Chapter 3
CHAPTER THREE
Adonis Hall, Virginia
Istudy the white bandages that are swaddling Mars’ torso.
One inch to the left…the pack doctor said…if the blade had struck one inch to the left, then my brother would be dead.
I grit my teeth, sitting on the edge of Mars’ four-poster bed, which has posts carved into the shapes of wild boar.
I lean to tuck the pale blue blanket over Mars’ bare chest. Then I brush his damp hair back from his feverish forehead.
Why hasn’t he woken up yet?
Exhaustion settles like a weight on my shoulders. My muscles — fucking bones — ache.
Since I was a kid, I have never allowed out my Rogue Power.
It was a high like I have never experienced before, but the crash has been devastating.
My temples throb. I am shivering with a cold sweat.
Is this because I have suppressed it for too long?
Yet I am also feeling urges that I don’t normally experience outside my rare transformations into my Omega Switch self like the desperate need for touch and sensory materials.
I keep rubbing my brother’s soft blankets over my cheeks.
I catch myself staring at the fluffy and velvet cushions that are piled on the end of the bed longingly, wishing that I could build them into a nest for myself.
Now, that would be a death sentence.
I hug myself because no one else will.
I can’t give in to my Omega side if I am going to survive today.
Except, I’m not, am I?
This is the day that I will die.
Running on the rush of adrenaline and my Rogue Power, I managed to drag my brother out of House Billion, having called for an extraction team from my pack.
There was no hiding just how wrong the mission had gone from Fiorella.
“You’re home now,” I whisper. I don’t know if Mars can hear me.
How reassuring is home when Fiorella is here?
Adonis Hall isn’t my home. I’ve never had one of those, only a prison.
“The Chief Alpha is away taking care of business. It’s safe to open your eyes.
Please, bro. Open your fucking eyes. I need to know that you’re safe. ”
I stare at Mars.
Nothing.
I brush my hand over my eyes.
I don’t cry.
Never.
Not since that day…
I sigh, glancing around Mars’ messy room. Nico has never been able to convince Mars to keep it tidy.
The thickly carpeted floors are covered with dirty laundry, empty coffee mugs (from Mars’ late nights secretly writing), and piles of romance books, along with special editions with pretty sprayed edges.
A large gilt painting of the naked Adonis, the most beautiful mortal in the world who is sprawled dying in a bed of roses, hangs above the bed.
The steel gray walls are pinned with posters of Jex, the movie star, Immortal, the rock star Idol, and the Romeo Ballet Company.
Neither my brother nor I fit the mold of our Adonis family. Yet we have schemed for years about taking over without Fiorella realizing that she had two snakes in her mafia nest.
Mars is sweet but he’s also smart. And I have the deadliest claws and fangs in the pack. Unfortunately, Fiorella knows that. It’s why she won’t allow me to live as soon as she returns.
My lip trembles.
I should be running.
Except, I can’t leave my brother to face Fiorella alone. I was responsible for him in Las Vegas.
This was my fuckup.
I rest my hand on Mars’ forehead, before gently dropping a kiss there in case it’s the last time that I can.
I take a deep breath of his scent of chocolate milkshake.
How fucking dare Rosa insult his scent? Reject him?
“Ro?” Mars’ eyelashes flutter open. “What…? Shit, we’re home. How did you manage that? The courting failed. Why are you here? You need to leave. Get out. Mom will—"
“I’m not going anywhere.” Instantly, I pull back and grasp his hand. “Lie still. Stop trying to get up. The doctor has only just put in those stitches, and you know how mad he’ll be if you make him redo them. I said, lie still. Concentrate on healing.”
“What happened?” Finally, Mars rests back on his pillows, and I plump them for him.
“I got you out of there. I am your awesome bodyguard.”
“I have faith in you, but there were a dozen enforcers around us, not to mention Damio and that psycho Omega.”
I buy myself time by grabbing a shard of ice and holding it to Mars’ lips.
Mars sucks on it.
“My Rogue Powers burst out,” I say, as casually as I can.
Mars spits the ice out, and it bounces onto my lap.
I raise my eyebrow. “Yuck.”
“You revealed what you are?” Mars’ eyes are wide and panicked.
“I thought that Rosa had murdered you.” The ice is melting on my trousers in what is probably an embarrassing wet patch, but I have bigger problems. “How would you react if you’d seen me die in front of you?”
Mars’ expression softens. “Fuck.”
“One of the great thinkers.”
“Almost like I’ve been stabbed. Why doesn’t it hurt more?”
“That’ll be the drugs.”
“Hmm.” Mars’ brow furrows. “What did it feel like? Your powers? Was it amazing?”
Only my brother would say amazing, rather than cursed, freakish, or wrong.
My eyes gleam. “Like I could conquer the fucking world.”
“You’re incredible. You shouldn’t be hidden away. When I’m Chief Alpha, you won’t be. Are they dead?”
I shake my head, surprised. “Because I thought you wouldn’t want them to be.”
Perhaps, my brother is more of a badass than I thought.
Mars’ eyes glitter. “Tell me that you at least made Damio beg.”
I meet Mars’ vicious grin with my own. “He couldn’t even talk.
And the news is saying that there was a pheromone terrorist attack on the casino, although the Billionaires are trying to minimize the situation by putting out that it was a gas leak.
Either way, it’s a serious knock to both their business and reputation. ”
“Good.” Mars’ expression becomes pained. “Because they rejected and humiliated me. They would have kidnapped me, forcing me into a bond that stole my status and pride. Maybe I’m not meant to be loved after all.”
It breaks my heart that those fuckers have made my brother doubt pack bonds.
I don’t believe in them but I didn’t want his idolism destroyed in such a brutal way.
When the bedroom door swings open, I leap to my feet protectively in front of the bed.
I slide my hand toward my gun.
“Don’t shoot,” Nico jokes.
I relax, dropping my hand away from my pistol.
My Omega Dad limps into the room, awkwardly carrying a tray of chicken broth.
Nico is a tiny Omega with golden, wavy hair and hazel eyes. His features are stunningly pretty. He is over a decade younger than Fiorella.
Nico is dressed in plain black joggers and too thin red T-shirt for this cold day. Unlike my sister, who dresses her Omega up like a toy in fancy clothes, Fiorella has never given anything finer than secondhand clothes from the Betas in the pack to her Omega.
The difference is that Elio is an elite Omega, whereas Nico has a steel Rej bracelet dangling from his wrist.
A twisted R hangs like an ugly charm from the bracelet. It marks Nico out as a Reject Omega.
There are two reasons to be marked as a Rej.
Be defective
Be rebellious.
Nico was marked at birth as a Reject because of his hip problem.
When he approaches the bed with a hitch to his stride that threatens to spill the broth and scald him, I rush to take the tray from him.
He smiles his thanks, before rubbing his hip with a wince. “Thanks, Rogue.”
“No problem. You shouldn’t be carrying this yourself. Where’s the staff?” I demand.
“Ehm, they’re too scared to come close to this room, after…” Nico trails off. “They don’t want to become collateral damage.”
Fair.
I settle on the bed with the chicken broth.
Nico follows me more slowly across the room with an uneven gait.
If it wasn’t for the cruel system that marks him as Rej, then his poor family wouldn’t have sold him to the Adonis pack when he turned eighteen for our illegal Omega Auctions.
Nico has never held that against us.
Fiorella didn’t put Nico into the auctions, however, but personally selected him to become her Omega breeder.
She doesn’t believe in bullshit romance or pack bonds either. She has never taken a bonded Omega or Beta.
I hate that we have anything in common.
Nico is the only Dad Mars or I have, and I have never been allowed to call him that.
Mars and I were both only ten years old, when we discovered the truth of the auctions…and that Nico had come from them. That’s when we made the pact together to stop the auctions, no matter what.
I stir the broth, which is thick with pasta, carrots, celery, and parmesan. I take a deep breath of its fragrant, comforting aroma.
It reminds me of the other times that Mars was sick as a kid, and Nico would make this for him. No one was allowed near me when I was sick, however, in case I infected them.
I remember being a young kid, lying in bed with flu and dreaming of this aroma. I could only pretend that I was being cared for like my brother and sister would have been.
“How’s my little God of War doing?” Nico climbs onto the other side of the bed, resting the back of his hand on Mars’ forehead. Then he wrinkles his nose in worry. “You’re too hot.”
I struggle not to laugh at the way Mars squirms at being babied and called his childhood nickname.
“Dad…” He protests.
“Hush, you.” Nico picks up the spoon. “Have some of Nico’s special penicillin. You know that my mom would make this for me.”
Nico’s expression takes on a melancholy, far away expression like it always does when he talks about his family.
Who are also the people who sold him.
Yet Nico has also never blamed them. He’s more forgiving than I could be. We’re different. He doesn’t seek revenge.
He once told me: Poverty makes people do terrible things or make terrible choices.
“I can feed myself,” Mars protests.
When he attempts to raise his hand, however, he grimaces in pain.
“That’s what being stabbed and almost dying does for you.” I smirk. “Open up, baby bird.”
Mars shoots me a mock glare but allows Nico to feed him a mouthful of broth.
We both know that this is more of a comfort to his dad than it is for him.