The welling of unfamiliar emotion came over me. Again. Unexpected. “It’s not right.” For one of the first times in the past six years, I had a lightbulb moment. Technically, Dad had rescued Kirion. When I allowed all my anger, grief and resentment to subside, I understood why. It had been my own instinct to protect Cassius. Dad had the same exact instincts. The alpha inside me leaking out.
“You’ll never go back there.” My statement came out hard.
Cassius blinked up at me. His eyes flashed. “Can you promise that?” Then he whispered, “Please.”
“I promise. No matter what. Even if you break my entire hoard.”
His mouth dropped open.
I frowned, then followed up with a laugh. “I swear.”
“I can’t always tell when you’re being… real.”
I punched at my chest, still chuckling. “That almost hurt.”
“You’re kind of scary, but only on the surface.”
“Am I?”
Cassius tilted his head back. “Not anymore.”
“Why is that?”
“I’ve had some time to get used to you.”
“Same.”
“What? I’m not even a little bit scary.”
I pursed my lips. “In the way that I might feel I’m doing something wrong or hurting you, you are. Because I don’t know. And I’m still learning about myself, how I come across to others.” I paused, making a face. “Not very nice sometimes, I know that because one thing I do know… I didn’t give a shit. I don’t know how to benice.”
“You paid over eight million to take me out of that slave prison. And you’re saying you don’t know how?” He let out a tsk. “Maybe you just sometimes forget.”
“Yeah, right. It wasn’t even my money. I wanted something and after all these years I just called my daddy to get it for me without apology, without concern. Notnice.”
“I didn’t know that’s where the money came from.” Cassius looked a little worried. “But you still did it. And your dad gave the money to you? What do you think that means?”
I leaned forward, setting my bottle on the coffee table. I stayed in that position, fight or flight.
Cassius came forward on the cushion. “And did you just say you wanted… me?”
“Enough on this subject. Let’s order dinner and play games.”
Cassius watched me get up, his eyes following me as I moved around the couch and toward the door.
I called back over my shoulder. “Let’s do pizza.”
When I walked toward my living room, phone in hand, the air changed. The energy lifted. I could breathe again.
22
Cassius
I’d heard Malin say he wanted me once before. It was when Klonis led me up the hallway at Brimstone to Jonah’s office. I never forgot those words. But I also didn’t believe them. I was too paranoid, too convinced other things were going on. Plus, Malin had already made it clear he didn’t prefer omegas, least of all sets.
He had said it again just now when he admitted the person he called to get the millions of dollars Jonah wanted was his dad. The exact words were: “I wanted something. I just called my daddy to get it.”
But he didn’t want me. Did he? I couldn’t stop thinking about that the rest of the evening.
