“Isthatwhat you’re concerned about?” I asked.
Dad misunderstood my question. “I’m concerned about my son doing something that might reflect badly on me, on the campaign, on the entire family,” he said, approaching us with his puffed up, strongman stance.
I frowned. “You weren’t concerned that I’d gone missing or that I might have been in danger somehow?”
Dad flinched, like the very suggestion that a son of his might have been in trouble was absurd. “You’re not weak enough to be kidnapped or whisked off. Especially by an omega like that.” He stared at Quincy with a look of distaste.
“Quincy is a fantastic omega,” I said, gripping his hand tightly. “To be honest, we had a great time today.”
“Where did you go?” Dad snapped, pale with alarm. “Did anyone see you? Did the press see you?”
“No, Dad,” I said, building up my courage to take a stand. “We just…drove around. I…I went to an audition for a theater.”
Dad looked like I’d told him I went streaking at halftime during a Barrington Barracudas game. “You put him up to this, didn’t you,” he growled at Quincy, trying to intimidate him.
The sucky part was that it worked. Whether it was because he was tired from his heat or still raw from his breakdown, Quincy flinched back.
I wasn’t having that.
“Do not speak to my omega like that,” I said, positioning myself between Quincy and my dad.
Dad looked like he was going to explode. “Youromega?”
“Yes,” I said firmly. I pivoted to bring Quincy out from behind me, resting a hand on his shoulder. “Turns out that whatever algorithm the Dark Fantasies Club used to pair me and Quincy was spot on. We get along great. We have a lot in common and, well, I’d like to start seeing you,” I told Quincy with a warm smile.
Quincy’s expression lit up with disbelief and hope.
“No!” Dad shouted, shaking both of us out of the cozy moment. “Absolutely not. I forbid it. You will not sully our family name by keeping company with a feral omega whore.”
Quincy flinched.
“How dare you?” I demanded.
“I should be asking you that same thing,” Dad roared at me. “This?” He threw out a hand toward Quincy. “This is the sort of omega trash you decide to spend your time with?”
“Quincy is amazing,” I defended him firmly. “He’s a person, not an object. You will not speak to him like that.”
“And you will not speak to him at all,” Dad snapped. He looked at Quincy like he was a piece of trash and said, “Get out of my sight at once. You will never contact my son again.”
“Dad, stop,” I said, trying to remain outwardly strong. The problem was, my dad was used to getting his way, and he had some incredibly powerful tools at his disposal to make people’s lives, including mine, miserable if he wanted to.
“If it’s an omega you want,” Dad said, still worked up, “then your mother will find one for you. Half of the best families in our society have been asking about you for their omegas for years. You’ll have your pick of the lot.”
“I don’t want a high society omega,” I insisted. “I want Quincy. And it’s long past time that you let me live my own life the way I am most comfortable.”
“Comfortable?” Dad barked, like I’d spit on the graves of our ancestors. “You think your life will be comfortable once I cut off the money and send you packing? You think you’ll be able to get any sort of job at another law firm anywhere in this country? Do you have any concept of how dependent on me your life is?”
I did, and it probably should have given me pause, but for the first time, I could see something other than the life my dad had mapped out for me.
“I don’t care about?—”
That was as far as I got before the light touch of Quincy’s hand on my arm stopped me.
I turned to my omega, my heart racing. He looked so sad and so earnest at the same time.
“Excuse me, Senator Salisbury,” Quincy said, his manners impeccable. “Could I have a quick word with your son?”
I narrowed my eyes slightly, wondering what he was up to.
