Chapter 23
brYLEE
We arrive at the castle via an underground tunnel that only royalty is allowed to use, which emerges in a small parking garage on the castle grounds and is disguised to look like a cutesy old barn.
Once our driver parks and opens the door for us, Luka glides out and then holds out a hand to help me.
He pulls me out of the car with a strength and playfulness that leave me grinning. But his smile doesn't quite reach his eyes, and his gaze darts out the open barn door toward the castle more than once.
That's when I realize even my sleek, debonair alpha is nervous at the prospect of facing my mother. But he's also sweet enough to try and ensure that I'm in a good mood.
What I ever did to deserve such selfless males, I have no idea.
I'm simply glad they're mine.
Reaching out, I button the formal jacket he's donned.
Then I smooth it down before I slide my hand up and brush his hair with my fingers, the tendrils soft against my skin.
I fuss over him even though everything's already perfect.
Even though he's already perfect. Those tiny touches dry my throat and heat my lower belly.
A hint of perfume drifts from me as I stare up at his dark eyes from beneath my lashes. "You'll impress her."
"There's only one woman I worry about impressing," he murmurs in a low tone that makes my kneecaps quiver.
"Well, consider me impressed," I reply, brain fizzling when his pupils dilate.
Tiny flames begin to flicker along my inner thighs as I stare up at his intense expression.
He slides in closer and grips my hips. The rest of the world fades to speckles and daubs of color as his Adam's apple bobs. As my pulse electrifies until every nerve is sparking.
"Let's get inside," Colter interjects, slicing apart the moment.
Shaking my head, I clear my throat and paste on a smile.
"The others are waiting," Colter reminds me, and I wonder if there's a trace of jealousy in the huge man's gaze.
It's hard to tell with the mask, but I'd never want him to feel that way.
So, after we leave the garage and make our way through a series of archways covered in flowering vines, I reach for Colter's hand and intertwine our fingers.
His scarred grip closes tightly over mine. Protectively. Possessively.
My nipples grow taut and breasts heavy when his arm brushes across them as we turn.
Oh my god, I need to reel it in and get myself under control.
I'm not exactly certain what's going on with me right now, or why I'm reacting so intensely to my guys this morning, but my body needs to cut it out. I'm about to see my mother. And even worse, my brother.
Ted and Caran will never let me live it down if they can scent me perfuming all over my mates.
Inhaling, I detach my hands and step back from both my men, who pause on the path and tilt their heads to look at me.
I flap my hands, trying to shake off the trembling need to clasp one of them to me and rub my scent all over him.
"Don't look at me. Don't look at me," I repeat, pacing. "In fact, go stand over there so I can't smell you."
Luka's brow furrows, but they both glide to a side path as I fight off a sweeping fever.
God, I'm light-headed.
Inhaling a deep pull of clean air, I try to clear my mind. I recall how Alpha Jameson said that a clear mind is the best weapon when you head into combat. And any meeting with my mother is combat.
This will be the first time she'll see me with my scent matches after I rejected the alpha group she chose.
I can't be a simpering idiot.
After a minute of internal struggle, I get lucky because someone's using a leaf blower in the gardens. The scent of my guys is replaced by papery, pulpy, decayed leaves, and I gulp down huge breaths until I've cleared out any remaining trace of my alphas.
I wish I could ask that gardener to follow me in. It would be stupendous to have him rev that thing each time my mother speaks. Alas, I'll just have to imagine that.
After a quick wriggle to straighten out my dress, I turn to my men. "Okay, I'm better. But you need to walk behind me."
I don't explain further, but my cheeks are as hot as an oven's electric coils, and Luka's smirk tells me he suspects why.
I scurry down the path. I just need to get this reunion over with as quickly as possible.
Colter strides up quickly and swipes in before I can open the door for myself, so I duck under his massive arm.
We make it down a long, carpeted hall lit by electric candelabras before we encounter two generals striding out of a meeting room with my other two mates.
Ridge and Kylian were summoned to give briefings on their rescue campaign all morning, so we had to divide and conquer.
Ridge gives me a nod, his jaw still working as he hands a sheet of paper over to Colter.
Kylian, however, bounds right up to me and lifts me into a hug that presses me tightly against him.
That broad chest, the hint of his tattoos peeking out beneath the black collared shirt he's wearing, the masculine scent of him…
Unconsciously, I move my nose to the base of his neck and inhale until my eyelashes start to flutter.
Behind me, Colter and Luka exchange harsh words with Ridge, and I'm jolted out of completely melting into Kylian. I wriggle out of my alpha's arms and smooth down my dress as I turn to face them.
"Next week!" Luka is shaking his head. "That's too soon."
Ridge gives a shrug. "Orders are orders."
They must have gotten the news of their deployment. The air fills with their frustration and fury, so potent and yet impotent at the same time. Because my mother has chosen to attack full throttle.
I glance from face to face, a thousand different sensations pinging through me, panic swelling my limbs, fear dissolving my bones. But underneath all that roiling mess is a rock in my gut. A solid certainty…because I know my mother's plans, but I also know my own.
And my men need plausible deniability for the things I plan to do. So, I stiffen my jaw and reach forward, taking the paper from Colter's hand as if I don't know what's on it.
By order of the monarch of Hypso, you will report for duty to Epithesi base by Friday, December 12…
Even though I knew exactly what I was about to read, my eyes start filling up as the blood drains from my face. An ache rolls through my chest like fog off the ocean, thick and fast and full of shadows. We're going to have to separate.
My brows lift, and I have to swallow down a whimper, which lodges in my throat like a stone.
"Brylee!"
Of course Teddie finds me at the worst possible moment. He's got impeccable timing.
I spin to see my brother walking toward me, looking far better than I expected. He spreads his arms wide, a huge grin breaking across his face.
"Poopsicle!" he calls.
HE. DID. NOT.
Radioactive missiles launch from my gaze.
That fucking bastard! In front of my mates!
My brother just smiles smugly down at me as he wraps an arm around my shoulders and spins me so that I have to see Alpha Team X's reaction to the most humiliating, in-private-situations-only, bastard-initiated nickname of all time.
"Alpha Team X, this is booger-eater, also known as the toddler who pooped literal strings of spaghetti that our nanny had to pull from his butt," I say.
Kylian cracks up, a snort blasting out that turns into a howl as most of the others chuckle.
I glance up at my brother, noting that despite the pep in his step, the deep shadows are still there beneath his eyes. He’s also become gaunt…
Ted seems annoyingly immune to my embarrassing overshare. His mind must be on other things right now.
Is he feeling sick?
My arm tightens around him, and he squeezes me back.
But then he surprises me by nodding respectfully toward Ridge. "Thanks for rescuing my sister."
Ridge gives a single, silent nod.
And suddenly things feel serious, the way they address each other. How their gazes drop to me and soften.
Ridge adds, with a rough edge to his tone, "Actually, your sister is a bit of a pain to rescue."
"Yeah?" Ted's tone sparkles with amusement.
"She's not very good at waiting in the tower like a princess normally would."
"Patience—not her strong suit," my brother concurs, nodding.
I smack his ribs, grateful that they've lightened the tone because—for a second—I thought I might cry.
"But…" Ridge pauses, and those sky-blue eyes of his dig right through my chest into the center of my soul. "She's worth it."
A massive weight builds inside, heavy as iron and dense with disbelief.
I try to wrench my gaze away from the intensity of Ridge's stare, but I can't. I'm captive to the gravity of his eyes and those words, which seem to grow more profound every moment, like a planet taking shape.
My lungs stop working, stuck. Coated in this intense truth.
I burst apart in a million fluttering pieces.
A sob wrenches up my throat, and my hand flies up to cover my mouth, but I can't swallow it down. Blindingly intense emotion fills me from head to toe, and my vision ripples with tears that spill out onto my cheeks.
I don't know what's wrong with me.
But suddenly I'm crying, and I can't stop.
And then they're there, surrounding me. Strong arms and warm, masculine scents—my men wrap tightly around me, and I find myself scooped, bridal-style, into Kylian's arms.
"Where's her room?" he asks.
"She's got her own wing now," Teddie replies. "I'll show you. It’s in a section of the castle reserved for adult omegas."
Racked by sobs, I can't see where we go, what twists and turns we take through the castle, but soon we're at a set of white double doors, and they're thrown open.
My mates pull me in beneath the glow of a crystal chandelier, and Teddie says, "I'll distract my mother so she has some time."
Then my brother retreats, the door thunks shut, and Kylian carries me across the massive foyer.
"Let's find a couch and get her water or something," he murmurs as he softly strokes my arm.
Sniffling, I nuzzle against him, trying to take slow breaths and calm my racing heart. But my head is still hazy from crying, and his scent doesn't help as it coils around me, luring me in, while his massive arms cradle me firmly. I wrap my arms tighter, clinging. Needing him.
A door creaks.
"Well, that's not a living room.” Luka's wry observation is the only reason I wrench my nose up from Kylian's collarbone.
I glance past him and the door he's pushed open. Behind him, white as a sheet, with a mattress that stretches from one wall to the other…is a brand-new, untouched, unadorned nesting room.
The air in the foyer heats as every member of Alpha Team X lays eyes on that mattress.
Their scents change, intensify.
And my breathless gratitude flickers into something else in my lower belly. Thick, warm heat builds. It starts to roll through me like an incoming tide. Up my stomach. Down my thighs. Along my spine. Up my breasts. Until my entire face burns and I'm panting, perfuming, clenching onto Kylian's arm.
My nipples pucker and pinch as I meet Colter's gaze.
That heat grows molten.
Wilder.
It's a starburst deep inside, more intense than anything I've ever felt before. A massive explosion that sends all my nerve endings dancing.
And then…then…my panties are drenched in slick.
"Fuuuuuuck," Kylian breathes. "I think our mate's in heat."