“Sorry,” Icarus says, not sounding sorry at all, “but I fired your security team. There’s no one to save you.”
The board members shift in their seats.
Maya’s eyes flash with fury. “What gave you the right? You’re only the manager, and now, you’re nothing. I’m throwing you out of the hotel. I hope that you and your little brother enjoy the New Year freezing to death in the snow.”
Several of the board gasp in shock.
They obviously only know the charming, gracious version of Maya that she shows to guests. Well, her mask is off now.
Welcome to the world of the staff.
“Maya,” Mrs. Heverbrook attempts to hiss in warning, “this is a coup.”
Ellington’s gaze snaps to Dad’s.
Dad merely arches his brow.
Ellington swallows, protectively wrapping his arm around Hatton’s shoulders.
But Maya laughs. “Ludicrous. Cooper, who gave you permission to bring that breeder out of the penthouse? Were you tricked?”
“Tricked?” Dad’s voice deepens with rage. “Indeed I was.”
“I knew it.” Maya smooths down her hair. “Criminals who lead innocent Omegas into trouble like this will pay a heavy price. Coup? Do you think that I would allow somebody to steal my business?”
“Over twenty years ago,you’rethe one who tricked me.” Dad slides his fingers between Papa’s, as if needing the comfort, even as his expression becomes hard. The words spill from himlike he has desperately needed to free them from behind his teeth for years. “I was suffering from Shattered Bond Syndrome, attempting to keep the hotel and businesses going, while caring for my young baby. And you pretended at the funeral that you’d been a close childhood friend of Ryan’s; I thought that you were helping me out of kindness. But it was lie, wasn’t it? All of it. You only cared about taking this hotel. I was barely aware, still in a haze of mourning, when you bonded me. When I came out it, you didn’t even try to treat me with kindness again. Everything was a lie.”
“What?” Maya whispers.
Yet she doesn’t hold Dad’s unwavering gaze. Instead, she appears more concerned about the judgmental glares that she is now getting from the elite Alphas around the conference table.
They are her jury.
She flushes with humiliation.
She is being exposed in front of the board, her pack, her peers who she played top Alpha to for so long.
She won’t be able to hide this scandal.
“You made me a Second Omega in my own home,” Dad presses. As much as this hurts to hear, Dad needs the opportunity to say this. I wish that it hadn’t taken so long. “You took a third Omega from the Hotel Omegas who you treated as a breeder.”
Papa forces himself to push his hair out of his eyes and say three simple words, “I hate you.”
For an Omega to say that publicly to their Alpha tells everyone in this room all that they need to know.
Ellington looks like he’s readying to flee.
He always was smarter than Maya.
“Then you took our kids away from us.” Dad’s anguished gaze falls on me, before he tightens his hand around Papa’s. “You marked them as Rejs, abandoned them, and cruelly kept usapart. You have even sent Bird to the Institute. You risked their lives over and over.”
“I am Head Alpha,” Maya snarls, no longer pretending to be the perfect Alpha with her pretty pack of Omegas. “I can do exactly what I want with all of you. And after this behavior, you’ll be lucky if any of you survive.”
“Did the rest of you hear that?” Icarus says, icily. “That’s a threat and a confession. You’re witnesses.”
“All they are witnesses of,” Maya grabs Ellington by the arm, dragging him away from Hatton, “is an Alpha trying to get on with her annual meeting, while rebellious Omegas and her daughter’s clearly out of control new pack, possibly heat addled, disrupt it. I am the CEO and I am in charge.”
I smile at her brightly. “Thanks for reminding me.” I clap my hands together. “I am choosing a new CEO. Since we haven’t got the time to change the archaic rules of this company that insist it is an Alpha, I propose Icarus.”
