The chattering slowed as people listened in.
“Sin, leave the poor girl alone and enjoy your food,” Zania chimed in. She had a shit-eating grin on her face, which should have probably been our cue to leave. But there was no fucking way we were taking off when our omega was trapped up there.
“I’ve promised everyone here that my son and Sin are still looking for a mate. No matter what they say, if you prove yourself worthy, you will be welcome to join our family.”
A lovely snarl cracked from Caspian, and all of us jumped as he drew in a heaving breath. It felt like he really was going to go for her.
Bolts of anger zipped out from Brandy as well, but everyone had forgotten her as they focused on the writhing mass of muscle that was my mate.
Seriously, even when I was pissed off with him, he still looked sexy as fuck.
“Caspian. There’s no need for that kind of outburst,” Vivian gave him a shaky smile. “He’s just being coy because there are so many beautiful women we hope will join our family.”
“Bullshit,” Caspian snapped, finally entering the conversation. “Absolute fucking bullshit. I can’t even believe we’re doing this.” He pushed his chair back from the table, but Sin and I kept a firm hold on him. No matter how much fun it would be to see him lose his shit, we couldn’t let him go rogue with an audience.
“Don’t move,” Zania said, her hand tightening around her wineglass.
“I’m not sitting here listening to this crap,” he growled straight back, and I was getting excited. Maybe Caspian had finally decided about Brandy, or he was just feeling so crap he wanted to get the fuck out of there.
“We made our case, and we were pretty fucking clear about our decision,” I said forcefully.
Her upper lip curled the second I spoke, murmurs flying around the room. It was like they didn’t even notice a male omega was here until I raised my voice.
“That is completely beside the point,” she said, recoiling from me like I was going to infect her from ten whole feet away. “The main thing is stopping some Knottinghill whore tainting our bloodline.”
A ripple of energy flowed around the room as shocked silence suddenly suffocated us.
And all at once, whispers flew up from around the table as Zania’s words fired up the gossips.
I was there, ready to rush to her defence, about to finally take that bitch down while Sin was distracted by Caspian.
But a slam echoed through the room, followed by a high shout. “That’s enough!”
Melanie
Anger tore through me with a screech as I shot up from my chair.
Sin’s mum was holding me down, her bony fingers wrapped around my wrist under the table, her nails digging into me. Every time I tried to talk, she stabbed harder until four lines of blood beaded on my skin.
I’d endured it since Kai had said how important this dinner was, but I was done.
“Get off me,” I snarled, tearing my wrist from her grasp, knocking the table as my thighs hit it.
Plates clattered, glasses fell, tipping water and wine onto the tablecloths, staining them like my pride had been stained repeatedly since they sent me this ugly dress.
“Say it again.” I turned to Zania, looking down at her.
“Excuse me?” she said, raising an eyebrow.
“I said, say it again! Tell me how I’m ruining your family. Say it clearly so the whole room can hear.”
“You mean the fact you’ve been hiding that you’re a Knottinghill whore?”
More gasps and murmurs followed as a laugh cracked from me. It was basically predictable at this point.
Why the hell did I have to put up with this everywhere I went? No one cared about who I was, my personality, that I even had hopes and dreams and things I wanted to work towards.
With everyone’s attention on me, they all wanted a show they could laugh about and share as a scandalous story later on.
