Page 84 of Glass Omega

I knew he wasn’t, but it was nice to hear him say it out loud. No, if anything the other alpha seemed to be buzzing with glee over the fact that I’d finally given in—probably just like he knew I always would have, the bastard.

“Furthermore, with everything that is going on at the moment, I think we should continue to take things slowly and reveal the formation of our pack after New Years once we’ve solved all of the bullshit that’s being going on—”

“Wait,” I cut in, blinking with surprise. “Pack? What pack? I haven’t agreed to that yet.”

One of Edison’s dark brows lifted and he exchanged a glance with Perrie whose expression fell a bit. “I figured that, by you kissing my omega, that you were acknowledging that you wanted to be a part of our pack.”

I wanted to point out that Perrie had been the one to kiss me first, but I figured bringing up the semantics of it would still get me to the same place in the end.

As soon as Perrie’s lips had touched mine I knew that it was an inevitability that I would give in.

“I’m still worried about what the branch heads will say or do, Edison you have no idea what bullshit they’ve been pulling just because you were incapacitated. Can you imagine what they’ll do if you decide to break one of the core traditions that they still cling to?” I asked with a shake of my head. “Especially for someone like me.”

It hurt to say those words out loud about myself and it clearly affected Perrie too because she was sitting up in her seat and frowning at me. “What do you mean ‘someone like you’? Outside of the tradition, why should they care that it’s you? You’re Edison’s second-in-command, if it’s anyone itshouldbe you.”

Edison’s gold eyes met mine and he shrugged one shoulder as if to say that it was up to me to tell her about my past.

The desire to keep it to myself and keep Perrie looking at me the same way she always did nearly won out. When people knew about where I came from they either looked at me with pity or disgust, but never with open trust and attraction like Perrie was now.

“I’m the son of a whore,” I began with a heavy sigh.

“Sex worker,” Edison corrected like he always did when I tried to disparage myself and my mother.

It didn’t matter much to me as I had no loyalty or affection for the woman who’d given birth to me, but it made Edison feel better so I amended my statement.

“I’m the son of a sex worker and my father was a Keane branch member. I was never supposed to happen and my existence was hidden until I was nine when Edison’s father learned of it and needed a playmate for his son.”

Perrie’s auburn brows drew together. “But why would he seek out you to be Edison’s playmate?”

“Pet, what have you noticed the most about the men we keep close to us here at the estate?” Edison asked her gently, his hand creeping around her stomach so that he could pull her more firmly against his chest.

Perrie thought about it for a moment, like there was some sort of secret answer she couldn’t reach even though it was obvious. “That they’re all younger. There’s no men older than you two at the mansion.”

“Correct,” I jumped in. “A lot of younger Keane men died during the war against the Serbians and it forced the older generation to scramble to refill the ranks and even as they tried… there was a sudden rash of daughters born into the clan. Not sons. Collum is actually the closest in age to us and he’s still eight years younger.”

“My father believed that the best way to create loyal subordinates was to raise them alongside one another, but there was no one in my age group until he discovered one of his men had a child out of wedlock the same year I was born,” Edison explained, glancing over at me with warm eyes that suddenly took on a mischievous glint. “Though I’m sure he’s now rolling in his grave because said subordinate has had my cock inside of him.”

Perrie’s cheeks flushed prettily at his words and we both groaned when the scent of strawberries started to fill the space between us.

“Sorry,” Perrie muttered. “But I can’t control it when you say things like that.”

Clenching my hands together, trying to ignore the way my mouth watered at her scent, I continued. “The branch heads weren’t happy about me whatsoever, but without sons of their own there was nothing they could do but start to angle their daughters into the potential position of wife.”

“Which they also weren’t able to have because I’m here,” Perrie finished for me, all of the pieces suddenly clicking together for the omega.

“Precisely, pet, you were my final wrench in whatever cogs they were trying to build against me.” Edison gave her a cheerful kiss on the side of her head. “And my main reason for finally pushing to create a pack. It’s far past time for this clan to move into the modern era.”

“But you aren’t thinking about Sean at all in all of this,” I pushed.

“Sean?” Perrie frowned. “Who’s Sean?”

Edison sighed heavily. “Sean is my thirteen-year-old cousin, and technically, my heir.”

We both watched as Perrie shot straight up in her seat, her eyes open wide as she looked at Edison. “What? Why was I never told about him?”

“Because I barely even know him, Perrie. My uncle was in his sixties when he was born and died soon after and his wife is the daughter of one of the branch heads. They’ve pretty much cloistered him away since birth on the off chance that I kick the bucket and they can install him as the new head.”

I snorted at that. Chance had nothing to do with it. Over the past two years since Edison took over as head there had beenno less than twelve assassination attempts that were traced back suspiciously close to the branch heads.

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