I wish I only had to make it through this dinner, but I know my horrors are only beginning.
I dress slowly, feeling, once again, like I’m on my way to the gallows. I slide black tights up my legs, then don a dark green velvet dress, smoothing the long sleeves down my arms. I step into a pair of heels, just as a knock sounds at my door.
Aspen.
His thoughts trail into my room—thoughts of Rad.
I open the door and peer out.
“Brother. What can I do for you?”
He holds out his arm to escort me to dinner but yanks me close the moment I slip from my room. “You can do your duty tonight,” he says in a low voice.
I whimper when he tightens his hold on my wrist.
“Leave your door unlocked. Let Radcliffe mate you. Let him do whatever he wants to you.”
“But Father?—”
“Father has done horrible things to you, little sister, but he’s not the only Rose you should be afraid of.”
The venom in his voice steals my breath. In that moment, my older brother is a carbon copy of our father as he glares down at me, fury in his pale blue eyes.
“Do as I say, Juniper, or you won’t live long enough to play your part in Project Halcyon. I’ll see to it myself.”
I don’t need to reach out with my affinity to know he’s telling the truth, that his poisonous promise is one he’d gladly see through.
He draws back, hiding his loathing of me behind a bland smile. “Come, it’s time for dinner. Your future mate is waiting for you.”
* * *
I endup seated between Aspen and Rad, and their thoughts crowd mine out of my head until I’m filled with their endless hatred and villainous plans. Their thoughts spiral through my mind, trapping me in a hellscape of dead omegas and triumphant alphas.
“Juniper?”
I jerk my head up and turn my attention to Hawthorn, who’s seated across from me. “I beg your pardon?”
“I asked you if you’d had a good term.”
I force a smile. “As good as can be expected, all things considered.”
The reality of the situation hangs like storm clouds over our dinner table. The alpha sitting beside me has nearly perfected the collars that will force omegas into mind-controlled submission and had ten omegas wearing his collar prototypes attack my school, nearly killing one of my friends and injuring countless others. The omega that attacked my classroom wanted to hurt me, his future mate. And still, my father is more than happy to mate me off to this monster, while my eldest brother encourages my compliance with threats.
I’m trapped in my childhood home.
Hawthorn studies me for a moment and when no one’s looking, sends me a small smile and a thought, projecting it just like Rad projected his thoughts of killing an omega if I didn’t leave class for our last date.
Stay strong. You will be safe.
I want to believe him. Saints know, I wish I believed my brother could be protection enough against Rad.
My father, a jovial smile on his face, asks Rad a question about his work and just for a moment, six sigils flick through Rad’s mind. Six sigils he’s worked hard to keep close to his chest, a secret he’s guarded, but can’t prevent me from stealing. I have no clue what they could mean, but I commit them to memory, hoping Ian will be able to make sense of them when I return to Fairhaven.
If I return to Fairhaven.
Rad clutches my knee beneath the table as he answers, squeezing so hard I know he’ll leave bruises.
And that’s when I feel it: a stirring ache in my womb.
