My attendance at Fairhaven Academy was contingent on my adherence to three stipulations laid out by my father, but he’s the one who broke the third. He said he wouldn’t bid out my mating contracts until I’d graduated. Instead, I came home from my freshman year to find the alpha who’d tormented me for months standing in my father’s lavish study, shaking my father’s hand, the ink of his signature still wet on my mating contract.
Willow looks up from her laptop, her pale blue eyes narrowed, expression cool. “We aren’t waiting for my sister’s graduation, Mr. Radcliffe. We’re waiting for you to show results.”
Results.
I stiffen, hoping neither of them catch my flinch or the way my scent sharpens. I flake apart the salmon filet on my untouched salad, pretending I haven’t heard the damning comment my sister just made.
Whatever it is that Andrew Radcliffe is doing for Radcliffe Industries, whatever sinister dealings our fathers have entered into, whatever he’s doing for the mysterious Project Halcyon… he hasn’t succeeded yet. And my very freedom hinges on him not doing so.
At all costs, he must not succeed.
Rad scowls at my sister, but turns to me, smoothly changing the subject.
Still, his rage steals my peace, creeping into my mind, unbidden and unwelcome. The curse of my affinity.
“I trust my beloved’s summer has been to her liking,” he says, idly, knowing that I’ve spent the whole of my summer trapped in Rose Manor, watched at all times, if not by Willow, then by the camera and bug I found in my room the day I came home from Fairhaven. I haven’t even dared text my men for fear that my messages and emails are being intercepted, despite the souped-up encryption Simon cleverly programmed into my burner phone before the end of the school year. For this long, endless, torturous summer, I’ve only risked the rare text from the ladies’ room at this very country club.
It’s been the loneliest summer of my existence, stretching into what feels like an eternity. An eternity since I said goodbye to Marcus, my honor guard, who’s dearer to me than he should be. An eternity since Luca and I flew up the coast of Deer Island on his motorcycle and stared out across the expanse of the Bay, the endlessness of the heavens above us, studded with stars. An eternity since I curled up in the infirmary ward’s nest with Simon, where I told him I loved him for the first time, since I stole, Cassian, his alpha mate and my young summer love, away from that nest on a perfect spring afternoon and kissed him beneath Fairhaven’s bell tower. An eternity since my imperious professor, Ian, stood before me in the warm summer rain and ripped up my application to be his research assistant because he wanted to be my alpha.
Only one thought has carried me through this wretched summer. It’s a grim, spiteful thought, but it gives me the will to sit through these damnable courting dates.
My father doesn’t trust me.
And he shouldn’t.
Because after I bring down Andrew Radcliffe, after I topple the first domino, I’m coming for him, and I’ll destroy every last thing my father has built. I’ll burn it all to the ground.
I clench the skirt of my dress beneath the table and plaster a placid smile on my face. “It’s been lovely and relaxing. I have no complaints.”
He grits his teeth, unsatisfied, but turns his attention to his steak. Still, he stares at me from the corner of his eye, a calculating glare that freezes the blood in my veins. He studies me, looking for any crack in my calm demeanor he can find. Looking for proof that he’s scared me. That I know my place.
But as he studies me, I’m not scared. I’m determined. I fight back the only way I can and pluck the very thoughts from his head, stealing the secrets he wants to keep hidden.
I must.
I need to know more about the mysterious global conspiracy, Project Halcyon, the initiative to make omegas nothing more than mindless, biddable breeders. Government and industry conspire to put us in our place, crushed beneath their alpha heels. Simon had been digging into it, slipping through the strongest cyber security protocols and magical firewalls in the world, picking at threads, hoping to unravel the whole, damning tapestry.
But there’s so much we still don’t know.
So, I pry the secrets from Rad’s mind, stealing his errant thoughts, and scribble them all down in a notebook I hide in my private bathroom—the only place I’m not constantly watched. I appeal to Rad’s arrogance and his hubris, letting him think I’m less than the threat I truly am.
Anything to find out more about the deadly, devastating Project Halcyon.
The very project Rad swore wouldn’t spare me.
* * *
On our next date,Rad shows up with a scowl on his face, his anise-and-orange scent acrid with his rage. His fury is potent, pressing against my mind and senses, making me flinch. I startle when he grips my upper arm tightly, all but dragging me to our usual table.
I already know his touch will leave marks.
I try to comb through his thoughts, but they’re a dark, incomprehensible snarl.
Willow tsks under her breath, but if he hears her, he doesn’t heed her.
“You and your faggot alpha must be so fuckingpleased,” he hisses in my ear.
I cringe at the slur he reserves for Cassian and Simon but can’t help my curiosity. “I’m sure I don’t know what you mean.”
