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“Rory! Is that you? What on earth are you wearing? And what are you doing here?”
“Rory?” Lexington said, frowning and looking from me back to Callista.“PrinceRory?”
Callista grimaced. “Yes. You’ve found my stepbrother, I see.”
“I have?” he said, looking clearly shocked as he stared down at me. His forehead wrinkled as if he were confused, and he didn’t look at all pleased.
“Lord Lexington meet my stepbrother, Rory.”
He was silent, looking stricken so I answered Callista instead.
“Sorry, Callista, but I’m still yourhalf-brother, I’m afraid, and not step.” I turned back to the man I’d just kissed. “Unfortunately, we share a father, but she likes to forget that. Sharp as a marble, that one.”
They both stared at me incredulously, which should have been my clue to shut up. “You know,” I said, making a misguided effort to explain the joke. “Because a marble is round? Get it?”
I couldn’t have told you where all this unfortunate banter was coming from. It was terrible and Callista would make me pay for it later, but at the moment, there was a faint buzzing in the air that made me feel reckless and empowered. I couldn’t be bothered to care about later. People had told me all my life that things would be better later. But nothing ever was. Later never came, and I didn’t believe in it anymore. I turned away from her shocked face and back toward the handsome Alpha.
“We’re not close,” I told the handsome man, who was still looking at me disapprovingly. How odd. Why was he looking at me like that? What on earth had my stepmother and Callista been telling him about me?
“Or perhaps you already picked up on that?”
He looked at me coldly, still ignoring my comments.
“I’m actually here to meet you…Your Highness,” he finally said, suddenly very formal and distant. The words were proper and respectful, but they seemed to be a little forced. His eyes told me a different story. The beautiful Alpha I’d just kissed was gone, and he left this icy, too-formal clone in his place. I had to admit I was disappointed. This wasn’t the man I had kissed at all, but a murderer who only wanted to take my father’s throne.
He executed a graceful, perfect little bow. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Rory. I’d like to introduce you to my pack. My cousins came ahead of me, and they’re inside the Great Hall, waiting to make your acquaintance. We’ve all been so…anxious to do that, you see.”
Anxious? An odd way to put it, but I wanted to tell him I knew why. I wanted to let him know I was wise to this hateful little scheme of my stepmother’s, but I didn’t have the nerve.
Before I could answer him or even react, Callista stepped closer and took his arm. “I’m so sorry, Lexington,” she said, apparently already familiar enough with him that she was calling him just by his name and leaving off his title, like they were intimate friends. She looked up at him from under her long eyelashes. “Mother sent me to find Rory for you. We specifically told him to be sure to come for dinner, but he’s so flighty and irresponsible. I was just on my way to find him, in fact.”
I just stared at Callista, because, apparently, she didn’t require my input, and I really didn’t have anything to say to her anyway. Normally, I would have stammered out some lame apology or excuse, which she would then reject and ridicule me for attempting, and then I’d try to slink away before she sharpened her claws on my face. But not tonight. Something was different inside me tonight, and I didn’t have any idea what it was or what could have caused it. But I thought I might like it and decided to just go along with it to see where it would take me.
I glared at my half-sibling and shrugged. “It’s best for you and your mother not to have many expectations of me, Callista, and then you won’t be so disappointed.”
She frowned, unable to work out if I’d just smarted off to her or not. “Such a strange person,” she said with a fake laugh to convince Lexington, slipping her arm through his and giving me her middle finger behind his back. She glanced over her shoulder at me and mouthed the word,Asshole.
“Come with me, Lord Lexington, and I’ll take you back to the Great Hall. We’re about to have dessert and more wine.”
“Then I must ask Rory if he’ll do me the honor of allowing me to escort him to the Hall,” he said, neatly slipping out of Callista’s clutches and turning toward me. He held out his arm to me, looking very proper and formal. I missed the way he’d been when I’d first encountered him and before Callista showed up.
“Your…Highness?” he prompted. I hadn’t missed the little hesitations he kept doing. Plus, he’d called me “Rory,” which was a serious breach of protocol. But then again, Alphas were a law unto themselves.
I glanced from him back to Callista and threw caution to the wind. In for a penny, in for a pound, as they said. Hell, Callista could only kill me once. I gave her a mean smile and took his arm, noticing the very distinct flinch he made the minute I touched him.
****
“Lexington, there you are!” My father boomed out in a loud, inebriated voice as we entered the Great Hall. He was three sheets to the wind by this time in the proceedings, probably having already been a couple sheets along by the time he arrived. He reached for his goblet of wine, missed on the first grab but got lucky the second time and turned it up to drink down the contents. Then he wiped his lips with the back of his hand.
“Who is that with you?” he said, peering over at me. He did a double take and reared backward in his chair, “Vesper?” he whispered hoarsely, suddenly turning pale. “Is that you?” He looked like he was about to pass out.
The queen came to his rescue by giving him a hard shove. “Don’t be ridiculous, Elam. That’s your son, Rory—though I have no idea what he thinks he’s doing.”
“Rory,” she said to me, her voice wintry. “What on earth… I mean, please explain what it is you’re wearing. I don’t remember buying you a new suit. And certainly not one in that awful color. You look like a leprechaun in all that green.”
I ignored her insult in favor of answering her question. “You don’t remember it because you haven’t bought me a new suit, my queen. Not in years, or maybe a decade or more. This suit is one of my father’s old ones that he’d packed away. And now I guess it’s mine.” I glanced over defiantly at my father in case he wanted to dispute that ownership, but he was busy filling his goblet again. I noticed his hands were trembling.
Berinda gave me a glare that by all rights should have frozen the marrow in my bones and rose to her feet, holding out her hand. “Step outside a moment with me and let’s have a chat about your tardiness, child.”
