Chapter 8 #3
Katrina Rhodes tittered into her champagne flute, always Alicia’s faithful sidekick, and always eager to get sauced on champagne whenever she didn’t have a fetus or an infant shackling her to sobriety.
Katrina had been nearly as disappointed as Alicia when the Rhodes pack had chosen Serenity.
Their pack leader was Katrina’s younger brother, and she’d expected him to mate with her lifelong best friend.
Instead, he’d shocked the world, and Alicia had moved on to another conquest. Well…
not moved on. Bianca imagined that the influencer kept a pair of Remy Rhodes’s stolen underwear in a secret box under her bed.
“Neither is particularly niche.” Bianca said disinterestedly, snapping her fingers at an approaching server, who hurried to offer her a mimosa. “These days omegas with high end tastes commission private designers.”
Alicia bristled, but Dawn looked up from her hands, expression brightening a little, despite the fact that Bianca had just insulted her.
Alicia turned to Bianca and cocked her head toward the big alpha now slipping from the room.
Her perfectly straightened blonde hair fell over an immaculately lined eye before she flipped it out of her face.
“Bianca, it looks like you have a shadow. I’d heard you had a new security detail, but I didn’t realize it was an around-the-clock affair.” She gave an affected laugh. “What could possibly happen to you here?”
Rosalie smirked and Katrina tittered again, but Bianca ignored them, giving Alicia a thin smile and an icy stare. “Yes, my fathers are very protective these days. They’re taking Gen V’s writings on omega safety very seriously.”
“Of course they are!” Alicia clucked sympathetically, though her jade eyes shone with malevolence. “It’s dangerous in the city for unbonded omegas.”
Bianca didn’t miss the emphasis on the word unbonded, or the condescension in Alicia’s tone.
After Pack Rhodes had chosen their mate, Alicia had told her millions of followers on social media that she’d known all along they were in love with Serenity.
As an old family friend of Remy’s, she claimed to have been playing along to distract the public while the pack courted the unknown omega.
In reality, however, Alicia had been every bit as furious and offended by Pack Rhodes’s snub as Bianca had.
They’d both wanted to believe that Serenity was Remy’s cousin, rather than a nobody the pack had inexplicably fallen for.
Alicia had thrown a tantrum and threatened to drag Pack Rhodes on social media, until she and Sebastián St. James managed to come to an agreement that made her look good.
Soon after, Alicia had accepted an offer from another pack that had frequented Pack Rhodes’s mating parties.
Pack Bertram had been pursuing Serenity in hopes of gaining a connection with the prestigious Rhodes family.
Alicia had been a nice consolation prize for the boring pack of upstarts.
But, unlike the omega influencer, her mates had no respectable familial legacies.
What they did have was a lot of new money.
“Yes, well, I’ll only require security services until I’m mated, then I’ll be as safe and happy as you are, Alicia,” Bianca replied snidely. “I wonder if I’ve been looking in the wrong places. Perhaps I need to get out more. You and Pack Rhodes found your perfect matches outside of our sphere.”
Alicia reddened. She wasn’t as fair skinned as Bianca, but her light golden-brown complexion still showed her anger and embarrassment all too well. Dawn hid her smile in her drink.
“I heard you have been getting out more,” Alicia shot back, a little too loudly. “Didn’t you go dancing at Nocturne with Chloe’s brother last weekend?”
Bianca stiffened as the other women shifted their attention back to her like they were watching a particularly captivating tennis match. A few of the omegas at nearby tables were eavesdropping now as well. This kind of gossip was the whole reason they came to these brunches.
“Chloe Clifton-Merriwether?” asked Dawn innocently. “Her only adult brother lives down south with relatives, but he’s an omega not an alpha.”
“I heard they sent him away when he revealed, but he periodically visits the family’s properties in major cities, spends a lot of money, parties, and makes a spectacle of himself,” Alicia added, cutting her eyes at Bianca.
“Not exactly the type of person likely to help you find a reputable mate, if you don’t mind me saying so. ”
As it turned out, Bianca did mind. Her blood boiled, but she kept her eyes and voice ice cold. She’d had more fun with Callum in one night than she’d ever had with any of these thirsty bitches. And he was a damn sight easier to have a conversation with.
“Luckily, I don’t need Callum’s help. Our friendship is already proving much more gratifying than expected.
He’s amusing, well-bred, and not the least bit pretentious.
Such rare traits. I find it refreshing.” Bianca paused, holding Alicia’s gaze before flicking her attention to her phone in a practiced gesture.
“If you’ll excuse me, I need to take this call. ”
Bianca stood, putting her phone to her ear and stalking from the room. There was no call, of course, but she powered on her phone as Daniel fell into step behind her, one brow lifted curiously. Before she could think better of it, Bianca texted Callum.
Still want to go shopping? I finished up early.