I pull at the hem of my long shirt, before squirming off his lap to sit cross legged next to him. “I guess that I’m caught in a type of bubble here. I forget that the world outside is still turning. Zoe’s dad, Logan, rejected me when I told him that I was pregnant with her, on the evening of the Christmas ball actually.”
“Alphahole.” Zero’s eyes become like lavender storms. “More throats to tear out.”
“Actually, he did it because he told me that he’d found his true scent match. And that Omega didn’t want me in their pack. It has made me wary of pack bonds, other Omegas, and scent matches. Growing close to the three of you, finding an Omega soulmate and Alpha scent match, has been huge for me. But not easy. This time of year is hard enough with all the memories. For an elite like me to be publicly abandoned like that, unbonded and pregnant is as you said, ascandal. Our Chief Alpha allowedme to stay but only if I worked as staff. My brother who tried to stick up for me was reduced to a Hotel Omega.”
“Oh, love.” The heartbreak in Zero’s voice for me nearly undoes me. “I wish that I had been free myself then. I wish that I could have found you earlier.”
“You talk aboutfree.” I grasp Zero’s hand in mine, resting it on my knee. “But why were you so trapped in this cruel idol camp? You don’t have to tell me but you can.”
He licks his dry lips, and for a moment, I don’t think that he will answer.
Then he tightens his hold on my hand. “I don’t talk about this. What’s the point? Ancient history, yeah? But I was abandoned too by my family. They were poor mechanics. All my brothers were strong Alphas. They were disappointed to have a Beta in the family, which is why they called me Zero. I guess that I’ve been trying to prove that they were wrong about me my entire life. Maybe sometimes, I try too hard.”
My heart shatters.
“You don’t have anything to prove,” I insist.
“But I do,” Zero replies with a brittle smile. “The only way that I got attention in my family was by singing because I was bloody good at it, and even they couldn’t miss that. Sometimes, I could make Mum and Dad smile when I sang. I never expected to be talent scouted. The whole pack was excited. I was too…until I found out that it meant the same as being bloodysoldto the Idols. By the time I realized it, I was on my way to America with no way home, just this scared kid being told that if I wasobedientand followed everything that they told me, they would make me astar. Well, they bloody did, but the cost wasn’t worth it. The thing is, since I’d been sent from England, I had even less rights than any of the other Idols, and they’d made it clear to me that at the end of my contract, I was going to be sold to…” His voice cracks, and he plasters on one of his smiles that I nowknow are as fake as his Immortal persona, “…it doesn’t matter. Just sold to be bonded to a creepy producer who took too much of an interest in me as a teenager, you know?”
“A forced bond?” I gasp.
Arranged bonds like mine are common amongst the elites but forced bonds are not only forbidden.
They’re illegal.
He looks down, allowing his hair to cover his face. “Idols grew up accepting what would happen once we stopped being successful enough, love. I certainly did. At least with a guitar in my hand and singing on a stage, I could feel like the pain and fear was a fair price. It’s like flying to me. Back then, it was the only time that I was free. It was the thing that kept me clinging to life, apart from my other friends who I would have done anything to protect. And we did because look, I’m out of that place now. We all are, and the Alphas who hurt me are locked up for good in the Alpha Center. So, no harm done to my gorgeous arse. And at least I was trained to be a brilliant lover for you.”
All of a sudden, Zero has hidden his vulnerability behind a half-hooded look, stretching out in a way that would be seductive if he hadn’t just been talking about his past of forced bonds.
“Don’t do that,” I say, quietly.
“Don’t tempt you with my tight little arse?” He rolls onto his stomach, flirtatiously glancing at me over his shoulder.
The white shirt falls off one of Zero’s slim shoulders, before also riding up, revealing his naked ass, which he provocatively wiggles.
He looks like sin.
Normally, I would be diving on him.
But not now.
“Don’t put on a performance,” I burst out. “You don’t need to do that for me.”
Instantly, the heat drops from his eyes. The siren act has vanished in an instant.
“Performance…?” Zero’s expression shutters.
“Why don’t you drop the mask?”
“It’s not a mask,” he howls.
I am shocked by the frustrated tears that gleam in Zero’s eyes, as he hurriedly shoves himself to the far side of the nest, dragging the shirt down to cover himself and pushing his hair out of his face.
What I have done?
HaveIbrokenhim?
“Zero,” I try, tentatively.
