Episode 28 Dress for the Scandal You Want #2
“And we want to show you off,” Court adds happily, practically skipping along next to us.
My own feet have stalled, drawing me to a stop midway down the hallway. The pack crowds round me.
“What do you mean, ‘show me off’? You don’t mean… We aren’t actually going out. In public?”
Thayer’s hand at the base of my spine urges me forward until we’re at the elevator. Grieves hits the button.
“Of course, we’re going to show you off. You’re our fated mate,” Forsythe says almost gently, like I’m not aware of that fact and he doesn’t want to scare me away with it.
“But you- Isadora is your chosen mate.”
Thayer snorts. “She’s not our chosen anything.”
The elevator dings and I’m ushered in and surrounded by five large male bodies. All of them looking down at me, expectantly. “But the show-” I protest. “You… Everyone expects you to marry her. Everyone.”
I don’t say anything about how everyone also expects them to bond with her, because the words would be too bitter on my tongue.
“Indeed,” Thayer says, pinching a blond curl between his fingers, stretching it out and then releasing it. “We did leave them with that impression. However things have changed. We didn’t have all of the necessary information when we made the decision to send you home, killer.”
“But we have it all now,” Grieves growls, sliding one of those big hands of his onto my hip and pulling me closer to him. “And there isn’t a chance in hell of us letting you go.”
I frown, even as my body begs me to lean into him, to just let go.
“So, is this your way of announcing to the world that you’re going to have two omegas?
That I’m going to be your mistress, or something?
Because I didn’t agree to that. I-I don’t want that.
” I stumble over the words because a part of me does want that.
The last few weeks of being with them like this, of having their whole undivided attention on me, it’s been nice.
So nice that I might have started to think I could live with them being with both me and Isadora.
“God no!” Court exclaims. “No one else, just you. Tell her, Sythe. Reassure our omega in the way that only a prime can.”
The prince smiles at me, moving in just a touch closer, brushing a knuckle down my cheek. “There’s no one else for us, omega. Just you. Always only you.”
I want to believe him, and part of me does, but it wasn’t all that long ago that I asked to be able to leave the apartment for a simple outing and he’d denied me, convinced me it wasn’t safe enough.
“What’s changed?” I ask. Forsythe frowns, disappointment flickering over his expression. And I hate that so I glance at the others. “I mean it. What changed?”
The prince almost tenderly laces his fingers with mine, drawing my attention back to him. His answer is devastating in its simplicity. “Everything.”
They don’t give me time to process or question it though, guiding me out of the elevator when it stops, and into the lobby of the building. A lobby I realize I’ve never seen, since I was brought in through the parking garage.
It's small, but luxurious. Opulent, if a little dated. It feels like an old building, nothing too modern in it.
“Your highness, My lords.” The attendant standing behind the security desk dips his head in deference. There are two door men standing outside the double glass doors, watching as we move toward them, readying to open them.
“Deep breath, Pix,” Court murmurs to me just on the other side.
The warning makes my anxiety spike. Are there people out there, crowds? Paparazzi? Is there something dangerous out there?
I don’t even have time to dig in my heels before the doors open and we’re stepping outside.
There are no crowds. No flash of a camera. There aren’t even really any passersby and I wonder if they somehow cleared the street, just for this. For my safety.
There is, however, a limo sitting at the curb, a man in a black suit standing by the back door.
“Is that… are we riding in that?”
Instead of answering, the prince ushers me over. The chauffeur nods his head respectfully as he opens the door for us. “Your Highness. My lady.”
My lady?
My mind whirls at the title. So much so that before I know it, we’ve all piled into the back of the limo and we’re moving.
“Ren?” Court asks, from next to me, ghosting a hand down my arm almost cautiously. “Are you okay?”
I blink at him and shake my head, catching the rest of the pack watching me with somewhat wary expressions. My first instinct is to tell them I’m fine, not to worry about me. But who does that serve? Not me. And not them.
Besides my scent it broadcasting my nerves to them.
“I’m… I’m feeling a little overwhelmed,” I admit, fingers fidgeting in my lap. “I wasn’t… I wasn’t expecting all this.”
Forsythe’s lips tighten, like I’ve displeased him somehow. And maybe I have.
But in the next instant that thought is banished, as he leans forward, bracing his elbows on his knees. “I’m sorry, cor mea. The last thing we want is to overwhelm you.”
“We just want to show you off,” Court adds, lacing his fingers through mine.
“But if it’s too much, we can turn around and go back to the flat,” Thayer promises me.
Back to the flat? To the space that has been my cage for the last few weeks? “No,” I shake my head. “I’m fine.”
And I will be, whatever they have planned has to be better than spending another night on the couch. Sure, it seems like we’d all be together this time, but… “I mean it, I want to do this.”
Grieves grumbles something, and pulls me onto his laps, banding his arms around me. “You’ll be safe, bubbles. I promise you that.”
I nod and relax against him, stroking his forearm with my free hand while Court places tiny soft kisses on the pads of my fingers on the hand he’s claimed for his own.
“I’m not worried about my safety,” I tell them honestly. “I know none of you would ever let anything happen to me. But I am still… worried.”
“About what, sunshine?”
“Well for one, I haven’t been around anyone but all of you for weeks. I’m not sure I know how to behave in polite society.” I say it like it’s a joke, but I’m actually terrified. “Wouldn’t want to embarrass you.”
“Never,” Forsythe tells me firmly. Not vicious or snarling or frustrated. Just sure and confident. “You could never embarrass us, cor mea.”
I don’t know why, but I feel the need to test that statement, to press the issue. “What if I trip and land flat on my face in front of everyone?”
“Would never happen,” Court scoffs, nipping at the soft flesh under my thumb, making me shiver in delight. “You’re too bloody graceful, for one. And for two, if you do trip, if you do stumble, we’ll be there to catch you.”
They all nod.
Hmm… “What if I get drunk and start spouting off about the corrupt government in front of all the nobility?”
Forsythe’s mouth twitches. “We’d probably agree with everything you say, support your views and opinions.”
“What if I claim I was abducted by aliens and they probed me? What if I show up wearing a hat made of tinfoil and start telling people they’re listening to our thoughts?”
Thay outright laughs at that. “I think we’re safe from that particular scenario, killer. Unless you’re planning on purposefully doing that?”
I shrug. “If I did?”
“Then we’d all put on aluminium hats to protect our brain waves with you,” Court tells me. The rest of them nod almost solemnly, like it’s a vow.
I giggle, imagining it. The polite and aloof prince of Bravonne in a tin foil hat, facing down his peers, the nobility, the queen.
My scent sweetens. And theirs all rise to meet it, blending into a beautiful mouthwatering mélange.
They all relax further, slumping into their chairs, like they’d been genuinely worried about my overwhelm, and they’re taking my laughter as a sign.
Grieves nuzzles into my neck before murmuring, “At the very first state dinner I attended as a member of the pack, I spilled an entire glass of wine on the table and all over the French diplomat sitting next to me.”
“You didn’t.”
I feel him nod. “I did.”
“I was caught with my pants literally around my ankles at a ball.” My head whips in Court’s direction so fast, Grieves grunts in displeasure.
“Excuse me, what?” I know it’s ridiculous to feel betrayal from hookups from before he even knew I existed, but it doesn’t stop the feeling from welling if I have to hear about it.
The alpha in question holds up his hands palms toward me. “Not like that, Pix. I wasn’t fucking someone. I was just hot… over heated from drinking too much, and I wanted to cool off in the pool.”
I slump back against Grieves who hums against my neck and starts trailing kisses over my neck.
“I almost went into a rut during a press conference,” Thayer admits, with a shrug. “We’ve all done things we’re not proud of, things that could be considered an embarrassment to the crown, or the Ashbourne name, but we’ve survived it.”
Forsythe nods slowly, eyes focused on where his pack mate is nipping at my skin, the flush rising over my chest. “Exactly. So even if you do something like stumble, like fall, we’ll be there to catch you, cor mea.
No matter what.” He settles back against the seat, brown eyes warm and blazing.
“We have you now, and we’re never going to let you go.
Not for anything. Not for anyone. You understand? ”
God, the confidence in his voice, in his gaze makes my heart flutter and my pussy ache, even as a flutter of guilt filters in.
What would they have done if they’d come home and found me gone? If the queen’s bark had worked the way she intended. If I’d packed my things and went back to the US, without a word.
“I should tell you something,” I blurt out and Grieves pauses where he’s currently pressing kisses into my shoulder.
“What’s that, omega?” Forsythe asks lazily, slouched in the seat across from us, legs spread, a clear erection pressing against his fly.
“I-I had a visitor today. This morning.”
“What?”