Page 4 of Cost of Courting (When it Raines Omegaverse #6)

Chapter three

Edric

I sit back on the couch, crane my head back, and glare up at the ceiling.

It’s the same ceiling I stared at so often as a kid, my stomach grumbling with hunger.

Selene would wait until late and sneak in the window we’d left unlatched.

We all used to come to Kingston’s house and camp out in the lounge.

His mother worked two jobs, so we mostly had the place to ourselves.

“She won’t talk to us,” I growl in frustration.

“She did say that she wouldn’t.” Kingston oh, so helpfully points out. “Selene always follows through.”

“She was hysterical when she was screaming at us that day, I doubt she even remembers everything she said.”

But I do, and I have never, ever regretted anything as much as I did when we chose not to listen and drive away from her that day.

Mael frowns as he scrapes his food into the bin and starts doing the dishes. Domestication suits him almost as well as beating the living shit out of people. He was bred for violence and pack life.

“Who was the guy?” Mael asks in a flat voice, pausing with a plate of soap suds held precariously over the floor, unnoticed as he stares at Kingston. “Have you found him yet?”

Kingston glances at us and looks down at his phone, shifting uneasily. “Bailey Raines. He’s a hot mess. An ex-member of the Despair MC,” Kingston says and waggles his eyebrows.

Mael and I both react the same way, shock and interest tossed with a dressing of oh, crap. No, that’s not true, Mael manages to drop the plate he’s holding. We all stare at the broken plate for a minute.

“Bailey Raines is connected to Selene?” Mael almost chokes out. “Fucking hell, can this get any more convoluted?”

“How do you become an ex-member of an outlaw motorcycle club and still live to tell the tale?” I ask curiously. “Do you have to kill a club member who was a bad guy? Fuck the wrong person? Fraud? What did he do that was so bad that the Prez kicked him out?”

I throw a cushion at Kingston to get his attention, prepared to beat him down if he doesn’t just spit out the information I want. Kingston snarls.

“Patience. Good things come to those who wait. You know that Bailey’s father is the president of Despair.

Andy Anderson or Brutus, the savage legend himself was a single dad to Bailey, and, up until the last few years, Bailey has been part of everything to do with the club.

Hmm, so I don’t think he’s been kicked out.

He’s probably been asked to leave, or he’s got some other agenda.

Meanwhile, Bailey has been very busy with his maternal relatives and their record label.

Alpha Labels or, its new rendition, Raines Entertainment.

He’s now the CEO and has done a complete rebranding and restructuring. ”

I roll over on the couch and stare at Kingston. “Interesting. I love a bit of corporate warfare. So, he won?”

Mael is staying strangely silent.

“Yes, it would seem he took it over with no issues or contention. After all the havoc his family has caused, I’m not surprised that he was uncontested. Bethany and Locke Raines, Lia Raines, Ryn Raines, Kelly and Raider Raines. All these rich and famous Raines’ completely backed him.”

“I read about them. I didn’t think they were the same people,” I mutter and reach for my own phone, loading up the information and reading quickly.

“Locke was hurt by his band, Lia is with Mirakill? How does that work? Ryn’s dad tried to sell her.

Raider’s beta had a stalker that almost destroyed the Greene Demons hockey team and Kelly-”

“No! You can’t touch Kelly.” Mael sighs heavily. “Listen, Bailey is my target. The job I’ve been doing on the side for Anderson. I’ve been following him around for months.” Mael shrugs his tense shoulders, trying to ignore the very pregnant and heavy silence in the room.

“We,” I say with emphasis, “are going to circle back to that. Go back to the Kelly issue. Why can’t I-”

“Because Kelly is Daane,” Mael says flatly.

I frown, all my plans of dismemberment vanishing in the blink of an eye. “Damn. ”

“What?” Kingston whines. “How can he be untouchable? How does he even know the Daane?”

“Bailey is untouchable because of Kelly,” Mael stresses.

“And my cousin Shale just called in a favour, and we can’t hurt Kelly,” Mael says.

“Well, he put in the request a few months ago, but it’s a standard forever request. For all intents and purposes, they are, I guess…

family now?” Mael winces and drops a clean plate in the dish rack.

“That’s not fair!” I growl, my frustration dripping over. “I hate his face. Look at him!” I turn my phone around and show the image of a smiling Kelly. “He’s sunshine and roses. I just want to give him a little scar.”

Kingston and I exchange a look when Mael doesn’t react. I urge him to ask. He’s silently telling me to do it.

I sigh. “Okay, I thought that job following Bailey had ended?”

Our alpha shakes his head. “No, Anderson wants him protected. Several attempts have been made to take Bailey now. Male omegas on the black market, especially one as high profile as him…”

Sadly, Mael doesn’t need to give any more information than that.

“I’ve managed to keep him safe so far.”

What? I can’t believe I’m just hearing about this.

“I can’t talk about it. Just…Bailey is still a job.”

Mael abandons the dishes and walks to the window, looking out across the road. My attention slips away from the scion of Despair and back to the problem that has been haunting me since I was eight years old; Selene.

Selene’s house hasn’t changed much. It’s aged, as all things do, but everything else is the same. Who would have thought she’d still be here? Not me.

I thought she’d be long gone.

She looks different, though. It’s clear to see that she has changed. And though I hate to say it, her presence changes things for me.

I find myself daydreaming about making her smile and touching that incredible blue hair.

It hangs down to her mid-back, a couple of shades darker than her ice-blue eyes.

She’s filled out more now, her hips are wider, her breasts bigger, but it’s the confidence in the way she walks.

The way she managed to punch me in the face was a move that I underestimated but also spoke of lots of practice.

She’s probably had to fight a lot here without us. I mean, we taught her what we knew when we lived here. I don’t know why the three of us thought she’d be okay when we left.

The fact is, when we left, none of us were thinking about her. We were thinking about…something else. Us, our dicks, our knots. Not her.

I deserved that hit .

I’ve thought about her a lot over the years, but not with a brother-like fondness. No, we chased after green pastures, and we forgot what we left here for a minute. By the time those green pastures turned into fields of shit, it was too late to come home. We weren’t the same.

Big mistake.

Today was anything but brotherly, and I’d wanted to kill Raines when I’d watched him touch her. Well, looks like this is convoluted. Has Mael got any more secrets?

Well, I’m done with secrets and holding back.

All the reasons for not touching Selene have evaporated. She’s old enough and strong enough to handle Pack Dread.

“So, Baby Sel grew up,” I murmur.

“And she hates us,” Mael flops down on the couch. All our furniture is cheap and secondhand. I hate it already. All our actual furniture is in storage, waiting for us to return to our rental.

“She’ll forgive us,” Kingston says with a grim grin. “She never could stay mad at us.”

I’m not so sure. I can suddenly and clearly remember her expression the day we left. She was devastated.

“She’s going to make us bleed for it,” I murmur. “Selene has always made us bleed for it. That’s nothing new. This job shouldn’t take long. Find the Tiger, unmask and kill him, and then take our places where we belong.”

The words that were so comforting a day ago leave a bitter taste in my mouth today. Yes, leaving.

Not seeing her for seven more years.

I’m not sure that’s my idea of a good plan anymore. In fact, if I’m reading the bonds right, none of us agree with that sentiment. We lied to ourselves because we all thought she’d be gone or with a pack. She’s not, and she’s still here.

I rub my cheek where she hit me, remembering the moment I turned and saw her. She was like the hottest flame, blazing blue, fury in every line of her body. Those skin-tight jeans hugged her legs, the white singlet barely contained her breasts. I couldn’t believe it was the same girl we left behind.

That girl wore baggy jumpers all the time and loose pants. She had jet black hair and was as wild as the rest of us. She was just one of the boys, one of us.

Until she wasn’t.

It’s funny. She was good enough to hang out with us and do what we did. We never worried over her breaking a nail or skinning a knee. We didn’t protect or coddle her; we taught her to kick ass and tackle her problems face on.

She wasn’t a damn femme fatale when we left .

Was she?

“She’s leaving again.”

I jerk my head towards Mael. “What?”

“She’s going out.”

“But it’s three in the morning.”

Mael flicks me a look that has a dozen different snarky comments he doesn’t need to say.

“Are we following her?” Mael grumbles, annoyed at him.

“I will,” Kingston volunteers and races for the back door. “You apparently moonlight as a stalker for someone else.”

Mael sits on the couch beside me and drops his head in his hands, letting out a harsh groan. “I can’t talk about the job, you know that.”

We’re silent, and I neither offer him comfort or a tongue lashing over it. But it does create problems. But that’s for tomorrow when we’re not so tired.

“Memories coming back?” I ask in concern.

He nods his head. “I’ll be fine.”