Chapter 17
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Corridor, Omega Hotel
Anxiety grips me, as I lead the rest of my new pack through the Frost’s private floor beneath the owner’s penthouse.
My feet sink into the corridor’s opulent cream carpet. The walls are jade green with polished bedroom doors leading off on each side.
There are no guests on this floor of the hotel, however, because Maya only uses it for visiting friends and family. Also, as a buffer between herself and the guests that she likes to pretend are family.
I fiddle with the hem of my HO uniform, plagued by nerves about the heist tomorrow.
Can the Idols tell?
Hopefully, they’ll think that it is only because of the Christmas Matching Ball.
Why did Dad’s letter have to sound like a fucking goodbye?
How could he think that I would allow him to take the fall for me?
But then, I imagine Zoe’s mischievous aquamarine eyes and the way that her tiny, sweet fingers instinctively curl around my hand as she sleeps, and I know that I would do the same for her.
I would die, kill, overturn the world for my daughter.
Doesn’t Dad deserve the right to do the same?
I bite my lip, and my eyes mist with tears.
Cooper is the best dad. He lost his scent match but fought to survive for his baby’s sake, despite being manipulated into another bond by an abusive Alpha when he was at his most vulnerable.
And he has never stopped fighting: for me, Papa, Bird, Hatton, Zoe, and for every Omega and Beta in the hotel.
So, tonight will be the time to prove that I am his true daughter.
To make him proud.
This won’t be a goodbye. It will be a new beginning.
I tilt up my chin as a new wave of determination hits me. I clutch harder onto Piper’s hand, as he swaggers next to me.
Piper is dressed in a punky metallic top, which is ripped off to reveal his muscled stomach. A thick belt with a large wolf buckle is wrapped around his bondage trousers that rest indecently low on his hips.
I have never seen another Omega dressed like Piper in the hotel. He’s a walking subversive work of art.
Sometimes, you only need to stand up and be different in order to rebel.
I glance over my shoulder at my two Alphas in suits behind me who are flanking Zero like his bodyguards.
Zero looks glamorous in a slinky white catsuit. His long hair is piled on top of his head with star clips, and his lavender eyes are rimmed with Kohl.
He is every inch the rock star.
It’s strange, when I think of how Zero was spread out and naked for me in bed this morning with tangled hair.
He smiles at me. “Okay, love?”
I stiffen. “I’d be more okay if you demanding celebrity types didn’t insist that your tour also include the Frost’s private floors.”
“You know what we’re like. We expect all types of special treatment like a hundred scented candles that smell like our Omega or a helicopter on standby.
You showed us the bloody boring shit like the gym and the spa.
Do I look like the type of Beta who spends all the day getting pedicures? Wait, don’t answer that.”
“Keep it down.” I hush Zero; fear spikes through me. “I warned you that it is breaking the rules to bring you here.”
“Rules were made to be broken,” Piper singsongs.
It really is lucky that he isn’t a new Hotel Omega.
“Don’t ever play Piper at cards,” Lionzio comments. “He knows more ways to cheat than I do. And I’ve played against mobsters. Well, I was the mob.”
Piper drops my hand to twirl around, puffing out his chest with pride.
“My brother, Chase, taught me. Sometimes, when the landlords had thrown us onto the streets, he’d earn the money for our food by breaking the rules against serious players who would be likely to break your fingers if they caught you.
He didn’t think that my sister and I knew or had worked out by his bruises that he was involved in illegal cage fighting to stop us from starving too.
But we did. So, he’s the best brother and the best cheat at poker. I’m the second best.”
My chest tightens.
I stop walking to look at Piper.
Icarus is studying Piper too and with a type of understanding that shatters my heart.
“I would like to meet your brother and thank him.” Icarus prowls to Piper. He slips his hand along Piper’s bare stomach — feather-light — but enough to make him gasp. “Your brother did a good job raising you.”
Piper blushes, looking pleased as all Omegas would with the praise.
He still shakes his head. “Every teacher and authority I ever met would disagree with you. I spent most of my life being disciplined, scolded, or bullied by the asshole elites because of either my rebellious streak or my pack’s infamy.
” He traces over the beautiful howling moon tattoo on his shoulder and upper arm.
“Since Viking times, my pack would be inked with this tattoo when we turned eighteen. Sometimes, I would scratch it until it bled, wishing that I could erase it…erase who I was…just to make the bullying stop, you know? The memory of every insult and hit? Then my brother explained to me recently that the tattoo wasn’t a way to mark our shame.
We’re the Wolf Siblings. It’s a mark of our pride and freedom. ”
“I’m proud to be associated with your pack,” Lionzio says, firmly.
Piper looks overwhelmed.
“I’m proud to have you in my pack.” Icarus bends over and kisses the snout of the howling wolf.
Piper shivers, before throwing himself into the much larger Alpha’s embrace. He loops his arms around Icarus’ neck and wraps his legs around his waist. Icarus easily holds the Omega, as Piper nuzzles at his neck and purrs.
Zero slips his arm around my neck and whispers, “Isn’t it sweet?”
“If you’ve seen enough of this empty corridor,” my expression tightens, “why don’t we take this tour somewhere more comfortable like our bedroom, huh?
We can drink hot chocolate, order in something special for dinner, then watch shitty Christmas movies.
Seriously, you’ve seen most of the hotel now. I don’t know why you’re interested.”
Something niggles at the back of my mind.
Zero told me it’s tradition that he takes a tour of every hotel, in which he performs.
But surely this isn’t how he wants to spend his free time?
I don’t miss the glance between Zero and Lionzio, which is unexpectedly serious.
I don’t understand it.
Lionzio anxiously smooths down his hair. “It’s interesting to me, tesoro. I like history. This hotel is from the 1920s, right? I have never slept anywhere this luxurious.”
Instantly, Icarus’ gaze sharpens in a way that I know means trouble. He carefully lowers Piper to the floor, who whines in protest. He untangles the Omega’s hold on him, however, stalking toward Lionzio.
“Now, big boy,” Zero attempts to block Icarus, “no biting apart from in kinky fun.”
Icarus arches his brow. “What made you think that I was going to bite my pet Alpha?”
Lionzio’s cheeks flush, although he backs up to hit the door of the empty corridor behind him.
“I have no idea.” Zero keeps his hand firmly pressed to Icarus’ chest.
Piper darts around the taller men to stand in front of Lionzio like a tiny Omega warrior.
I try to hide my smile.
As if Icarus couldn’t rip each of them apart if he wanted to.
Except, I know that he never would. Obviously, the Idols don’t yet.
From the way that Lionzio’s dark gaze meets Icarus’, I feel that he is actually the deadliest person in this corridor. From the demons that he has told me about, he is holding himself back from becoming the Alpha that he once was.
Lionzio doesn’t need anyone to protect him, but I love the fuck out of the way his Beta and Omega are standing up for him anyway.
“You’re a billionaire from a mafia family,” Icarus says simply, and I realize suddenly what he has already worked out. “How haven’t you visited an Omega Hotel before? All the mob families use them. Or at least stayed somewhere this luxurious?”
Lionzio’s jaw clenches. “Because my pack didn’t live Above, which is what they called anywhere that wasn’t in the concrete tunnels underneath the mountains where we ran illegal cage fights and Omega trafficking.
For the years that I was trapped there getting blood on my hands, I didn’t even see the fucking sky.
I was alone, the mafia prince, surrounded by my rivals and enemies with a fucking psychopath as an adoptive dad.
I was terrified every moment that my whole world would be ripped away from me again, just as it was when I was sold to their pack. I’m sorry if I don’t know—”
Icarus’ eyes widen at the same time as mine do. “Please let me go and kiss my pet.”
Zero allows him past, and Piper swings to stand next to Lionzio like a guard, resting his arms casually behind his head.
Icarus shoves Lionzio against the door, holding him in place with his strong hand around his throat.
Then he kisses him, hard.
Lionzio tips up his head, begging for more.
Icarus snarls, tightening his hold but also deepening the kiss.
When he finally pulls back, Lionzio’s lips are kiss swollen and his eyes are glassy.
“Vita mia,” Lionzio murmurs, pushing himself onto tiptoes to press his forehead to Icarus’, “do you really want me?”
“Not only that.” Icarus bites Lionzio’s lower lip, before soothing it with his tongue.
“But I also have a thing for hot little Italian American Alphas. So, you’re not going anywhere.
Grace and I are claiming you, pet. You’ll never be alone, stolen from your family, or forced into the darkness again. ”
Lionzio’s eyelashes are wet with tears. “I love your optimism.”
“Have some belief in your Chief Alpha.”
“Yes, sir.” It slips out so naturally, it’s as if Lionzio has been waiting all his life to say it.
When he blushes and tries to look away, Icarus doesn’t allow him to.
“It’s okay.” He kisses Lionzio more gently. “I like it, my good Alpha.”
Lionzio’s blush deepens.
Zero snatches my hand, pulling me toward Lionzio. “Can we join in this loving on our handsome Alpha?”