Chapter Nineteen
Kyle took Alison’s wrist and pulled her to her feet. She moved without fighting, but he could tell she was miles away.
There was no reason to yell at her right then, to question why she hadn’t explained everything, why she hadn’t told them the truth about her father.
The haunted look in her eyes said it all. He wrapped an arm around her and escorted her outside, to the private patio. Fresh air would do her good, and she always seemed to relax when she breathed in the scent of the honeysuckles that grew along the lattice fencing.
He sat on the swing, then pulled her into his lap. The fact that she went without complaint said she was as shaken up by the night as they were.
She trembled, so he rubbed his hands along her arms, over her bare side.
Trent came up with a mug. He pressed it into Alison’s hands, cupping them around it. Steam escaped the top, and he lifted the drink to her lips so she could sip.
Chocolate. The scent was unmistakable.
She could probably use the heat and sugar
Not that they were ignoring the topic. They’d have a conversation, but her wellbeing mattered most right then.
She drank the hot chocolate slowly, sipping at it while Daniel and Trent pulled up seats.
Her barely clothed body wasn’t something he could fully ignore, and he wished he could do other things to relax her as well. She’d made it clear enough with Daniel that she was not interested until her period ended, which meant he’d have to just grin and bear it with what she inspired in him.
After a good half an hour had drifted by, when she stopped trembling and had finished the hot chocolate—though she still pretended to drink—Daniel was the first to speak. “Did you know it would be him?”
No need to ease into the conversation.
She shook her head, and Kyle didn’t think she was lying. Alison could lie, of course, but she had more tells. Besides, as unsettled as she still was, with how she’d frozen, he doubted she’d expected to see him.
“So go on, pet, explain.” Trent leaned forward, using his gaze to trap her.
She rubbed her hands along the tops of her thighs. “I knew my father was connected to the slavery ring, but I had no idea what it was. I was raised in Texas. Why would I think he’d ever be here? I haven’t seen him in over twenty years. Hell, I didn’t even know if he was still alive.”
“He mentioned your eyes,” Daniel noted, not needing to finish the thought.
She shook her head. “He didn’t recognize me. I think it just reminded him of my mom. I hadn’t become an omega yet when he last saw me. There’s no way he would still recognize my scent, either.”
Trent nodded, coming to the same conclusion. Geoffrey had seemed nostalgic, but not as though he recognized her.
A small miracle.
“You should have told us about your father,” Kyle said, trying to gentle his voice so it didn’t sound like scolding. She didn’t need a lecture.
“I did. I told you my mom was a slave. I told you he bought her. He didn’t exactly bring his work home with him, so I didn’t know how he fit into the group.
It wasn’t a part of my life, not the business of it.
Of all the ways I thought tonight would go, seeing him wasn’t anywhere on the radar. If it was…”
Trent reached out and tucked her hair behind her ear. “If it was?” he prompted.
“I would have told you, I swear. I’m not trying to keep anything from you. I had no idea he would show up.”
Kyle took a deep breath, relieved at her honesty. After so many times when she’d blindsided them, at least they’d reached the same page on this issue. “Does this change anything, sugar? You know him, or at least knew him. Does him being here change anything we should know?”
She took her lip between her teeth, worrying it as though really thinking about what he’d asked.
Finally, she shook her head. “No. He’s a businessman at his core.
He wasn’t just spouting bullshit tonight—that’s what he really believes.
He honestly thinks you all are doing the lord’s work, that you’re putting things right for society.
Really, knowing it’s him, I don’t think there’s a chance that he wouldn’t let you into the auction.
You’re exactly the sort of person he would want to make a deal with. ”
Kyle pulled her against him, wrapping his arms around her. Her bare skin was warm and soft, and he allowed himself to enjoy it. “Good. You doing okay?”
She didn’t answer right away, and that pleased him. He’d rather she took a minute and really think about it instead of offering up the quick answer of ‘I’m fine.’ At least if she really considered the question, she might be honest.
She snuggled back against him. “I don’t know. I never thought I’d see him again, and certainly not when kneeling at an alpha’s feet like he always wanted. Sad thing that it might be the only time in my life he would have actually been proud of me.” Her words came out bitter, but he got it.
“Is that why you’ve resisted this?” Trent asked.
She gestured down at herself, at how she sat in Kyle’s lap. “This doesn’t seem like resisting.”
Trent offered a half smile. “You do. Even when it’s something you like, something you want, you can’t give in fully.” He didn’t ask why—didn’t need to.
She shifted as if the conversation made her want to move, but Kyle kept his arm tight around her.
“Sometimes I feel like when I give in, I’ve become what he always wanted me to be.
It feels like, why did I escape? Why did I work so hard to be on my own if I was going to end up some brainless omega who relying on an alpha anyway?
Why did I fight the way I did, suffer all I have, if I was going to end up here anyway?
Giving in feels like betraying all that, like betraying my mom and every omega I’ve seen forced into servitude. ”
Kyle nodded, pressing a kiss to her head. The words didn’t surprise him, though she voiced them more clearly than he’d expected her to. He let Trent speak, since he was going to do it far better.
“Wanting something is different from being forced.”
“Is it? Even if the actual thing is the same?”
“Sex isn’t rape. You know that. Consent, that’s the difference. It’s everything. Just because you’ve seen what rape does to a person, the horror of it, that doesn’t mean you turn celibate.”
She frowned, as if the idea had some merit but she wasn’t quite willing to accept it.
Then again, it was a hard pill to swallow.
Even if they were different, it was far too easy to see them as the same.
Hadn’t Trent struggled with the same thing?
Hadn’t they all at one time or another? After watching what happened to omegas far too often, after seeing how they struggled, it wasn’t so easy to take any joy out of making one submit, even if they did it happily.
Still, that wasn’t the sort of thing they’d work out, not right then.
It would take a very long time for her to get comfortable with it, but the more he was with her, the more he got to hold her like this, that he got to see the sides of her she showed to no one else, the more he knew he wanted that very long time.
Assuming he could convince her of that.
* * * *
The water from the pool licked at Alison’s sides as she swam her laps, lost in the familiar and repetitive motions. It had become part of her routine, to rise when Kyle did, to have coffee with him, then to swim.
A clearing throat made her stop, and sure enough, crouched by the side of the pool was Trent. He didn’t smile, but she’d come to find that tiny crease that appeared in his cheek was his version of it, though it didn’t do much to soften his features.
He crooked his finger, and while weeks before she’d have balked at such a blatant demand, she found herself wading to him without a second thought.
Trent’s lips against hers could wipe away any of Alison’s good intentions. She’d always thought of herself as a strong woman, as someone who could resist anything.
Leave it to the alpha to teach me how wrong I was.
He leaned forward at a precarious angle and gave her one hell of a kiss. When he pulled back, she tried to follow like a mermaid he was luring to dry land.
Isn’t that supposed to go the other way?
If there was anything she’d learned with the alphas, it was that either she was all wrong about the alpha-omega interaction or she was just exceedingly easy. She’d always thought the omegas lured in predatory alphas, that the female was the trap.
Instead, she’d found herself drawn to them. They could do nothing, just sit there, and everything inside her would crave just a little affection. She’d want to crawl into their laps, even as they watched television, and curl against their chests.
Worse? They’d allow it.
And here she was again, her plan destroyed, and all because of one crooked finger.
Yet, even as she scolded herself, she kissed him.
She wanted him. Four days without sex, of resisting them, of passing off all the horrible symptoms she’d started to have as nothing but her period.
They were sweet, ensuring she had anything she needed, that she took it easy, that she didn’t overdo anything.
Even at night, when she curled against them, they didn’t go past the limit she’d set.
And all of that only served to make her feel worse. It was so much easier to resist them when she thought of them as nothing but pushy, overbearing, asshole alphas. When they acted like this, when they treated her as though she mattered, it unsettled her.
Trent broke the kiss, a groan on his lips as though he wanted nothing more than to take her around the waist and pull her from the water to fuck her right there.
He’d do it, too. Another truth they’d proven was that modesty mattered little to them. They had no hesitation about starting anything with her anywhere, as though it were the most natural thing in the world.