Page 113 of Juliet & Her Romeos

Benedict doesn’t answer.

I steel myself. “Has he said anything to you about my mom? Has he tried to saveher?”

“Ask him.”

I stiffen. “Bec, wouldn’t you be desperate to find your missing mom?”

Benedict flinches.

His honey smell becomes sharp enough to make me gag.

I nuzzle him, trying to comfort him in his distress. He’s shuddering, and his elegant fingers are tapping my back in a rhythm like he’s playing imaginary piano chords to soothe himself.

I drag his head against my shoulder to help him breathe in my pheromones better, and he begins to settle.

“Why would I want to find my Alpha mum? Ambrose spent years waiting until he was close enough to finishing his university degree and Masters in order to rescue me from her.” Benedict’s voice is muffled against my shoulder. “Please don’t send me back. I know that you’re a better Omega than me and the Chief Alpha’s first love, but you and me are soul mates too. It’s your right, but I’ll do anything. Don’t reject me and send me back to England.”

Benedict is panting now and trying to hide that he’s trembling with tears.

He thinks that I’m going to kick him out.

Has he thought that this was a risk all along but he still accepted me?

How fucked up is the system in England? And how much must Benedict love Ambrose that he’d go along with him selecting me, all the time believing that it’d mean being sent back to a family who clearly abused him?

Shocked, I hug Benedict tighter, trying to make it clear in my actions as well as my words that I’m never fucking letting him go. “I’m claiming you as well as Amby. You said it: you’re my soul mate. You’re Swan’s as well, right? Swan would tear out anyone’s throat who tried to take you away from us. He’s seriously protective. So, you’re not going anywhere. This is your home. I’d never ask you to leave it. And we’re equals, you got that?”

Benedict shakes his head. “But you’re not a bad Omega.”

My expression hardens. “Neither are you.”

“Some of the students, who my parents taught, would call megood Omega, just like Ambrose does,” Benedict says like he’s thinking hard. “I was meant to stay in the library out of the way. Rejects should be neither seen nor heard. That library wasn’t like this one. I hated it. Mum had boarded the windows. So, it was dark, musty, and lonely. But it was my room. It’s why I nested there. Sometimes, the students would sneak in and bring me pieces of chocolate. Once, an Alpha asked me lots of questions like why I always flinched. Then she slipped me a phone. I didn’t know how to use it. Mum took it away the next day and Dad beat me, calling me abad Omega. I didn’t see that student again. But Ambrose was the best of the students. He helped me the most.”

I’m cold with rage.

Rejects should be neither seen nor heard?

That’s how Benedict was treated in England?

“So, your parents were teachers?” I force myself to ask.

“My entire Fox pack were eminent music professors at Oxford university. All of them were Alphas or Betas, apart from me. I was a disappointment,” Benedict says in such a matter-of-fact way that my heart breaks. It’s like he accepts the truth of it without any doubt. Yet he’s a virtuoso. “I’m the first Reject in three generations. My parents took in foreign students as lodgers. Ambrose was one of them. He studied violin and composition. He’s excellent at both.” Benedict smiles, proudly. “But I could only hear him, when I broke the rules and crept onto the stairs to listen. I hate breaking rules but I hated missing him play more.”

“I didn’t know that Amby played violin.”

Benedict perks up. “He’s spellbinding. You should dance, while he plays. It would be beautiful. He composes ballet music as well. He’ll be a brilliant artistic director for the company. The Head Alpha sent him to Oxford to concentrate on those skills and lodge with my family for extra tuition.”

A thought strikes me.

I card my fingers through Benedict’s curls. “Of course, then Amby foundyou.”

“He discovered me breaking the rules again,” Benedict whispers.

I quirk my brow.

Perhaps, Benedict likes to know the rules but then, is happy to break them when he wants something enough.

My smart, cunning rebel.

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