“Yeah…?” Zero whispers, breathlessly.
Icarus gentles his hold, now petting and stroking Zero in a way that appears to confuse him. “No, I meanmyBeta. After Christmas, will you do Grace and me the honor of officially becoming the bonded Beta of our pack?”
Zero rips off the blindfold and squints up at Icarus in shock. “You don’t only want to bond my darling Pip?”
Icarus and I exchange a glance, before shaking our heads.
“I have a habit of falling fast and hard for brats.” Icarus grips Zero by the chin, before gently kissing him. “And my bonded pack will not treat Betas as less important than Omegas.”
I can sense the disapproval rolling from him.
Zero doesn’t have a bite mark on his neck. Many Betas in packs don’t. John didn’t.
Zero looks like this is his Christmas gift. “If you want a Beta like me, then yeah. Sign me up, big boy.”
When Icarus rolls his eyes, I’m almost certain that he does it to see Zero grin in victory.
“How was work?” I ask, carefully. “Have you done what you needed to?”
We really should have worked out a good code to talk about the heist but there wasn’t time.
“Almost,” Icarus replies neutrally. “I have a few things that we should talk over later.”
I try not to show the sudden spike of anxiety.
Does that mean Icarus has returned with good or bad news?
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Room 234, Omega Hotel
Islip out onto the balcony, shivering as the freezing air hits me. I am wrapped in Zero’s luxurious white coat, which trails through the thin layer of snow on the floor.
I may have developed a thing for wearing my celebrity Beta’s clothes.
Plus, banana pudding.
Icarus smartly marches behind me, saying just a shade louder than he needs to, “It’s romantic out here on the balcony. While everyone else helps Zero practice for his performance, I’m going to steal you away for some time alone.”
Then he closes the glass balcony door behind him.
He doesn’t say anything else, resting his hand between my shoulder blades. He guides me as far away from the door that leads to the bedroom as he can to the edge of the balcony.
No one would be able to tell that he’s putting on an act.
Except, I can tell the tension in his touch and how stiffly he’s holding himself.
His expression is shuttered.
In the lounge, Zero is playing a soulful song from his new album on an acoustic guitar.
I can hear Piper’s excitable laughter and Lionzio’s steady voice.
This is the moment that Icarus has been waiting for ever since he returned to the suite.
It’s the moment that I have been nervously waiting for as well, when he would be able to get me alone and have thetalk, which he needed.
Please, let it be good news.
