Chapter 1 Melanie
Melanie
“Lower,” I said as Kai pointed the scissors at my chest, carefully slicing downwards.
“Brandy, if I go any lower, your tits will be out on the table.”
“How am I going to show off my brand new bites to Zania if they aren’t exposed?”
I loved the way heat flashed in his eyes as I smirked. It burned through his body straight to his cock, and I felt every single bit of it.
The tips of his thick scissors traced the dip of my breasts as he fondly admired his handiwork.
I was a patchwork of fresh and healing bites that could have come from Kai, or Sin and Caspian. No one would know unless we told them.
The dinner was still three hours away. Zania had sent over a pure white dress and a suit this morning, with a note that said if we didn’t wear them, she’d bar the doors to us.
Which I was perfectly fine with. Until Kai told me that this was basically a showdown where I had to fight ten other omegas to win Caspian and Sin’s attention.
Which wasn’t exactly how I wanted to spend the day after a week snuggled up in Kai’s nest and pretending I was a normal omega instead of torn between being a beta and the new life I’d been thrust into.
But I wouldn’t have another chance to stand in front of Zania in a more private setting.
I didn’t even know what I was going to do yet. I still considered finding a way to make Sin and Caspian bite me so I could take them away from her, but that was only a permanent solution on my end. I had to find something that would actually impact her.
And the first step was displaying my new bites.
“Fucking hell,” Kai growled as he pressed the scissors just a touch too hard. My nipples responded to the closeness. “You look so goddamn sexy like this, you know that, right?”
Zania told us to wear the clothes, but she didn’t say we couldn’t alter them.
Which was why I made Kai slice away the frilly gown and the collar that stretched up to my chin.
There were puffy sleeves that hid my arms, and flat shoes with no grip that made me smaller than everyone else.
So Kai added a short heel to compensate.
The Mel of three weeks ago, the one who still believed she was a beta, would have shuddered at going out in public wearing a strip of fabric that looked like it had been glued to my body.
But Zania’s favourite trick was reminding me how low-class and unfit for her son I was, not just because of my size and background.
So, showing off the bites running from my toes to my ears would show her how wanted I really was.
Walking around with Kai’s marks gave me a sense of confidence I’d never had before.
Especially when Kai’s gaze roamed over me like he wanted to eat me up.
We’d made love for three days straight, and I was almost as tired as I’d been during my first heat. Except I had another body to share my passion with, and, as the days flew by, I could feel how deeply that desire had changed.
Because when Kai nudged the scissors against the cup of my bra and pulled it away to reveal my hard nipple, love pounded through the bond, connecting us both, and making my heart soar.
“Are you going to go lower?” I asked him, looping a finger over my neckline to tug it downwards.
“I literally cannot believe I’m about to say this, but I think that’s enough.”
“Are you sure you don’t want my tits out on the table?” I purred as I arched my back, the scissors just nicking the soft skin of my breast.
He let out a strained chuckle as he twisted his lips. “If it were up to me, I’d parade you around with nothing on.” Need fluttered through me as he leaned down to place the lightest of kisses on my lips. “But I don’t want anyone else looking at what’s mine.”
I hummed as I reached for him to pull him even closer, and he laughed. “Seriously, though, we barely have long enough to get this dress fixed up, and I need to make sure you look delectable.”
Kai stood in front of the large window that looked out onto the street, waiting for the car to pull up, but there was still nothing.
I sat behind him, watching his back as he stood tall and proud in his suit.
“Are you sure they’re not coming? Why don’t we just wait for them?”
Caspian and Sin were meant to pick us up half an hour ago. Kai said that we should get going, but I wanted to at least try. Plus, I’d love to see Zania’s face if I arrived on Caspian’s arm, no matter how late we were and pissed off he looked about it.
“Brandy, this is the thing about Sin and Cas, okay? You don’t wait for them. If they don’t come when they say they will, just don’t expect them to show up,” he growled.
Before, when Kai snarled or shook or looked like he wanted to kill me, I would have taken it literally, or more likely, get turned on. But since we shared so many bites that he’d welded himself inside me, I could feel his deep disappointment and pain that they hadn’t come for us.
How many times had he waited alone? How had they treated him in the five years they had bonded that he’d become used to it?
It might not have been quite as bad as Caspian loving someone else the whole time they were together, but it stung that his alphas didn’t show up when he needed them. Or we needed them.
Even though he said he didn’t expect them to come, his back was to me, still looking out the window of their pack house with a touch of hope. And that hurt more than his giving up completely.
I lifted myself from the chair I’d sat in for an hour while he played with my makeup and hair, and walked over so I could wrap my fingers through his. It was our habit now, just holding each other like that.
We didn’t need to say anything, but I didn’t want him to wallow in his hurt.
“I’m so sorry, Brandy,” he said through gritted teeth.
“I was seriously hoping they’d step up their game now that you were here.
” He squeezed my hand. “But they can’t even make a fucking effort when this is one of the most important events besides the fucking Selection Ceremony.
I can’t fucking believe them. I just—” He cut himself off, his grip hard enough to make my fingers numb.
Maybe it hurt me, too. Maybe I wanted to see them as well. But not so much that I was going to cry over it.
I’d shed enough tears, and I was so tired of it. I didn’t want to be that person anymore. I still wasn’t sure if I could be someone who turned up to a formal dinner of high society omegas in a slutty, sexy dress as a fuck you, but I hoped it would be worth it in the end.
“I thought this was our chance to establish to Cas’s bitch-ass mum that you’re here to stay.
” He scowled, clicking his tongue as he turned to me.
“Listen, Brandy, as soon as Cas and Sin bite you, I’m going to make them spoil the shit out of us.
Cas has been a top-tier cunt, and it’s time for some fucking payback. ”
Pressing my lips hard together, my heart suddenly sank as I realised what he was saying.
I dipped my chin, nerves shuddering through me.
I really didn’t want to have this conversation when Kai was already vulnerable over Sin and Caspian not being there, so I kept quiet.
But we were so closely tied to each other that he felt my stab of guilt as clearly as I did.
“What?” he said, turning to me. “What is it?”
I didn’t want to look at him, or even feel him properly. I’d avoided talking about it as much as I could. When I was in his nest, I could pretend we were normal omegas and not deal with the weight hanging over us.
“Kai, I’m not going to be part of your pack,” I said softly.
Shock hit him suddenly as he flinched back, ripping his hand back from mine.
“What? What are you talking about?” he asked, his voice cracking.
“We’ve always known this had a time limit. Caspian likes to remind us whenever we’re together. So, I’m not staying once this is over.”
I hated the way his heart dropped, that the light faded from his eyes as anger took over him.
“What the fuck do you mean?” he snapped out.
“I mean, I don’t want to be in a pack where I have to put up with growling, snarling, and coldness for the rest of my life.”
Kai sucked in a breath as his heart rate picked up.
Even though the scent match was so incredible that I could just curl up with the three of them around me, it was as real as Kai’s bites. They felt perfect, but it would fade over time, I was sure of it.
I had fantasies of being forced to submit and treated like I was just a hole for them to fuck, but it was so different when it happened in real life.
It could be fun when we were together with that air of tension humming between us, but I didn’t want to live a life where I wasn’t treated with respect.
It took Caspian’s contempt and Sin’s disregard for me to see that my dream of having a pack was so much more than just being loved.
After growing up with Rosa and seeing the way Zania treated me and Kai, I wasn’t prepared to step into that kind of life, especially when I had enough money to get me back on my feet.
“You can’t be serious,” Kai choked out. “Brandy… You… Like, I know they can be pissheads, and they don’t make the best decisions, but I thought…” He trailed off as he looked at me, twisting my heart. “I thought the past week meant something to you?”
It was an echo of how I’d been during our heat, where Sin first made me that offer, and they all acted like I was a whore. Where I tried to reason with them, and they stamped me down and hurled their fury at me based on their own assumptions of what I was.
When I was with them both, I was completely swept away by their alpha energy.
I thought I was being held and loved, how Sin coldly approached everything, and how Caspian snarled in my face was just part of being an alpha.
But when I was apart from them, and I could really think about what I wanted, that wasn’t it.
I’d already fallen for the heartbroken omega in front of me, but that wasn’t enough to make me forgive Caspian and Sin for their decisions.
“It did, Kai, really. It was the best week of my life. But I told you before, I need to be with people I can trust. I don’t believe in them the same way I do with you.”
Kai’s anxiety was taking him over, panic setting up a tempo inside him that beat in me as well. I was scared he was going to revert to his old self, that one bad decision meant I’d ruined everything. That was enough to tell me that theirs wasn’t the kind of space I wanted to live in.
“Alright, yeah, fine.” There was a shimmer between us, and amusement teased our bond so quickly it threw me off.
Suddenly, Kai was grinning, popping a hip as he surveyed me.
“Let’s say Cas and Sin keep fucking up,” he said as he purred.
“And they just can’t seem to get a damn thing right, what are you going to do? ”
“What do you mean?” I asked cautiously.
“Well,” he said, a finger running silkily along the neckline he had spent the past hour sewing together while we chatted like we were normal people and not stuck in a bizarre situation like this.
“If you don’t like my alphas, and I happen to get fucked off enough with them, what about running off into the sunset with me so we can live happy and free?
I’ll take you to a shitty island somewhere warm where we can drink coconut milk and fuck whenever we want. ”
I chuckled as he sent me a rush of desire, stirring up my insides. “If you’re not careful, I’m going to drag you back to your nest, and we won’t make it to the restaurant.”
“Oh no,” he said, leaning in to nuzzle my neck, wrapping a hand around my waist and pulling me close. “What an absolute fucking travesty.”