Chapter 6
CHAPTER SIX
General Manager’s Rooms, Omega Hotel
When my stomach gurgles, I wrap my arm around my middle. I ignore my hunger, however, because how can I eat when it’s been less than a day and Piper is already missing?
I pace the length of Icarus’ office, anxiously.
I am filled with the memory of my coffee cake scented, tattooed Omega soulmate. The reckless, impulsive male Omega who already feels like mine and made me blossom to life in a thrilling way.
I shiver at the memory of that moment when I felt like I was both falling and flying. Looking into Piper’s eyes had felt the same way, making my stomach swoop.
Yet I knew that Piper was going to get himself into trouble. He was new, didn’t know the rules, and sparked with the energy of a punk god.
My shoulders slump at the thought of his free spirit being crushed under the slash of the Discipline Strap.
Has Piper been locked in the freezing wine cellar?
“You should eat something,” Icarus says, steadily.
He is sitting behind his desk, attempting to look through a neat stack of papers, while jiggling Zoe on his knee to keep her amused.
He has become good at multitasking, but then, so have I.
“Mama!” Zoe waves at me.
My expression softens, and I wave back at her. “Good Omega, Zoe.”
She beams, before turning her attention to trying to drag the paper out of Icarus’ hand.
Icarus is her favorite uncle, besides Bird. I love that she has no problem bossing around an Alpha.
Icarus gives up trying to work, abandoning the paper to Zoe, who shakes it with the triumph of a warrior.
He sighs, pushing his glasses more firmly onto his nose. “Stop pacing; you’re making me dizzy. What’s wrong?”
“You know the Omega who I told you about? The one with the gorgeous green eyes and silver curls? The one with…?”
“The delicious scent? Tight behind? Your soulmate?” Icarus’ eyes dance.
“How could I forget? You spent at least an hour praising him. He sounds about as much trouble as you are, my sweet sin. If he’s important to you, then I’m excited to meet him as well.
But anything that happens between us will have to be as secret as our…
situationship…is. You know how much of a risk we’re taking. ”
I nod.
Yet I feel that Icarus wanted to say relationship instead.
I stroll closer to the desk, leaning on it.
I search Icarus’ expression to check that he truly means it about Piper.
He looks open and genuine.
I hoped that Icarus would be accepting of another Omega in our lives. Icarus cares for every Omega and Beta in this pack. Many Traditional Alphas are jealous and possessive or create strict hierarchies for their Omegas, as Maya does.
On the other hand, Icarus is acting like a liberal. He has never treated me as anything but an equal, when we’re in private.
I know that he’d bond me if he could. I know that I would Piper.
Yet we’re stuck in an impossible situation because it’s forbidden for any of us to become a bonded pack.
It’s breaking my heart.
I glance at Zoe, who is distracted with the paper, which she is happily crumpling. “I’m worried because I can’t find him.”
Instantly, Icarus’ expression becomes serious. “Since when?”
“Not at all since the first time I met him. I expected him to be at dinner, but he wasn’t.
When I went to Ms. Fields to see if she could arrange a mentorship between us to allow him to share my dorm room and nest, she hadn’t seen him.
I had Bird check through the dorms, but Bird couldn’t find any Omega matching his description.
I don’t want to risk asking Ellington. I have no idea where Pip is. ”
“What’s his full name?”
Shit, I’d meant to ease Icarus into this side to Piper.
I was sure that once Icarus met the gorgeous male Omega, he couldn’t help but be charmed by him and want to bend him over this desk…in a fun way.
But what will Icarus think about Piper being the son of criminals?
After all, I am the daughter of his oppressors. How am I any better?
My expression becomes steely. “Piper Wolf.”
Icarus’ gaze sharpens. “Midnight green eyes. Tight behind. Rule-breaker. In an entire hour of gushing obsession—”
“Polite interest,” I mutter.
“Possessiveness,” he continues, coolly, “there was not a single word that this man was also from an infamous, treasonous pack.”
“Because it doesn’t matter.” I fight to keep my voice steady; Zoe is now watching me.
“He’s an orphan like Ollie and you are.” I jangle my bracelet.
“A Rej the same as I am. It must be hell for him growing up with everyone knowing what happened to his parents. Except, we don’t really, do we?
All we know is that they were executed. I don’t think that anyone should be killed and I no longer trust that this government’s laws are fair. ”
Icarus gives me a long look. “Did you think that I wouldn’t understand?”
I flush. “I hoped that you would.”
Icarus tightens his hold around Zoe, hugging her; she purrs.
“My pack was poor. Addicts. When the debt collectors came breaking into our motel room, my parents ran, abandoning Ollie and me. I was sixteen with a tiny Beta kid brother, for whom I was suddenly responsible. I knocked on the doors of so many businesses in Haven, trying to get work. But my family were also infamous; nobody would hire me. My pack had never gone on vacation or stayed in a hotel, but I’d always thought how glamorous your Omega Hotel looked.
Plus, you were my best friend at school.
I was so happy when Mrs. Frost remembered me and agreed to meet to discuss a job. ”
He glances away.
My throat is tight.
I believed that I was helping my best friend by pleading for Maya to give him a job here in the hotel along with his brother.
Yet now I feel like maybe I only imprisoned my own Alpha.
I startle at how strongly I am thinking of Icarus as my Alpha, rather than as my friend.
Can I love him, however, while he’s caged here with me? Caged because Maya casually asked whether she should give my pretty Alpha friend a role here since he had the top scores at my high school, and I’d enthusiastically nodded yes like it was an exciting game?
Icarus is frighteningly smart. Yet as he is not from an elite pack, his life has always been as precarious as any Beta’s.
Icarus gives a crooked smile. “I soon learned the truth of the hotel. Even if I lost one family, however, I made another. I won’t judge someone for their pack. No one chooses who births them. But they can choose their friends.”
Why do I think that he doesn’t want to say friends but something else?
Icarus taps his fingers thoughtfully on the table, lining up the papers that have been pushed out of order by Zoe. “I’ll find Piper for you. Maybe Ellington has taken him away for training.”
I become ashen.
Shit.
That would be bad.
Icarus catches my eye. “Have you forgotten that I rule this world beneath the hotel, whatever the Frosts think? I protect my pack, the Sinners, and if I can deal with mafia bosses, then I will deal with Ellington, I swear. Piper will be okay.”
I glance away.
Ellington may be an Omega but he is tougher than any mafia boss.
“Story!” Zoe demands, throwing the crumpled ball of paper at Icarus’ chest. “Story!”
Despite myself, I chuckle. “Go on, Uncle Icarus. The little omega has given you your orders.
“Then I must obey.” Icarus forms his hands into the shape of a bird with flapping wings.
Zoe claps in excitement.
This story is her favorite.
Icarus lowers his voice to a softness that most people wouldn’t believe the stern manager to be capable of, acting out his words with his hands.
“Once there was a young Omega called Icarus who was trapped in a cage. His dad made him wings of feather and wax to escape. He warned him not to fly too high and close to the sun or too low and close to the sea. But Icarus didn’t listen to the rules.
And when he escaped into the air, he found that he loved flying.
It was the best feeling in the world.” Zoe squeals with delight, as Icarus makes his hands into the shape of a bird.
Then he flaps the bird all around, dodging as Zoe attempts to catch the imaginary Icarus.
“But then, Icarus flew up, and up, and too close to the sun. The wax on his wings melted and…”
He dramatically makes the Hand Icarus crash down into Zoe’s hair.
She giggles and wriggles around.
“Is that why you are so good at following the rules?” I ask. “Afraid to fly too close to the sun?”
“Or fly too close to the sea.” Icarus tilts his head.
“I have been taught to be responsible. In public, rules are the way that I don’t crash into the sea.
In private, however, I’ve learned that rules change all the time.
We can help them change. They’re what the powerful impose on the weak.
The rich on the poor. Who has made the rule?
Is it really to keep you safe or to keep them safe?
Wealthy? In power? I spent my childhood living under a Head Alpha who ruled us like a tyrant, before throwing my brother and I away like… ”
He hesitates.
“Like my parents threw Bird and me away.” I glance at Zoe.
Like her dad threw her away.
He nods.
“We shouldn’t be scared all the time,” I whisper.
“All of us caged by these hotel rules. By the Frosts’.
Bird is being overworked. Hatton is going to be matched at the Christmas Ball.
What if his pack is as cruel as mine was?
Now, Piper could be suffering by himself with Ellington.
And that’s it. I’ve reached my limit. I’m no longer scared of flying too close to the sun because even if I crash into the sea, at least I will have tried. ”
Icarus’ piercing blue gaze meets mine. “That was impassioned.”
“Hell, yeah.”
“I’m a little in awe right now.”
“As it should be.”
“Also, agent of chaos, how precisely do you intend to start this rebellion?”
I smirk, but my heart is beating fast. “Not a rebellion. A heist.”