Page 12 of Juliet & Her Romeos

I can tell that he doesn’t believe me.

Is he jealous of Swan for kissingme? Or becauseIwas able to kissSwan?

He casts Swan a questioning look.

Swan nods.

“Funny, we’ve known each other since we were kids. I grew up alone in this academy, but you were kind to me.” Dimitri reaches out, resting his thick fingers around Swan’s elegant throat. My heart speeds up. “I do these things to help you improve. I want to get the best from you. It’s a type of love, you know?”

My eyes widen.

Love?

It’s fucking toxic.

But hell, Dimitri appears to believe it.

Swan swallows. “I feel theloveevery time that you forcibly stretch me, overstraining my joints and tendons. I feel theloveeach day that you overwork me to the point of collapse. I feel thelove,when you tell me that I’m a nobody, merely here to be molded into what you want as a dancer.”

“You should,” Dimitri growls. “Because you have my attention, which the other Betas beg for.”

“Then why are you angry now?”

“Because I know that kiss was real.” Dimitri closes his fist around Swan’s neck and lifts him into the air as easily as if he’s a rag doll.

The lift is violent and brutal. It’s the opposite of the fluid beauty, when Swan lifts me.

“Stop,” I scream in shock.

Instead, Dimitri drives Swan backward, knocking me spinning.

I let out a painedoomph, as my shoulder is slammed into the mirror.

I hiss. Pain radiates down my arm.

I catch a glimpse of my terrified face in the mirror. My lavender eyes glimmer with tears.

Frantic, I glance back across the room.

Dimitri slams Swan backward across the antique piano in a spray of dust and jangling, discordant notes.

Swan cries out. He’s going to have more bruises than me.

Hell, I hope that they’re hidden by our ballet costumes.

Dimitri casually pins Swan down by his throat, as he struggles. “Perhaps, I should simply break your legs.”

Swan freezes.

No, no, no.

That’s the worst threat to a dancer. It’d end his career.

“Please,” I beg. “Don’t.”

Dimitri casts me a contemptuous look. “Silence, Omega. I know my mom lets you have equality within her class because she seespotentialin you. But I don’t. I don’t care how good a danceryourmom was either.”

“Was?” I whisper.

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