Twenty Three
R HODES
“In my mind, Rhodes has always been the third member of our pack. He just hasn’t realized it yet.” Edison’s words echoed from the bathroom and into the closet where I was struggling to get out of my wet clothing.
He’d definitely said them loud enough because he knew that I would be able to hear him. Especially seeing whatever he said next was muffled and hard to make out—probably also on purpose.
I knew there was too much going on in my head right now because normally him saying something like that would have made me equal parts elated and terrified. But now I just felt the buzz in my lips from Perrie’s kiss and the stiffness in my boxers… also from Perrie’s kiss.
Vaguely, I knew that kissing her would make me feel similar to how it felt to kiss Edison. It was different, of course, as Perrie was about a foot shorter and wholly softer than the alpha, but the sensation and hunger it created in me was very much the same.
And now I’d tasted it and all I wanted to do was turn around and go right back into that bathroom and throw myself at the couple still having an idle chat by the tub.
But we needed to talk about this. To work out how the hell something like this could ever work.
I also needed to tell the two of them what had transpired in the three days that Edison had been stuck in his rut. The branch families had somehow known that Edison was out of commission because they’d shown up several times to try and hold meetings, claiming they didn’t need Edison’s final approval for the things they were trying to get passed because they had quorum.
They also weren’t very happy that Edison had written that if he was ever hurt or killed and he had no heir, that I would step in and make decisions until the next heir could be chosen.
It was a hammer that I’d had to use several times over the past three days to keep the branch heads from stealing everything down to the damn silverware.
I wished I could have told them why he wasn’t up for any of his scheduled meetings or why he couldn’t come out to tell the branch heads to fuck off himself. But I knew that revealing that he was in a rut was a dangerous idea. Alphas were the most vulnerable during their short ruts and even more so during their omega’s much longer heat.
If the branch heads wanted to try and get rid of him, which I wouldn’t put past them, a rut would be the perfect opportunity to do so.
Keeping that in mind, I tried to go into his room several times to try and rouse him from his rut only to be growled at by the wild-eyed alpha who was usually bent over his omega, mid-thrust.
So I handled it on my own with a little help from our security guys and a lot of help from Oona who’d done the most interference with the branch heads, distracting them with whiskey from the cellar and asking them about their children and grandchildren.
How she managed to remember all of their names, I would never know. I’d learned early on that Oona was not a woman to be trifled with and the last three days had only cemented that knowledge.
Pulling on a pair of dark sweatpants and a gray shirt that reminded me of the color of Perrie’s eyes, I stared glumly at my brown leather jacket which, for the second time in two months, would need to go to the dry cleaners.
“She must have something against it,” I muttered to myself as I draped it over the drop of the dresser to at least let it start drying as I turned back to the couple in the bathroom.
Perrie was now sitting naked in Edison’s lap, her fingers curling into his chest as they seemed to be in the middle of a serious conversation.
Emboldened by our earlier kiss and her silent permission to touch her, I finally let myself actually look at her body.
Despite being as short as she was, her legs were long and they led up to her tapered hips and waist. The breasts which had been a palmful in my hands earlier were perfectly formed with a pair of pink nipples topping them off. My eyes traced up the column of her neck where, when she turned to me upon hearing my re-arrival back into the bathroom, I got a good look at the fresh bond mark that Edison had placed there.
I never thought Edison Keane would bond with anyone. He usually kept everything but me at an arm’s length, so it was surprising to see Perrie wearing it now and I couldn’t help but wonder what it felt like to share that kind of physical proof of a connection with someone.
Somehow, Perrie had felled the notoriously anti-love alpha and had done it in two months flat, bringing her track record up to two-for-two because as soon as she kissed me I’d known I was a goner too.
I’d spent so much time and effort resisting Edison and Perrie that the moment that I realized she was missing it was like the world as I knew it was crumbling away underneath my feet.
For one, Edison would never have forgiven me for letting the same thing that happened to his mother happen to her and for two, I never would have forgiven myself for it.
When we tracked her to the party and I found her on the ground with blood on her lips I had to force myself not to shove her little brother’s head under the water until he drowned.
While Edison had been the one in the end to go into a panicked rut, I had barely staved off my own as my inner alpha, which was almost always silent, was shrieking in my head for me not to let him take Perrie away from me and her nest.
But Perrie wasn’t mine and that was the only thing that held me back as I watched him carry her away.
After that, I threw myself into making sure that shit didn’t burn to the ground in Edison’s absence, finally seeing this afternoon that he’d calmed down enough to sleep and let me take care of the exhausted omega.
Because all my instincts wanted to do was take care of her. To bathe her and soothe her, and care for her every need. They’d certainly been having a fucking field day when she insisted I feed her by hand.
“Rhodes?” The omega who seemed to be taking up every corner of my mind right now, cut through my rambling thoughts and I realized that I was still staring at her body like I was a young alpha who couldn’t control himself.
Clearing my throat, I hurried forward to grab the platter of food next to Edison, ignoring his smug smile.
“Let’s talk in the room, it sounds like the maid is done,” I muttered, my neck warming as I turned on my heel and hurried out of the bathroom before I could make any more of a fool of myself.
I settled in on one of the small couches that faced a gas fireplace that the maid must have lit and waited for Edison and Perrie to come out of the bathroom.
When they did emerge, Perrie was also dressed in Edison’s clothing, the sweatpants she had on needing to be rolled up several times so she could walk, and Edison having changed into a pair of work out shorts and a shirt.
The pair settled down on the couch opposite of me, Perrie reaching forward to snag a piece of rolled turkey off of the platter to munch on while we waited to see who would be the first to speak.
Edison, always having hated nothing more than a long drawn out silence, finally sighed. “I suppose I should be the first to say that I am not angry about you and Perrie kissing.”
I knew he wasn’t, but it was nice to hear him say it out loud. No, if anything the other alpha seemed to be buzzing with glee over the fact that I’d finally given in—probably just like he knew I always would have, the bastard.
“Furthermore, with everything that is going on at the moment, I think we should continue to take things slowly and reveal the formation of our pack after New Years once we’ve solved all of the bullshit that’s being going on—”
“Wait,” I cut in, blinking with surprise. “Pack? What pack? I haven’t agreed to that yet.”
One of Edison’s dark brows lifted and he exchanged a glance with Perrie whose expression fell a bit. “I figured that, by you kissing my omega, that you were acknowledging that you wanted to be a part of our pack.”
I wanted to point out that Perrie had been the one to kiss me first, but I figured bringing up the semantics of it would still get me to the same place in the end.
As soon as Perrie’s lips had touched mine I knew that it was an inevitability that I would give in.
“I’m still worried about what the branch heads will say or do, Edison you have no idea what bullshit they’ve been pulling just because you were incapacitated. Can you imagine what they’ll do if you decide to break one of the core traditions that they still cling to?” I asked with a shake of my head. “Especially for someone like me.”
It hurt to say those words out loud about myself and it clearly affected Perrie too because she was sitting up in her seat and frowning at me. “What do you mean ‘someone like you’? Outside of the tradition, why should they care that it’s you? You’re Edison’s second-in-command, if it’s anyone it should be you.”
Edison’s gold eyes met mine and he shrugged one shoulder as if to say that it was up to me to tell her about my past.
The desire to keep it to myself and keep Perrie looking at me the same way she always did nearly won out. When people knew about where I came from they either looked at me with pity or disgust, but never with open trust and attraction like Perrie was now.
“I’m the son of a whore,” I began with a heavy sigh.
“Sex worker,” Edison corrected like he always did when I tried to disparage myself and my mother.
It didn’t matter much to me as I had no loyalty or affection for the woman who’d given birth to me, but it made Edison feel better so I amended my statement.
“I’m the son of a sex worker and my father was a Keane branch member. I was never supposed to happen and my existence was hidden until I was nine when Edison’s father learned of it and needed a playmate for his son.”
Perrie’s auburn brows drew together. “But why would he seek out you to be Edison’s playmate?”
“Pet, what have you noticed the most about the men we keep close to us here at the estate?” Edison asked her gently, his hand creeping around her stomach so that he could pull her more firmly against his chest.
Perrie thought about it for a moment, like there was some sort of secret answer she couldn’t reach even though it was obvious. “That they’re all younger. There’s no men older than you two at the mansion.”
“Correct,” I jumped in. “A lot of younger Keane men died during the war against the Serbians and it forced the older generation to scramble to refill the ranks and even as they tried… there was a sudden rash of daughters born into the clan. Not sons. Collum is actually the closest in age to us and he’s still eight years younger.”
“My father believed that the best way to create loyal subordinates was to raise them alongside one another, but there was no one in my age group until he discovered one of his men had a child out of wedlock the same year I was born,” Edison explained, glancing over at me with warm eyes that suddenly took on a mischievous glint. “Though I’m sure he’s now rolling in his grave because said subordinate has had my cock inside of him.”
Perrie’s cheeks flushed prettily at his words and we both groaned when the scent of strawberries started to fill the space between us.
“Sorry,” Perrie muttered. “But I can’t control it when you say things like that.”
Clenching my hands together, trying to ignore the way my mouth watered at her scent, I continued. “The branch heads weren’t happy about me whatsoever, but without sons of their own there was nothing they could do but start to angle their daughters into the potential position of wife.”
“Which they also weren’t able to have because I’m here,” Perrie finished for me, all of the pieces suddenly clicking together for the omega.
“Precisely, pet, you were my final wrench in whatever cogs they were trying to build against me.” Edison gave her a cheerful kiss on the side of her head. “And my main reason for finally pushing to create a pack. It’s far past time for this clan to move into the modern era.”
“But you aren’t thinking about Sean at all in all of this,” I pushed.
“Sean?” Perrie frowned. “Who’s Sean?”
Edison sighed heavily. “Sean is my thirteen-year-old cousin, and technically, my heir.”
We both watched as Perrie shot straight up in her seat, her eyes open wide as she looked at Edison. “What? Why was I never told about him?”
“Because I barely even know him, Perrie. My uncle was in his sixties when he was born and died soon after and his wife is the daughter of one of the branch heads. They’ve pretty much cloistered him away since birth on the off chance that I kick the bucket and they can install him as the new head.”
I snorted at that. Chance had nothing to do with it. Over the past two years since Edison took over as head there had been no less than twelve assassination attempts that were traced back suspiciously close to the branch heads.
The only reason that they hadn’t tried an all-out coup yet was because Edison had nearly the entire younger generation on his side. Our men were loyal, though I was growing increasingly worried over the past two months that cracks were starting to form in that loyalty.
“Which is precisely why debuting a pack is a bad idea until your leadership is on more solid ground.” I turned to Perrie. “Tell me you understand.”
Perrie looked between the two of us again, her shoulders sinking slightly. “I understand.”
I sank back into the couch with relief. Then, of course, Perrie opened her mouth and immediately set me right back on edge.
“So, basically I just need to get pregnant.”
The words were said so casually that there was nothing Edison or I could do but gawk at her.
Perrie glanced between the two of us, brows raised. “What? Is that not why I was brought in?”
“You were brought in to be my partner, Perrie.” Edison snagged her back into his arms, a hand going up to the fresh bond mark on her neck and I watched as they both shuddered. “Children are just a bonus that I assumed would happen further in the future.”
“So we just need to move up the timetable a bit. If you have an heir then your position is more solid and they can’t say shit,” Perrie said, her gray eyes meeting mine and clearly still seeing my reluctance. A heavy sigh left her. “Rhodes, look at my hand.”
She lifted up the hand that had her wedding bands on it. “What do you see?”
I’d glanced at her wedding rings many times whenever the stones caught in the light. At first they had been a reminder that the chapter of my life with Edison was probably coming to a close, then as I followed Perrie around more it was almost a comfort to see. Because she had those rings she could never leave.
But I’d never actually examined them much more closely than that.
Her engagement ring sparkled, just like it always did. It was a true centerpiece, almost hiding what lay on either side of it.
“I see your wedding rings.”
“And how many are there?” Perrie asked again, moving her fingers so that the rings separated from each other.
“Three,” I managed to say, my voice a little hoarse.
Perrie turned to Edison. “Why did you give me three rings?”
Edison cleared his throat before looking from the rings to me. “Because, in my mind, there’s always been three of us in this marriage and I’d like for there to be three of us in this pack.”
Perrie nodded, clearly determined as she stood and rounded the little coffee table, cupping my face in her hands the same way I’d done it the night of the party. “We can keep it a secret until I’m pregnant, but I want you Rhodes McCreary, we both do, so will you please just stop being so damned stubborn and say yes already?”
There were still so many issues that cropped up in my mind even as Perrie spoke. So many things that could go wrong because of this choice.
But even still, I found myself nodding.
“Yes.”