Total pages in book: 59
Estimated words: 56786 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 284(@200wpm)___ 227(@250wpm)___ 189(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 56786 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 284(@200wpm)___ 227(@250wpm)___ 189(@300wpm)
Aksel stopped beside him and cleared his throat.
The omega flinched, his sad expression quickly morphing into a neutral, polite mask. “Yes?” he said, all business. “Did you want to discuss our engagement party? My mother wants to invite all her friends, so there will likely be hundreds of guests if you don’t put your foot down—”
“I can’t marry you.”
Dylan blinked. “Oh,” he said, studying him. “Did he change his mind?”
“No,” Aksel said curtly. “I’m not sure that he’ll ever accept me, but I can’t marry you. It would hurt him. And I don’t want to hurt him even if he’ll never be mine.”
Dylan’s expression softened. “You’re a good man. My brother is very lucky.”
Aksel almost laughed. “I’ll have to convince your brother of that.” He heaved a sigh, putting his hands in the pockets of his trousers. “I’m sorry,” he said gruffly. “Although we didn’t announce the engagement officially, people are already aware of it. I’ll take all the blame. You can say you’re the one who changed your mind.” He smiled crookedly. “Tell people you saw me in a half-shifted form and it disgusted you. They’ll eat it up.”
Dylan gave a faint smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “It doesn’t matter. My father’s financial troubles mean that I can never marry the person I actually want to marry. If it’s not you, it’ll likely be...” His expression darkened, his lips thinning. His scent turned bitter with hatred.
“Who?” Aksel said.
Dylan wrapped his arms tighter around his knees. “A certain psychopathic creep obsessed with me,” he said tonelessly. “I barely talked Father out of selling me to him—I convinced him I could find someone else to pay his debts—but with you out of the picture, the pickings are slim. Father will have no choice but to accept his help.”
“Who are you talking about?” Aksel said, his brows furrowing. No one should be forced to marry someone they hated.
“Regis Everhart,” Dylan whispered.
Everhart. The name was definitely familiar. It took Aksel a moment to remember why.
He might have spent most of his adult life on the front lines, but even he had heard of Everhart. The man was obscenely rich, possibly even richer than the Cleghorns. Unlike the Cleghorns’ generational wealth, his was self-made, his enormous fortune rumored to have been made through illegal means. He was rumored to be a ruthless bastard without a shred of decency in him. What he wanted, he took.
“Your father can’t force you to marry someone you don’t want to marry,” Aksel said.
Dylan laughed humorlessly. “Spoken like a true alpha. You knotheads could never understand what it’s like to be an omega.”
“It’s not the Dark Ages. Omegas have rights in this country.”
“Rights,” Dylan said flatly, his lips twisting into a mirthless smile. “Maybe on paper. My family is as traditional as it gets. And as my brother found out, you don’t want to make my father angry. If my father hadn’t disowned him, everyone would have moved on from that old scandal, Aksel. But our society places too much weight on the opinion of the family alpha. My brother is shunned because my father still shuns him.”
Aksel’s eyebrows drew together. He’d never thought of it that way, but there was truth in Dylan’s words. If Lucien’s dickhead of a father publicly accepted him as his son, people would consider the scandal old news.
Maybe that was the solution.
His heart suddenly beating faster, Aksel said, “How large is your father’s debt, exactly?”
Chapter Twenty
Just one more evening, Lucien told himself as he left his room that evening.
Just one more evening to get through, and then the house party would be over. Vagrippa was hosting a large party tonight, with all their neighbors invited. Aksel’s engagement to Dylan would likely be officially announced tonight.
Lucien had been so focused on keeping a smile on his face as he entered the ballroom that it took him a while to notice that someone had approached him.
He stiffened when he caught a whiff of the person’s scent.
His heart beating faster, he turned his head and looked into a pair of eyes very much like his own.
Lohlan Deveraux was no longer the strong, physically imposing alpha he had been when Lucien had left his home. There was gray in his hair and a few deep lines around his eyes. He was thinner now too. But he exuded the same air of confidence and authority as the man Lucien had looked up to all his childhood.
“Lucien,” he said, his voice very neutral.
Lucien blinked, bewildered and thrown off balance. It was the first time his father had acknowledged him by name in two decades.
“Mr. Deveraux,” he said, just as neutrally. He was acutely aware that there were many eyes on them. No doubt people were as baffled by this development as he was.
A muscle jumped in his father’s jaw. “There’s no need for such formality. I’m your father.”