Nine
S he was doing it again.
The sound of splashing greeted me as I stalked through the garden to the little hedged off pool.
The sun hadn’t even come out and Perrie Chandler was swimming laps like she was a fucking Olympic marathon swimmer.
I’d first noticed it the other day when I took over for one of the night security that watched over the east wing of the mansion. She’d snuck out that night around three in the morning and swam until the sun was up in the sky, barely stopping in between laps to breathe.
It shouldn’t have bothered me much. Many of the people here did things to run away from the things that haunted them at night. Whether it be a physical activity like most of the guys in the gym or Edison’s nightly stint as a gardener.
But this was getting a little bit ridiculous at this point.
As we got closer to the wedding, Perrie’s early morning swims had gotten longer and longer, and on top of everything else she was doing, the omega was nearly falling asleep in her food at the dinner table every night.
I wasn’t even sure if Edison was aware of the brutal workouts she was putting herself through every day either. He’d grown increasingly busy as word about his impending nuptials got out and he was busy fielding phone calls left and right.
The heads of the branch families were pissed that he’d gone over their heads and chosen a non-Keane woman that they didn’t get any approval over. They’d made their opinion very known earlier this week when they decided to storm Edison’s office and demand an explanation.
It had been a while since Edison had checked any of the branch families, but I had a feeling he would be doing it soon if his thunderous expression during their blustering was any indication.
But even if Edison hadn’t noticed Perrie’s spiraling anxiety, I had. I hadn’t asked her about it because I figured it wasn’t my place—I was just her future husband’s employee—but I was regretting not saying anything now.
The splashing stopped as soon as I put my hand on the gate, and when I looked up, what I saw nearly made my knees buckle.
Perrie was face down in the middle of the glowing pool, her red hair fanning out around her as she lay motionless.
Cursing under my breath, I shoved the gate open and took two long steps so that I could dive into the pool.
The water was a cold shock to my system as I waded over to the omega, yanking her up out of the water in one smooth motion.
Perrie began to thrash against me, her hand coming up to grab at my face.
“Hey!” I barked as one of her nails slashed my cheek.
Perrie’s body went stiff as she turned, her gray eyes wild for a moment before they filled with recognition.
“ Rhodes ?” she gasped, coughing as she rotated her body enough so that she could stand in the pool, her gaze dropping to my now sopping wet clothing. “What are you doing ?”
“What am I doing? What the fuck were you doing?”
When I saw her lying face down in the water every single nerve ending that I possessed came to life with a rush of fear. She’d looked dead.
“I was meditating!” Perrie pushed against my chest, trying to get away from me but I kept my grip on her shoulders.
“Face down in the water?” Perrie hadn’t seemed crazy when we first brought her here almost three weeks ago, but maybe the maids were right and the tower was cursed to drive whoever lived in it insane. “Who the hell meditates face down in the water?”
“I was going to come back up,” she grumbled, pushing her wet hair out of her eyes. “It’s quiet and peaceful, and I’ll have you know that I can hold my breath for almost three minutes.”
“And how the fuck was I supposed to know that?” My heart was still hammering away in my chest even as my brain came to terms with the fact that she wasn’t dead—though the jury was still out on whether or not the woman was sane. “And why do you come out here and swim like this every morning? It’s weird.”
The question spilled out of me before I could catch it and we stared at one another, my chest heaving while Perrie stood in her pale blue one piece swimsuit, rivulets of water running down her neck and into the valley between a pair of breasts that I’d been doing my damndest not to look at.
I wanted to know what Perrie was running from so desperately that she swam like a bat out of hell every morning.
But all she did was shrug a shoulder. “Because I like it.”
“Bullshit,” I shot back immediately. “No one pushes their body the way you do just because they like it.”
Instead of answering me, Perrie gently pried my hands away from her shoulders and moved to the edge of the pool to get out.
I stood watching her from the center of the pool like an idiot as she wrapped a towel around herself and began to use a second one to dry her red hair.
“Why do you even care?” she finally asked, her gray eyes much cooler than they’d been when I pulled her up out of the water earlier. “What does it matter to you if I was actually pushing myself too hard?”
Her words confused me.
“You’re going to be Edison’s wife, why wouldn’t I care?”
That seemed to be the wrong answer because Perrie’s expression shuttered completely until she wore the same look that I’d seen on her face as she moved through the motions of her sham of a wedding ceremony to Pack Ricci.
Perrie tucked the towel more tightly around her torso, nodding to herself like she was holding an entire conversation inside that pretty head of hers before she gathered up the basket of things she’d brought with her.
“Have a good day, Rhodes.”
Her tone brooked no argument, but I’d always been a contrary creature. “Perrie—” I started to move towards the edge of the pool.
I didn’t make it in time to catch her before she slipped out of the pool gate and headed down the cobblestone path back to her tower, the light from the fountain illuminating her pale skin as she disappeared through the french doors into the greenhouse.
Pulling myself out of the pool with a loud slosh I shrugged out of my water-logged jacket and stared mulishly at the brown leather. It was definitely going to need to go to the cleaners after this. Great. Just fucking great.
“Uh, boss?” Collum’s voice came from the gate and I glanced up to find the guard looking at me with a mixed expression of pity and confusion.
There was never a moment where Perrie was alone in this place. Someone was always watching her. Protecting her.
I should have remembered that, and yet the sight of her face down in the pool had spurred me into motion faster than my rational mind could keep up with.
“Next time stop her after forty minutes of swimming,” I snapped at him before slamming my wet jacket into his chest. “And have Oona send this off to the dry cleaners.”
With that, I stalked out of the pool area in order to change before breakfast.
Perrie was ignoring me completely now and it was obvious to everyone in the dining room.
After changing out of my wet clothes and donning my second favorite leather jacket that hadn’t seen the light of day since 2012, I’d made my way to breakfast where Edison and Perrie were both already eating and chatting amiably.
The two meals a day promise had quickly been broken because now Perrie ate all three meals with us as she and Edison got to know each other better. But it also made the tension from what had happened in the pool that much more apparent.
Edison had greeted me like normal, but Perrie had taken one long look at me before turning her face away from me completely in order to ask Edison a question.
I’d tried to engage her twice only to receive one-word answers and it took me until the end of the meal to realize that the omega had completely switched up our dynamic and I looked like an idiot now.
“I have a meeting with the tailor for a final dress fitting, so I’ll be busy all afternoon,” she told Edison, though it was obvious that it was her way of telling me that there would be no self-defense classes today.
Edison glanced between us, his gold eyes dancing with obvious amusement and a little bit of confusion. “All right, I’ll see you at lunch?”
Perrie’s pink lips pulled up into a smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes before she got up and hurried out of the dining room.
Edison lifted a hand and gestured for the staff and security to leave, waiting until they were all gone before he turned to me.
“So, are you going to tell me why our future omega is icing you out?”
“Your future omega,” I corrected immediately—the words almost a knee-jerk reaction as I faced him.
Edison’s dark brows lifted. “Never mind, I think I can make an inference.”
We sat staring at each other in silence, both willing the other to speak first so as not to be the loser. It had been a game we’d been playing since we were nine and in twenty-eight years it was one that I rarely ever won.
Sighing, I gave in first, as usual. “She’s not ours, Edi. Hell, she’s barely even yours.”
The other alpha’s expression cooled by several degrees. “You know I picked her to be the omega of a pack. Our pack.”
“Haven’t you pissed the branch families off enough yet? Try telling them you want to go against one of the core traditions of the Keane family and they’ll revolt.” They’d been talking about it for years and after the way they’d thrown fits the other day in his office I was pretty sure they’d finally make good on that promise and stick his little cousin on the throne.
Keane men don’t have packs . I remembered Declan Keane’s words to me when I was eighteen and he’d caught me staring at Edison with more than friendship in my eyes.
I was lucky the man hadn’t thrown me from the family entirely after that and buried any feelings for my best friend deep down after that.
And then he’d nearly been killed by a woman while she was in bed with him—one he’d briefly toyed with the idea of marrying before she put two bullets in his shoulder.
Me and Edison had come together naturally afterwards out of fear of another attack when he was vulnerable. But we’d never talked about the implications of the shift in our relationship.
I just figured it was mutually beneficial for us. Edison got to scratch the itch of having another body and I got to be closer to him in ways that I always assumed would never happen.
Four years later and we’d settled into a routine. By day I was his second-in-command and by night? By night he fucked me until I saw stars and prayed to the gods for absolution.
Perrie coming into the picture had been an unwelcome surprise at first. A usurper ready to take away Edison’s affection and attention and an unknown in the perfect little world that I’d created around me.
But then she’d seemingly charmed everyone in the house—including me.
Keane men don’t have packs . How else could the head of the family be sure to produce a bunch of golden eyed babies otherwise? It was archaic, even if it made sense in terms of inheritance.
But bloodline purity was the least of my problems right now. Keane men don’t have packs.
The words were on my mind as I stood up abruptly from my seat, making the legs of the chair screech on the warm hardwood floor.
“Apologize to her, Rhodes,” Edison called after me as I turned to leave. “You may be stubborn now, but judging by the way your nostrils flare every time she passes by, you’re going to regret being such an ass later on.”
I ignored him, my thoughts a tangled muddy mess as I made my way to change into my workout clothing.
Perrie may be skipping out on training, but I had some shit to work through and there was no better way to do that than sparring with the other security members at the mansion.
I could already hear their groans of dismay and it brought my first smile of the day to my face.