Chapter 12 #3
“Zero has spent every day with me for six months.” Piper’s voice is breathy, as he chases his own orgasm ruthlessly.
“We’re best friends. But I’ve been his fan for years.
Obsessed. And when I finally had the real Beta in my arms and not the rock star from my dreams, I made it my mission to take him out on weekends to bars, clubs, and restaurants to show him the real world that he’d been shut away from.
During the week, I gave him a job, a home, and a domestic life that he had never experienced in a pack where his choice and consent were sacrosanct.
He grew up in a bird cage just like you have. I want to show you the same.”
“Yes.” I moan at the image that Piper is painting.
At the same time, the feel of the two men between my thighs, the friction against my clit, is driving me wild.
It is blowing my mind that an Omega is the one who has supplied this security but also freedom to a Beta. “You truly took the lead like that…?”
“You just wait. Pip also arranges the best dates, even if he doesn’t call them that.
My darling here saved me.” Does Zero realize that he’s looking at Piper with a dreamy awe, as if Piper is his god?
Both men are equally obsessed with the other.
“He showed me the world, how to have fun, what free time even means. But he’s taught me more than that: About how to work out who I am, when I’m not being worked to the point of fainting on a stage, being thirsted after by every bastard Alpha, or taking punishments for other Idols.
The instructors at the Idol camp would use our friendship like that; if my friends fucked up, then I would be punished for it.
I still struggle to not believe that Lion will take the belt to me every time that Pip fucks up.
And the muppet is more impulsive than I am, so he does fuck up a lot. ”
“Hey.” Piper stills for a single frustrating moment.
Zero captures his lips in apology. “Sorry, darling, I meant all the bloody time. Every day. Like it’s his hobby.”
Piper takes his revenge by biting Zero’s lower lip.
Zero only groans. “Harder.”
Piper starts his thrusts again in reward, and now I am the one who is moaning.
My eyes are glassy, as I stare into Zero’s face, which I know from so many posters, album covers, and TV appearances but realize that I don’t know at all.
“My darling Omega kept me safe,” Zero says, softly, “when I had no idea how to keep myself safe. If I’d escaped the Idol camp but without friends like him, then I would have self-destructed.”
“I love you.” Piper sounds wrecked, as if the words have been wrenched from him for the first time.
Zero’s eyes widen. “Darling…”
Instantly, Zero stiffens against me and comes.
He looks like he’s a merman who is caught in ecstasy, as he tosses his head back and his long hair floats around him. I lick up the water droplets on his long neck.
Piper wraps his arm more firmly around me, circling my clit faster.
It drives both of us to come at the same time.
The pleasure hits me, fast and hard.
Zero swallows my howl in a kiss. Piper swallows his gasp by latching his teeth dangerously close to a bite at the base of my neck.
The sensation sparks aftershocks through me, and I kiss Zero hungrily, wishing that he could slide his thick cock into my pussy for real now, and that Piper could just fucking bite me, taboo or not.
Instead, Zero pulls back from the kiss. “Whoops, we messed up the pool.”
“Housekeeping can sort it.” Piper sounds sleepy and sated.
“Hey,” I narrow my eyes, “that’s me you’re talking about. Do you know the kinky shit that I have had to sort from guests who leave it to housekeeping?”
Zero looks delighted. “Oh, do tell.”
I jump, startled, however, at the sudden crash from inside the suite.
“Stay here.” Piper sounds startlingly awake and dangerous all of a sudden.
He breaks away from me, swimming to the side of the pool.
Does he think that I will stay behind, when Icarus is in that room with a mafia heir?
Piper pulls himself out of the pool, running back into the suite without pausing to grab a towel.
“How could Lion have gone wrong with a simple drink?” Zero mutters. “I bet that your Alpha did a terrible crime like put his glass down without a coaster. Lion threatened to spank me for that yesterday.”
Zero attempts to keep me in his arms, but slippery in the water, I duck under his grip and swim toward the side of the oval pool.
“I’m a lover and not a fighter.” Zero powers after me. “How about we let them sort it out between themselves?”
“If anyone threatens to spank Icarus,” I throw over my shoulder, “they’ll be the one who can’t sit for a week.”
Zero pales. “Wait for me.”
Together, we drag ourselves out of the pool. I snatch a fluffy white towel from beside the pool and hurl it at Zero.
Zero and I drag the towels around ourselves, as we rush back inside after Piper.
Then I stop in shock.
Icarus isn’t the one who is in trouble.
Lionzio is.
Icarus is holding Lionzio pinned on his front over the piano. Lionzio’s jacket is ripped. Icarus is holding the other Alpha down with his arm twisted behind his back.
It makes me realize how much larger he is than Lionzio and how much deadlier, despite his fractured ribs.
Brandy is seeping into the carpet from a smashed glass, which must have been knocked off the top of the piano.
That must have been the crash.
I feel sick, seeing the two Alphas like this.
Suddenly, I realize that Icarus’ encouragement for the rest of us to go out to the pool, his seduction of Lionzio, and offer of a drink, was a trick.
Icarus would never threaten an Omega, even one like Ellington, or a Beta.
He doesn’t feel the same way about Alphas.
Did he always intend to get Lionzio alone to interrogate him? While I was growing closer to the other members of the Idols pack, Icarus was kicking their Alpha’s ass in here.
I clench my hands. My eyes burn with tears.
Will the others think that I knew Icarus meant to do this?
“What are you doing?” I hiss. “Let him go before you break his arm.”
My agonized gaze meets Icarus’ cold one.
I know that look.
It’s the one that Icarus wears when he destroys mafia casino owners with his schemes.
Does he think that Lionzio is no different to those billionaires?
That he deserves to be treated like this?
That he’s protecting me?
Yet I’ve never seen him act like this with a guest. What the hell is going on?
Piper is standing, naked and trembling with fury beside them. “I know MMA, asshole. I don’t care that you’re twice my size; I will rip off your knot if you hurt Lion.”
“I’m fine,” Lionzio rasps, attempting to push off the piano top.
Icarus slams him down more firmly against it.
“So,” Zero says, far more calmly than I was expecting, “this isn’t about coasters, right?”
“It’s about the fact that I don’t believe in coincidences,” Icarus replies. He puts more pressure on Lionzio’s arm, and the other Alpha can’t hold back the groan of pain. “Why were you in the staff gardens? Why was Piper on the staff section of the roof?”
I hug my arms around myself, shivering.
So, Icarus never trusted our new pack. He always intended to question Lionzio.
Lionzio remains stubbornly quiet.
“Ease up on his wrist, yeah?” Piper pleads.
“You think that I would believe a liberal pack like you would come to a hotel like this?” Lionzio demands.
“It’s called a gig.” Zero’s voice is tight. “Us performers go where the offers are, yeah?”
“Am I meant to be an idiot who’d be tricked by your dream of an Omega boss?” Icarus shakes his head. “You should have come up with something more believable. What I don’t understand is why you’re trying to con us. What’s the scam?”
“I am the boss.” When Piper growls, it startles me because I truly didn’t think that there was another Omega apart from me who growled at Alphas.
“I run a coffee shop with…and this will blow your narrow Alpha mind…my Omega sister. My older Alpha brother raised both of us to be independent. He suffered agonies to make sure that he could give us that.”
Icarus’ expression gentles for a moment, before hardening again, as he leans over Lionzio. “Then if that’s all true, you won’t mind unlocking your phone and laptop and proving to me that you’re not lying about any of this.”
Lionzio turns his head; his immaculate hair has been mussed, and he’s trying hard to hide the pain in his expression. “And you won’t mind me telling you, once again, that your demand is controlling and over the line, and I fucking won’t.”
Icarus snarls, flooding the room with his dominant pheromones. He shoves Lionzio’s arm further up his back.
“Go ahead.” Lionzio sounds resigned. “My adoptive dad beat me every night anyway. The wrist that you are now twisting has been fractured more times than I can count. I still have to wrap it most days, especially when it rains. Do you think that someone like you is capable of getting information out of me? Breaking me?”
Horrified, Icarus instantly lets go of Lionzio. “I never intended to hurt you.”
“Well, you failed then.”
Icarus becomes ashen, backing away. “I’ll get some ice. Should I call a doctor?”
Piper rushes to Lionzio’s side, helping him to stand and then moving Lionzio’s wrist from side to side in what looks like a practiced move.
I frown in concern.
Lionzio flinches. “It’s sore but no damage done. Well, apart from to the brandy. What a waste.”
Zero and I crowd around Lionzio.
“I didn’t know that…” I don’t know how to explain.
Lionzio pushes a wet strand of hair behind my ear. “I didn’t believe that you did, mio tesoro.”
I glare at Icarus. “What the hell?”
I’m angry but I also understand.
Icarus is under extreme pressure, as well as holding a responsibility to the largest pack I’ve ever known.
One mistake now could destroy all our lives.
Zoe’s life.
“No need to be angry at him.” Lionzio accepts the hugs from Piper, Zero, and me. “He was looking out for you, tesoro. They are fair questions.”
Icarus crouches in front of the mini bar, before snatching up a cold beer bottle and carrying it back to Lionzio.
“Maybe I’m wary because I haven’t seen much good in Alphas.
If you’re Grace’s scent match, however, then I will try to trust you.
I would never have held you down by your wrist if I knew that you had an existing injury.
I thought that hold would actually be the least painful. ”
Lionzio cocks his head, assessing Icarus with just as dangerous an expression as Icarus at his most dominant.
These two men are well-matched.
“Try that again,” Piper’s voice is hard edged enough for me to startle, “and I will be the one pushing you off the roof to see whether you truly can fly or not, Wings.”
He smiles sweetly, taking the bottle from the shocked Alpha’s hand. Then he holds its cold side gently to Lionzio’s wrist.
Icarus tightens his tie, coughing. “Understood. But why were you on the staff roof?”
“I like high places.”
“What are you? An owl?”
“You’re the one called Wings.”
“Didn’t you see the sign? Staff only?”
It’s not something that I haven’t asked myself.
Piper scrunches up his nose. “I don’t do well with rules.”
Zero snorts. “But he is good with understatements.”
“And you.” Icarus narrows his eyes at Lionzio. “You do seem more of a rules type of guy. Did you decide to simply ignore every sign on your way through the staff quarters? Were the award-winning guest gardens not spectacular enough for you?”
“I’m noting the sarcasm but ignoring it.” Lionzio tidies his hair back from his face. “I like to explore. I prefer quiet places away from Traditional assholes, who as you pointed out, I don’t precisely fit in well with.”
Icarus’ expression is shuttered, but I know him well enough to tell that he doesn’t believe Lionzio.
Zero saunters across the lounge, winding around Icarus like a lazy cat. “Look, we’re not real guests. I’m employed here to sing.”
Suspicion moves sickly in my guts. “We were told to treat you as treasured celebrity VIPS. Seriously, it’s this whole thing. You’re meant to have anything you want. You could order gingerbread men made out of caviar to be licked off the stomachs of HOs…”
“Yuck.” Piper wrinkles his nose.
“Did you know that?” Zero demands accusingly, pointing at Lionzio.
“I feel like we should write a better rider. Anyway, the point is that we thought we were closer to being staff than guests, okay? Now that we know we can ask for anything we want, it sounds like we’re wasting time today that we could be enjoying champagne, chocolates, and caviar, as we get to know each other without interrogations. ”
I exchange a glance with Icarus.
He’s thinking the same as I am.
This Idol pack is hiding something from us.
What’s the secret?
But then, I can’t be cross about it because I’m hiding a huge secret of my own.
Exhibit A: The heist.
I wish that I could tell my new pack, but I can’t risk it because too many people’s lives depend on the heist’s success. Plus, if anything goes wrong, then I won’t implicate these men in something criminal that would have them trapped, when all of them appear to have only recently found freedom.
The thought of the fiercely independent Piper being broken in the Omega Institute or a celebrity like Zero being sent to jail makes me want to hurl.
So, maybe they are hiding something. Right now, however, I need to focus on keeping my own secret safe.
I give a slight nod, and Icarus’ shoulders relax.
“Perhaps, I can make up for my behavior,” Icarus suggests. I already know that he’s plotting again. I have a sense from Lionzio’s calculating expression that he knows it. “We can spend today together on a date with no pressure, and I promise, the only pinning down will be the pleasurable sort.”
“That’s more like it,” Immortal agrees, enthusiastically.
“You can both stay in my nest tonight,” Piper offers, ducking his head.
I glow. “I would love that.”
It’s a big thing for a bonded Omega to offer to share their nest.
“Then tomorrow, Grace should stay in your room with you to keep up the ruse that she is here like a normal HO, while I will need to work for some of the day. It is almost Christmas after all, and I must make sure that everything, including your big musical performance, goes off without a hitch.”
Icarus’ cool gaze meets mine, and I know what he is being careful not to say.
Tomorrow, he will be organizing for my heist and ultimate takeover of this hotel that will be taking place using Zero’s gig as cover.
I may be a Cinderella Omega in this hotel but I have been hiding my true personality my entire life.
This Christmas, I plan to become the bad Cinderella who rises up and takes down my stepfamily, at the same time that I take back this hotel for my dad.
Tomorrow, Icarus and I will prepare both for our freedom and for the greatest risk of our lives.