Page 33 of Juliet & Her Romeos

Swan is going to get himself killed.

“Stole it,” Swan says, proudly.

“I figured, thief. When?”

“Pfft, unimportant.” Swan swaggers back to me, before dropping to his knees and holding it out to me on his palms. “It’s a gift.”

Suddenly, I notice the shift in his tone and the hope in his eyes.

My heart clenches.

We have no money. No way to leave the academy and buy anything. We don’t even have access to materials to make each other presents.

I wish that Swan wouldn’t take such risks to steal gifts but I appreciate it more than anything every time that he does.

This academy takes and takes andfucking takesfrom us dancers.

The owners of this company are billionaires. Olivia Romeo lives in luxury, while we starve.

This isn’t stealing.It’s survival.

“Thanks, Feathers.” I reach to cup Swan’s face. “Let’s share it.”

“I got it for you.”

“Perhaps, I’m an unconventional Omega who enjoys feeding her Beta too.”

He grins. “It’s your gift. You can use it however you like. But I enjoy handfeeding my Omega.”

When he holds the apple up to my mouth, I take a bite.

The fruit is sweet and crisp, making a satisfying crunching sound. I moan, savoring the freshness as I chew.

Swan watches me satisfied, before he takes a bite from the other side.

“We’re almost like ordinary people now.” He lounges next to me, holding up the apple so that we can take alternate bites. “Do you think that they get ready like this in the morning and share their food?”

I bite my lip.

Swan’s been brought up in the academy for so many years that he only knows what the other Betas tell him about life outside its walls. I don’t know if it’s harder for me who has lived an ordinary life or for him who can only dream about it.

I nod. “When we get out of here, we can wake up late, even sleep in. I don’t know, nine a.m. or something.”

“We could have pancakes,” Swan says, dreamily. “I’ve always wanted to try them with syrup and that chocolate stuff.”

“Binge boxsets, stuff our faces with ice-cream, and go to bars,” I list, excitedly. “You’d love dancing in a club.”

“Wow, all that choice though. How do people decide what to do with free time like that?”

I hum. “I don’t know. After my parents died, I had to get up early and do chores. Jacob was big on everyone earning their keep, especially Omegas with no Alpha to protect them. The whole ethos of the Cinders academy is different. The dancers there are encouraged to work out on the ranch. It’s austere with an emphasis on nature, hard work, and fresh air. Pretty much the opposite of the strictly regimented caged world of this Romeo academy, where everything is about technical precision. But back in the Cinders pack, I felt like a real life Cinderella. If it wasn’t for my cousin, then things would have been worse. He played with me and tried to make my chores fun.”

“Wait, the knothead who bullied Amby?” Swan takes a vicious bite out of the apple.

“Silas was trained to do that by his dad,” I reply, defensively.Silasis what I have always called Silvanus. “Plus, this feud between the families has been going on for generations. Cinders are taught to hate Romeos from the moment that they’re born. It didn’t help that Amby kept outshining Silas. As Head Alpha, Jacob gave his son shit every time that he came home with a lower grade or scored worse on the football field than his rival’s son. Why do you think Silas hated Amby so much?”

I both loved and hated the days at school that Ambrose did well…because it meant that he’d outperformed Silvanus.

At home, I knew that meant the crack of a paddle.

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