Piper’s smile slips from his face. “You look like shit.”
“Such a silver tongued flatterer. I was about to say how gorgeous you look but now…”
Piper gently touches Icarus’ swollen cheek. “Who did this? Names.”
The steel in his tone makes me jump.
Icarus narrows his eyes. “The security team. But they were only Betas following orders. Staff don’t have much choice. Mrs. Frost is the one who gave the order. She is the one who?—”
“Should have her ass kicked,” Piper says, as if a tiny Omega like him could actually do it. Except, didn’t he claim to know MMA? “Then be permanently locked in the Alpha Center.”
Icarus snatches Piper by the scruff of the neck and holds him still. “Don’t even think of doing anything.”
“Well,” Icarus licks his lips, “too late with some of the security. Roar is outside…dealing with…some of them. It’s how we managed to get down here to break you out.”
Go Lionzio.
Icarus frowns at me when I grin.
“What went wrong?” Piper asks.
Icarus looks sheepish. “Ehm, I may have gone just a little feral.”
I snort. “He overturned a desk. It was epic.”
“I have imagined doing that a hundred times,” Icarus admits. “All the times that Mrs. Frost called me into the office to scold and discipline me. Of course, the beating by security wasn’t fun. But overall…”
“Worth it,” Icarus and I chorus at the same time.
“Still,” I say more quietly, “Maya pretended that she would give my brother back but she has already sent him to the Institute.”
Piper turns back to me, looking more determined than I have seen him before. “I promise, today we will face down that bitch and claim Icarus and you. We will find a way to take your entire family away from this place. My sister’s pack have connections. We’ll do everything to find your brother in the Institute’s Omega auctions.”
“Thank you,” I whisper.
“What do you need?” When Piper glances at Icarus, it startles me how much he sounds like a general on a mission.
Icarus raises an impressed eyebrow. “The loyal staff will cover for me. No one would betray me. So, I can go to my rooms and clean myself up. I have a medical kit there because this is far from the first time that I have needed to deal with my own injuries. But what about our outfits for the ball?”
“I’m your fairy godfather, remember?” Piper lifts up the black bags that are covered in ribbons. “I may be an Omega, rather than an Alpha, but as leader of my pack, I have courting gifts for you. I have adapted a dress and suit. So, are you both ready to go to the Christmas Matching Ball?”
CHAPTER TWENTY
Ball Room, Omega Hotel
When I walk into the decadent Christmas Eve Matching Ball, the party is already in full swing. Packs have been formed, Alphas have claimed scent matches, and high power political bonds between the richest families have been struck.
I hang back in the arched entrance to the marble and gilt ballroom, taking a steadying breath.
This is it.
After all the planning and dreaming, tonight will change everything in this golden barred cage one way or another.
I slide my hand down the silver silk dress that Piper made for me, which he paired with a tight pair of leather trousers. The dress hangs like a tunic over the trousers; it is parted to my thigh.
No one has bought me a gift like this before.
It’s a breath of fresh air in this stuffy world of demure Omegas.
