Court gives us a worried look. “Is that good or bad?”
I run a hand over my face. “Good, I think. She’s known for being fair and honest. From what I understand she does a fairly good job of sticking to the approved questions. If Ren has someone with her who is aware of how things should go, she’ll be fine.”
“You think Ren has a publicist?” Grieves asks, sarcastically. We all know she doesn’t.
I shake my head. “No, but she has friends, right? Haven’s alphas treat her like a little sister, they’ll protect her if it comes down to it.” God, I hope I’m right. It helps to settle something in my chest the slightest bit to believe that.
Someone out there is taking care of my omega, even if it isn’t me.
Yeah, it’s just as soothing a thought as it is a frustrating one.
I should be the one standing by her side for this. I should be reviewing the questions, figuring out what she’s comfortable talking about and then relaying that to Heather and theproduction crew along with a warning about what would happen if they overstepped in any way with my omega.
Any. Fucking. Way.
But as it is I have to trust that they’ll take care of her when I can’t. When we can’t.
“Do you think she’ll talk about us?” Court asks anxiously and the rest of us give him a look. “What?” He snaps defensively. “She hasn’t wanted to so far. What if this interview is a way for her to tell the world what we did to her, what if she’s tired of being the bad guy. Fuck, I almost hope she does. Rips us apart and tells the truth about what we did to her.”
God, I think I agree with him.
She deserves to tell her side of the story. What a relief that she finally will.
Forsythe’s brow wrinkles though. “That isn’t what we should hope for.” He gives Grieves an exasperated look when the other alpha growls. “What? You know that’s not what we should want. We can’t afford to look like the villains here. Did we make a mistake? Yes. But we didn’t know she was our mate when we sent her home.”
“We knew,” Grieves snarls. “On some level we all knew who she was. We just weren’t brave enough to pick her. God, Sythe. One more night. One more fucking night and we would have confirmed everything we suspected at the scenting ceremony.”
“And we would have still needed to send her home!” Our prime roars, finally snapping. “Her life was threatened! The lives of her family! We couldn’t keep her even if we knew she was ours. We can’t risk her like that. Risk her life and her safety. Bloody fucking hell! What about that don’t you understand? If we kept her, something bad was going to happen.”
“Something baddidhappen,” Piers says quietly, but firmly. Not in the least bit cowed by the prince’s outburst. “Something bad did happen, Sythe. She recognized you. Her omegarecognized you. And now she’s dying. Just like you feared would happen. Only, in this instance you have the ability to save her.”
“Inanyinstance we have the ability to save her,” Grieves says stubbornly. “Her and her goddamn family.”
Forsythe’s jaw ticks. And normally this is where I would step in, try to smooth ruffled feathers, and help us all come to an understanding, an agreement. But I also need to push Forsythe a little, we need to get him to his breaking point. Not in a bad way, just so he realizes that there is more than his duty. He needs to be the one to choose her, not because the rest of us dragged him into it or forced his hand, but because he sees that she is more important than anything his grandmother might ask of him.
Florence deserves that.
Wealldeserve that.
For anyone else theirpackcomes first. Their omega above everything.
Forsythe was raised to believe that is not the case. Both his parents and his grandparents were only two person pairings. I know it was assumed that Forsythe and Elizabeth would do the same. Choose an omega of the opposite sex and ensure the Ashbourne line.
That was never going to be the case for either of the twins.
I’m not sure if they see choosing a pack rather than a partner as one of the few ways they could rebel against the constraints of their position or what. But they both started forming their packs when they were teenagers, before either of them had presented as alphas.
So I know in Forsythe’s eyes, he’s already stepped out of line by choosing us, and he feels the least he can do is put his family first, put the crown first.
It's about time he learned that shouldn’t be the case.
“Your grandmother is the one who told Isadora about Ren’s knee, mentioned what a shame it would be if she had her old injury flare up during one of the physical challenges.”
“How do you know that?”
“She told me.”
“My grandmother?”
