4. Chapter 4
Chapter four
Greyson
G reyson followed the sway of Destiny Duvalle’s hips as she hurried away from his pack leader’s discourteous behavior. The view was as appealing from the back as it’d been from the front. He hadn’t been lying when he said they’d never met anyone like her. Destiny Duvalle was enchanting. She was a star alright, but not in the Hollywood sense. No, she was the kind of star you could follow in the darkness, the kind who could become your true north. The many videos and images he’d seen of her over the years hadn’t done her justice in the least. Even Hunter had noticed, despite the brief and unpleasant time he’d spent with her the night before, and Hunter never bothered to notice women.
Greyson felt Xander’s angry energy pulsing through their bond. He counted to ten in his head before turning back to Xander, then counted to ten again when he saw the expression on the prince’s handsome face. After the stunt he’d pulled last night, Xander had no business looking irritated with him.
Xander seemed to realize the same thing, because his expression calmed a bit, and he shifted his gaze from Greyson to Destiny Duvalle’s retreating form. Greyson couldn’t read Xander’s face, but he knew that mixed up in whatever his pack leader was feeling, was desire. There was something undeniably irresistible about their omega guest. It was affecting Xander as much as it was affecting him. Perhaps it had been what drew Xander to her room during his drunken wanderings. Even now, Greyson’s instincts wanted him to follow her peppermint and cinnamon scent.
“I must’ve insulted her looks or something last night, because she’s been giving me attitude all morning,” Xander complained. “I tried to apologize and everything, but she acted like she’s above it. Typical stuck up clout chaser. I guess princes aren’t impressive enough for conceited bubblegum pop princesses.”
Greyson noticed the nearby knot of reporters that had broken off from the tour group, standing closer than they’d been originally. He should continue this conversation elsewhere. Xander was being more of an asshole than usual, probably out of wounded pride, and Greyson needed to redirect him. He’d been working overtime with the PR team to rehabilitate Xander’s image. The last thing he needed was for last night’s foolishness to be made into a bigger story by being connected with international superstar Destiny Duvalle.
He’d begun to steer Xander from the room, when he came to an abrupt halt. He blinked to clear his vision, but nothing changed. His eyes weren’t deceiving him.
There were very few things that could distract Greyson from Xander’s latest act of self-destruction. One was a popstar omega with the most beautiful face and exquisite body he’d ever seen, who also happened to smell like Christmas morning.
The other was his estranged sister standing in the corridor.
“You’re late for training with Hunter,” Greyson told Xander. “I’ll join you momentarily.”
He didn’t wait for Xander’s response, already striding toward his sister before the words left his mouth. She saw him then, her huge brown eyes widening—their color so like his own. It had been years since he’d seen her in person.
“Genesis? What are you doing here?” Greyson couldn’t seem to find his normal poise. His words came out more coldly than intended, and his sister flinched.
“I’m working,” she replied, her smile small and uncertain despite the confidence in her voice and stance. “Covering Destiny Duvalle’s performance for the entertainment column.”
Greyson racked his brain, mentally shuffling through the briefings he’d reviewed regarding the performance. He’d glanced over the press list, trusting the monarchy’s PR team to vet the reporters’ credentials more thoroughly. He hadn’t seen Genesis Valentine on any list. Or had he?
“You’re Gen V.” He should’ve known that. He’d followed her career at first, then had gotten too caught up in his own affairs—and maybe his own hurt feelings—to continue being on the periphery of her life. “Of course, I should’ve realized.”
For a moment they stood in awkward silence, the years of estrangement a chasm between them. When he was a child, he looked forward to the holidays because Genesis came home from boarding school. As they grew older, however, his sister came home less and less frequently. Eventually, he only saw her for big occasions like graduations and funerals.
“Yeah, I decided a pen name was the best way to ensure I didn’t tarnish the family legacy with my unorthodox unbonded omega ways,” Genesis said, with a familiar sarcasm that made Greyson’s heart ache a little. “I thought you’d know I was coming though. I guess I could’ve called.”
Greyson shrugged. They didn’t exactly have a phone call type of relationship. Truthfully, they had no relationship at all. Not for lack of trying on his part. He’d always looked up to Genesis. She was a force of nature—determined and independent and unconcerned with other people’s expectations.
Greyson suspected the real reason Genesis wrote under a pen name is because she wanted to make her own way in the world. She wouldn’t be satisfied with getting by on their family’s good name. Of course, he had to carry the name, to add to the family’s prestige, and be the alpha son their fathers had always wanted. His ascension to royalty with Xander was his fathers’ wildest dream—another reason he couldn’t let the prince destroy everything they were trying to build with his childish antics.
“Well.” Genesis shifted her weight from foot to foot, obviously impatient to be rid of him, as always. “I guess I’d better get back to the tour group. It was nice to see you Greyson.”
As she turned away, he suddenly found his voice. He didn’t want her to slip away. Not again.
“Gen?” Greyson called. She turned back to him, arching a brow. “After the tour, perhaps we could have a drink and catch up? I could probably give you some background for your piece.”
He hoped she didn’t hear the note of desperation in his voice. How did his sister always manage to make him feel like a lost little boy? Genesis smiled, and Greyson was struck by how pretty she was, with her huge eyes and golden-brown skin. Like him, she was biracial, and her mother much darker, just like his. (Their fathers had a type, apparently.) Still, she looked so much like the pictures of her mother he’d found in their dads’ old photo albums. He hated that she was as much of a ghost to him as her mother was.
“Sure, Ash. I’d like that.” Genesis gave a little wave and turned away, leaving Greyson feeling oddly melancholy.
He’d forgotten about that old nickname, mostly because only Genesis used it. The people who got away with shortening his name called him Grey, but his big sister called him Ash because he’d hated the feel of lotion on his skin as a child. In her adolescent logic, since ashes are gray and his skin was ashy, she’d started calling him Ash. He’d pretended to hate it, but he loved having something that was theirs, even something as small as a nickname.
Greyson mulled over Genesis’s sudden appearance as he made his way to the castle’s gym, where he found Hunter already in the boxing ring, looking huge and intimidating as always. Xander sat outside the ring, lacing his gloves with a painstaking meticulousness that was unlike him. He was stalling, and it was obvious why. Greyson wouldn’t want to get in the ring with Hunter right now either. Fury radiated from his packmate’s pores. He was somehow even angrier than he’d been when Greyson had spoken to him that morning.
“If it’s any solace, you know he’ll be executed for beating you to death,” Greyson said, taking out his phone to pull up the day’s briefing. “And the longer you drag this out, the worst it’ll be. You know he’ll only get angrier until he blows off some steam.”
“Piss off, Grey,” Xander replied crankily. “I’m not the only one taking my sweet time. It wasn’t enough that you drooled all over Destiny Duvalle, you had to chat up the pretty omega reporter too?”
Greyson fixed his pack leader with his most disdainful glower. “The pretty omega reporter is my sister, Genesis. And you could benefit from doing a little more drooling and a lot less offending. Don’t you think you did enough damage last night without antagonizing Miss Duvalle today? At least you had an excuse for your nighttime antics, albeit a piss poor one. Now you’re just being an arsehole.”
Xander opened his mouth to protest, but a growl from Hunter silenced him. Xander looked suddenly contrite. Greyson almost felt sorry for him. His friend had never taken well to the pressures of royal life. Like Greyson, he was the son destined to bring the family more glory. Except, unlike Greyson, Xander rebelled against his family’s expectations at every turn. Most people thought it was just carelessness and immaturity, but Greyson knew better. He saw through the brash facade to Xander’s crippling self-doubt and fear of failure. He embraced the negative, rejecting others before they could reject him.
A bit like Genesis, perhaps?
As if to reinforce the thought, Xander turned toward him. “You never told me your sister was so hot. How is she unbonded at her age? She must’ve rejected more packs than Destiny Duvalle by now.”
Greyson shrugged. “I don’t know much about her personal life. We rarely talk.”
“How do you feel about her being here?” Hunter asked, his rage softening.
Despite his physical prowess, Hunter was the quietest and most intuitive member of the pack. He knew immediately when something was off about his packmates, and there was no bullshitting him—it was the main reason Xander had yet to fully self-destruct. Hunter could always sense when their pack leader was getting close to doing something really stupid. Which had to be why he was so pissed about last night. He probably blamed himself for not seeing it coming.
Greyson shrugged again, joining Xander outside the boxing ring. He finished lacing the prince’s gloves, then pushed him toward the ring. This was not about to turn into a therapy session, at least not for him. They needed to focus on Xander.
Besides, how did he feel about seeing Genesis? He’d thought he’d gotten used to her absence. He hadn’t even thought he missed her, but he’d been wrong. Now that he’d seen her, he realized he’d missed his sister a great deal. Having his two best friends at his side had helped him fill the void, but it had never truly gone away.
“I’m not sure,” Greyson answered finally. “I used to try so hard to keep in touch with her, but it was like she couldn’t be bothered. She stopped coming around when I was in secondary school, and I hardly ever saw her anymore. Now she’s just here all of a sudden and I don’t know what to do with that.”
“Maybe it’s a Christmas miracle,” Xander suggested, climbing into the ring. “Peace on earth, goodwill toward estranged relatives, and all that.”
“Do you know why she stopped coming around?” Hunter asked, his hazel eyes fixed on Greyson in that intense way of his. The guy would be a top-notch MI6 interrogator.
Greyson thought about it, surprised that he’d never considered her reasoning before. Now that he did, her distance didn’t seem so illogical. It wasn’t like his home was really Genesis’s home. She’d been at boarding school as early as he could remember, since before he was born, actually. Given their nearly six-year age difference, that meant she’d barely been out of preschool when she was sent away. Why had that never struck him as odd before?
“Her mother passed away quite suddenly, and I think our fathers didn’t know what to do with her, so they sent her to boarding school,” Greyson said, feeling a pang of sympathy for five-year-old Genesis, grieving her mother and sent to live among strangers. “After they mated with my mother and I came along, I think maybe our home didn’t feel much like hers anymore.”
Greyson’s mother had wanted him to be educated in the UK, so the family had relocated from the United States to England when he started nursery school. That’s when Genesis had started spending more and more of the summer and winter holidays at school or with friends. He’d always thought it was some preteen rebelliousness or that Gen had been too cool to spend her breaks with her annoying kid brother.
“She’s not that much older than us,” Xander said. “So, it couldn’t have been long after her mother died that they claimed yours, right?”
His parents had a whirlwind love story Greyson had heard a million times. His mother had been a volunteer for a grief support group. She met a pack of beautiful, broken men and felt an instant connection. His fathers always said she brought them back to life. But how must it have been for Genesis, who had to watch them move on from her mother so quickly?
“I think it was a matter of months,” Greyson said, embarrassed by the admission.
He really should’ve considered Genesis’s feelings sooner. She must’ve resented his mother and maybe even him. In retrospect, he was surprised by how nice she’d always been to him.
“Yikes.” Xander grimaced.
“Start warming up,” Hunter commanded, then turned his attention back to Greyson. “And you—don’t waste your Christmas miracle.”
Greyson nodded stiffly. Hunter rarely bothered to talk but he was seldom wrong when he did. Greyson would be remiss not to heed his advice.
“Fine, but I do hope that St. Nicholas can spare another miracle or two, because it’s going to take an act of god for Xander not to cock-up the Christmas festival,” he said, taking control of the conversation. “Don’t punch him in the head too much, I have a list of names and details he needs to memorize before the fun begins tomorrow.”
“No promises,” Hunter muttered, beckoning Xander to the center of the ring with a dangerous glint in his eye.
“I hate you both,” Xander grumbled.
Greyson laughed and opened the festival brief on his phone so he could begin feeding Xander information. Maybe his packmates were right and this was a Christmas miracle. It could be his second chance at a relationship with his sister. Maybe it was a good omen, and things were about to turn around for him and his pack.
Maybe everything was about to change.