Page 27 of Bliss & Her Idols (Pack Bonds Omegaverse #10)

“I should be thanking you.” Jin watches happily, as I devour the rest of the muffin, wiping the remaining crumbs from my lips.

“Since I’ve met you, I’ve been the happiest that I’ve been in years.

That I’ve ever been. I’ve never spent a heat with anyone or been treated like I was worth more than the money I could bring someone.

Hey, look at me. I even have one Omega on my lap, while I handfeed another one. What a playboy.”

Torin snorts. “You do have a bad boy image to play up to. You wouldn’t want everyone to know that you’re really a hyper golden retriever, would you? My good boy, anamchara.”

“Who’s forgotten the journalist now?” Jin challenges.

Torin huffs out a breath in frustration, pushing himself to his feet.

He paces from one side of the room to the other. He runs his hand through his hair.

Anxiously, I watch him.

I try to block out the fact that without my wolf clip, Cricket and I are alone here.

What’s the problem?

Should I ring Chase?

I still don’t have a way for any of us out of this hotel. I may have to play the long game on this one, as much as it will tear me apart.

I study the man who is buttoning up his diamond cuff links like he’s thinking about how to start a war.

Torin could be my way in to the private Idol music empire.

And then, how to bring it down.

Cricket reaches for my hand, and I take it.

He squeezes it twice.

I squeeze back twice.

It’s a silent signal between us, which means, I love you and I’m here for you.

I try to smile reassuringly.

“What does anamchara mean?” I glance between Jin and Torin. “You keep calling him that.”

Torin freezes. “It doesn’t matter.”

“Soulmate.” Jin tilts up his chin, defiantly.

“It means that I’m his . Charming, we’ve both broken the rules and said too much.

Our asses are going to be handed to us. So, why not at least be honest and enjoy the time that we have together?

Please, fuck, please . Do you know how much I love you?

How much I’ve been desperate to talk about this? ”

“As much as I have, I’d guess.” Torin prowls to the bed, grabbing Jin by the hair and yanking his head up.

“Loving you but being apart from you has felt like dying by a single breath every day. I don’t need to bite you to be bonded to you.

I fucking love you, anamchara. In Ireland, we believe that Betas can be soulmates.

You’re mine. If I didn’t believe in that before I was sent away, then I knew it was real as soon as I arrived in Dublin but felt like I’d left my soul behind with you on the Idol Estate. ”

Torin was sent away?

Beta soulmates exist?

In America, we’re taught that Beta soulmates are only a myth.

I don’t know if I believe in them. Yet the way that these two men are staring at each other with a depth of emotion that’s agonizing, there’s no doubt how deeply in love they are.

It would be like being ripped apart, if anyone separated me from my Omega soulmate.

Why would someone do that to Torin and Jin?

Is Torin not allowed to choose his pack either, despite being a billionaire CEO? Is it because Jin is an Idol?

Torin lets out a shuddery breath, before he slides his icy gaze to mine. “Now you know enough to destroy both of us. I don’t care what happens to me. But I’d do anything to protect my soulmate.”

“And I’d do anything to protect my Beta,” I reply, pointedly. “You don’t have anything to fear from me. So, don’t threaten me.”

I can’t tell Torin that the whole reason I was at the concert to start with was to rescue Jin.

At least, not without Jin’s permission.

I cast Jin a questioning look, but he gives a quick shake of his head.

Why doesn’t he want to tell Torin? How much loyalty does Torin still hold towards his Head Alpha, Philomena? His brother, Rory?

If Torin loves Jin, won’t he understand about the Idol trying to escape?

I keep quiet.

Disquiet makes my breathing speed up. My skin goosebumps.

Cricket squeezes my hand again, and I squeeze back twice.

I love you and I’m here for you.

I wish that I could do the same for Jin.

Torin lets go of Jin’s hair, smoothing it down. He sharply turns away, finishing the final button on his shirt.

Jin catches him by the hand and yanks him to sit down on the edge of the bed.

Torin looks startled, when Jin turns his seductive but cold Ice Dragon persona back on like a switch has been flipped.

“If even I can smell how anxious you’re making these Omegas, then you definitely can.” Jin’s eyes flash. “Don’t try and pretend that you’re not affected. You’re softer than I am on the inside. You just like to hide it with a harder outside.”

Torin arches his brow. “Like to test that?”

“Charming,” Jin’s voice gentles, “I know that you’ve been lonely and isolated. But things will change. Hey, they already are. Can’t you feel it? Things won’t always be this tough.”

“How are things tough for an Alpha billionaire?” I can’t help asking.

Torin’s expression immediately closes off.

I wish that I could kick my own ass.

“I’m a songwriter ,” Torin corrects. “Take a wild guess what an elite family like mine thinks about an Alpha becoming one of those or wasting his time learning music.”

I wince. “Not keen on the creative arts then?”

He snorts, crossing his arms. “In my pack, Alphas are meant to be all about the business. Money. Creatives are Betas. They’re commodities to be exploited.

” When he glances down, his thick, black lashes fan across his cheeks.

“I have a memory, a faint one, of my Alpha dad sitting me on his lap and singing with me. It may be false because I was only two year’s old when he died.

Maybe I made it up because I wanted a good memory of him.

I don’t have any of my Omega mom. I didn’t know her.

No one else has sung to or with me, apart from these infuriating but warm hearted Idols.

They sang with me all the time. You couldn’t get them to shut up. Especially this one .”

When he pokes Jin’s side, Jin grins unapologetically.

“Hey, you love my voice. And what do you mean infuriating ?”

Cricket chuckles.

Yet a sadness washes over me.

Torin is an orphan like I am.

Yet he barely knew his parents. He only has the ghost of a single happy memory and he doesn’t knows if that one is real.

I lost my own parents in the most traumatizing way. But at least I remember them. I know that they were good people.

Perhaps, they weren’t always around as much as some people’s parents are. Chase would babysit Piper and me, reading Piper bedtime stories and making sure that I finished my homework for years before my parents were executed.

I assumed that my dads were caught up in their company’s business. Guilt tugs at my guts that I resented that.

Resented when they were late to my birthday parties or missed school events.

But now, I know that they were risking their lives running the rebellion in the shadows.

I’m doing the same thing.

Yet they were juggling a business and family at the same time. I’ve always thought it must be impossible to manage that. Perhaps, that was why they ended up caught by the authorities.

Executed.

A tiny, guilty voice, right in the back of my mind, whispers that if my parents hadn’t had us three kids to worry about and love back at home, then maybe… just maybe …they wouldn’t have died.

Have I run from joining a pack because of that?

The fear that combining resisting and bonding with a pack will lead to my own death?

The death of my entire pack?

“What’s wrong?” Torin looks startled.

He pumps calming pheromones into the room. I hadn’t realized how fast my heart was hammering, until it begins to slow.

I take gulping breaths of Torin’s scent, desperately needing to steady myself.

“I was just thinking about my parents.” I let go of Cricket’s hand to wring the blanket in my lap. “They died too.”

I didn’t plan to talk about my family yet.

Especially not immediately after a heat.

The happy buzz that I woke up with is chased away.

If Jin doesn’t have access to electronic devices, then there is a chance that he won’t know my infamous past.

What about Torin?

“I’m sorry.” Torin’s piercing gaze meets mine.

“Are you?” I steel myself. “They were criminals.”

Jin looks surprised.

“Were they good to you?” Torin asks. “Did they love you?”

I nod.

My throat is tight.

I wish that I could shout my parents’ achievements and bravery to the rooftops.

They were heroes.

It kills me that I can’t.

“Then I don’t care about anything else,” Torin replies.

Shit, I can’t get a handle on this man.

It would be simple if I could see Torin as no more than my enemy. But then, he accepts the fact that I’m a Reject from a criminal pack like it’s nothing.

As if all that matters is that I grew up loved.

“Same here,” Jin adds.

“And here.” Cricket waves his hand.

My heart swells.

I will not cry.

But I want to.

My brow furrows, as an unsettling thought hits me.

Jin was trained since he was a small kid at the camp. The only adults he knew were instructors, security staff, and supervisors.

I bet none of them loved him or were kind.

But was Torin unconditionally loved like I was?

If his parents died, then that left behind his five older siblings, Philomena, Rory, Una, and the twins.

I know almost nothing about them. Hardly anyone does.

I lick my dry lips. “Also, I was lucky enough to have my brothers. They’ve spent every moment making sure that I felt loved.”

Torin’s expression becomes tight. “Then you’re lucky.”

Well, that answers that.

“What about your brothers and sisters?” This is more information than anyone has found out about the siblings who run the Idol industry. “What are they…?”

Unexpectedly, there’s a noise at the bedroom door, along with the overwhelming burned coffee scent of furious Alpha.

Out of instinct, I shove myself to my knees and growl.

Jin tumbles Cricket off his lap onto the bed next to me, before jumping to his feet to stand protectively in front of Cricket and me.