‘Liar,’I signed back half-heartedly.
‘It’s not.’
I swallowed heavily, my mouth suddenly dry.‘Then prove it.’
It was the most I had ever challenged any of them before, and had it been any of the other guys, they wouldn’t have risen to the bait.
Nico was different, though, because within a blink his lips were crashing down onto mine and I realized that being able toinhale his scent floating throughout the room had been nothing compared to this.
Sweet watermelon invaded all of my senses as my insides warmed.
It had been over six years since I’d last been kissed and I couldn’t remember if it had been this hard to breathe before. The intensity of Nico’s seeking mouth seemed to knock the breath from my lungs and any coherent thought I might have formed to keep me from making such a monumentally life changing decision such as this.
As if he was following my mental train of thoughts, Nico’s firm, tattooed fingers gripped the sides of my face, giving me no out as his tongue slid in between my unrelenting lips.
Vaguely I could feel a sudden flourish of discontent and jealousy settle into my stomach, but it was soon washed away by the taste of sweetness from the dance of our mouths.
Then Nico stiffened and pulled away from me so abruptly that I was thrown off balance.
Confused, my eyes opened to find that Nico was looking away from me and talking to someone with a flushed but surprised face.
Turning to follow his gaze, my heart leapt into my throat when I saw that Elio, Dante, and Ranieri were standing in the doorway of the sunroom.
And boy did Elio look pissed.
His dark features were twisted into a stormcloud of anger that seemed to mimic the strange sensation gathering in the pit of my stomach.
My teeth ached and I pressed a hand to my mouth, the vague memory of me biting deep into Elio’s neck filling my mind.
Was this the bond that they had told me about at the hospital?
Elio had avoided me ever since I regained enough lucidity to understand what was going on, but now I could feel the bond as tenuous as it was.
When I was twelve a designation tutor had come to the house to teach me all about what it meant to be an omega. Of course, this was before my father had given up on me completely and written me off as useless, but I was still fully educated about things having to do with being an omega.
She had explained bonds as a firm tether between an omega and their alphas. It was meant to be strong—unbreakable even.
But the bond between myself and Elio felt almost fragile. Like it could break at any moment.
Was it because I was the one who bit him with my new freak-of-nature hybrid teeth?
Unhappiness filled me and I wasn’t sure if it was my own emotions or Elio’s.
“You know better than to do shit like this, Nico,”Elio was saying when I tuned back into their conversation.“We all agreed—”
Nico’s hand sliced roughly through the air as he cut Elio off.“Actually none of us agreed. You just ordered us to stay away from Cini and now…”
Then I couldn’t understand anything else he was saying because he turned his face fully away from mine.
Whatever he said to Elio, though, made the alpha even angrier and he stomped across the room in order to glare down at Nico, seemingly to forget my presence entirely.
“Watch your mouth, cousin,” Elio said, and judging by the way Nico flinched it wasn’t said very nicely.
All of the emotion radiating off of the alpha made me feel suddenly nauseous and I took a step back as if the distance might help.
While it didn’t do much to assuage my rolling insides, itdidmake the other two members of Elio and Nico’s pack pay attention to me.
Dante moved swiftly in between the two alphas as Ranieri blocked my view of them completely.
