Page 37 of Glass Omega

Despite his reticence, I knew Rhodes almost as well as I knew myself and I knew that he was more than interested in Perrie.

The music ended and with it so did our obligation to be here.

Ignoring the calls of the vassals who wanted nothing more than to ingratiate themselves to me after the bloodbath at dinner, I gently tugged Perrie towards the door, my security team falling into step behind me.

“We’re leaving already?” Perrie asked, her fingers tightening on my forearm as we swept through the crowd.

“There’s no need for us to stay longer,” I told her as I felt Rhodes’ presence at my back. “Besides, I need to get my lovely bride to bed so that she’s well rested for our wedding tomorrow.”

The tops of Perrie’s cheeks flushed deeper as we stepped out onto the sidewalk and headed for the black town car waiting for us.

“I’m not a child, Edison.” Her words were curt, her full lips pulling down into a deep frown.

Slanting a sideways glance at her, I grinned. “I think I know that better than most, pet.”

With the way her body looked in that dress, there wasn’t a man alive that would think she wasn’t a fully grown woman. But that didn’t always equate to knowledge and experience.

She’d spent the better part of her first few years as an adult in hospitals battling a cancer that threatened to kill her. Because of that, she was more mature in some ways than the average twenty-two-year-old, but in others she was naive and innocent thanks to being cloistered away for five years.

Perrie blushed at the drop of a pin, but sometimes her dry sense of humor surprised even me, a man who made it a point to never be surprised.

Leaning down, I pressed my mouth to the shell of her ear. “It’s actually just an excuse to get out of here, I can’t stand these stuffy events.”

Every time I attended one, the memory of being a little boy in a scratchy suit rose unbidden into my mind.

Because my mother was never able to leave the estate, my father expected perfection from me, his only son.

I was to stand completely still with a fake smile plastered on my face as the branch heads, some of the very men in this room who still didn’t consider me their leader, pinched at my cheeks and talked in barely disguised innuendo about my mother.

Aine Keane was as beautiful as she was crazy and most of the men had tried to woo my grandfather into marrying her. But he had his eyes set on my father who, despite being twenty years older than my mother, married her when she was only seventeen years old.

One of my security opened the car door and I helped Perrie get in, my mind still on memories of times long past.

“Is he coming?” Perrie asked when I settled in next to her.

“Who?”

Perrie ducked so that she could see Rhodes who was still standing at the open door of the car.

“Him,” she pointed a slender finger at the other alpha.

“Me?” Rhodes’ brows rose with surprise.

“Him?” I pointed as well and watched as Perrie rolled her eyes, probably thinking we were both idiots.

“Yes. Now get in before I change my mind.”

Rhodes didn’t need to be asked twice, and in a blink, he was sliding into the seat across from us, the ghost of a satisfied smile on his face.

Perrie said nothing more, but settled in with her body pressed into mine, her eyes on the passing city outside of the window.

Apparently, she’d finally forgiven Rhodes which meant that I was one step closer in my plans to create a pack with them.

And judging by the way Rhodes’ dark eyes were locked onto the oblivious omega, I had a feeling I wouldn’t have to do much more to bring the two together.

Twelve

While I hadn’t seen any of the doves Edison had been muttering about last week, Iwaseyeballing the pair of swans that were currently waddling through the garden in front of me.

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