AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Oh. Right. I’d totally forgotten.
“What about it?”
“I don’t know… if you were ready by then, you could ruin them at a ball.”
“Ruin them?”
“You have their secret, Shatter. One that will ruin them worse than they could ever ruin you.”
“What do you mean?”
“What they did to you—publically—when people find out they did that to their own scent match… Money won’t be enough to save them. No omega will go near them again.”
“You… you really think so?” I asked.
“We could go shopping, get you a revenge dress.”
“A what?”
“Like… the sexiest dress in the world. And then you walk out for the first time since they saw you, looking like a goddess, scent out, and then they realise how badly they fucked up.”
I mulled that over, enjoying the flash of vindictiveness in her eyes as she said it.
“If you’re up for it, babe. You don’t have to.”
“I know.”
I didn’t know if I was bold enough, but the idea did make me feel a little warm inside.
“Roxy, I…I’m sorry that being friends with me meant—” She frowned.
“I’mnotsorry I’m friends with you.” Her fingers tangled in mine and she squeezed tight. The fir trees tangling in the air around me wilted. “I stayed with them longer than I should have. My mom and sisters kept telling me what an amazing opportunity it was, and I should have been grateful to land a pack and have my tuition covered. No one ever walks away from something like that. But they weren’t…” She swallowed, like she wasn’t sure how to say it.
Ice slid through my veins.
But… she was Roxy. She knew what she wanted and how to manage alphas. “They didn’t… hurt you, did they?”
Had I missed that, somehow?
“Not like…” She swallowed. “Not like they hurt you. But they weren’t very nice. They’d find little ways to punish me if I wasn’t what they wanted.”
“I’m sorry.”
“I’m really happy it’s over. My family is going to be upset—they care a lot about reputation. But Dusk said he was going to cover my tuition anyway, so they can’t be that mad.”
“He did?”
“Yeh. I mean. I told him he didn’t have to but uh… he seems like the stubborn type. I also got the impression it might already be done.”
I snorted before I could catch myself.
Roxy gave me a wry smile, closing her eyes and squeezing my hand again.
Her scent settled, a peaceful Christmas morning, fresh orange and fir trees out the window. “I think I would have stayedif it hadn’t met you, and I think I would have changed into someone I wouldn’t recognise,” she said.
“I’m glad you’re free.”
THIRTY
