Page 179 of Filthy Royal

DAMIEN

Scarlett snapped her mouth shut.

Damien let her off the hook. “It’s not even that I don’t care. I’m thrilled. When I realized what was going on between them, I wanted to throw back my head and howl with joy.”

Her eyes widened. “You did?”

“Hells, yes. If Stormhart was an Alpha who liked females, he’d have been all over you. But he wasn’t because he has strong feelings for your brother.”

“Very strong,” she confided. “Even if the two of them refuse to admit it.”

“Yes, and the fact that they feel that way about each other but still went ahead and had you join with Stormhart shows just how much they tried to protect you in their own way. Because Alphas are territorial, and it must have grated like hells for Stormhart to be so close to the one he loved but paired with his sister. And it must have torn Luc apart to see his sister with the male he wanted by his side.”

“You get it.” Eyes filled with unshed tears, she glanced away. “Do you also get that I did that to them? In their effort to protect me, to give in to Darvish and accept the prime omega contract, they gave up so much, and now”—she lowered her voice— “they seem so broken, so angry with each other. And that’s on me too.”

“No.” Damien pulled her close. “You’re way too hard on yourself, Omega. That’s not on you. You protected them too. Sacrificed too. Plus, they still have time to fix what’s between them. So do we.” He dropped his gaze to the fresh bruises on her skin. “But I’m going to have to do a better job because Luc’s right, you’re still getting hurt on my watch.”

“Damien, no. Now you’re being too hard on yourself. Don’t listen to Luc. He’s just an overprotective brother. These bruises are not your fault.”

“Feels like it.”

“You saved us.” Scarlett rose to her tiptoes and pressed a kiss to his collarbone, then the hollow at the base of his throat. “I’m still here and in your arms. I count that as a huge victory.”

Off to the side, Luc cursed once again.

Maddox scoffed. “You think that’s bad? You have no idea what I’ve seen. I—”

“This is, by turns, super sweet, amusing, and infinitely entertaining,” Anya announced, “but we don’t have any more time to waste. We need to move before another round of guards turns up.”

As usual, his sister wasn’t wrong.

The question was, where did they go from here? Luc and Stormhart seemed unwilling to leave without Scarlett, but Scarlett didn’t want Damien to kill them. That left him with only unpleasant options he didn’t like.

“We know a safe place.” Stormhart was the first to speak.

Luc whirled to face him. “You sure?”

Stormhart nodded. “It’s the safest option. He’d understand.”

“You think we’re trusting you?” This came from Maddox. “Not happening.”

Damien agreed wholeheartedly.

Anya sighed long and loud. “Why are Alphas such idiots?”

This time, Damien was less impressed by his sister’s insight and determination to share it.

“Anya,” he warned while, across the way, Luc and Stormhart growled.

His sister’s mouth was going to get her in trouble one rotation. Backed up by her overprotective brothers, she had a confidence few omegas in their galaxy possessed. And that was a good thing. But it also meant she’d never developed the caution—and tact—most omegas cultivated to ensure their survival, and that had caused problems before.

“No. It’s true.” Picking up the gauntlet, and his sister’s bossiness, Scarlett guided him back to where the others stood. “Anya’s one hundred percent right. We’re leaving here and going to this safe house. And it’s happening now so we can get away from these bodies, contact Maxheim to see if he’s found anything on those vids that will help us locate Darvish, get the incriminating vids from his collection, and bring Zaya home.”

She paused, her gaze boring into her brother and Stormhart before shifting to Maddox and then coming to rest on him, one eyebrow raised. “Anyone here think that’s a bad plan?”

Fuck. Him.

His eyes locked with Luc’s. The other male’s frown remained in place. “This place have secure comms access?” His shuttle did, but it was farther out, and that meant more time in the tunnels, which meant more risk to Scarlett and the others. Plus, Damien was itching to get to a secure location where his comms would work to find out whether Maxheim had discovered anything of use.

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