Page 120 of Wicked Heirs

“Yeah?”

“It’s the sweetest and most caring thing I’ve ever heard.”

I made a s’more for Orpheus and handed it to him, and he told her, “I like X’s idea about your career.”

“My magical creations?”

“Precisely.”

“Maybe. I guess we’ll see.”

“What aboutExemplar?”Xavier asked her. He looked at me and Ore. “I mean, I know it’s a touchy subject, but I had to ask. I’m sure you two want to know the answer too.”

Ah, this was him trying to diffuse that whole thing once and for all. Tricky bastard. That was usually Ore’s schtick.

Sure enough, it worked wonders as she told us, “It’s not for me. Not at all.”

“Too many rules, huh?” Orpheus teased her.

“I do like to be my own person and do my own thing, yeah.”

“And you’re doing really well with that,” X told her.

“You’ve come a long way,” Ore agreed.

“A lot to be proud of,” I said.

She smiled in that sweet and bashful way that did things to me—to all of us.

“There’s something I need to tell you, Alena,” X suddenly blurted out in a very uncharacteristic way for him.

She looked at him expectantly, smiling his way and silently letting him know it was safe to do so with her.

Him and Ore exchanged a brief look and then X said, “You wanted honesty and the truth from Orpheus, yet I haven’t given you the same. And I’m sorry. I just wasn’t ready, I guess. But I am now.”

“You do realize that the truth I demanded from him was about why he’d had a hate-on for me, the thing that caused all the trouble in the first place?”

“Now the hate-on has become a major hard-on,” I couldn’t help joking.

Orpheus grinned, while X rolled his eyes, and said to Alena, “I know, but—”

She stroked his hair. “I don’t expect you to tell me your entire life story yet, or every secret you’ve ever had. You don’t need to feel bad for that. Okay?”

“I hear you, beautiful, but it’s about the trouble you went to for me. With the blood bags.”

She arched a pretty eyebrow.

He sucked in a breath, then revealed, “My father would have helped with it in a blink. No hesitation. I could’ve picked up the phone and told him the deal and he would’ve dealt with it immediately. But I need there to be separation there between us. I don’t want him close to my life here. I don’t want him to know that I’m struggling with the vampire.”

She frowned. “If he’s that supportive, wouldn’t he understand your struggle and want to be there for you?”

“That’sthe very essence of the problem. The lengths he’ll go to for me, to spare me.”

“What? I thought it was just about establishing your independence,” Orpheus said, as surprised as I was that it seemed to run way deeper than that.

“Yeah, to be your own man and all that,” I added.

“No. I wouldn’t basically cut my father off for that. He’s always been an amazing parent. We were close, so close.Butit became apparent to me that it had to change after what he tried to do for me.” X shoved a hand through his shaggy hair. “He delved into black magic to try to reverse the vampiric change.”

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