I glanced around the restaurant. None of them were in sight. They must have been removed after the disturbance, but I’d stopped paying attention when Kiara’s heat had hit.
An arm draped around my shoulder and I stiffened, Tobias’ scent cloying and irritating to my nose. My attempt to shrug him off was stopped. I could do it if I needed to—I was an alpha, and he wasn’t. I decided to wait and see what his game was, though.
“I wasn’t expecting you tonight, Edith,” Tobias said casually.
My mother glared, but there was that same fear and desperation lingering in her expression. Her dealings with the Connolly family were sending her into a spiral. One that was a long time coming, I imagined. It had to have been in the works for a while, if she owed the criminals everything our family owned.
“I needed to make sure my daughter was behaving.”
“She was not, it seems.”
I growled, hating being treated like a child. My instincts were raging at me to follow Kiara. Through our bond I felt her desire, and I knew it was the accompanying discomfort making her desperate. This may be the moment we needed, though. One more piece of information, and I could put the final nail in Tobias’ coffin when I went to talk to his father.
“You should have told us my sister was close to being in heat,” Tobias said. “That’s part of the deal with the Ashby pack. They should have bonded her by the time she hit her heat.”
The Ashby pack were still here. They’d hardly moved. Their scents spiked when Kiara went into heat, but that was a normal alpha reaction. Not one of them had tried to grab her.
I’d known already, but they definitely hadn’t made this deal. They didn’t give a fuck about her heat.
“We barely know the Ashby pack,” I grit out.
“This is an arranged mating. Were you under the impression that either of you had a choice?” Tobias said.
“My omega will not be spending a heat with a pack she doesn’t know and doesn’t want.”
“She will.”
Mother was barely contributing to the conversation anymore. She stood there staring at us. Glaring, really. At me. There was pure hatred in her eyes, the kind no mother should have for their daughter.
I’d always told my brother to get away from her, but I should have too. A long time ago.
A fight broke out on the far side of the restaurant. The lingering heat scent was too much for some of the more sensitive alphas, apparently.
Security guards ran over, and the few people who’d remained finally decided it was time to flee the premises. Our little group stayed still, and a grin spread across Tobias’ face.
“My sister is going to spend her heat with whomever I choose. That’s the way it’s supposed to be,” he said quietly. “She may have run before I could catch her—I truly thought she had enough self control to avoid going into heat in the middle of a restaurant—but she’s not going to stay gone long.”
I growled, the sound not loud enough to draw anyone’s attention. The fight on the other side of the room was getting louder, the alphas rowdier.
“I won’t let you take her,” I said.
He laughed. “I’m not going to take her. There’s no finesse in that. She’s going to come to me, and she’s going to ask for the Ashby pack.”
“No, she fucking isn’t.”
“She is. I know my sister, and I know she’s weak. The best way to get her to come to me, is to take what she cares about most.”
Our gazes locked. Tobias was thrilled, his pupils dilated. The realization dumped over me like a bucket of frigid water.
Me. What my bondmate cared about most… was me.
I jolted, trying to detach myself from under his arm. My aura pulsed, giving me strength that suddenly didn’t matter, because the Ashby pack was there. It wasn’t only Tobias holding me. It was three alphas. My best efforts to throw them all off didn’t work, and I locked eyes with my mother.
She didn’t even look apologetic, her relief obvious as she realized I was not going to get free of the men.
“Thanks for your daughter, Edith,” Tobias said condescendingly. “I’ll make sure my father shaves some of the debt off your tab since you’ve been so kind.”
“I wouldn’t have needed to stop her from leaving if you hadn’t shown up,” Mother muttered. “And my image is ruined.”
