Chapter 19
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Wine Cellar, Omega Hotel
Icarus’ blood is dried across my fingers. It stains my Alpha’s temples, cheeks, and lip. His pale skin is painted in scarlet.
I shiver in the freezing darkness of the wine cellar. My aching back rests against the stone wall. I have pulled my Alpha’s head to rest in my lap to keep him as close to me as possible in hopes that my pheromones can heal him and bring him back to consciousness.
Why isn’t it working?
My chest tightens.
Is it because I’m not Icarus’ scent match? Am I really not a good enough match for him?
I don’t know much about Alphas. Maya made sure of that by excluding them from our pack. Yet I do know about needing to see an Alpha every day, as if they’re the other half of my soul.
It hits me hard then.
Icarus has always been my Alpha.
The one Alpha my inner Omega has wanted as a best friend at school.
The person who supported me throughout my pregnancy and attended the birth of my daughter to help stabilize my pheromones as if he truly was the dad.
The Alpha who has stood by me every difficult but beautiful step after with my baby.
The man who I trust unlike every other Alpha who hurt or rejected me.
The one who loves me, as now I love him deep in my heart.
Except, Icarus is lying bruised and broken in my arms for trying to protect his pack.
I am hollow.
Numb.
One of my younger brothers has been sent to the Institute. The other is being matched in a loveless bond this evening. Plus, if I don’t find a way out of this cellar, then I can’t steal the bond rings and shares to the company that will save all of us.
Compulsively, I run my fingers though Icarus’ golden hair, which is caked in blood, attempting to tease out the strands.
Icarus would hate looking a mess like this.
If I can just neaten him up, then maybe he’ll open his eyes.
“Please, wake up.” My hand is trembling.
Icarus will hate the sticky sensation when he wakes up…if he wakes up.
I furiously wipe at the traitorous tears, which I can’t stop leaking from my eyes.
“Stop it,” I whisper. “Stay strong. Focus.”
I will find a way out of this. I have to.
But how?
Desperately, I stare around the vast cellar with vaulted ceilings. The only lights, which the security team who dragged Icarus and me through the secret staff corridors here were kind enough to leave on, are small brass ones that are built into the stone walls.
Custom-built wine racks line the rest of the walls, angled to keep the corks from drying out. I scrunch up my nose at the earthy damp smell, which mingles with the berry aromas of the aging wine.
This musty darkness is where staff are shut up as an isolation punishment.
It is pretty much a second home for Icarus.
I grimace, stretching my arms.
My stomach growls, clawing with hunger. My throat is dry.
How many hours have we been locked in here now?
When does Maya intend to let us out? Have I already missed the ball?
Is it past midnight?
The security team ripped off our watches before they threw us in here. It’s one of the cruel rules of isolation.
My muscles twinge, where my shoulder was struck by a baton. Yet Icarus shielded me and took most of the blows. Beneath his ripped shirt, he must be black and blue.
Idiot Alpha.
My Alpha.
I gently loosen Icarus’ tie, letting my fingers brush over his scent gland in case that helps him. Then I nuzzle against his cheek, purring in encouragement. I concentrate, as sweat beads my forehead, coursing my pheromones over him.
Nothing.
Icarus still lies unmoving and bloodied in my arms.
My purr cuts off. Tears slip from my cheek onto his.
“Why didn’t I see how much I loved you earlier?
” I murmur. It’s easy somehow to confess knowing that he can’t hear me.
The silence in the shadows is getting to me.
“You are my best friend, Icarus. I always had to put on an act with everyone else but at high school, but you just got me. Do you know how many of my friends tried to convince me to stop hanging out with the broke-assed Alpha? Fuck them. You never treated me like I was an Omega. It was just Icarus and Grace. I couldn’t imagine a time when we wouldn’t be together.
After losing one of my parents, witnessing the devastation of a Shattered Bond, then the abusive violence of Maya, I think that I was frightened that if I bonded with you, then you’d change.
I couldn’t risk losing you, my closest friend.
Then I was meant to match with the Alcotts and I didn’t love them but it felt…
the safe choice. I’ve always loved you; I just didn’t realize that I was in love with you.
But I am. I really fucking am. So, wake up, my Alpha. ”
I stare at Icarus, hoping that somehow he will hear me and open his eyes.
He doesn’t.
“Wake the fuck up,” I order through my tears, “else I’ll do every reckless and bratty thing I can.
I’m not kidding. And you won’t even be able to give me that stern face of yours that you love.
I’ll…eat your hidden stash of favorite cookies in your desk that you don’t think I know about, mess up your alphabetized filing system, and mix up the staff schedule for the next year.
You hear me? You better open those pretty blue eyes and stop me causing havoc like you always do.
Because if you die, my Alpha, I will go as feral as you are and then…
then I will die. Because why does it matter that you fell first? I’ve fallen so much harder.”
Helplessly, I sob.
“Harder, huh?” Icarus’ startlingly blue eyes snap open.
I wrench back, staring down. I am caught in his dancing gaze.
“How long were you…?” I splutter.
“Long enough to know that I need to find a new hiding place for my cookies.”
I blush.
Icarus heard my confession? All of it?
Now, I truly will die.
I shove Icarus off my lap
He winces, as his head hits the floor.
“I do likely have a concussion, you know.” Icarus shakily raises his hand to test at the bloody spot on his head. “Do you have a twin? Or am I seeing double?”
Alarmed, I reach down and help him carefully to sit up next to me. “I’m sorry. I’ve been so worried. I thought that…it doesn’t matter. You’re okay, well, awake now. Do you need to be sick?”
“Thanks for the offer. Maybe later.”
Worriedly, I study Icarus. His skin looks waxy, and his breathing is heavy.
He is hiding how much pain he is in. Dad does that.
Icarus grits his teeth, uncomfortably adjusting his position against the wall. “I have to admire the security team. They earn their salary. They can really swing those batons.”
I bare my teeth. “They hurt you.”
Icarus turns to study me. “The assholes hurt you as well. Are you okay?”
“Not if we can’t get out of here.”
Icarus scans around the wine cellar.
He gestures at the heavy steel door at the far side. “It’s locked on the outside. There isn’t even a handle on this side. I have been locked in here enough times to know. I would suggest that you don’t go exploring into the corner behind the Italian vintage wines.”
“Why?”
“Even an Alpha can only hold it in so long when nature calls. Maya doesn’t even leave a bucket for the use of punished staff. That corner is what I call the Cellar Rite of Passage.”
I shove myself to my feet with a grimace of pain. “Well, that’s one rite of passage this Omega is happy to miss.”
“What? Pissing on walls isn’t how you intended to spend your Christmas?
Who said that a loser Alpha like me wouldn’t grow up to know how to treat his treasured Omega?
” Icarus rests his head back against the wall with a groan.
“Are you sure you didn’t make a mistake that day you chose to leave your elite group at school and sat with a broke-ass Alpha like me? ”
“I’m a female Omega.” I arch my brow. “I’d crouch and piss on the floor.”
Icarus stares at me for a long moment and then he bursts out laughing. “I fucking love you, Grace.”
I drop to my knees in front of him, cradling his bruised face. “And I love you, my perfect Alpha.”
There is a fragile look in Icarus’ eyes that I am unused to. So, I swoop in to kiss him.
I am careful of Icarus’ busted lip but still taste the tangy copper of blood.
He kisses me back, soft and tender.
He raises his hand to cradle the back of my head, and I allow him to guide me as I always have done, even if I haven’t realized it.
Then I jerk back in shock, when the steel door to the cellar opens.
I push myself up to stand protectively in front of Icarus at the sound of light footsteps toward us. Icarus growls, attempting to get to his feet as well, resting against the wall behind him when he staggers.
“Relax, it’s just your Omega fairy godfather.” Piper stands, grinning like a Gothic fairy tale in the center of the wine cellar. “Cinderella, you may go to the ball.”
Am I dreaming?
Piper does look like a punk fairy.
He is dressed in a black tie suit that fits him so well I know that he has adapted it himself.
He looks stunning in it; I’ve never seen anything like it.
Maya, Ellington, and the other elites will have heart attacks to see an Omega dressed like this.
Piper is not wearing the suit jacket. He has cut off the sleeves of the shirt to reveal his tattoo, as if it’s part of the outfit. He has added silver buttons and chains to the front of the waistcoat to go with the silver bow tie. A scarf is wound around his neck like a cravat.
He is holding two large, gleaming black bags that glisten with curling ribbons.
Piper’s wavy silver hair is styled to look as outrageously rebellious as possible over one midnight green eye. Both of his eyes have been boldly painted with Kohl, mascara, and gray eyeshadow.
I have never seen a more striking Omega.
And right now, appearing to rescue us on the most important night of my life, I know that I should never have forgotten that Piper is the boss of the Idols.
I throw myself across the cellar and wrap my arms around him. “Wolfie.”
“Gracie.” Piper nuzzles me. “Are you hurt?”