Page 19 of Iris
“Jesus, don’t get the help fired—” I run a hand over my face and groan. “She wasn’t the help, was she?”
I tap my fingers against the table. “One mission I gave you. One. Deliver the butterfly pea flower sparkling, collect payment, and leave.”
he signs.
It is the official name of the flower, clitoria something or other, but he likes to use it because he thinks it’s funny.
“And got handsy? With a…?” I want him to say it.
“What’s wrong with you? A guest?” I knew I wasn’t going to like this. “Please tell me it was a rich Beta.”
But it’s all over his face.
An Omega.
“I can take that Tamara left Emmie. Left us. And sometimes, the allure of an Omega never fully wears off. I get that.” We like small pack mentality. There’s nothing like sharing a girl, owning her. I breathe in. “But Omegas are risky.”
“What if you got close, involved? Marked her?” I say. “An Omega could fuck up everything. Especially in high society.”
But my blood is boiling. Omegas, especially the rich ones, follow norms. They want an Alpha with money, standing. Fuck, even half the ones who still live here, in the Lower Side, want that.
Xavier might be more calculated, come across as unmovable and able to compartmentalize, but neither one of us is immune to pretty or our biology.
“Be careful,” I say.
He signs slowly.
Xavier doesn’t say courted or wooed her from us. He calls it what it is. She fucked him, let him bite her, and left us all in the dust. Some rich Alpha fuck who was twice her age.
Leave me, I don’t give a shit.
Leave Emmie, that’s another thing. We’re just lucky she’s young enough to not remember her. I don’t need her feeling that kind of pain.
“We do what we need to do, but that doesn’t include dancing with some rich fucking brat,” I mutter. “One that could cause more trouble than anything else we do.”
Xavier narrows his eyes and stands.
He stalks off, and I stay seated. I close my eyes and rub my temple, like a headache’s coming on.
Just a dance.
Tamara had rocked into our lives when we lived on the mainland, over in New Hadonia on the East Coast.
She’d been just a dance, too.
One that gave us Emmie, one that showed us how fucked society norms were. Because if she wanted, she could snatch Emmie, and no one would do a thing. Because she’s got a new Alpha with money and pull.
So we came here, under the shadow of the Council’s iron fist, a place where all the rules were stronger. A place where Omega girls are coveted.
