Chapter 26 #2
He practically skipped over to Hugo, placing his hands on his shoulders. His eyes were glittering with excitement, and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t feel the same.
“You mean it? We’ll go after him?”
Hugo rested his hands on Jewel’s hips. “I’m done playing his games. He’s trying to hurt you? We’ll fucking end him.”
Jewel leaned down and kissed Hugo, almost losing his balance in the process. He was breathing heavily after, grinning from ear to ear.
He spun around, throwing his arms wide. “This is the absolute best honeymoon ever!”
Jewel pointed at me, coming over and pulling me to my feet.
“All right, angel. Work your magic. Let’s make a plan.”
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CASEY
Jewel flopped down on top of the table, right over the sheets of paper we’d been staring at for hours. It was dark outside and late enough for my eyes to feel gritty. Jewel’s initial excitement of deciding on the plan had started to get “bogged down by annoying things like logistics,” as he put it.
Jade had insisted we get our hands on the hard drive with the videos before we took care of Valentino. It was the only thing he could potentially leverage against us.
“Sorry, why are we trying to get these again?” I finally asked. “Won’t they probably have copies of the videos?”
Jewel leaned over and pressed a kiss to my head.
“Yes, but we want the master copies. They’ll tell the full story, not just the narrative they want to tell.
They’ll prove I was… an unwilling participant in any illicit activities, and that a whole lot of alphas have been very naughty boys. It’ll give us leverage.”
I yawned, and he gave me a smile.
“Let’s say we’re all done,” he announced. “I need my beauty sleep, you know. I hate having bags.”
“It’s not that late yet.” Jade poked him with a pencil.
I gave another massive yawn.
“See? Look at our poor Casey-kins. He’s exhausted.” Jewel dragged himself up and cupped my face, turning me to look at Jade. “We’ve got to take care of him.”
“I’m fine.” I yawned again as I said it.
“Let him sleep! You don’t want to treat him like they did at the Pens, right?”
Jade narrowed her eyes at Jewel. “That’s a low blow.”
Hugo stood up. “He’s right, it’s late. We can come back to this in the morning.”
“Come on, we’re almost done!” Jade said.
Hugo folded his thick arms. “No arguing. Bedtime. Now.”
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I couldn’t sleep, though. I wasn’t the only one. Despite his complaints about how late it was, I turned over to find Jewel staring at the wall in the dark.
I reached over and touched his shoulder gently. “You all right?”
He shifted, moving closer to me. I wrapped my arm around him and pulled him close.
“Can’t sleep.” His hand reached up to brush through the short hair on my head. “Too much on my mind, I guess.” He continued to stroke my hair, which felt really amazing.
“About the plan?”
“About how much I fucking hate Prince.”
“Ah.”
We were silent for a moment.
“It’s absolutely fucked up. He has the audacity to make up this crazy story where he’s the one who ‘settles’ me? Where I’m jealous—of what? Dax and Madison?”
“It’s awful.”
“And he’s using these half-truths as so-called evidence! Like that picture of us, or my accent. I got that from my mother, asshole.”
“Your mom was British?” I asked.
He tutted and pressed a kiss to my forehead. “Oh, darling. Yes. My mother was Laura Tate. She was a world-famous supermodel.”
“Oh, wow.”
He smiled. “You’ve never heard of her, have you?”
My cheeks heated. “Uh, no. I don’t really keep up with that stuff.”
“And that’s why I love you.”
My arms tightened around him, tugging him closer. I breathed in the scent of plums and moscato. “Tell me about her?”
He sighed.
“She was amazing. So beautiful and elegant, but still warm, you know? She’d always make time for me.
She raised me when I was little, her and Papa Oliver.
They were both from England, while the rest of the pack were from here.
She and Oliver went back for work trips, and I spent a lot of time on planes when I was younger.
It was the best. She’d take me with her to sets and let me try out makeup. ”
He paused for a moment, eyes far away.
“It’s her accent I learned to talk with. I loved her voice. I always thought she sounded so refined. We’d come home to New Oxford, but it didn’t feel like home. My other fathers were almost strangers.”
“What happened?” I asked softly.
He looked down at the blanket. “I turned five. Had to start school. Thaddeus insisted I stay in New Oxford. Laurel was just a baby, and Mum stopped working to stay with us both. Thaddeus took advantage, of course. They must have known he was an abusive piece of shit at that point, but he trapped them. I didn’t know what was happening.
Why everything was so different. I have this memory of her sitting me down and telling me to behave for Thaddeus. I’d never seen her scared before.”
“I’m so sorry, Jewel.”
He gave a sad smile and squeezed my hand. He was trembling.
“You don’t have to tell me about it if you don’t want.”
He shook his head. “No. Only a few people know this, and I want you to be one of them.” Still, he paused and took a deep breath before continuing.
“When I was seven, they tried to escape. Not just her and Papa, but the other dads as well. We’d barely left the city before Thaddeus found us.
He was so angry. Got his men to drag us apart and then… ”
He made a finger gun and pointed it at the ceiling, making it go off with a puff of his breath.
“Right in front of us. Thank fuck Laurel was too small to remember any of it.”
He rested his head on my shoulder and swallowed, his eyes wet.
“He got rid of the others too. We weren’t allowed to talk about them.
He hated anything that reminded him of her.
I was punished anytime I spoke in ‘that prissy British way.’ But when it was just me and Laurel, it was easy to speak in Mum’s accent.
I’d pretend she was still with us, loving Laurel through me. ”
His voice was thick now, and I passed him some tissues. He wiped his nose and stared at the ceiling again.
“I can’t believe I was actually surprised when he threw me into the Blood Well.” He gave a dry laugh that didn’t reach his eyes. “His own fucking son. A part of me still believed he was capable of love, I guess. I wasn’t the son he wanted, but I didn’t think he’d kill me… so stupid.”
“I’m so sorry,” I told him. “I understand.”
“I know, teddy bear. You were younger than me, though, right? When your dad sold you.”
I swallowed. I hadn’t realized he remembered. I didn’t even know how he knew, but Jewel was like that. He kept surprising me with how deeply he cared.
“Yeah, I was eighteen. I had to be the one trying to keep us all together. Mom worked so many jobs, and when Dad wasn’t working, he was gambling. I was raising my siblings.”
Jewel was staring at the window, his head resting on my shoulder.
“I’d mentioned my interest in the Sweetheart Academy, and my dad was so supportive. He gave me time to study and research and prepare myself. It was unreal. My dad finally supporting me.”
I fiddled with the blanket, trying not to cry.
“He wasn’t. I was just… they were looking for keepers. For the ferals. All the stuff I learned… it just made me more valuable. Cuz I could help soothe the alphas.”
It felt good to finally share this with people who understood.
“One day… Dad took me out to a cafe, which he never did. And he just… handed me over to these two men. I didn’t even get to say goodbye to my mom and sisters.”
“I didn't get to say goodbye, either.” Jewel's voice was quieter than I'd heard it. “That was the worst part. Knowing Laurel might have thought I'd left her.”
He squeezed my hand, and I nodded.
“Teddy bear?”
“Mm?”
“I love you.”
He wound his arms around my neck, his eyes meeting mine in the dark. My face heated, and I opened my mouth, but I wasn’t sure what to say.
“You are one in a million. You never should have had to deal with any of the darkness that you went through, and despite it all, you stayed kind. You didn’t let them break you.
Thank you for being here for me. I know I’m a lot, and you are the sweetest person ever.
I seriously don't know what I did to deserve you because I’m a shallow bitch—”
“I love you too,” I blurted out. “And you’re not. Other people miss it, maybe, but I know you’re kind. You respect people. You care about things with your whole heart. You always listened to me in a way that made me feel special and never looked down on me.”
“You are special,” he said gently, stroking my face. “I’m the luckiest omega in the world, to have you.”