Page 30 of Glass Omega

“Next time stop her after forty minutes of swimming,” I snapped at him before slamming my wet jacket into his chest. “And have Oona send this off to the dry cleaners.”

With that, I stalked out of the pool area in order to change before breakfast.

Perrie was ignoring me completely now and it was obvious to everyone in the dining room.

After changing out of my wet clothes and donning mysecondfavorite leather jacket that hadn’t seen the light of day since 2012, I’d made my way to breakfast where Edison and Perrie were both already eating and chatting amiably.

The two meals a day promise had quickly been broken because now Perrie ate all three meals with us as she and Edison got to know each other better. But it also made the tension from what had happened in the pool that much more apparent.

Edison had greeted me like normal, but Perrie had taken one long look at me before turning her face away from me completely in order to ask Edison a question.

I’d tried to engage her twice only to receive one-word answers and it took me until the end of the meal to realize that the omega had completely switched up our dynamic and I looked like an idiot now.

“I have a meeting with the tailor for a final dress fitting, so I’ll be busy all afternoon,” she told Edison, though it was obvious that it was her way of telling me that there would be no self-defense classes today.

Edison glanced between us, his gold eyes dancing with obvious amusement and a little bit of confusion. “All right, I’ll see you at lunch?”

Perrie’s pink lips pulled up into a smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes before she got up and hurried out of the dining room.

Edison lifted a hand and gestured for the staff and security to leave, waiting until they were all gone before he turned to me.

“So, are you going to tell me why our future omega is icing you out?”

“Your future omega,” I corrected immediately—the words almost a knee-jerk reaction as I faced him.

Edison’s dark brows lifted. “Never mind, I think I can make an inference.”

We sat staring at each other in silence, both willing the other to speak first so as not to be the loser. It had been a game we’d been playing since we were nine and in twenty-eight years it was one that I rarely ever won.

Sighing, I gave in first, as usual. “She’s not ours, Edi. Hell, she’s barely even yours.”

The other alpha’s expression cooled by several degrees. “You know I picked her to be the omega of a pack. Our pack.”

“Haven’t you pissed the branch families off enough yet? Try telling them you want to go against one of the core traditions of the Keane family and they’ll revolt.” They’d been talking about it for years and after the way they’d thrown fits the other day in his office I was pretty sure they’d finally make good on that promise and stick his little cousin on the throne.

Keane men don’t have packs. I remembered Declan Keane’s words to me when I was eighteen and he’d caught me staring at Edison with more than friendship in my eyes.

I was lucky the man hadn’t thrown me from the family entirely after that and buried any feelings for my best friend deep down after that.

And then he’d nearly been killed by a woman while she was in bed with him—one he’d briefly toyed with the idea of marrying before she put two bullets in his shoulder.

Me and Edison had come together naturally afterwards out of fear of another attack when he was vulnerable. But we’d never talked about the implications of the shift in our relationship.

I just figured it was mutually beneficial for us. Edison got to scratch the itch of having another body and I got to be closer to him in ways that I always assumed would never happen.

Four years later and we’d settled into a routine. By day I was his second-in-command and by night? By night he fucked me until I saw stars and prayed to the gods for absolution.

Perrie coming into the picture had been an unwelcome surprise at first. A usurper ready to take away Edison’s affection and attention and an unknown in the perfect little world that I’d created around me.

But then she’d seemingly charmed everyone in the house—including me.

Keane men don’t have packs. How else could the head of the family be sure to produce a bunch of golden eyed babiesotherwise? It was archaic, even if it made sense in terms of inheritance.

But bloodline purity was the least of my problems right now.Keane men don’t have packs.

The words were on my mind as I stood up abruptly from my seat, making the legs of the chair screech on the warm hardwood floor.

“Apologize to her, Rhodes,” Edison called after me as I turned to leave. “You may be stubborn now, but judging by the way your nostrils flare every time she passes by, you’re going to regret being such an ass later on.”

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