25. Melanie
Melanie
I ’d settled down now that Kai and Sin were here. It was far more relaxing being around them both, but the problem was that Kai was permanently horny, and it set me and Sin off as well.
They also kept throwing each other looks, so I imagined something was happening with Caspian, but I didn’t want to ask.
I’d been there when he attacked the Hiscoxes, and he had the same kind of expression when he left my nest, so I could imagine what might be going on.
I was still adjusting to feeling all of Kai’s physical sensations. And not just tugs and pushes of energy from him through the bond.
Like when he picked up a book from the top shelf of my bookcase, and I could feel the weight of it in my hands. It was hard to focus on bending over to place the photos of my family into a simple brown box when the same movements were echoing from Kai in my body, but we were out of sync.
I suddenly jumped as a laugh burst from him and whipped through me.
I gasped, shooting up straight, my gaze landing on the red bound cover, Kai’s grin stretching by the second.
“Hey,” he purred, his look turning even more heated as he flipped the book to show us the cover. “Doesn’t this look like Cas?”
Horror filled me as blood flushed up my face, neck, and chest.
Because it was a full-on man chest cover, the hero standing there on a rock, thick leather trousers squeezing his thighs and package, auburn hair streaming behind him.
“ Her Scandalous Viking King ?” Kai said, lifting a brow.
“Oh my God!” I shouted, darting forward as quickly as I could to grab the book from him.
“Fascinating,” Sin said as he eyed the cover. “I always knew Caspian could pull off this look.”
Another laugh bubbled from Kai as I stuffed the book away in the nearest box. But it was too late, they’d both seen it.
In the craze of packing everything up, I forgot I’d put the most special editions on the top shelf of my living room bookcase. I thought I’d packed all my alphaporn up tightly enough that they wouldn’t find them.
And Kai took full advantage of my collection by stretching up to pluck another from the shelf.
“Holy shit, this one too.” His eyes widened. “I mean, the hair is blonde, but Cas is definitely this dangerous duke!”
“Stop, please,” I groaned as I tried to snatch it back, but he held it right above my head.
I scrabbled to reach for it, knocking him back into the bookshelf, curving my body into his as I grasped his wrist. But Sin was already inspecting the shelf, and there was no way I could stop him when he was so much taller than us.
“Is this entire collection just pictures of Caspian in different clothes?” he asked, tilting his head.
“No! It’s just a coincidence he looks like that. It’s just a ‘90s stereotype, okay?”
“Hm, so this is the type of alpha you’re interested in?” Sin asked as he inspected another cover.
“They’re all classic editions! I’ve just been collecting them at car-boot sales, and they all use the same male model. It doesn’t mean anything!”
They both narrowed their gazes at me, and I didn’t know if it was possible to get even more embarrassed. Except when Sin lowered his hand, running a silky finger across the line of my chin as I pressed Kai even closer to the bookshelf.
“So, you really do appreciate Caspian’s appearance more than ours,” Sin said.
I groaned as Kai grinned, and Sin waited for my answer.
I wished I could bury my face in my hands, but I needed to grip the bookshelf to stop myself from completely falling into Kai.
“That’s—That’s not it…” I trailed off as Sin captured me with the smallest smile, a purr gracing his voice.
I knew he liked to tease, but this was excruciating. I would have preferred they found my knotted dildo than my alphaporns.
Kai’s hand fed around my back, holding me close as he smirked.
“Am I not pretty enough for you, Brandy? I’m so hurt. I thought you liked my face.” He pouted as he rolled his hips, nudging against me. “Because I swear I can feel your pussy saying how much you like it.”
My breath stuttered as his smile morphed from wicked to soft, and love flowed from him, turning me to mush.
And he knew how much I loved it, because I leaned into him, my back curving, desperate to rub myself up against him like a cat in heat.
But Sin turned my chin so I looked up at him. “Kai, what was the rule about kissing Melanie without your permission?”
Kai gave me a tight squeeze. “You mean the one where I said you can’t fucking touch her unless I say so?”
“The very one. What do you think, Melanie? Because I desperately want to kiss you when you look so adorable. Yet our omega believes he has ‘first dibs’, as he puts it.”
My gaze flicked to Kai, who glared at Sin with an intense mix of anger and lust.
I wasn’t sure how I should answer, because even having them both in my nest was enough to make me say whatever they wanted.
I didn’t want them to let me go. I wanted to be held and loved, and for them to carry away the pain of having to uproot my life again in a matter of weeks.
But I was saved from answering as a snarl ripped from my front door.
I gasped, flying out of their grasps to spin and face Caspian. He filled the entire doorway with a look of pure fury.
My heart fired in my throat, throwing me back to the moment his parents had invaded my nest in the same way.
Fear froze me as he stormed inside.
“You have some fucking explaining to do.” I could barely hear the words through his deep growl.
Three quick strides, and he paused just far enough away from me that he couldn’t reach me, like he was deliberately restraining himself.
But that wasn’t the thing that scared me the most. It was how dark stains dyed his red shirt around his chest, ending in splatters which dashed across his stomach, shoulders, and face.
Stained red fists clenched at his side as his sharp aura sliced through the room.
I winced as it hit me, flinching back as needles of energy sank into my skin.
Kai and Sin moved instantly, both of them darting forward, nearly blocking my view of Caspian.
Their backs were huge, walling in me, protecting me from their mate without a second thought.
As tension trembled through us, Kai reached up to grip the lone hair pin that kept his locks tied in a messy bun, and Sin casually slipped his hand into his pocket.
Burnt caramel stained the room as Caspian took a wheezing breath.
“How we doing there?” Kai asked casually, even though I could feel every muscle in his body on high alert.
“It’s been taken care of,” Caspian growled, his attention like a weight crushing me. Those thin shards which usually split his irises had swollen, and his eyes pulsed red.
“You might want to take a breath. You are not in a position to act like this,” Sin said coolly.
“This is Brandy’s nest, Cas. Back the fuck down,” Kai said as his grip tightened on the hairpin.
But he wasn’t listening to either of them, and the same panic I’d felt when Zania dragged me off into a room at the last party choked me again.
I kept telling myself since she’d slapped me that he was Zania’s son, and I wanted to take him away from her somehow.
But this was the first time I really felt like they were related.
Because that same twisted look she had when she stood in my living room shone from him, though I didn’t feel any calculated hate. Just his pure rage.
Sin talked about us being pack, but how could I mate with them when I was genuinely scared of Caspian?
But Kai and Sin weren’t afraid. They guarded me, confident, and ready if Caspian decided to attack. So I’d take my cues from them.
“So are you going to explain why the fuck Zania is paying you? And how long you’ve been working for her?” Caspian growled.
He didn’t even call her his mum. And I hoped it was because he wanted to distance himself from her.
Nerves suddenly flared in Kai as he turned, meeting me with a scared gaze.
I wished I could reassure him, to tell him it didn’t mean anything, to beg and coddle him to make him understand.
But I couldn’t look weak in front of Caspian.
And I couldn’t afford to take my eyes off of him even though Sin had also turned to meet me with an icy look.
“What’s this about?” Kai asked.
I pressed my lips together. I didn’t want to lie to them, but it depended on how much they knew. Caspian found out about the cheque, but had they figured out I’d been sent to that heat suite?
Because I was still searching for why that had happened as well.
Whenever Caspian acted like this, it put my back up, and it made me want to find some way to annoy him. Even when I trembled from the force pounding out of him.
So, I sucked in a breath, meeting him with the same growl.
“Yeah, she paid me off. And I had no plan on telling you because I knew this was how you were going to react.” I needed to keep myself calm, but with Kai’s fear and doubt, Sin’s endless stare, and Caspian’s fury, I was getting fired up as well.
“I know it’s not much to you, but if someone’s happy to write me a hundred-thousand-pound cheque, I’m not dumb enough to say no. ”
I thought Sin and Kai would question me more because their doubt hung around us in the air. But both of them turned back, focused on protecting me rather than attacking me like their mate.
“So you just wanted our money, after all?” Caspian asked, slightly calmer. Though that might have had something to do with the way Sin and Kai were both blanketing the room in auras so thick, I almost couldn’t think.
I released a sigh. I wasn’t sure how much longer I could do this. And by ‘this’, I meant deal with the barrage of pressure that just wouldn’t stop. Every day something hit me, and I didn't know how much longer I could stay standing.
“Remember when I suddenly arrived last week with this bruise on my cheek?” I pointed to my face.
“And none of you have asked what happened. I know you could see it back then. I made sure you could. Kai might have mentioned it, but none of you even bothered to ask. You still haven't.” I narrowed my eyes at Caspian. “And you especially didn’t give a shit. All you did was growl and end the night by snarling in my face. Exactly like you’re doing now.
Do you want to hear my side of the story?
Or are you just going to yell and make assumptions and threaten me until you’re happy, and then fuck off and pretend it never happened the next time you see me? ”
Kai’s humour flared up again, though he didn’t take his hand from his hair pin. Caspian’s shoulders lowered, and he stopped baring his teeth, but the fire of his anger hadn’t dimmed.
Their suspicions were still beating out of them, and I was growing more agitated as the seconds wore on.
I folded my arms, glaring Caspian down as he pressed his lips together.
“So, yeah,” I said. “You haven’t really given me much of an incentive to share with you that your mum broke into my nest and slapped me before offering me money.”
The three of them stared at me in shock. I felt Kai’s heart tumble and the echo of Sin and Caspian’s feelings through him.
“What?” Caspian said with venom in his voice. “What the fuck did you just say?”
“Is this true?” Sin asked.
“Brandy, what the hell? Why the fuck didn’t you tell us?” Kai spun around completely, his hand dropping to grip my elbow, squeezing too tight in his panic.
I wasn’t going to choose now to snap at him about how he did nothing but watch when she’d first attacked me.
Caspian trembled, his aura whooshing out of him as he growled again. He took another step forward, but Kai sent a pulse of warning, followed by a burst of Sin’s aura.
And even though the tension in the room was suffocating, with Sin and Kai in front of me, I knew I could challenge Caspian—and win.