Page 77 of Brandy Snap: Part Two
So, I sucked in a breath, meeting him with the same growl.
“Yeah, she paid me off. And I had no plan on telling you because I knew this was how you were going to react.” I needed to keep myself calm, but with Kai’s fear and doubt, Sin’s endless stare, and Caspian’s fury, I was getting fired up as well. “I know it’s not much to you, but if someone’s happy to write me a hundred-thousand-pound cheque, I’m not dumb enough to say no.”
I thought Sin and Kai would question me more because their doubt hung around us in the air. But both of them turned back, focused on protecting me rather than attacking me like their mate.
“So you just wanted our money, after all?” Caspian asked, slightly calmer. Though that might have had something to do with the way Sin and Kai were both blanketing the room in auras so thick, I almost couldn’t think.
I released a sigh. I wasn’t sure how much longer I could do this. And by ‘this’, I meant deal with the barrage of pressure that just wouldn’t stop. Every day something hit me, and I didn't know how much longer I could stay standing.
“Remember when I suddenly arrived last week with this bruise on my cheek?” I pointed to my face. “And none of you have asked what happened. I know you could see it back then. I made sure you could. Kai might have mentioned it, but none of you even bothered to ask. You still haven't.” I narrowed my eyes at Caspian. “And you especially didn’t give a shit. All you did was growl and end the night by snarling in my face. Exactly like you’re doing now. Do you want to hear my side of the story? Or are you just going to yell and make assumptions and threatenme until you’re happy, and then fuck off and pretend it never happened the next time you see me?”
Kai’s humour flared up again, though he didn’t take his hand from his hair pin. Caspian’s shoulders lowered, and he stopped baring his teeth, but the fire of his anger hadn’t dimmed.
Their suspicions were still beating out of them, and I was growing more agitated as the seconds wore on.
I folded my arms, glaring Caspian down as he pressed his lips together.
“So, yeah,” I said. “You haven’t really given me much of an incentive to share with you that your mum broke into my nest and slapped me before offering me money.”
The three of them stared at me in shock. I felt Kai’s heart tumble and the echo of Sin and Caspian’s feelings through him.
“What?” Caspian said with venom in his voice. “What the fuck did you just say?”
“Is this true?” Sin asked.
“Brandy, what the hell? Why the fuck didn’t you tell us?” Kai spun around completely, his hand dropping to grip my elbow, squeezing too tight in his panic.
I wasn’t going to choose now to snap at him about how he did nothing but watch when she’d first attacked me.
Caspian trembled, his aura whooshing out of him as he growled again. He took another step forward, but Kai sent a pulse of warning, followed by a burst of Sin’s aura.
And even though the tension in the room was suffocating, with Sin and Kai in front of me, I knew I could challenge Caspian—and win.
Sin
There was something particularly enjoyable about watching our omega fold her arms and confront Caspian as he hovered on the boundary of his rogue state.
It had taken Kai at least a year to grow accustomed to the sheer force of Caspian when he tipped over the edge.
I had to admit, the first time Caspian went rogue, it was such a deep shock for both of us that we were unable to be in the same room for a week due to the psychic damage that the state of primal fury conjured in him.
But she had yet to bond with him, so the effect was somewhat dampened.
Though Kai and I stood by her, both of us ready to defend her should Caspian leap for her, it did not diminish the strength of his aura, nor the pain it inflicted.
“Are you going to listen to me now?” Melanie asked him.
I still hadn’t forgotten that Melanie and Caspian’s parents had had a private meeting, but I rested on the fear and tension in her scent when I found her again in the ballroom. And if it was true that Zania had wounded her, then there was no way we could let this go.
Whether she was bonded to us or not, I could not forgive any harm brought to her.
“Will you tell us more about this?” I asked, softening my tone, lifting my thumb to brush her cheek where her faded bruise used sat.
She took a shuddering breath, and Kai was instantly there, wrapping his arms around her without hesitation.
Her anger and grief burned through her scent, and I glared at Caspian, whose teeth remained bared, despite her obvious distress.
“I don’t know if you’ll even believe me,” she said. “It feels as if Kai is the only one who knows what Zania is really like.”
