Page 164 of Pretty When She Breaks

Which was pretty cool.

Although, Laurel was kinda annoyed I didn’t tell her he was an omega.

Pretty unfair.

How was I supposed to know she didn’t know?

I was working double time in my brain trying to figure out how to get off her shit list. Or maybe get someone else on it instead?

We’d all come back up to the nest, where we could talk freely without being interrupted. Except for Jade, who’d gone back to the dorms.

Jewel was catching us up on how he’d ended up under our noses the whole time. He’d also announced he hated our scents and refused to go anywhere near the blankets.

I was kind of confused by that, actually. Who hated the smell of yummy licorice? Okay, maybe absinthe and licorice weren’t quite the same, but still…

“So, then I ended up at a sex club in Boston,” Jewel was saying. He and Laurel were sitting just above us on a beam overlooking the nest floor. He seemed happy to have an audience. “Dax owned it. And who walks in one night but Prince himself? God, you should have seen his face. Shocked is an understatement.”

Jewel paused, considering something.

“I mean, to be fair, it might have been because I wasn’t wearing much more than a muzzle.”

“A muzzle?” Laurel elbowed him.

He shoved back playfully. “Yes, well, Imayhave mauled a couple of alphas when I first got there. Anyway, he was more than happy to take advantage of my situation. God, he’s such a slimy toad. Though he does have a nice dick.”

“Jewel,” admonished Laurel, looking disgusted.

Her brother seemed delighted by the reaction. “I tried to convince him to make a mold of it, because then I could have it without him, but no dice.”

“Um, ew? There was no reason I would ever need to know that,” Laurel said, and Jewel burst into laughter.

Finch caught my eye, a slightly panicked look on his face over our new brother-in-law’s incendiary comments.

“Okay, anyway, I had a whole plan, which your boy here kind of ruined.” Jewel kicked his foot in my direction and scowled at me. “I got Prince all set up to come in and take over for Thaddeus. Got him and his pack to move me here, and got them set up as heirs. Once that was secure, they weregonna off Thaddeus, I was gonna off them, and voilà. All good.”

He glanced at Laurel, frowning slightly.

“They weren’t supposed to touch you, though, not until the mating ceremony. Which would never happen. Sorry I messed that up.”

Perfect, this was my chance to get off the shit list.

“Actually, Finch messed that one up,” I interjected cheerfully.

Finch paled as Jewel fixed him with a cold stare.

“I can’t believe you were here the whole time,” Laurel said, changing the subject quickly. “Why didn’t you tell me you were alive?”

He grimaced. “My plan was the only chance I had to getting back to you. I haven’t had a lot of freedom. If it was just Prince and Madison in that pack, I’d have contacted you years ago, but Dax is smart and paranoid. Once I managed to plant the idea of them taking Thaddeus’s throne, he stopped my work at the club and locked me up tight. Didn’t want anyone recognizing me like Prince had. I’m sure he was planning to try and kill me once they’d got what they wanted, so I was gunning for a pack bond. Then he’d have trusted me enough to give me a bit of breathing room.”

“You were going tobondthem?” Laurel said, horror clearly written on her face. “God, Jewel, I’m so sorry I didn’t find you sooner.” Jewel slung his arm over her shoulder, pulling her to him so he could place a kiss on her head. “Don’t be sorry, silly,” he said, his voice low. “That wasn’t your job. I promised to protect you, and I’d bond a thousand alphas to make that happen.”

“But why didn’t you tell me before?” she asked him in the same quiet voice. “Or Jade? That you were an omega?”

He sighed. “I wanted to. But after I won against skeletonboy here, I didn’t have a choice except to pretend I was an alpha. Not with my scent coming in. I didn’t want to give Thaddeus any reason to be suspicious. I was so close to getting us out, so I had to pretend to be the perfect alpha son he wanted. Worst three months of my life. It killed me to see you so alone, and then I got caught with my heat suppressants, and that was it. I didn’t even have a chance to say goodbye.”

The conversation was interrupted with a buzz from Laurel’s phone, and I snatched it up from the floor, looking at the message on the screen.

“It’s the Lucas pack,” I said, glancing up between her and Finch.