116. Chapter One-Hundred-Fifteen
Chapter One-Hundred-Fifteen
Xane
Kian and Trick look over quickly when I step out of the bedroom. Kian looks disappointed when I close the door behind me. Trick doesn’t seem surprised.
Riley’s still leaning against the wall next to the cockpit door.
He has his arms folded across his chest, and he’s looking out of the open exit at the rain.
It sounds like it hasn’t let up. The thunder is easing off, I think, but it’s still dark and stormy outside.
“How’s Scarlett?” Kian asks, the second I pass him sitting in his usual seat.
“She’s good,” I tell him, as I find my backpack and open it.
“What happened to your back?” Trick asks, from his usual seat.
I don’t have to reach back there to know what he’s talking about.
Scarlett cut me up a little bit with her nails.
It felt good when it was happening, but I forgot about it after.
“He claimed our mate,” Kian says, sourly, “What do you think happened?”
“Scarlett did that?” Trick sounds shocked.
I guess he would. He doesn’t know what we were like when we partied with women.
Kian’s seen my back looking like this before, but if Trick ever has, he hasn’t noticed.
“He likes it,” Kian explains.
“It feels good?” Trick asks.
“Kian can explain it to you,” I tell him as I throw on a clean T-shirt and underwear.
Kian makes an irritable sound. When I shoot him a look, he rolls his eyes.
“Fine. Sometimes a little bit of pain feels good when you’re doing stuff.”
“Huh,” Trick murmurs.
“I’m not saying it’s not fucked up,” Kian says, giving me a judging glance. “Kinda like how sharing is nice and not sharing is selfish.”
Riley snorts. He doesn’t look over, but clearly, he’s listening.
“We already claimed each other, Ki. We’ve got some talking to do now that we need privacy for. We’ll be back out in a while and you guys can look out the stuff we’re supposed to have for dinner.”
Kian sits up straighter. “Okay, cool.”
“What are we having for dinner?” Trick asks Ki.
I look at Riley. “Hey.”
He turns his head to meet my gaze. “Hey.”
“You doin’ okay?” I ask, putting my hand on his arm.
He nods. “I’m all good.”
He’s not lying. I don’t need to worry about him.
He’s doing better, and he wants to be sober.
“Okay. Good.”
We can take it day by day, but right now he’s good and that’s all that matters.
I head back into the bedroom where Scarlett’s waiting for me.
She smiles at me from where she’s sitting on the bed.
“Hey,” she greets, smoothing out the covers next to her. “I saved you a seat.”
I close the door and move onto the bed to sit next to her.
Silk sheets. Who would have guessed Kian was planning something romantic here?
“I’ll go first,” she says, when I’m sitting next to her, arm on the headboard.
She turns in to face me. “So, I’ve spent the last eight years living outside of the city, writing music and playing little dive bars here and there and basically everywhere.
I never liked the implications of being an Omega, and I kinda resented that it was gonna be easy for me to walk into an agent’s office and ask them to get me a recording contract.
Like, they love it when an Omega shows up.
We’re so rare, and we always make them money.
It has nothing to do with talent, and I wanted to be known for my talent. ”
“I can understand that. It was something I worried about before I realized Alpha acts are a dime a dozen. It wasn’t as easy as I thought it might be once we actually started to look for a record label.
We got lucky within a year though, when a hot new band fucked up a contract and left a big venue stuck for a headlining act last minute.
We had the same agent, so we got the call and the rest is history. ”
She laughs. “I know that story. I heard it a million times when you guys hit the big time.”
“So, you really are a fan.”
“Is that so weird?” she asks. “Most women our age know and love Chaos Burning. It would be harder for you to find a mate who didn’t.”
She’s not wrong.
“It doesn’t matter,” I start. “It did bother me when Kian showed me your blog post. But I can tell you about that after you finish your story.”
“Okay,” she says, taking in a deep breath.
“Um … Yeah, so I was living like a Beta. I wasn’t on suppressants, because I was kinda dumb.
I’d never been attracted to any of the Alphas I’d ever met, so I assumed I was defective, or something.
I kinda assumed I was never gonna perfume.
I mean, it happens to most women before now, right? ”
“How old are you, exactly?” I ask, realizing Kian never told me.
“Twenty-six,” she says.
“I’m pretty sure plenty of Omegas’ perfume for the first time after their mid-twenties,” I start. “I guess no one hears about it, though. Usually, Omegas find their mates through academies, or organized parties for the rich.”
She shudders. “Those academies give me the creeps.”
“Yeah, I’ve heard some sketchy things about them.”
“Anyway, that’s why I had no idea about the side effects of suppressants.
If I’d known, I wouldn’t have taken so many.
Because even though I lived like a Beta for years, I didn’t know I had mates I was destined to be with, and I didn’t think I would ever want to accept that side of myself.
But I’m an Omega. I’ve been hiding from that for so damn long, and I don’t want to hide anymore. ”
She sighs and gives me a sad smile that makes me feel guilty all over again for being so mean to her. She was only being herself, and I was only mad at myself for the feelings I was getting from just being around her.
“I’m an Omega. Perfume or not, I’ll never go back to pretending to be a Beta again.”
She’s quiet for a few seconds and then she gazes back at me.
“That’s what you need to know about me. Now, tell me what I need to know about you.”
Tall order, but I knew it was coming.
“There was this thing that happened, a few years ago now.”
I clear my throat while I get ready to tell her everything.
Well, the parts that are mine to tell.
“The party?” she asks. “Where you had to fire your old manager?”
I blink at her. “You know about that?”
“Relax. Kian told me what he knew. It didn’t get to the press.”
“Kian didn’t know much.”
“So, tell me.”