20. Rook
CHAPTER 20
Rook
H unger wakes me up early and I know it’s for Piper.
Panic fills me not to be next to her.
Is she OK?
Is she safe?
My Alpha wolf doesn’t like being apart from her, and I look down at my arm to see the dark black of my shifter pelt flash down my biceps.
Shifting isn’t really necessary in the modern day, where our disagreements are settled by money or politics, and we mostly only shift on holidays or ceremonial occasions when there’s competitions.
So for me to be almost involuntarily shifting is concerning.
But not as concerning as Piper not forgiving us.
I grab a pair of sweatpants and stumble down the hallway to her room.
Her door is already covered in the presents we ordered late last night.
Dozens of long-stemmed white, pink, and red roses. Necklaces and bracelets sparkling with diamonds and pearls hung on every available surface. And, I notice, keys to at least three separate competing cars we’re giving her.
But I can smell instantly that she’s not in her rooms.
Fuck
“Erain! Teddy!” I call, banging on their doors. “Piper’s not in her room!”
Sharp Alpha claws are beginning to poke from my fingers, my incisors lengthening.
I don’t even wait, just grab my shoes and head for the stairs. But Erain and Teddy are pounding down the hall right after me.
“Let me go first!” Erain insisted. “I don’t give a fuck if she’s laced it with cat shit, I am not going to let her get that far away again.”
“Her scent is strong now,” I said, even though my heart is still pounding with panic. “I don’t think she’s trying to hide.”
We stumble out into the summer morning, hot even though it’s early, and follow our Omega’s scent right where I should have known she’d go.
When we got there, I pounded on the door of Otis and Mary’s cottage.
“Open up! Piper! We know you’re in there!”
My heart gives a huge leap when the door opens and it’s Piper herself, wearing tight athletic shorts and a baggy T-shirt.
She has two tiny kittens in her arms, the other kneading its paws on her shoulders, and I’ve never exactly been a cat person but this is the most adorable thing I’ve ever seen.
“No solicitors,” she warned, kicking the door shut.
“Come back,” I said, clutching the door frame just barely before she slammed it in our faces.
“I prefer it here,” she said witheringly. “Too many Alphas around over there. Smells pretty bad.”
I think about her luxurious quarters, and then this tiny little cottage with its hobbit-sized rooms, and Piper is right. This is where she feels safe. And that fucking sucks for us.
“Can we come in?” I asked humbly, holding up my hands to make sure Rook and Erain don’t butt in by demanding she come back to the Palace.
“Nope,” she said, shutting the door in my face.
Without thinking, I put my hand forward just in time for the door to crush my fingers painfully.
“What are your kittens’ names?” Teddy asked desperately.
I sucked in my breath.
“I’m still debating,” she said reluctantly.
“Can we come in?” I put in quickly. “Just to pet them and help you decide on names?”
She hesitated, then shrugged her shoulders. “I suppose. But don’t ask for coffee. That’s for our friends only.”
“I’ll chaperone,” Otis said firmly, coming around the corner with two steaming hot mugs of coffee. It smelled like cinnamon and brown sugar, with huge dollops of cream on top.
Our Omega led us into the sitting room, where she deposited the kitties gently on the floor and I sat eagerly down beside them.
I knew nothing about animals or cats, but I was desperate for any way in with Piper, so I held my finger out to the little orange one.
It came over and bit my finger fiercely, then allowed itself to be carefully petted.
There wasn’t much room down there, but we all crammed our big Alpha bodies knee-to-knee around the kitties.
“Piper, tell us what we can do to make it up to you?” Teddy asked eagerly.
“How about you go away,” she said. “That would please me to no end.”
I cleared my throat. “Just as a side note, Piper, I’ve put some more money in your account. A million or so to get you started. Use it however you want.”
“A million?” she scoffed. “I’m afraid I can’t do anything with that piddling amount.”
I felt a warmth spread through me, and I knew I was falling for Piper. Not just her scent. Not just the fact that she was my Omega. I could not resist that confidence, or the fucking disinterested curl of her lip.
“Otis, don’t you think that’s a frankly embarrassing bribe?” she asked, leaning back on the couch and stretching out her legs in front of her.
They were bare, her shorts riding up mouthwateringly high to her thighs, and her skin looked sleek and soft. I gripped my thigh tightly so I wouldn’t crawl over to her and beg to be able to touch her ankle.
“Shameful,” Otis agreed promptly. “Wouldn’t even cover upkeep of my moustache for a year.”
“Of course that’s just for this and that,” I said hastily, even though I knew they were both winding me up. “I will add more for any larger purchases.”
I scooted closer to her, the orange kitten climbing up my back, digging its tiny sharp claws into my skin.
“We can add more,” Erain added eagerly.
Piper said nothing, just passed Otis the plate of homemade scones.
Even though it was ridiculous, I felt absolute raging jealousy of her friends for getting to sit next to her, and I crawled a few inches closer.
“You can all leave now,” Piper said. “Otis is going to make Mary and I a pie while we watch TV.”
That literally sounded like the most wonderful thing I’d ever imagined in my life, and I found myself fully on my hands and knees now at Piper’s feet, clutching the couch.
“Please forgive us,” I begged, as the kitten began to knead its claws up and down on my shoulder.
“Nah,” was all the effect my raw passion had on her.
“I swear to you, Piper, we will cherish you,” Teddy said, holding the tortoiseshell kitten in his hands and scooting his ass closer to the couch, too.
Piper only flicked her tongue ring out and snapped her gum, and the effort it took to stop myself from howling made my eyes water.
“Never again,” Erain added roughly. “Please let me explain myself to you.”
She ignored our pleas and stuck out her tongue to lick up a swirl of the cinnamon cream, and I felt drops of precum begin to spill from my aching cock down my thighs.
“What about a Spirit Guide session?” I asked, since I had looked up Otis and Mary last night, trying to keep the raw edge of desperation from my voice.
Otis narrowed his eyes at me, but didn’t say anything.
Fuck, he was a much better friend to Piper than we had been.
I subtly elbowed Erain in the ribs and kicked Teddy’s big foot under the couch.
Maybe showing Piper how nice we could be to her friends would help.
“I’m not in the business of doing emotional labor for Alphas who cheat on my friend," Otis said, bringing out an elaborate contraption made of spindly metal pieces that I assumed was his current invention.
“Of course I wasn’t suggesting free labor,” I hurried to assure them, rushed over my words.
“We would of course pay all the requisite fees,” I added, hoping like hell this worked and it kept Piper from throwing us out immediately.
The fee for Spirit Guide Consultation is $20,000 per Alpha,” Otis said sternly, “with a $5,000 add-on charge if the spirits don’t feel like working with you.”
I almost choked at how we were nakedly getting the shakedown but also I didn’t give a fuck.
“Absolutely we would love to pay that,” I said.
“Very good point about the add-on charge,” Piper said coolly. “That’s a prerequisite to even hearing any of your miserable apologies.”