28. Rook
CHAPTER 28
Rook
I felt unusually nervous as I walked across the lawn for our campaign event. My job as a politician was ordinarily something I ground out because it was my duty.
Erain and Teddy were already on the stage waiting.
It was the last week of the campaign and the latest polls had us well in the lead.
I should be relieved. I knew this speech like the back of my hand. My late father’s pack had led the country for many years, and when I came of age, it was expected that I would follow in his footsteps. And I always had.
There was nothing to worry about.
Teddy’s unfortunate football incident was embarrassing but people seemed to think he would get back in shape and make quarterback again. The drama at Erain’s art show had made the rounds, for sure, with many elite Alphas amused to see his defeat.
But the fact that he had not been angry, and even praised Piper had blunted criticism of his competition loss.
And our poll numbers had barely gone down. We had weathered those storms, and now it was time for me to solidify our position in the final days of the campaign.
Beatrice nodded to me. I couldn’t wait for the campaign to be over so I wouldn’t have to work with her again.
“Do you want to get together for drinks later?” she asked, her hand brushing by my arm.
I fought down the wave of nausea and revulsion I felt at anyone besides my fated mate touching me.
“No,” I said shortly. “I won’t be seeing you in private ever again. All I care about is making sure our Omega knows how cared for she is and building her nest.”
Piper
There was instantly a twitching in my cock at even the memory of her, the thought of citrus and rose and her bold, confident blue eyes.
Fuck, I hoped our winning this campaign would impress her.
I wished she was here. My skin had started to itch almost uncontrollably being apart from her.
Just one more damn punishment for how I treated my Omega.
But I gritted my teeth and started my stump speech, Erain and Teddy in their suits seated behind me.
“We must care for our Betas and Omegas,” I said firmly. “And encourage a therapeutic synergy between all groups to work together.”
“Booo,” I heard a clear, melodious voice call out.
I jerked my head so far around that I got a cramp in my neck, and I saw Piper and those damn Betas standing at the edge of the crowd.
“Booo,” she said again. “You suck.”
Everyone started turning around and whispering to each other.
The Alphas began to gesture at me to do something.
Piper had her arms crossed in front of her, and I wondered if Mario, Cesare, and Raffi were somehow drunk, because otherwise it was pretty bold of them to boo an Alpha.
I narrowed my eyes, feeling my throat close convulsively.
Her lovely face was set in a frown and there was a deep line between her eyes.
The Betas began to wave signs in the air.
ROOK IS A WEASEL Cesare’s said.
ERAIN – TINY DICK OR NO DICK AT ALL? asked Raffi.
TEDDY – MORON!!! was all Mario’s sign had on it.
The command to haul the Betas out hovered on my lips, but my eyes met Piper’s again. She was flashing angry fire at me, and I knew what she wanted was for me to get angry too, kick the Betas out, so she could say she wanted nothing to do with me. That we weren’t compatible.
I swallowed my anger at them.
Piper was right to be mad at me.
I had been a jackass to her. Why would she be happy with me or give me one single inch?
“You are a fucking robot,” she called out. “What the fuck does synergy mean? Why don’t you tell us what you really think?”
Suddenly, my tie felt entirely too tight and my hands itchy. I had a ridiculous urge to laugh at the absurdity of this.
What the fuck was I even doing here? I loathed everything about being a politician.
There was quite a juxtaposition between the soft and melty feeling in my guts when I looked at my Omega and the furious way she was looking at me .
“You want to know what I really think?” I asked her.
“Yes, I do,” she said.
Mario, Cesare, and Raffi were now waving their signs up and down and chanting “FAKE, FAKE, FAKE, FAKE.”
She’s paid them off, I thought to myself, almost smiling at her cleverness. That was the only way on earth they would dare to do this in front of a bunch of Alphas.
Goddamn, she was ruthless.
“I think you’re right. I am a fake. I don’t like being a politician. In fact, I hate every fucking second of it.”
There was a stunned silence, and Beatrice made a choked noise deep in her throat.
Piper crossed her arms over her chest and I saw the rise and fall of her beautifully-formed breasts. I held her eyes, feeling raw and exposed with the truth laid out bare in front of her. The tension between us crackled to a fever pitch and suddenly, without any warning at all, I shifted, fully and totally, into my wolf form.
Well-bred and elite Alphas never shifted in public like this, definitely never during professional events, and there were gasps of horror all around the audience.
“Dude, you better shift back,” Teddy growled in my ear, but loud enough that it was heard all over the audience.
In my wolf form I could scent my Omega even stronger than ever, and I threw back my head and howled at the sky.
“Madam, control your candidate,” Piper called out to Beatrice, and in my state I still admired her fucking brutal commitment to revenge.
“Rook, what are you doing?” Beatrice hissed at me, her cheeks red as a beet, and I knew she hadn’t given two shits about me, either.
I had just been good for her career. Well, I didn’t know where her career was going after this, but I assumed nowhere good.
And it wasn’t like I wasn’t trying to shift back. I was trying. I just couldn’t control myself.
I threw back my head and howled again, and all the Betas in the audience began to sprint from the area. Then I stepped forward and knocked over the podium I was speaking at and the whole place descended into chaos, other Alphas leaping in to try and subdue me.
By the time I had managed to shift back, almost everyone had left in disgust or sheer terror, but Piper was still standing in the audience watching me.
And all I could think about was how desperately I loved her.
“That wasn’t very good for your political career,” Piper said.
I felt something deep in my gut as she looked at me. Just a little twang , just a tiny jolt of connection between us, but I felt an absurd spasm of hope.
“ I’ve never been very good at my political career,” I countered.
“I’m not sure you all are going to win this election,” she said. “The older Alphas aren’t going to like that. Very bad form to shift like that.”
“Oh well,” I said, taking another step toward her.
“Don’t tell me you don’t care?” my Omega shot at me. “I know you do. It’s what you’ve been working on for years.”
“I did care,” I agreed. “I thought it was the most important thing in the world to me. But now you are the most important thing in the world to me.”
“Rook, your career is never going anywhere if people find out about what she’s like!” Beatrice screamed. “She has to learn to behave herself!”
Rage flooded my veins.
How dare my ex presume to lecture Piper on how she needed to behave. I felt reckless and wild, and when I saw Piper’s eyes turn to me, wicked and light, I knew she had done this to fuck with me, but I couldn’t stop.
“ Don’t ever talk to my Omega . You are fired as my campaign manager.”
“Piper is perfect as she is,” I continued, looking at Piper’s fuck-you face, “I like exactly how she is. She’s perfect for me.”
“But the election—” Beatrice began. “Your father—”
“I don’t give a damn about either,” I said. “She’s not a politician’s wife. Because I’m no damn politician. I fucking hate it.”
Teddy and Erain were trying to coax some frightened Betas back to hear me speak, but it was pointless.
“Pack your bags, Beatrice. You have no job in the palace,” I said, dismissing her.
She ran away screaming and I faced my fated mate.
“The more revenge you get,” I told Piper, “the more I fall in love with you.”
Her scent inflamed me, enveloped me with the sweetest rejected pleasure I’d ever dreamed of.
“What would you do instead of being a politician?” Piper asked.
For a second, I was struck silent and how did I ever think I should have been a politician with this grasp of words.
“I don’t know,” I said slowly. “Something where I don’t have to talk to so many damn people. I only like talking to people I really care about. Like you.”
“You’re smooth,” she said, pulling her sunglasses down and I’m so filled with desire at the long elegant line of her throat, the way her hoop earrings dangle against her golden skin.
“What will convince you I mean what I say?” I asked, my heart in my throat, and suddenly I’m out of control, everything spinning around me so fast I want to puke.
Because this girl is absolutely my fated mate, the one woman literally designed to match me in every possible way. She’s smarter than me, more confident than me, stronger than me, and she can match me in every way.
And I’ve fucking screwed it up and I don’t know if I can fix it.
I’m the fixer. That’s what I do. I fix shit.
But I don’t know how to fix this.
Her little shrug is like a dagger to my heart.
If she’s our fated mate, why aren’t our scents working on her at all? Did our betrayal somehow fucking screw everything up so that our Alpha scents don’t work?
What if she never goes into heat?
What if I fucking fail?