It took a second for my ears to come back online, but the sounds coming from the bedroom shocked me right up from the couch.
I was alone, thank the gods, and my cheeks burned as I brushed myself off and strode toward the door. When I’d been dozing, telling myself I wouldn’t fall asleep, they’d been starting with their uncommonly rough flirting. I’d assumed they would wait until I’d left before getting to the main event. Considering how shameless Freya had been with Caspian, I wasn’t sure where that assumption had come from.
In any case, I didn’t need to hear the grunts, groans, and sounds of flesh hitting flesh. Not when I was way too comfortable with them. I’d fallen asleep, for fuck’s sake. Originally I’d been pretending and trying to give off the appearance of being too trusting, to throw them off. I wasn’t supposed to actually be too trusting and fall asleep where they could have easily killed me.
By the time I’d shut the door to the suite behind me, leaving it unlocked, my phone had finished one round of buzzing and started up again. I pulled the offending device out of my pocket.
The upside of seeing Kylan’s name flashing across the screen was that it was an instant boner killer. My half-chub from the auditory porn deflated immediately.
“Cousin!” I greeted with a healthy dose of false exuberance. My feet took me down the hall toward the stairs. It was better if they didn’t overhear this conversation. “It’s been so long since we’ve had a chat.”
“Don’t act friendly with me.”
Kylan’s voice was flat. It always was and had been since I was a child. The two of us were about two hundred years apart in age, with Kylan being the older cousin, so I couldn’t say if he’d developed the emotionless tone over time or been born with it. I had always been of the opinion that he must have been born without a soul.
“Are we not friendly?” I asked teasingly.
“You haven’t been friendly with the family in hundreds of years, but you’ve also never done anything to interfere. Why are you interfering? There’s nothingyouneed an Omega for.”
Why did his deadpan statement bite into me? He was right. I knew I didn’t need an Omega, and I’d known he would bring it up when he did eventually call about her. Maybe it was because Freya was tantalizing enough for me to want her, despite not being worthy or enough for her.
“I haven’t the slightest clue what you’re talking about,” I said, trying my best to push all his buttons.
“The Omega witch you stole from me. Why did you do it? I’m not in the mood for this back and forth.”
I reached the stairwell and listened for other occupants, finding it silent from the top floor to the bottom. Leaning my back against a wall, I tried to remember my answer. There was a plan in place for this. The whole situation was throwing me off balance. “She’s pretty and powerful, and I’m a fan.”
“The Omega is mine, Nolan. You stole her out from under my subordinates to taunt me. Consider me taunted. This has been an embarrassment to the mafia, and my father isn’t pleased. Nor is yours. We will take her back and make an example of you, or you will give her back without a fight.”
He said it like it was so straightforward. It was supposed to be. I’d taken Freya to use her as a pawn against Kylan and to take down the family business that shunned and abused me. If it had been in my best interests, I was always going to return her to my cousin.
Having met her, I now knew I would only give her back over my dead body.
“I don’t see your mark on her,” I said. “She’s not yours.”
“I don’t need to leave my mark on an Omega to have her be mine. All I need to do is tell everyone who will listen that she belongs to me, and they make it happen. This is your last chance to make it happen, Nolan.”
“Nah, I think I’ll keep her.”
“You’re aware of what you’re doing, correct? Declaring war against your entire family?” Kylan asked.
“War, huh? I didn’t realize she was worthy of going to war for. You must really love her, cousin. Such deep emotions.”
The line went dead.
Kylan had a very low tolerance threshold for taunts, which was one reason we’d always hated each other. Even back when I was a kid and hadn’t passed the age for revealing yet, I’d always been a little shit. My animosity in adulthood was aimed with extra fervour toward him because I was jealous of him. He had everything I’d ever dreamed of. Alpha status. Respect from the mafia members and our family. Confidence in knowing he was right.
And what did he do with it?
Manipulated the AEA into leaving him alone to rape and kill women. Led the mafia into an era of using Nulls like cattle and supplying them with drugs to keep them sedated.
It may sound cocky, but I would have done so much more if I’d been given the power he had. So much better. I had to remind myself all the time that this was a blessing, ultimately. If I’d been given the gifts Kylan had, I would have ended up a far worse person than I was. Being weak and ostracized gave me the opportunity to knock down their walls.
Killing Kylan would knock the biggest wall down. The position as Clan Leader would go to someone else, and literally anyone in our family would be a less ruthless leader of the mafia and our clan.
My former clan. Not current. I’d been kicked out when I’d stopped doing their dirty work with Harbour Assistance.
Running my hand through my hair, I cursed and shoved the phone back in my pocket. I didn’t have time to be infatuated with a woman I couldn’t have, nor did I have time to flirt with her long line of partners. Maybe if I gave myself the reminder enough times, it would stick.
