose to their feet to give me curt little bows. “Your Highness, may I present my cousins, Wyatt, Asher and Brandon.” Their combined dominance was almost enough to knock me off my feet.
I nodded to them, barely able to make eye contact and hiding a little behind Lexington. They stared back at me almost suspiciously, giving me the same odd look as before—fascination, mixed with something dark and flaring—something that looked like distaste, mixed with lust, though they must have still been reacting to my omega scent. The waves of it coming off them made a flutter and an ache start up in my chest, and it traveled all the way down to my dick again, following the same track as before. It made me want to sink to my knees, and I gripped the chair back in front of me to keep on my feet.
But what on earth had Berinda and Callista told them about me to warrant those looks of distaste or maybe even disgust before I’d ever even really met them? I mean, they were planning on killing me or selling me to the slavers one day, so I could understand their need to be cold and indifferent to me, but this hot antipathy was like drops of molten lava dripping onto my skin. It physically hurt.
The one Lexington had called Wyatt was the largest of the three cousins. He was taller than either of the others, even Lexington, and he was huge. He wasn’t quite as handsome as Lord Lexington. That didn’t mean he wasn’t still extremely good looking. All four of them had lucked out in the looks department, so my guess was that “handsome” ran in the family. Hell, it practically galloped. He was also the one who smelled like spun sugar, and he had lovely dark brown eyes—or they would be if they didn’t look as if he were mentally constructing my coffin.
As for Brandon, he still smelled like cinnamon apples and had gorgeous auburn highlights. He had high cheekbones and full, pouty lips. I thought he might be a bit of a fashion plate too, as the outfit he was wearing was one of those black velvet suits cut to look tight and slim fitting. The suits were considered the height of fashion right now in the kingdom. He wore a red cravat, and his red shirt collar had long, sharp points. He took my hand to brush the back of it with his lips, but he let it go as soon as he decently could and took a quick step back, as if my slick offended him. He turned away, but not far enough, because I saw him bring his hand to his mouth to wipe away the taint of my skin.
The last one was Asher, the blond who smelled like brownies. He looked me up and down with disdain written all over him. His nostrils flared wide as he looked at me and his eyes wereice blue, but as hot as I imagined the chambers in hell might be. Despite the cool, serial-killer color, theyburnedin his face. His suit was black too, and too tight across his broad shoulders. For some reason, the suit looked out of place on him, like it wasn’t what he usually wore, and to me, he looked like a soldier. I didn’t know why I thought so. I had a sudden image of him running me through with his sword, and alarmed, I took a step away from him and tucked my hand into Lexington’s arm.
It was a purely instinctive move, because my body and mind were both telling me I needed protection, but he looked down at me with an expression like I’d never seen before, full of dislike and even hatred, but with a fierce possessiveness. It surprised me so much I pulled my hand away instinctively, but he pulled it back and held onto it, even though he flinched as his skin touched mine. I thought it must be from disgust and tried again to take a quick step back, glancing up at him in hurt surprise. He looked away but held on tightly.
I just didn’t see this working out with Lexington. It's kinda hard to have a relationship with someone who finds you disgusting.
What the actual fuck was going on with these Alphas? Lexington had his tongue halfway down my throat just a few minutes earlier but now he was acting like I had some disease? For that matter, all of them were giving me so many mixed signals, they were making me dizzy.
I felt as if I’d missed some vitally important clue, some piece that would solve the puzzle, but just then Wyatt pulled out a chair for me and glared at me expectantly, like he was waiting for me to sit down. Since I knew none of them would take their seats until I did, I plopped down in the chair—hoping he wouldn’t suddenly pick up the butter knife and stab me with it.
I didn’t think I’d be able to eat a bite.
Chapter Four
Lord Lexington
I glanced to my left at the gorgeous young prince sitting across from me, moving food around on his plate to make it look like he was eating. So, this was the son of the notorious warlock Vesper.
My cousin Brandon sat on one side of him with Wyatt on the other side. I was across the table from him with Asher beside me. We had him surrounded with our energy, but it didn’t seem to faze him in the least. This fucking little omega warlock didn’t seem at all intimidated by any of us.
My fingers itched to grab him by that stupid little cravat he was wearing, drag him across the table to me and show him just exactly what his place was by ravishing those pretty, smart alecky little lips of his. I never wanted to kiss anybody so damn badly before in my life. Or turn them over my knee to show them their place.
Then I thought back to earlier when he’d touched me, and I’d shuddered. He had stepped back like he thought I was going to hit him. He was so much smaller than I was—hitting him was an appalling idea—so much so that I was immediately horrified that the thought of spanking him had even crossed my mind. Even though he needed it.
I glanced over at him again, uneasy by his proximity and surprised at the way he looked. Brandon, Asher and Wyatt had seen him in the Great Hall the night before and they’d said he had taken the form of a dark troll in a black, hooded cape. They obviously had let their imaginations run away with them, but they hadn’t gotten a good look at him then because they said he’d kept his hood up. Still Brandon swore that he had seen him reach for a strawberry with black claws. I looked over at his hands now, clenched in front of him and saw his cuticles still stained with black, so it must have just been polish on his fingernails and not the black claws Brandon thought he saw. Brandon could be a bit overly dramatic. So, he hadn’t been an actual troll under that cape, but just a boy. It was possible that he hadn’t come into his full powers yet, and I could work with that. I wanted badly to take him in hand.
I wouldn’t have been surprised at anything he was, though, considering who his mother had been and how powerful she was when she was still alive.
What was unexpected was Rory’s beauty, as we’d heard just the opposite. He was small and yet perfectly formed—only barely coming up as high as my chest. He had glossy black curls and eyes like gleaming green jewels in his face. I hadn’t expected him to literally take my breath away. Everyone had told us he was plain and unattractive. It was what I’d always heard about him anyway. Maybe, he was like his mother before him, and he could glamor himself to look any way he wanted to?
And since I was listing expectations, I never thought I might like him so much either, or at least like the façade he presented to me out on the castle’s ramparts. In those first few minutes before I knew who he was, I thought he was funny and clever and charming. He had literally wrapped me around his little finger and that had to have been deliberate. I didn’t even like omegas as a general rule.
