“And how the fuck was I supposed to know that?” My heart was still hammering away in my chest even as my brain came to terms with the fact that she wasn’t dead—though the jury was still out on whether or not the woman was sane. “And why do you come out here and swim like this every morning? It’s weird.”
The question spilled out of me before I could catch it and we stared at one another, my chest heaving while Perrie stood in her pale blue one piece swimsuit, rivulets of water running down her neck and into the valley between a pair of breasts that I’d been doing my damndest not to look at.
I wanted to know what Perrie was running from so desperately that she swam like a bat out of hell every morning.
But all she did was shrug a shoulder. “Because I like it.”
“Bullshit,” I shot back immediately. “No one pushes their body the way you do just because they like it.”
Instead of answering me, Perrie gently pried my hands away from her shoulders and moved to the edge of the pool to get out.
I stood watching her from the center of the pool like an idiot as she wrapped a towel around herself and began to use a second one to dry her red hair.
“Why do you even care?” she finally asked, her gray eyes much cooler than they’d been when I pulled her up out of the water earlier. “What does it matter to you if I was actually pushing myself too hard?”
Her words confused me.
“You’re going to be Edison’s wife, why wouldn’t I care?”
That seemed to be the wrong answer because Perrie’s expression shuttered completely until she wore the same look that I’d seen on her face as she moved through the motions of her sham of a wedding ceremony to Pack Ricci.
Perrie tucked the towel more tightly around her torso, nodding to herself like she was holding an entire conversation inside that pretty head of hers before she gathered up the basket of things she’d brought with her.
“Have a good day, Rhodes.”
Her tone brooked no argument, but I’d always been a contrary creature. “Perrie—” I started to move towards the edge of the pool.
I didn’t make it in time to catch her before she slipped out of the pool gate and headed down the cobblestone path back to her tower, the light from the fountain illuminating her pale skin as she disappeared through the french doors into the greenhouse.
Pulling myself out of the pool with a loud slosh I shrugged out of my water-logged jacket and stared mulishly at the brown leather. It was definitely going to need to go to the cleaners after this. Great. Just fucking great.
“Uh, boss?” Collum’s voice came from the gate and I glanced up to find the guard looking at me with a mixed expression of pity and confusion.
There was never a moment where Perrie was alone in this place. Someone was always watching her. Protecting her.
I should have remembered that, and yet the sight of her face down in the pool had spurred me into motion faster than my rational mind could keep up with.
“Next time stop her after forty minutes of swimming,” I snapped at him before slamming my wet jacket into his chest. “And have Oona send this off to the dry cleaners.”
With that, I stalked out of the pool area in order to change before breakfast.
Perrie was ignoring me completely now and it was obvious to everyone in the dining room.
After changing out of my wet clothes and donning my second favorite leather jacket that hadn’t seen the light of day since 2012, I’d made my way to breakfast where Edison and Perrie were both already eating and chatting amiably.
The two meals a day promise had quickly been broken because now Perrie ate all three meals with us as she and Edison got to know each other better. But it also made the tension from what had happened in the pool that much more apparent.
Edison had greeted me like normal, but Perrie had taken one long look at me before turning her face away from me completely in order to ask Edison a question.
I’d tried to engage her twice only to receive one-word answers and it took me until the end of the meal to realize that the omega had completely switched up our dynamic and I looked like an idiot now.
“I have a meeting with the tailor for a final dress fitting, so I’ll be busy all afternoon,” she told Edison, though it was obvious that it was her way of telling me that there would be no self-defense classes today.
Edison glanced between us, his gold eyes dancing with obvious amusement and a little bit of confusion. “All right, I’ll see you at lunch?”
Perrie’s pink lips pulled up into a smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes before she got up and hurried out of the dining room.
Edison lifted a hand and gestured for the staff and security to leave, waiting until they were all gone before he turned to me.
“So, are you going to tell me why our future omega is icing you out?”
“Your future omega,” I corrected immediately—the words almost a knee-jerk reaction as I faced him.
Edison’s dark brows lifted. “Never mind, I think I can make an inference.”
We sat staring at each other in silence, both willing the other to speak first so as not to be the loser. It had been a game we’d been playing since we were nine and in twenty-eight years it was one that I rarely ever won.
Sighing, I gave in first, as usual. “She’s not ours, Edi. Hell, she’s barely even yours.”
The other alpha’s expression cooled by several degrees. “You know I picked her to be the omega of a pack. Our pack.”
“Haven’t you pissed the branch families off enough yet? Try telling them you want to go against one of the core traditions of the Keane family and they’ll revolt.” They’d been talking about it for years and after the way they’d thrown fits the other day in his office I was pretty sure they’d finally make good on that promise and stick his little cousin on the throne.
Keane men don’t have packs. I remembered Declan Keane’s words to me when I was eighteen and he’d caught me staring at Edison with more than friendship in my eyes.
I was lucky the man hadn’t thrown me from the family entirely after that and buried any feelings for my best friend deep down after that.
