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Uncertainty creeps into those beautiful eyes, but she doesn’t say no. “That depends on the deal.”
Holding her gaze, I move my hand off hers and tap the card she still hasn’t turned over. I know what I’m doing right now is the biggest gamble I’ve ever taken, but I need to do it. “If that’s a low card, you get to keep my winnings from tonight. All of them. They’re yours, free and clear. It’s not that much, but it’s something.”
She turns it over in her head before her chin comes up a fraction of an inch. “What if it’s a high card?”
Shit, please let this work out in my favor.I’m about to lay it all on the line here. I’m betting the house, and if I lose, I’m not quite sure what will happen, but it won’t be good. I might lose Kaz and Maddie in one fell swoop. As it is, I may already have lost Kaz. I don’t know for sure yet, but right now, I’m not playing his game. I’m playing my own, and I’m playing for keeps.
I’m playing forher.
In the only way I can stomach it: by leaving it to fate.
“If it’s a high card, you agree to be my Omega. No matter what.”
“Excuse me?” For a long minute, she doesn’t move. She just sits there, staring at me like she can’t quite comprehend what I’m saying.
Then her features knit together, her eyebrows mashing into one as she blows out a sharp, disbelieving breath through her nostrils and shoves her chair back. She shakes her head. Her eyes are narrowed to a squint as she glares at me once she’s standing, a hand going to clutch her heart like I’ve physically wounded her. “Wow. I’m done. I can’t believe you would…never mind, it doesn’t matter. I’m out of here.”
With that, she scoffs again and then turns on her heels, storming out while I’m still sitting there, confused as fuck about what just happened. Clearly, she’s angry, but that’s not exactly the reaction I was going for.
At worst, I expected her to turn me down, but now she’s pissed at me.Why?
I feel like my head has been detached from my body as I try to figure it out, but when I realize she’s not coming back, I shoot up off my chair, swipe the card off the table, and bolt after her. Regardless of why she reacted that way, she needs to know that I was serious.
She needs to know that I want her and that I brought her out tonight to ask her, away from the palace, if she’ll be mine. Everything’s gone to shit now, but I can’t let her get away without making sure she understands I’m already hers.
We may not have bonded yet, but I feel like we have. Sort of. I don’t really know what it’s supposed to feel like with an Omega, but this, what we’ve got, is what I want.Forever.
When I catch up to her, she’s rushing down the alley behind the pub. She’s almost made it back to the road. “Maddie! Wait!”
She stops moving, spinning around to face me with her index finger raised and trembling as she points it at me. “That was a cruel, cruel joke, Taiyo William Althorpe.”
“Why the hell would you think it was a joke?”
“Isn’t it?” she asks as I stride across the distance between us, her expression tight as she watches my approach. “Why would you tempt me with something like that if it’s not a joke? When you know I won’t be chosen?”
Slowly, the pieces start clicking into place in my head. “I’m turning the tables, Maddie. Maybe you won’t be chosen, but right here, right now, I’m askingyouto chooseme. Me and Wolf, that is. I should probably be clear about that.”
“What?” She stares at me with incredulity painted across her features, her lips parted and her eyebrows high. “Are you serious?”
“As a rut,” I say, though I don’t know why I didn’t just go with heart attack. All I know is that I’m not thinking clearly right now. As I reach for her hands and take them in mine, I know this is what it’s all come down to. This moment right here is make or break. I may not be thinking clearly, but I need to express myself more clearly than I ever have before. “If it turns out that way, will you choose me and Wolf? Regardless of titles, or royalty, or being bonded to the Royal Pack, or the Trials… Will you choose us?”
“How?” she breathes. “That’s not possible.”
“Well, it’s possible, but it won’t be pretty,” I admit, my voice strangled as I close my eyes. “It would mean that we would break—”
“No,” she says immediately. “You wouldn’t do that to Kaz. This is a joke, right? I was right earlier. It’s a fucking joke.”
I firm my grasp on her hands when she tries to yank them out of mine. “It’s not a joke, Maddie. Neither of us want to do that to him, but we would do it for you. I need you more. Wolf needs you more. Kaz needs you more than he needs the monarchy too, but if he won’t admit it, then that’s his mistake to make.”
“Tai…” she trails off, moisture shimmering in her eyes as she steps into me. “I can’t let you do that. I can’t let you break your bond to be with me.”
“You won’t have to let us do it. We just will. It’s our bond to break, not yours. And again, I’m not saying it will come to that. All I’m asking is thatifit does, will you choose us?”
“Yes,” she whispers without hesitation. “Of course, I’ll choose you. I’ll always choose you. In this lifetime and in a hundred lifetimes to come, I will nevernotchoose you, but what about Kaz? I can’t take you away from him.”
“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.” I pull the card out of my pocket and hold it out to her. “Well, what is it?”
“It’s a high card,” she says, her eyes tearing. “It’s…a queen.”
