“She is?” Peter asked, curious.
Carver let out a humorless laugh. “Oh, yeah. She’s a senator, and one of her main issues is getting rid of the omega delinquency program. I haven’t seen her this mad since I told her I was moving away from home and getting married to Tex.”
Peter didn’t know what to say. He wasn’t going to defend the omega delinquency program, much less the people who used it to get mates. Peter had been trying very hard not to think about the fact, but at the end of the day, he was living with two men who hadboughthim. No matter how hot they were or how well they got along, that was epically fucked up.
“Is she worried people are going to find out?” Peter asked, trying to figure out what this meant for him—if it meant anything for him at all.
“Not anymore,” Carver said, shaking his head. “She fixed it. On paper, you were now pardoned a month ago, and then you chose Tex and me in the voluntary matching program. The records and paperwork have all been altered.”
“What?” Peter couldn’t wrap his mind around it. He’d beenpardoned?
“It doesn’t change anything for you,” Carver said, abruptly defensive. “You still belong to Tex and me.”
Peter didn’t say anything. What could he say to such a blunt reminder that Carver considered him property?
“And if I don’t go along with that story?” Peter asked, feeling belligerent and more than a little bulldozed.
Carver narrowed his eyes, looking at Peter like it hadn’t occurred to him that he might ever do anything other than what he was told. Peter swallowed, suddenly nervous and a little scared.
“Why wouldn’t you?” Carver’s voice was hard and intimidating.
“I don’t know,” Peter mumbled, his heart beating fast. He shrugged. “It’s just… it’s not the truth. I didn’t choose you.”
Carver took an uncomfortably long time to reply, and when he did, Peter got the sense that he was watching his words carefully.
“My mother doesn’t care about the truth—she cares about what people think is the truth. When it comes to her career… standing in her way is dangerous. We all have to go along with this, even if we don’t like it. That’s just the way it is.”
Dangerous?That seemed pretty dramatic in Peter’s opinion.
“It’s also probably best that we don’t go looking into your case again. With the pardon, we can’t afford to have anyone examining that too closely.” Carver clenched his jaw, looking uncomfortable. When he spoke again, he sounded upset. “I’m sorry. I know I offered to have my firm investigate your case, but with my mother… I don’t want to risk it.”
Peter didn’t say anything. He’d told Carver that he didn’t care whether or not he had his firm’s investigators look into his case, but now that the option was off the table, he felt like he’d lost something. No matter how much he wanted to put his uncle and his sister and their betrayal behind him, he also wanted them to get their due. It was just so unfair that they’d gotten away with fucking him over.
“I’m sorry,” Carver repeated.
“You already said that,” Peter said, curt and upset. He glanced at Carver to see if he was offended, but he just looked sad and constipated.
Peter couldn’t believe that just a few hours ago he’d been having kinky sex with Tex. He felt like an idiot for how fast he’d given up and given in to their desires. They’d bought him to be their little sex toy, and he’d just lain down on his back andliterallylet them step all over him.
But what did he have to gain from resisting? He was stuck with them, and was it really so bad if he ignored how he ended up with them?
Could he pretend?
It didn’t feel like a way to start a healthy relationship. Anything that he built with the two werewolves would be tainted, regardless of what story they presented to the world.
“Are you okay?” Carver asked, tentatively reaching out and squeezing Peter’s shoulder. The expression on his face was still brooding and serious, but Peter was beginning to realize that that was just his default expression.
Peter didn’t flinch away from Carver’s grip, though he felt like maybe he should.
“I don’t know,” he said, staring down at the black screen of the iPad still cradled on his lap. “I don’t think I’ve really processed everything that’s happened this past week. I just… I didn’t expect to be matched so fast.”
Purchased so fast, Peter meant, though he didn’t say it.
“You know that you can say no to Tex, right?” Carver said, changing the subject. “I know that he can be very pushy, but if you tell him to back off, he will.”
Would he? Peter didn’t doubt that Tex would let up in the moment, but he didn’t get the impression that Tex would stop pushing. How much could Peter say no before Tex—and Carver for that matter—stopped playing nice?
Peter didn’t want to find out.
