I turned to grin at him. Maybe therewasa chance that I could meet some alphas that would let me state my need for adventure in the streets of Boston.
“Hello, welcome!” My mother’s voice filled the entry hall as she greeted the first pair of guests and the rest of us snapped to attention, carefully curated smiles firmly on our faces.
It only took about two hours for me to realize that my brother had been incredibly wrong about the alphas who had shown up for the Gala tonight.
“You see, my mother really wanted a vibrant wallpaper in her parlor and all of the designers in the greater Boston area were not good enough, so I of course had to get her a designer from Paris,” one of Nicky’s ‘interesting fellows’ was saying as I tried my hardest not to look bored. I never thought that it was possible for one to fall asleep while standing upright, but my heavy lids were certainly trying to close as I listened to him drone on.
I was sure that he was talking about wallpaper in an effort to entertain me whilst also showing that he had enough money to bring a French designer to Boston, but I didn’t care a lick about wallpaperorFrench designers.
All of my interactions had been like this all night. Between dancing with alphas who smelled of all the wrong things, and listening to them peacock in hopes of scoring points with me, I was exhausted.
I wanted to end this conversation, and soon, or I might scream. Luckily I knew just how to do that. “What do you think of omega’s rights?” I asked, cutting him off mid-sentence.
The fellow blinked once, as if he hadn’t originally heard me, before shrugging. “I think that it is an alpha’s job to make sure that omegas are protected and it’s an omega’s job to be the emotional center of the home.”
“And if an omega wanted to work? Or didn’t want to bond with an alpha or pack that they don’t like?” I pushed, watching irritation spark in the man’s eyes at my insistence. I wasn’t sure why he was surprised by my words, I already knew that I had a reputation amongst polite society for being rather strange. The only reason I still had any suitors at all was because of my last name and all that came along with it.
“I do not see a reason for an omega to work when they don’t need to, and omegas are very sensitive beings so it is better for their families to help guide them to make the right decision,” he said, frowning at me.
That had been the exact wrong answer and I opened my mouth to eviscerate him with my words when an arm slid around my shoulders and I was abruptly turned away from the man. “Sorry to interrupt, Harold, but our mother is calling for Juneau now,” Nicky told the man as he led me away.
“What are you doing, Tot?” he asked as he led me through the crowded ballroom. “You have torn through most of the alphas in this room in record time, I think mother is about to have a conniption if you emasculate any more of them.”
“It’s not my fault that they are all so sensitive,” I said with a pout as we stepped into the entry hall and headed for the Pink Room which was blissfully empty.
“And they say that omegas are the weaker designation, well I beg to differ,” I finished with an audible snort as Nicky helped me to sit on the settee.
Nicky sighed, his expression clearly exasperated by my antics. “Stay here and take a rest, I’ll go and get you something to drink, and once you are done with that I’m going to introduce you to some more potential suitors. You need to pick at least one of them to court you, Tot, that was mother’s deal,” he said as he put his fingers under my chin to force me to look up at him.
I didn’t want to agree with him. Every single alpha that I met inside of that ballroom had been so verydull. There wasn’t one that had been interesting or flexible enough for me to even consider choosing. As it stood, I was fairly sure that I was going to end up stuck inside some rich alpha’s house, never allowed to leave and never allowed to have an opinion.
“Juneau,” my brother’s voice held a note of his alpha bark within it and my spine snapped straight to attention.
“All right, I promise. You don’t need to bark at me, Nicky,” I said as I glared up at him, angry that he had resorted to ordering me around when he knew that I hated it.
Nicky, to his credit, looked immediately guilty. “Sorry, Tot, I just worry for you.”
My shoulders slumped. I knew that all of their hen-pecking and worrying was because I was getting older and my heats were becoming harder for me to handle on my own. My next one was due to start in just under two months, and if it was anything like the last one, I would be bedridden for days afterward.
“Carter Jensen wasn’t horrible,” I finally sighed, surrendering to my brother’s pleading.
Carter Jensen had been one of the first alphas that I had spoken with this evening and hadn’t balked when I mentioned worker’s rights. Apparently he was pro-union and had even allowed the workers in his manufacturing plants to unionize themselves. He seemed uncomfortable about my questions about omega’s autonomy, but I could work with that if I had to.
Nicky’s worried expression immediately smoothed out as he gave me a pleased smile. “Jensen is a good man as far as I can tell. Let me run and get you a drink and we can find him together after,” he said as he hurried for the parlor door, shutting it firmly behind him and leaving me alone to my thoughts.
Over the past few hours the fire in the marble fireplace had died down, casting a low glow over the Pink Room. Outside of the windows I saw that the storm had picked up again and fat raindrops were smacking into the window, filling the room with therat-a-tatsound.
I leaned back, closing my eyes. The hairstyle which had been so lovely to look at earlier now pinched my scalp and was starting to give me an awful headache.
The sound of whispering was what finally made me reopen my eyes, thinking that someone had slipped into the room while I was unaware. But one glance around the dim room told me that wasn’t the case. Still, the whispers continued, only growing in volume.
“Hello?” I called as I scanned the empty room, my eyes finally settling on the one thing that was different in the room. The mirror above the fireplace was, quite literally, glowing.
I stood with some difficulty thanks to my dress and stepped a little closer to investigate. I realized with a jolt, that not only was the mirror glowing, there was also a steady stream of mist curling out of the bottom of the frame.
“How odd,” I murmured, stepping onto the hearth so I could examine it more closely. As I watched the white mist curl out of the mirror, I was filled with the sudden inexplicable desire to reach out and touch it.
I pulled off one of my gloves and reached out, a strange sense of trepidation filling my body as my fingers came into contact with the smooth surface of the mirror. The last thing I saw before blackness filled my vision was my surprised reflection in the mirror.
