Bianca didn’t miss the emphasis on the wordunbonded, or the condescension in Alicia’s tone. After Pack Rhodes had chosen their mate, Alicia had told her millions of followers on social media that she’d known all along they were in love with Serenity. As an old family friend of Remy’s, she claimed to have been playing along to distract the public while the pack courted the unknown omega.
In reality, however, Alicia had been every bit as furious and offended by Pack Rhodes’s snub as Bianca had. They’d both wanted to believe that Serenity was Remy’s cousin, rather than a nobody the pack had inexplicably fallen for. Alicia had thrown a tantrum and threatened to drag Pack Rhodes on social media, until she and Sebastián St. James managed to come to an agreement that made her look good.
Soon after, Alicia had accepted an offer from another pack that had frequented Pack Rhodes’s mating parties. Pack Bertram had beenpursuing Serenity in hopes of gaining a connection with the prestigious Rhodes family. Alicia had been a nice consolation prize for the boring pack of upstarts. But, unlike the omega influencer, her mates had no respectable familial legacies. What they did have was a lot of new money.
“Yes, well, I’ll only require security services until I’m mated, then I’ll be as safe and happy as you are, Alicia,” Bianca replied snidely. “I wonder if I’ve been looking in the wrong places. Perhaps I need to get out more. You and Pack Rhodes found your perfect matches outside of our sphere.”
Alicia reddened. She wasn’t as fair skinned as Bianca, but her light golden-brown complexion still showed her anger and embarrassment all too well. Dawn hid her smile in her drink.
“I heard youhavebeen getting out more,” Alicia shot back, a little too loudly. “Didn’t you go dancing at Nocturne with Chloë’s brother last weekend?”
Bianca stiffened as the other women shifted their attention back to her like they were watching a particularly captivating tennis match. A few of the omegas at nearby tables were eavesdropping now as well. This kind of gossip was the whole reason they came to these brunches.
“Chloë Clifton-Merriwether?” asked Dawn innocently. “Her only adult brother lives down south with relatives, but he’s an omega not an alpha.”
“I heard they sent him away when he revealed, but he periodically visits the family’s properties in major cities, spends a lot of money, parties, and makes a spectacle of himself,” Alicia added, cutting her eyes at Bianca. “Not exactly the type of person likely to help you find a reputable mate, if you don’t mind me saying so.”
As it turned out, Bianca did mind. Her blood boiled, but she kept her eyes and voice ice cold. She’d had more fun with Callum in one nightthan she’d ever had with any of these thirsty bitches. And he was a damn sight easier to have a conversation with.
“Luckily, I don’t need Callum’s help. Our friendship is already proving much more gratifying than expected. He’s amusing, well-bred, and not the least bit pretentious. Such rare traits. I find it refreshing.” Bianca paused, holding Alicia’s gaze before flicking her attention to her phone in a practiced gesture. “If you’ll excuse me, I need to take this call.”
Bianca stood, putting her phone to her ear and stalking from the room. There was no call, of course, but she powered on her phone as Daniel fell into step behind her, one brow lifted curiously. Before she could think better of it, Bianca texted Callum.
Still want to go shopping? I finished up early.
Chapter nine
Callum
Callum tried not to be too disappointed by Bianca's silence.
Unfortunately, he was used to being disappointed in people. Though he'd never had much trouble making friends or finding lovers, maintaining those relationships was another matter entirely. It was so easy for people to be attracted to his money, looks, or scent, only to lose interest when they realized his family's wealth didn't extend to him, beyond an allowance generous enough to keep up appearances and keep him quiet. When they found out he was more than just a party boy looking for temporary fun, they quickly extricated themselves from any blossoming situationships.
Callum didn’t know how to do things by halves, so he tended to put way more energy into others than they put into him. He wouldn’t call it love bombing, exactly. More like love confetti. Fun but messy.
Inevitably, he’d end up hurt and disappointed, haunted by the ever-present specter of his loneliness. Callum spent far more time alone than he would've liked. It didn’t matter if he was at the southern estate or vacationing in the city. He still woke up alone.
He didn’t know why that bothered him so much. It wasn’t like he didn’t have people who loved him. Growing up at the country estateof distant relatives wasn't as terrible as he sometimes made it sound. His home was gorgeous, his private education was top notch, and his guardians were good people. The third cousin twice removed who'd taken him in was a feisty old omega he called Aunt Dolly, since it seemed absurd calling a woman her age his cousin. She'd seen a lot of shit in her lifetime, and had survived a loveless but lucrative first mating, before retiring to an opulent home on the Savannah River near the plantations where she’d grown up among her Merriwether kin. Before Callum moved in, she lived quietly with her longtime lady’s maid, a sweet-faced old beta who the family pretended not to know was the true love of her life.
Aunt Dolly and Irene liked having Callum around to keep them company. They let him be himself and nurtured the same flair that had so horrified his parents. Even after he’d come of age, they made it clear that their home was his forever. They welcomed him back whenever he returned from cabin-fever-fueled shenanigans in some big city and made him regale them with tales of his exploits over expensive wine and Irene’s homemade kimchi mac and cheese. It was his favorite comfort food, one of many recipes the tenderhearted old beta had mastered in an effort to give him a taste of both halves of his heritage. It was far more than his Korean mother or his Black fathers had bothered to do.
Aunt Dolly and Irene also told him hard truths, which is partly why Callum had accepted his parents’ invitation back to Smyrna City. They’d said, in no uncertain terms, that it was time to get off of his bullshit.
“You’re never gonna be happy vacillating between us old biddies and big city lights,” Aunt Dolly had said matter-of-factly over breakfast when he’d gotten the text declaring his exile lifted. “You’ve been doing that shit long enough. That dog won’t hunt. Time to put it down.”
Irene had looked scandalized. “Dorothy Jean, I do declare you can be so vulgar for a well-bred woman! What Dolly means to say, sugar, is that we all know this ain’t the life you want. This is your home and will be for the rest of your life, whenever you want it, but it ain’t what you need right now.”
Aunt Dolly had covered his hand with hers, her mahogany skin crisscrossed with wrinkles but her grip firm and steady. “I found my forever a long time ago but couldn’t be with her until we’d survived decades of bullshit. I don’t want that for you. I want you to live every moment on your own terms.”
Irene’s eyes had gone all shiny, and Aunt Dolly rolled hers, though Callum saw her take her partner’s hand beneath the table. They were opposites in so many ways, Aunt Dolly thin and hard-edged while Irene was round and unfailingly kind, but they were perfect for one another. They were probably at least forty percent to blame for Callum’s hopeless romantic streak.
Irene smiled at him as she dabbed at her eyes. “You’ve got a lot of happy years in front of you, Cal. Go figure out how you want to spend them and who you want to spend them with. We’ll be here with the wine and kimchi mac waiting to hear all about it.”
“I can’t wait to annoy you about grandbabies,” Aunt Dolly added, sitting back in her chair and crossing her arms. “I call dibs on their first Christmas. I look forward to arguing with your in-laws about it. It’s been entirely too long since I’ve had anyone to antagonize. You and Irene are far too agreeable.”
Returning to his hometown was an intimidating prospect. Callum had long accepted that he would never be the man his parents wanted him to be. He hadn’t been the least bit surprised when he’d revealed as an omega. In fact, he thought he might’ve even manifested it, given howlittle he actually wanted to be an alpha—or at least not the kind of alpha his parents expected from the heir apparent to the Clifton-Merriwether empire.
It'd been a massive relief when Chloë had come along and been everything he wasn’t: obedient, interested in the family shipping business, tech savvy, and willing to entertain their parents’ conservative ideals. She’d taken the pressure off of him and been the only person before Dolly and Irene who gave him space to be himself.
