Edison’s growl filled the room, quickly followed by an overwhelming pressure that made the rest of us start to sink down into a bowed position.
It was rare for any alpha to use his pheromones to make others submit—it was an archaic evolutionary trait that was used in the times of kings and kingdoms to make their people obey—but Edison never feared reminding people that he was, in fact, the king of the Keane clan and people should treat him as such.
His alpha pheromones were the strongest I’d ever experienced, and despite knowing him for the better part of my life, it still never failed to make my skin itch with the need to drop to my knees.
The four alphas of Pack Ricci had even less experience with Edison’s overwhelming pressure and I watched the four of them slump forward until their foreheads smacked into the metal table in a chorus of bangs.
“Care to repeat those words?” Edison’s voice was low and dangerous. “I am letting you four sit in my home relatively unscathed after you disrespected me and now you disrespect my new wife and omega. The mother of my future children. So, I ask, would you like to repeat those words so that I can tear you limb from limb?”
There was a heavy silence before Dante finally managed to gurgle out a response. “No.”
It seemed the hotheaded alpha had finally met his match in my friend and Edison kept all four of them there for another beat before the pressure finally eased and they were able to sit up straight in their seats.
“Now you four will go back to Amante and relay my message: Peregrine Keane is mine now. It doesn’t matter how many men you send or what promises Ethan Chandler made to you. So take your pound of flesh from him and not me.” Edison stood, the legs of his metal chair squealing on the smooth concrete floor of the interrogation room. “My security will see you off of the property. I hope I don’t see you here ever again or I’m afraid we’ll have to use you for target practice next time.”
Edison turned to sweep out of the room, but Elio’s voice stopped him. “He won’t stop you know—Amante, I mean—he sees it as a challenge now. A temporary stopper in his plans.”
I frowned at him, having trouble wrapping my head around why it was so important to Alessandro Amante to have Perrie in the first place. Edison’s desire to find a woman outside of the system with enough knowledge to survive made sense. The scars on his chest could attest to that.
But why did Amante want her so damned bad?
Ethan Chandler’s political power couldn’t be that useful. Especially in the city where we operated almost unhindered by the local and state law enforcement thanks to decades of corruption.
Edison and Elio stared at one another, the former seeming to size up the younger alpha before he finally nodded resolutely. “I’ll keep that in mind. Now get the fuck off of my property.”
Stepping into the long concrete hallway, we headed for the stairs that would lead us back up into the main mansion and back to where the reception was currently taking place over our heads.
I waited for Edison to give his directions to the guards waiting at the top of the stairs before I finally spoke for the first time since I’d interrupted Perrie and Edison’s moment in the garden.
“Is it really okay to let them leave like this, Edi? They nearly made it into the venue and I think some bruises and a black eye aren’t enough to dissuade them or Amante from trying again.”
It was troubling that they had made it that far in the first place. It meant that there was either a hole in my security planning, or we had a rat in the team that I had personally vetted. Either way it made my stomach sour as we walked together towards the garden where the reception had been set up.
“For now, it will be fine. It’s clear they at least don’t want Perrie enough to fight for her. We can deal with Alessandro Amante separately later,” Edison told me, his golden eyes measuring my expression which I thought I was keeping neutral. But I’d never been able to hide my emotions from him. “And I have every confidence you’ll figure out how they got in, Rhodes, it’s what you do best.”
He was right. I wouldn’t stop until I figured out how, or more likely, who had let them pass through several layers of security relatively unnoticed.
What I didn’t like, though, was the fact that the security team was made up almost entirely of the younger generation of the Keane clan, a group that was supposed to be in Edison’s corner entirely.
A rat on our side had implications for Edison’s plans that I didn’t even want to entertain.
Edison’s words also had another question rising in my throat and I grabbed his wrist to stop him. “Why are you fighting for Perrie so hard? I thought it was just supposed to be a contract marriage.”
Edison’s lips pulled up into a half-smile as he gently pulled his wrist out of my grip and instead slid his fingers through mine. “It started that way, sure, but I think I’m going to enjoy my married life thoroughly.”
Despite knowing that Edison and Perrie would be a fully-fledged married couple, all the way down to having children together, I couldn’t help the sudden thread of jealousy I was feeling as he spoke.
Before today, I’d never wanted him to reveal how our partnership had changed from friends to more. It held implications that the older generation of the Keane family would protest, and most likely, refuse to ever accept, putting Edison’s leadership on even shakier ground than it already was.
What was even crazier, though? I was jealous of Perrie, sure, but when I happened upon them in the garden with swollen lips and childish grins, I found myself wishing I was Edison. Jealous that he’d gotten to kiss the omega who’d basically taken over our lives over the past month.
It was confusing as fucking hell and I hadn’t had time to parse through my own emotions yet, but now they were bubbling up to the surface and were clear on my face for Edison’s ever-perceptive eyes to catch.
As if he could read my thoughts entirely, Edison cupped the side of my face. I started to pull away, realizing we were in the middle of the mansion and not in his room, but his fingers tightened as he forced me to look at him.
“Just because I like my wife doesn’t mean that I am going to like you any less. You’ve known how I felt since we brought her here.”
Then his lips descended on mine and I could taste the last bits of strawberry flavored lip gloss that still clung to them as his tongue slipped into my mouth. It was heady and I was nearly lost to it, uncaring that we were still in a place where anyone could see us.
We hadn’t so much as touched since that first night because Edison was too busy with planning the wedding and I’d been hesitant and kept myself busy, cramming as much as I could into each day so that I wouldn’t have to confront the impending change that was about to happen in our lives.
And I regretted it now.
It was easy to forget how much you craved someone until you couldn’t have them for three weeks.
And mix Perrie’s sweet strawberry scent into it? I was done for.
Pulling the man by the lapels of his jacket, I let him crush me against the wall until every inch of us was pressed together and I wanted nothing more than to drag him upstairs to his room and tear the tailored tuxedo off of his body. To give into the itch of need that always seemed to swell when we were away from each other for too long.
But then I remembered where we were and why Edison was wearing a tuxedo in the first place.
Giving him a gentle shove away from me, I pressed a hand to my tingling lips. “I shouldn’t be kissing you on your wedding day. You’re someone else’s husband now.”
I thought my words would hurt Edison but instead, when I looked at him again, I found the alpha grinning at me.
“Why not? My bride doesn’t seem to mind at all.”
Confused, I frowned at him and watched as he turned to look at something down the hallway. Following his gaze, I found a wide-eyed omega standing at the end dressed in a shorter version of the wedding dress she’d been wearing earlier, her lips half open as her eyes darted between us.
