Page 45 of Star-crossed Betas

“The point is he wouldn’t be out there thinking you’re voluntarily marrying his twin sister? What the fuck, Nix?Icould tell him. He must be wrecked by this.” I sigh and press the heels of my palms into my exhausted eyes. Maybe if I press hard enough, I can erase the image of Cee's heartbroken expression from my mind.

“IfItell him or getyouto tell him, he will out my mum. He’s hotheaded, and he’ll react before thinking of all the consequences.”

“Would that be the worst thing? What she did is illegal. Shit like this is outlawed for good reason. She wouldn’t have pulled this crap if you weren’t her son. She shouldn’t get away with this.”

I understand Alice’s outrage; I do. But it’s more complicated than that.

“If it gets out what she’s done, she’ll be stripped of her title and expelled from the pack. My dad would then have to choose either to go with her, to stop her from becoming an omega, or to stay behind. Alfie is only thirteen years old. My mum isn’t going to win Mother of the Year, but he needs both his parents. I can’t be the reason he ends up being raised by his brothers. Jasper will be a father in a few months; he’s not ready to suddenly become the Alpha of our pack. I love Connor, more than I can even express, but I can’t ruin the entire lives of my family for him.” When I look up, I see now that Alice understands the gravity of the situation. She reaches over and squeezes my shoulder before taking a deep breath.

“I guess we better read some books and find you a loophole then.”

I’m so grateful for my best friend I could cry. Although that could also be the exhaustion, who knows. Her pragmatism gives me hope there may be a way out of this after all.

“So, in conclusion, there is no solution besides exposing your mum’s crime,” Alice says as she snaps the final book closed a few hours later. Fuck. There is nothing here to help. “Unless…”

“Unless what??” I ask, desperate for something. Anything.

“What if there was a spell to undo the Order?” Alice asks. It wasn’t something I’d thought of. My pack hasn’t had a witch for so long that we rarely turn to them for a solution.

“Who, though? If Nina Fenwick caught wind of this, she’d tell her Alpha.”

“The only other witch I know is Orla McNamara, and you can’t exactly ask her.” Since Orla is the Kelly pack witch, she’s a definiteno,but that does give me another, potentially insane, idea…

“I wouldn’t even know how to reach him, but if anyone knew a way out of this, it’d be Noah…”

“Noah?”

“Orla’s great-grandson and Connor’s cousin. He’s always refused to become a pack witch, so he’s a bit of a nomad. From what Cee's told me of him, he avoids getting mixed up in shifter business, so I doubt he’d spill.” Alice nods thoughtfully in response.

“I’ll give Nina a call, see if she has any contact details for him.”

Alice returns to the study just as I’ve finished putting all the books back on the right shelves.

“Any luck?”

“She gave me a number that went straight to voicemail, but she said she visited him a week ago to pick up some ingredients, and she gave me the address.”

“Where is it?”

“Got time for a road trip to Edinburgh?”

We pull up outside an old stone house around three hours later. It’s only nine pm, but the curtains are closed, and the lights are all off downstairs. As we get out of the car, we both tip our heads up and spot a light on upstairs, providing an ember of hope that Noah is home.

“It’s warded,” Alice says as she steps through the small iron gate ahead of me. Wards always leave a faint smell of burning rubber in the air, I scrunch my nose up as I pass through. By the time we’ve walked down the cobbled path, and my fist is raised to knock on the front door, it opens, and I have to do a double take. It’s eerie how much he resembles Cee.

“What do you want?” he asks in a strong Northern Irish accent.

“Nina gave us your address, I’m Alice Graham, and this is Phoenix Campbell. We need some help, and we ran out of people to ask.” Noah’s gaze rakes assessingly over both of us. Faintly lit by the streetlamp outside, he’s topless with two full sleeves of tattoos and more spread over his rib cage. He’s slimmer than Cee, but their facial features are all the same sharp angles. They look more like brothers than cousins, but where Cee's eyes are a deep, mossy green, Noah’s are a calculating, icy blue. Right when I think he’s preparing to close the door in our faces, he steps back and gestures for us to come inside.

Alice walks in first, but we both stand to one side of the hallway, waiting for him to lead the way. He walks past us wordlessly, and we follow him into a kitchen at the back of the house. With the flick of his wrist, the ceiling lights come on, bathing the room in a soft yellow glow. He gestures for us to sit down at the rickety kitchen table but doesn’t join us, insteadchoosing to lean against the counter with his arms crossed over his chest.

He must have shoved his jeans on in a hurry when he felt us come through his wards because his top button is undone, and he isn’t wearing any underwear. Heat spreads across my cheeks when he catches me looking and raises an eyebrow at me.

“Colour me intrigued. What might two Campbell wolves possibly want from me?” he asks, breaking the awkward eye contact.

Before I begin to explain, there are loud footsteps on the staircase. A moment later, a guy—a human guy—around my age appears in the kitchen doorway in nothing but a very tight pair of white boxer briefs. Noah seems entirely unphased, but the guy blushes when he spots us sitting here.

“Shit. Sorry. I didn’t realise anyone else was here. Should I, erm… go?” he asks Noah, looking over his shoulder towards the front door and back again. I try not to stare, but the guy is cute and has a pretty big hickey on his collarbone.

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