Page 24 of Broken Arranged Mate
“This ismywedding,” I growl. “Pretty sure that makes it my business—”
“I’ve missed this.”
Raegan snaps her mouth shut, and we both turn to look at our mother, who’s sitting on the sofa quietly, a single tissue pressed up under her eyes.
Without asking, we know what she means—she misses my sister and me being able to argue about something trivial. She misses being with her children, together, not with me off in an enemy territory.
While I was gone, she couldn’t even be sure if I was alive. Her only solace was my father’s anger at my disappearance—a sign that, perhaps, he hadn’t managed to murder me, after all.
“Oh,Mom,” Raegan immediately slides her phone into her pocket and goes to our mother, dropping onto the sofa beside her and wrapping her arms around her neck. “I love you.”
Mom says nothing, but when her eyes meet mine, I see in them a shimmer that wasn’t there before. Like she’s coming back into herself.
Oblivious to the moment that’s happening, the consultant strides back into the room, tapping a large screen and putting up his drawing on the board.
Even I have to admit, it’s a pretty good likeness to me. And if the suit comes out the way he’s drawn it, it’s going to make me look pretty fucking good.
“It’swonderful,” my mom breathes.
“I’ll take it,” I say to the consultant, then, “think you can make it happen in just a few weeks?”
Chapter 14 - Ash
“Ash.”
Oren’s voice booms through the work tower, bouncing off the walls and layering over the music I have playing. He’s furious, which I see from the moment I turn around and watch him barrel through the doorway at the top of the stairs. I have a paint roller in my hand, which I set back in the tray to keep from dripping on the floor, which we’ve just finished sanding.
“Itoldyou not to come out here—”
“Hey, man,” Aidan shoots me a look, then sidles out, raising his hand at the alpha leader glowering in the doorway.
Oren looks between the two of us for a moment, then his shoulders start to relax.
“I’m not alone,” I say, gesturing at Aidan with a paint-covered hand. “See?”
Oren bristles. “The deal is that you would tell me you were coming. You can’t just choose to bring someone else and think it’s going to be okay.”
“I can do whatever I want, actually,” I return, scowling at him. “I texted you about it last night, and you said you wouldn’t have time today.”
I didn’t think it was possible, but Oren’s frown gets even deeper. “What part of that makes you think you should come here anyway?”
“The part where this venue has to be ready for a party, and—”
“I, uh—” Aidan clears his throat, dropping his paint brush into the tray and doing little finger guns toward the door. “I’m just gonna go, leave you guys to it.”
Oren glares at him as Aidan scoots by, but says nothing. Aidan, in return, flashes him a shit-eating grin, then slips through the doorway and takes the stairs down, it sounds, two at a time.
I expect Oren to launch back into his chastising, but instead, he just draws one of his large hands over his face, picks up the brush that Aidan abandoned, and looks around until he finds the last spot Aidan was outlining for me.
“Uh,” I stand stupidly, watching as he crouches down, dips the brush in the paint. I’m not used to this—with an alpha leader who is also my brother, I’ve received my share of hour-long lectures on my behavior. The last thing I was expecting was for Oren to drop it completely. “Are you good?”
He glances at me, then lets out a little, sardonic laugh. “Good at what?”
For some reason, the sound of that sends a little shiver down my back, and I bite my tongue, hoping he didn’t see the way I reacted to it.
I know precisely how good he is at some things, but he’s made it clear he doesn’t want to talk about it. Wants to act like it never even happened at all.
“No, just—you dropped that pretty quick.”
