23. Piper
CHAPTER 23
Piper
I crossed my arms as Rook took Benjamin by the collar and hauled him from the room. The Betas have already scattered before the power of his Alpha voice, and Cressida, Beatrice, Chloe, and Zoey don’t dare to stay either, but they all look back with confused faces.
They don’t understand why their Alphas are behaving like this.
But the moment they scented me, Rook, Erain, and Teddy ceased to give a shit about any other women.
And I plan to make that as painful as I can for everyone involved.
Cressida was already crying softly, but I remembered what she said about me, how she talked about me like I was trash under her shoe.
And maybe I was a bitch, but I didn’t give a fuck.
Teddy didn’t even notice them leaving since he was on his hands and knees retching.
Once Rook had slammed the door, he turned back. To my surprise, there was a smile tugging at his harsh lips.
“How many dumb Alphas are you going to spring from jail to fuck with us? I just want to be prepared.”
I stifled my surprise at how he’d guessed my plan, but I only narrowed my eyes at him.
“He was only in there for loading up on Alpha maximizers. I don’t think he’s much of a threat. Except to his own dick, because that shit makes your dick shrink. Speaking of dicks, have you three agreed to let me go yet?”
“Let you go?” Teddy moaned, staggering to his feet. “Never, Piper! You know I would follow you to the ends of the earth.”
Even Rook looked green as he clenched his jaw. “We just want to protect you, our Omega. Care for you. We want another chance.”
I huffed.
“If I can’t leave, I’m going to fuck shit up,” I told Rook plainly, putting my hands on my hips. “I don’t care what it is. If you care about it, I’m going to fuck it up.”
He stepped closer to me.
There was a slick sheen of sweat on his cold face and the collar of his shirt was damp.
It could be fun to see him unravel.
“Do it,” he said. “I deserve it. Fuck up whatever shit you can. Then forgive me.”
“I have no intention of forgiving you,” I retorted.
“Let us take you to lunch,” Rook countered, bending down to put his knuckles on the table in front of me. “See what being a member of Skystone Pack means. Come back to your nest and see how we’re lining it.”
I was going to give Otis an even bigger bonus for being my secret omega suppressant dispenser, because even though I could smell his deep, earthy scent shot through with pure steel, I was able to resist my Omega instincts to move toward an Alpha, melt into that scent. And I’d had no urge whatsoever to obey him when he used his Alpha bark.
“Not interested,” I said. “I’m going back for Otis’ BLTs.”
Erain was still attached to my legs, and I tried to shake him off when I stood up, but he was holding me too tightly.
“Please forgive me.”
“You’re getting my sweats wet,” I said dismissively.
“Come to one of our campaign events. Come to a play with me. Or a symphony. Or an art show. There’s a competition coming up. Please come to it.”
“Nah.”
They insisted on accompanying me back to the cottage, each one mere inches away from me, like I was a celebrity with the world’s clingiest bodyguards.
“I am getting indications,” Otis said, “That the Spirit Guides recommend manual labor. There are certain weeds in this garden,” he said, as he pointed at a part of the yard that was more weed than grass.
And three of the most powerful Alphas bounded over to obey Otis’ Spirit Guides.
“Having any luck?” Mary asked with interest as she brought out her whittling.
I groaned. “No, Rook sent the Alpha I hired away. I think it’s going to be hard even to pay another Alpha to go against him.”
“Disgusting brute!” Otis said, bringing three towering BLTs to watch how the three Alphas were weeding the garden.
I thought furiously for a moment.
“Luckily, I have plenty of backups. Maybe Alphas dumb enough to go against him are too hard to find, but I think I know three Betas who could be bribed into taking a visit out here. On Rook, Erain, and Teddy’s dime, of course.”