Page 16

Caspian

I perched at the bottom of the stairs of Sin’s family’s townhouse. Camille’s light voice travelled from her bedroom above me as I fought with my guilt, trying to force myself to go up there and see her.

Kai was already up in her room, and I was just waiting for Sin to arrive because I was too much of a pussy to look Camille in the eye and tell her we’d found another scent match. That a female omega had burst into our lives and fucked up everything beyond fucking repair.

Camille was having an off day. Basically, it wasn’t serious enough that she needed treatment from her resident doctor, but she wasn’t well enough to get up and walk around the house.

Which meant I could hide, and feel even more shit about the fact Mel was still haunting me with her fucking scent.

The front hall of Sin’s family’s pack house was big enough to be used for parties, with white and black tiles spread over forty square metres, dark wood panelling, and simple minimalist art on the walls.

Nothing like my parents’ bullshit.

A long staircase hugged the right side of the room, with a plush forest green carpet that was perfect for sitting on and avoiding responsibilities.

Like telling the woman I’d been in love with for half my life that we'd met someone else.

I sighed, dropping my head, running my fingers through my hair.

Mel wasn’t even supposed to be our scent match anymore. She had given us the easy way out, but Kai had fucked it all up.

Even after the rejection, I still couldn’t get Mel out of my fucking head. And I was going to have to face Camille and tell her the truth, even after everything we’d been through to be together.

Camille and I had waited years to be pack. Literally. Since we were twelve, we’d promised each other we’d be scent matches, exactly like teenagers did. Even though I always felt like something was off.

But I wanted to be with her so badly that I ignored it, and we stayed together throughout our teens. We went on dates, we promised to love each other forever, and we even lost our virginity together. Everyone was sure we would be mates.

But then that day, when we were sixteen. The worst fucking day of my life when the two of us were out by my family’s boating lake on our country estate.

It wasn’t even her fault, no matter what she insisted.

Camille slipped on a rock as we walked by the side of the lake. I reached out to grab her, to stop her falling, but I was a fucking idiot. Because, instead of pulling her back, I lost my balance, and we both tumbled in.

I was the one who hit my head and got a concussion as I floated to the surface, and she nearly drowned because I didn’t pull her out fast enough. Her dress became tangled in the weeds at the bottom of the lake and she was trapped, struggling underwater.

She passed out before they rescued her, and she stayed unconscious for a week. She didn’t have to endure the accusations because a gardener swore he saw me push her in. Even though I asked him why he didn’t help us, it was all lost under the chaos of Camille’s coma.

It didn’t matter that we both said it was an accident, because Camille never recovered. Both sets of parents lost their shit, and they kept me away from her for three months because they thought it would be better for us to separate.

And that was over twelve years ago.

Kai’s biting laugh tugged at my ear, and I already knew what they were talking about.

I groaned, smacking my head right there in the fucking hallway to calm down the guilt pulsing in my chest.

It had fucking devoured me every day since the accident years ago, but it wasn’t as bad as when Sin and I scent-matched with Kai and I had to admit that I’d fallen in love with another omega.

As the eldest of us, Lily presented first. My older sister still lorded that one over us. Then Sin presented as an alpha at nineteen, his soft vanilla a total fucking contrast to his stuck-up dickhead personality.

Camille presented a year later, and she became so ill that she had to stay in seclusion. I could only see her once a week, and even that was too much for her.

But scenting Camille and Sin together was like a pure shot of serotonin.

And the whole family—no, even the fucking press had waited for me to present with bated breath.

Fuck, did it drag on, though. Months and months of waiting. Even though I was the same age as Camille, it still took another year. We were worn out with expectation by the time it finally hit me.

Every time I could, I’d go to Camille’s room, we’d lean down, scent each other, and I got to watch her disappointment that I hadn’t become the alpha she needed me to be.

And now I sat, stuck on the stairs, my eyes fluttering closed at the memory. Because, back then, I couldn’t admit to her that something was different after Sin presented.

That there were glances between us when she wasn’t looking, and an awareness I’d tried so fucking hard to ignore.

He was such an asshole back then, as well. A strait-laced alpha to everyone on the outside and a horny fucking bastard behind closed doors.

He’d even hit on me once. Straight after my nineteenth birthday, pulled me into a dining room and kissed me until I was so fucking hard that I had to shove him off of me or we would have ended up fucking.

I didn’t talk to him for a month after that.

I refused to even be in the same room as him.

Until I presented.

I mean, we all knew I was going to be an alpha. I was bigger than most of my dads by the time I was seventeen.

But as soon as my scent appeared, I knew. I fucking knew what was going to happen the moment I stepped into their house.

It was a week before Camille came to find me. Mum had ratted me out, and both Camille and Sin turned up for afternoon tea, and that’s where it happened.

Where I scent-matched with Sin.

That was what had been hounding me for years since the match. I’d promised Camille I would be hers, and I couldn’t keep it.

Because Camille and I weren’t a match. We were never a match. We were never meant to be mates.

Because her haughty-as-fuck older brother’s vanilla scent went so fucking perfectly with my salted caramel that it was obvious we were made for each other.

We could have rejected each other. We’d pissed each off so much that it was the obvious answer. And it would have been fine if we hadn’t both gotten drunk one night and exchanged bites like absolute morons.

And I couldn’t even bring Camille into the pack, because I never wanted to put them both through the hell of her being in heat while Sin was in rut, and both of them absorbing each other’s emotions and sensations.

I promised her she was still one of the most important people in my life, that I’d always be hers—as well as Sin’s.

And I had meant it. I still meant it even as I sat on the stairs, too afraid to tell her we’d found someone who nearly broke us in the space of a day.

Even when I’d sent Flint from my security team to guard her and they scent-matched, it was still different. Because there was no one like Camille in my life.

No female omega was ever going to fill her spot.

Until now.

None of us had been okay after Mel left.

But what the fuck was I supposed to do?

Loving Sin was fine. It was what we both needed. It was a fucking chore most of the time, but we did it. And Kai made our world complete.

Even when there was still this fucking ache that wound through me at how Camille seemed to grow farther away from me every time I saw her.

I hadn’t even told Kai about our history until after he met her, mainly because I didn’t want their first meeting to be filled with Kai being a raging little bitch.

I didn’t want Camille to feel like the second choice. Even after I matched with Sin, she would be my number one; I’d thought she always would be—until Kai.

And now her. Mel, Melanie, fucking Brandy, whatever we were calling her. The fucking mistake of a lifetime that I couldn’t stop craving.

I sighed heavily as I raised my head, hoping my asshole of a mate would hurry the fuck up. Sin said he would get off work early and be there with me when we went to see Camille.

It was Kai’s fault. If she hadn’t bitten him, we could have been done with it and just pretended it never happened even though the sounds of her coming while she cried my name were on fucking repeat in my head.

The front doors of the house creaked, followed moments later by the echo of the butler greeting Sin.

It didn’t take long; I knew what Sin was like better than anyone else. He’d dump his briefcase in the butler’s hands, loosen his tie, and shoot straight to the stairs.

A minute later, his shoes clicked across the tiles, and I looked up to find him staring at me.

“Your wallowing doesn’t serve anything,” he said pointedly.

My jaw tightened with annoyance, but I still nodded. “Yeah, but I can’t help it, especially after…” I glanced up the stairs.

He glared at me for a microsecond before he sighed.

Even when his face went back to blank, his annoying sharp purple eyes still gentle as he sent me a rush of love, and I instantly relaxed.

“You can stay down here if you prefer,” he offered, placing a white-gloved hand on my shoulder as his aura spread over me.

My sigh was for a different reason as I knocked his hand away. If he softened me up now, I wouldn't be able to even climb the stairs.

“I’m not doing that to her. Besides, Kai is already up there.”

Sin’s mouth pressed into a thin line, his love switching to disapproval in a heartbeat. It was followed by a wisp of amusement from Kai through the bond as he noticed Sin arriving.

We could both instantly tell when our omega was stirring some shit. But that was why I’d sent him up there in the first place.

Sin released me, probably deciding I wasn’t worth it as he glided past me and up the stairs. He knew what I’d done with Kai as well.

I had to move.

I had to fucking move and get in the room and see Camille’s face fall as I disappointed her yet again.

“Fucking hell,” I muttered to myself as I grabbed the banister, lifting myself up, and prepared for the worst.