AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You think we played her? That we actually chose that cunt, Sam?” Sebastian seethes. “That bitch is in on it, and we were forced. Someone took Owen—if we didn’t choose Sam, they would’ve killed him.”
The smile on Thomas’s face morphs into anger. “Have we located him?” he demands.
“No, and you’d know that if you weren’t conspiring to help Ariah leave,” Wyatt spits out.
Thomas flexes his jaw, inhaling to compose himself before he speaks. “Ariah’s been through enough. She’s going through too much, and it’s not just her.” He pauses. “She has more to think about, and if what you say is true, then it’s better for her not to be here until we get this situation handled.”
There’s an exchange between Wyatt and Thomas—a silent conversation. Wyatt’s nostrils flare when he doesn’t get the answer he’s asking.
“I won’t accept her being gone. She isn’t safe anywhere but with us,” Wyatt seethes. “As long as she’s out there, she’s at risk.”
“Trust me, she’s in the safest place possible,” Thomas retorts. “Now I need to go get a team together, so we can begin working on bringing Owen home,” he explains, leaving us in the middle of the foyer.
Lifting my hand, I rub at the tension building in my temples. “What was that about?” I grit through clenched teeth. This day has gone to hell and shows no sign of turning around.
“What was what about?” Wyatt shoots back, trying to be coy, but failing miserably.
Sebastian’s lips thin. “You know what. The whole,” he gestures, reacting to the scene between Wyatt and Thomas, “communicating with your eyes thing. What aren’t you telling us?”
“What did you find upstairs in her room?” Lev adds.
Wyatt shrugs. “I don’t know what you assholes are talking about.”
I growl in frustration, “The part where you were throwing things and swearing.” If I wasn’t so busy tearing things apart, I would’ve seen. It wasn’t until he cursed that he caught our attention. Originally, I dismissed it, but now I know it was something more.
“Like the rest of you, I was pissed when I couldn’t find some trace of where she could be,” he volleys, taking his turn to leave us standing there with our dicks between our legs.
“He knows something,” Lev whispers.
I roughly run my hands through my hair, trying to regain my composure before I reply. “He definitely does, but you know, Wy. He won’t reveal shit unless he feels it’s pertinent for us to know. So let’s go to the Tombs and see if we can’t override Aaron Bradford’s orders.”
* * *
“You won’t go looking for her,” my father instructs from his seat. “Until we get this under control, you will all keep up pretenses that Samantha Davenport is your Chosen.”
“Excuse the fuck out of me?” I blurt out before I can stop myself.
My father’s eyes narrow. “You heard what I said, and you’ll all do as you’re told by order of the Fraternitas oath you all took last summer. The tattoos you all wear attest to your acceptance. You’ll date, fuck, and marry Samantha Davenport if that’s what it takes!”
A chair kicks back at the same time, fists land against the hardwood, and curses fly.
“Absolutely the fuck not,” Wyatt snarls. He’s been more uncontrolled than I’ve seen him in a very long time. I didn’t realize until now just how much Ariah tempered the beast.
Mr. Grant stands, “You don’t have a choice— none of you do. Not until we get Owen back. Then we can dispose of this farce of an engagement. But getting Owen back is priority number one.”
My eyes follow Wyatt as he paces and mutters under his breath about the infinite ways he will dispose of Sam and whoever else is behind this.
I think of what pretending to be engaged to Sam will entail. “I will not sleep with that bitch again.”
All of the Council members’ attention hone in on me. “You’ll do whatever it fucking takes as you’ve always been expected to do, Wesley,” my father instructs.
“Doing whatever’s been expected of us is what got us here in the first goddamn place. I told you this shit was a bad idea from the start. I said, letting some old—.” I’m cut off before I can finish.
“Enough,” my father commands. “This isn’t up for discussion. We can hold off any advancements from whatever Miss Davenport wants until the official party announcement, and the event has been postponed pending Owen’s safe return. No one will be required to do anything public before that time.”
I sag in relief, then feel guilty. I’m complaining about having to be seen with Samantha, and Owen’s going through who knows what. I close my eyes, trying to erase the image of Ariah’s face when I announced Sam as our choice from my memory. It will haunt me until the end of time. I worked so hard to show her I’m better than the person she met when she arrived, and that moment blew it all to shit. She’ll never forgive me unless I—we explain.
Huffing, I ball my hands into fists, flexing them until the veins look like they’ll pop. Knowing that she’s out there thinking we all lied to her or, worse—used her, hasn’t stopped playing on repeat in my mind. Today was the hardest decision, but it was the right one. I broke her heart momentarily to save Owen because losing him would’ve broken us all permanently.
