Icarus is studying Piper too and with a type of understanding that shatters my heart.
“I would like to meet your brother and thank him.” Icarus prowls to Piper. He slips his hand along Piper’s bare stomach — feather-light — but enough to make him gasp. “Your brother did a good job raising you.”
Piper blushes, looking pleased as all Omegas would with the praise.
He still shakes his head. “Every teacher and authority I ever met would disagree with you. I spent most of my life being disciplined, scolded, or bullied by the asshole elites because of either my rebellious streak or my pack’s infamy.” He traces over the beautiful howling moon tattoo on his shoulder and upper arm. “Since Viking times, my pack would be inked with this tattoo when we turned eighteen. Sometimes, I would scratch it until it bled, wishing that I could erase it…erase who I was…just to make the bullying stop, you know? The memory of every insult and hit? Then my brother explained to me recently that the tattoo wasn’t a way to mark our shame. We’re the Wolf Siblings. It’s a mark of our pride and freedom.”
“I’m proud to be associated with your pack,” Lionzio says, firmly.
Piper looks overwhelmed.
“I’m proud to have you in my pack.” Icarus bends over and kisses the snout of the howling wolf.
Piper shivers, before throwing himself into the much larger Alpha’s embrace. He loops his arms around Icarus’ neck and wraps his legs around his waist. Icarus easily holds the Omega, as Piper nuzzles at his neck and purrs.
Zero slips his arm aroundmyneck and whispers, “Isn’t it sweet?”
“If you’ve seen enough of this empty corridor,” my expression tightens, “why don’t we take this tour somewhere more comfortable like our bedroom, huh? We can drink hot chocolate, order in something special for dinner, then watchshitty Christmas movies. Seriously, you’ve seen most of the hotel now. I don’t know why you’re interested.”
Something niggles at the back of my mind.
Zero told me it’s tradition that he takes a tour of every hotel, in which he performs.
But surely this isn’t how he wants to spend his free time?
I don’t miss the glance between Zero and Lionzio, which is unexpectedly serious.
I don’t understand it.
Lionzio anxiously smooths down his hair. “It’s interesting to me, tesoro. I like history. This hotel is from the 1920s, right? I have never slept anywhere this luxurious.”
Instantly, Icarus’ gaze sharpens in a way that I know means trouble. He carefully lowers Piper to the floor, who whines in protest. He untangles the Omega’s hold on him, however, stalking toward Lionzio.
“Now, big boy,” Zero attempts to block Icarus, “no biting apart from in kinky fun.”
Icarus arches his brow. “What made you think that I was going to bite my pet Alpha?”
Lionzio’s cheeks flush, although he backs up to hit the door of the empty corridor behind him.
“I have no idea.” Zero keeps his hand firmly pressed to Icarus’ chest.
Piper darts around the taller men to stand in front of Lionzio like a tiny Omega warrior.
I try to hide my smile.
As if Icarus couldn’t rip each of them apart if he wanted to.
Except, I know that he never would. Obviously, the Idols don’t yet.
From the way that Lionzio’s dark gaze meets Icarus’, I feel that he is actually the deadliest person in this corridor. From thedemons that he has told me about, he is holding himself back from becoming the Alpha that he once was.
Lionzio doesn’t need anyone to protect him, but I love the fuck out of the way his Beta and Omega are standing up for him anyway.
“You’re a billionaire from a mafia family,” Icarus says simply, and I realize suddenly what he has already worked out. “How haven’t you visited an Omega Hotel before? All the mob families use them. Or at least stayed somewhere thisluxurious?”
Lionzio’s jaw clenches. “Because my pack didn’t live Above, which is what they called anywhere that wasn’t in the concrete tunnels underneath the mountains where we ran illegal cage fights and Omega trafficking. For the years that I was trapped there getting blood on my hands, I didn’t even see the fucking sky. I was alone, the mafia prince, surrounded by my rivals and enemies with a fucking psychopath as an adoptive dad. I was terrified every moment that my whole world would be ripped away from me again, just as it was when I was sold to their pack. I’m sorry if I don’t know?—”
Icarus’ eyes widen at the same time as mine do. “Please let me go and kiss my pet.”
