Episode 26 Off With Her Plans
Forsythe
I shouldn’t have come.
Or since my attendance was mandatory, I should have dragged my pack, my omega, with me. It could have been the first time I showed her off publicly. It would have worked in our favor.
Florence’s introduction to society at a royal event. Yes, people would have eaten that up, and she would have looked gorgeous. I could have crowned her like I did on the show, but this time with a real tiara, with real gold and real diamonds.
My heart clenches at the thought. I want it so badly it aches.
Instead I’m here alone. My pack is back in the flat, wearing the pajamas Florence made for us, cuddled on the couch watching a movie marathon, or playing Mario Kart. They hadn’t yet decided by the time I left.
Though I suspect Florence will push for the game. My omega likes to compete.
She’d asked me, before I left, if I was certain I wanted to go alone. Everything in me had cried out that I decidedly did not, that I should bundle her up and take her just as she was with her hair a mess and no makeup on her face, wearing tiny Ashbourne tartan shorts.
But that impulse was overwhelmed by the one to keep her safe, protected. And bringing her here would have painted a target on her back larger than the one that is already there. So I’d kissed her forehead and told her I was sure and she’d frowned as I’d left.
I hate that frown.
It’s on her face far too often these days.
What I wouldn’t give to only see her smile.
You know what you’d need to do to accomplish that, some snide part of me hisses. Just fucking do it.
I tense at the sound of heels clicking across the courtyard toward me, bracing for Isadora’s thick sweet scent to assault my nostrils. I’d come out here to escape her grasping hands. The last thing I want to do is return to my mate with another omega’s scent on me.
“Hiding, are we, little brother?” Elizabeth’s welcome voice comes instead. Some of the tension I’d been feeling releases as her familiar scent washes over me. Honey whiskey and citrus. Similar to mine, but a little brighter.
I hum my agreement. “Indeed, Isadora seems particularly clingy tonight.”
She comes to a stop next to me, the fabric of her gown whispering over the flagstones. “Perhaps she senses she’s on the verge of losing this little game grandmother’s been playing. And she’s getting desperate.”
It's likely.
Even if I somehow find it in me to turn my back on Florence and take Isadora as my wife, it’s not as though I’ll ever touch her.
She would have my name, but nothing else.
I’d thought she would be okay with that, seeing as there’s no great affection between us.
But I’m worried she might try to push the issue, which my alpha will not respond well to.
Elizabeth tilts her head and looks up at me. “What are you doing here?”
I arch a brow at my twin. “I should think that’s fairly obvious.” When she just stares at me I sigh. “I’m attending a royal party as decreed by the queen.”
“Right, but what are you doing here? You should be with your pack. You should be with Florence.”
My jaw tightens. “You know how it is, Lizzie. Duty above everything. That is the Ashbourne way.”
“That is the coward’s way,” she growls. Her hands curl around my arm and forcibly turns me toward her.
I resist at first, but eventually give in, meeting her glare with one of my own.
“Don’t give me that look, little brother.
You know I’m right. Choosing duty is a cop out.
It's the easy way. It takes all of the choice out of your hands and puts it directly in Grams’, which means she takes all of the blame too, doesn’t it?
You’re so bloody terrified of what will happen if you let go of your duty.
But you really don’t need to be. I can tell you what will happen, right now. ”
“I can too. Disownment. Exile. Poverty. Having nothing at all to offer my pack, my omega.”
Lizzie blinks up at me. “That’s what you’re worried is going to happen? Truly?” A flash of hurt moves over her face. “You think I would disown you? Me? You think I would send you away, never speak to you again? I can see you thinking that of Grams, sure, but me?”
I shrug. “You are the crown. You can’t tolerate insurrection any more than she can.”
She frowns at me. “You say that as if ‘future queen’ is all I am. I am not the crown, Sythe. I am Bree’s alpha.
I am a pack mate to George and Henri and Thomas.
I am Mina’s best friend. Sister-in-law to Thayer, Courtland, Grieves and Piers.
I’m a woman. A caregiver. A lover of animals.
And a steward to millions of Bravonnians.
But above all of that, Forsythe, I am your sister.
Your twin. We were in the womb together.
You were my first and best friend. And you think I would let something like my position get in the way of that? In the way of your happiness?”
She reaches up and clasps my shoulders giving me a shake.
“I love you, little brother. I want to see you happy. I don’t care if that happiness is with some scullery maid from the kitchens-” I open my mouth to snarl at her that Florence is not a scullery maid, but she keeps on “-which I know your mate is not. But my point remains. She’s your mate, Forsythe, and you need her, regardless of where she started, of where you started. ”
“I do need her.” The admission is out of my mouth before I can stop it. “I need her, Lizzie.”
Her expression softens. “Then you should have her.”
I shake my head. “It’s too late. I’ve fucked up one too many times. She’s not going to forgive me.”
Even though she let me touch her, let me bring her pleasure, let me worship her. But I’m not sure it was enough. Not with how badly I’ve fucked up.
My twin rolls her eyes. “She’s here, isn’t she? Florence traveled halfway around the world, let you tuck her away in a flat a few blocks from the palace, in a country where half of the citizens view her as a villain, and the other see her as the face of the omega movement.”
“She’s here for them… not me.”
“God, you’re an idiot. She’s here for all of you. She wants every member of your pack. I bet you did something appropriately self-sacrificing and told her you’d remove yourself from the pack, didn’t you.”
My teeth grind together. She doesn’t need to know that is exactly what I did. And had my pack dug in their heels, had Florence, and they all stayed in Granton, I would have taken that as my sign to do it. To break my bond with my pack and face the world as a lone alpha.
But they didn’t. Instead Ren put aside her worries and fears and came with me. Let us tuck her away in an apartment and keep her like the mistress she was worried she’d become. Our dirty little secret who deserves better.
Just like Piers deserves better.
I have two people who want nothing more than to love me with their whole hearts and what am I doing about it? Hiding? Being the coward that Ren accused me of being?
Certainly not being the alpha that they both deserve.
But that changes now. With Lizzie’s blessing, knowing my twin will support my decision, I’m going to make it right with Florence. With Piers. With my pack. I’m going to show the world who Prince Forsythe Ashbourne, Duke of Whitcombe, chooses when he also chooses himself, his happiness.
“I am an idiot.”
She grins up at me. “I’m glad you can admit it. I thought you weren’t capable.”
“I can. I am capable of recognizing my faults. Too many of them, in fact.” I run a weary hand down my face. “I am a flawed person, Lizzie. I’m working on being better.”
She nudges me with her shoulder. “You are, but so is everyone.”
“Not you surely.”
She laughs. “Even me.” There’s a moment of pause, where we’re both silent, just enjoying each other’s company. She breaks it with a sigh. “I should have seen this coming. I should have… recognized the signs, realized that Grams is too bloody stubborn to admit defeat.”
I’m not sure what she’s talking about, but I know my sister well enough to know she’ll tell me.
“Bree’s pregnant.” I look over at her, my heart swelling with both joy and trepidation. She doesn’t look as ecstatic as I’d thought she would at the news. She glances over at me and sighs. “I am blissfully happy about it. Don’t doubt that, but these new laws…”
It clicks in my brain, what exactly my grandmother did and why she did it.
She never made her disapproval of Elizabeth’s omega a secret.
It was clear from the start she wanted her to bond with a male omega, not a female, that there should only be one womb in the pack to ensure the bloodline.
Lizzie just didn’t care. She followed her heart and it worked out for her.
The public loves Bree almost as much as her pack does.
But of course the queen couldn’t leave it at that.
The omega laws were a response to Bree being brought into the Royal Crown Pack.
“Jesus, I knew she was petty but this is…” I shake my head.
“Everything that’s happened since I brought Bree into our pack, it’s my fault,” my twin says.
“The television show was a distraction and a way for her to pretend she’s more modern than she is.
She pushed you to bond Isadora because she knows that girl can be controlled with nothing more than a tiara and the illusion of power.
She pressured you to give up your mate because she could tell Florence would never be controlled. ”
I shake my head. “She couldn’t have known Florence was my scent match. I didn’t even know.” I suspected, but until Grieves thrust that bundle of fabric at me, I didn’t know.
“No, but she could see how drawn to her you were. Everyone could see it, Sythe. She saw a threat to her plans and she acted as she deemed appropriate, threatening you, your pack and Florence to force your hand.”