Chapter 10 #2
Kellen shifts behind me in the direction of the exit.
Elliot’s trained him well. I move with him as the crowd finally listens.
We manage to make it to the emergency exit within a few seconds.
Just before we disappear through the door, I meet Raelynn’s gaze over the crowd.
A question hangs there in her wide-eyed gaze: Is Piper okay?
I nod an affirmative. She better fucking be. Because if Elliot let fans hurt her, I’ll kill him.
Kellen exists through the door. I follow and shut it behind us. Piper stands only a few feet away. Her lips are parted but relief floods her eyes when she sees me.
My chest uncoils just a little bit seeing her. Danger is still here. But Elliot pulled through, and for that I’ll be ever indebted to him.
Elliot appears with a heavy old shipping pallet that must have been laying around out here. The shoulders of his tailored suit bulge as he moves it in front of the door to bar it from the outside.
Elliot grunts as he steps back. “We need to go.”
I point to the SUV I drove Piper here in. “Car’s right there.” It’s not a bullet proof royal limousine, but it works just fine.
I push Kellen gently toward the SUV. Elliot does the same with Piper, guiding them toward safety. Elliot sits up front with me and our charges fall into the backseats. In under a minute, we’re loaded up and driving away from Reverie Rest heading back to the palace.
“What the fuck?” Piper exclaims.
Kellen rubs the back of his neck. “I think they were just excited. They wanted photos and to—”
I watch through the rearview mirror as Piper shakes her head.
“No,” she says. “Never assume there’s no ill intent. Don’t they teach you that?”
“We do,” Elliot answers for Kellen. “But I agree with Kellen’s assessment of the crowd, despite their numbers.”
“And aggressiveness,” I comment. “Pushing into the studio was a step too far. How’d they even know you’d be coming here?”
Kellen and Elliot exchange a glance. Kellen was expected, but only the four of us, the queen, and Raelynn knew.
No one has a real answer. Everyone who knew has a vested interest in keeping Kellen and Piper safe, and continuing this PR stunt.
Which means someone else is at play, and the danger is still very real.
After everything, the manor is silent.
I spend a full half hour prowling the second floor checking windows and security cams, resisting the urge to run a perimeter sweep every five minutes. Elliot is off-shift, presumably asleep, or plugged into some military-grade comms system in his room, but I doubt he’s any less on edge than I am.
I lost Piper today. And I cannot stop hating myself for it.
When the clock on my phone clicks past 1:30, I give up on pretending to sleep and wander down the hall to Piper’s suite.
Her light is still on. You’d think being mobbed by fans and then forcibly ejected from a recording studio would be enough to sedate a pop star, but Piper is still awake.
I can hear through her door the playback from today’s session that she’s listening to over and over again.
Every few minutes, she skips back ten seconds, like she’s looking for something she left behind.
I hover a second before I knock, soft enough that she could ignore me if she wants.
“Nolan?” she calls. Her voice is low, guarded.
“Yeah. It’s me.”
There’s a beat, then the door opens a crack. Her hair’s down, face bare of makeup for the first time today. She’s wrapped in a massive fuzzy sweatshirt.
She steps aside, and I follow her in. The suite is huge and smells like cherry lip balm and the faintest trace of vanilla.
A small mountain of pillows and blankets form a nest on the bed, surrounded by candles glowing softly to light up the room.
And a tablet shines bright on the comforter, frozen at the chorus of her new single.
“Can’t sleep?” I ask, immediately regretting the banality.
Piper pulls her sweatshirt tight. “Can’t turn my brain off. I keep running today on repeat. Sorry, that’s dumb.”
“It’s not dumb.” I cross to the window to double-check the lock out of habit, and catch her reflection watching me. “It was a lot, even for you. Crowd swarms never happen at Reverie Rest.”
She sits on the edge of the bed and hugs her knees. “I’ve been mobbed before. But it was never like…” Her voice trails off. She fiddles with the hem of her sleeve.
I finish for her. “Like they wanted to eat you alive?”
She laughs, sharp and surprised. “Exactly. It just felt different. And—”
“And?” I ask, but I won’t push further if she doesn’t want to talk about it.
Piper glances up at me. “It felt like our pack was under attack.”
Our pack.
She says it without irony or hesitation.
I let my walls down, too. “It did. And it’s been eating me alive all night.”
Piper rises off the bed and touches a hand to my forearm. We’re never close like this, so lightly intimate, but everything has changed since the gala fundraiser. “Me too. But we’re safe now, right?”
I don’t want to scare her. Or lie to her. “Yes.” There’s something more going on, behind the scenes by some unknown factor pulling strings, but without direct evidence, I can’t confirm it. So I don’t tell Piper my assumptions.
“Good.” Piper tilts her head, studying me. “Did you ever think you’d be doing this? Running security for a singer and a prince running from fans?”
I shake my head. “I figured I’d be guarding state secrets, or maybe some arms dealer’s brat. But honestly? I’d pick this, every time.”
She blinks, surprised. “Even after today?”
“Especially after today.” My voice comes out softer than intended. “Piper, you—” I stop myself, because the list of things I want to say is longer than my resume. “You’re not like other clients. I care. And that care started long before I realized you were my scent-matched omega.”
She swallows hard. “It did?”
I nod. “Yes.”
Her chest rises and falls as we hold each other’s gaze. The room suddenly feels too hot and too small. I move my hands to my sides so I don’t accidentally act on this tension.
Then something shifts in her eyes. “Can I ask you something?”
“Anything.”
She hesitates, then blurts, “Were you scared?”
I want to say no, but that’s not the game we’re playing tonight. “Terrified,” I admit. “Not of the fans. Of losing you.”
She lets that hang in the air, then holds out her hand. I take it instinctually. She tugs me toward her bed. “Sit with me?”
I obey. The comforter is soft, but her presence is softer. Her hand is so small in mine. I’ve held her hands a million times for an equally large number of reasons. But this is different. There’s no danger, no direction to give. It’s just us.
I risk a glance at her, and she’s already looking at me, eyes wide and shining.
“You will never lose me, Nolan,” she whispers, eyes intense and serious. “Ever.”
“I did.” The crowd separated us. Elliot had to guard her. She slipped right from my fingers into the unknown, and that is something I can’t condone.
Piper turns toward me and touches a hand to my bearded cheek.
The gentleness of her touch breaks something within me.
My own breathing starts to quicken. “You did not lose me, Nolan. You saved me. Again.” She smiles warmly.
“You were my alpha first, even if we didn’t know know. The scent-match only confirmed it.”
Fuck. Those words shatter what’s left of my resolve.
I close the distance between us, my hand sliding to cradle the nape of her neck as our lips collide.
Her gasp dissolves against my mouth, and the taste of cherry lip balm floods my senses.
My heartbeat thunders in my ears as I pull her closer, feeling her fingers grip my shirt like she’s afraid I’ll disappear.
The line between security guard and client disintegrates under the weight of this bond.
I could lose myself here. I almost do. Then I remember my role.
I pull back first, breathless. “I shouldn’t have—”
“Don’t,” she says, and pulls me back to her.
This time, the kiss is slower, an enjoyment of the lost time versus making up for it. When we break apart, my heart is pounding loud enough to shake the bedframe.
This could become so much more, but it can’t. Not yet. Tonight is a result of the adrenaline of the day and nothing more.
Even I don’t believe that.
I force myself to let go and gently untangle our hands. “I should go. You need sleep.”
She nods, but doesn’t look happy about it. “Yeah. Early day tomorrow. You could stay?”
“I should go do another perimeter sweep.” I get up, walk to the door, and pause. “If you need me—”
“I know where you’ll be.”
Never far from reach.
I smile. “Good night, Piper.”
“Night, Nolan.”
I close the door behind me, lean against the wall, and exhale. My mouth is still tingling, and my chest is a mess of hope and dread.
Piper Sumner smashed through every single wall I’ve ever put up, and now…
Now I’m in love.