Page 94 of Lilacs and Leather
I feel Lydia swallow and flinch at the snap in Lex’s voice, and I flash a warning look at my pack mate. But she doesn’t see it, as she’s focused entirely on the omega in my arms.
“Honestly, I don’t think you should give anything. Call the bluff.”
“No,” I growl, holding her tighter.
Lydia lets out an exasperated sigh. “It’s worth considering, Rhett.”
“I have. Do you not remember that you’re not the only one he can expose?” Lex asks.
The only reason I know how deeply Lex is rattled by this is because I see the tension in her neck, the way her fingers twitch, playing a phantom keyboard on her thighs. Her expression is otherwise unreadable, and it unsettles me more than I care to admit. My protective instincts are still at war with my common sense, muddying the waters.
“If we lose investors or clients because we’re queer and poly, then they weren’t people we would want to be associated with in the first place,” Lucas interjects seriously.
“And his threat might actually be enough for the courts to finally intervene. If he’s violating court orders and then trying to blackmail us into not enforcing it, it would show that he’s acting in bad faith. The judge might finally grant our dissolution petition,” Mateo adds thoughtfully.
Lex sits for a moment, looking between all of us before settling back on Lydia. I can see the conflict in her eyes, but I keep quiet. Mateo and Lucas make good points, but I don’t want to voice that just yet. Something doesn’t quite add up, and that nagging doubt gives me pause.
“No. It’s my job as the prime alpha of this pack to protect our interests. If he tries to go public, we’ll nail him to the wall. But until then, he’s going to have to give up the stipend, and he’s not going to get the meeting.”
Lex unfolds from the couch, and we all watch her cross the room with identical expressions of shock and disbelief. Lydia’s the first to recover her voice, letting out an indignant noise.
“You don’t get to make that call for me. I’m not part of this pack,” she shouts.
Lex stops in the doorway that leads to the foyer and her office. Her face is set in a patronizing smile, but I can see the hurt in her eyes.
“Aren’t you?” she says lightly, turning away before anyone can answer.
We sit in silence as we let the words sink in, no one quite sure what to make of this. My heart aches for my pack mate, and the weight she carries on her shoulders. Lex makes the hard calls, even if it kills her to hurt us. She’s trying to do what’s right, but I don’t know if this is it.
Thirty-Six
Lydia
In the days following the blowout at the pack house, the skin-crawling feeling of being watched hangs around my neck constantly.The only time I feel safe is when I’m buried in my nest, usually with one or both of the alphas that have come to mean so much to me. I spend time at the pack house, too, but after the way things ended with Alexandra, the air there feels heavy with all of the unspoken words left between us. If I thought she had been avoiding me before, that was nothing compared to her behavior now. She stopped requesting new flowers, and I didn’t see her at all. I’d catch her scent of cloves and wine, and the regret in my heart would begin to bleed all over again.
Her behavior both baffled and frustrated me in turns. The only one of the boys that would indulge me when I wanted to rant about the whole thing was Lucas, and he was just as confused as I was. Alexandra wasn’t avoiding him, but he told me that she’s been acting withdrawn and cold, even with him. Rhett assured me that he would try to get her to come around, but if she’s as stubborn as I am, I didn’t think the air would clear any time soon.
A week after Seth’s ambush, I’m working with Gabby to rearrange the shop floor, switching out display items for fresh ones, and changing out the general spring/summer window display for our Fourth of July items. We’re still three weeks from the holiday, but the B.O.A. schedule was gospel.
“So, what are your plans for this year? Your harem doing anything special for your birthday?” Gabby asks, reaching down from the stepladder for another crepe paper lamp.
I pass it up with a sigh. “They aren’t my harem, Gabs. And no, they aren’t. They don’t even know it’s coming up.”
“You are the only person I know who doesn’t like to celebrate their birthday,” Gabby says with a shake of her head.
“Just because I don’t use it as an excuse for special treatment for the week around it doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy it,” I snark with a sarcastic chuckle.
“It only comes once a year, babe. And we’ve only got a few more years left in our youth. We have to enjoy it while it lasts.”
I roll my eyes, passing more lamps up for her to hang from hooks in the ceiling. “I’m turning twenty-seven, not ninety-seven.”
“Why don’t the guys know you’ve successfully survived another circuit around the sun?” Gabby asks, redirecting.
I shrug, even though she doesn’t see the gesture. “It hasn’t come up,” I mumble.
That wasn’t strictly true. Rhett had asked when my birthday was before, but I answered with early July and left it at that. I never wanted to get into how, as a kid, birthdays weren’t celebrated as they were considered too secular by the church. I used to pretend that the parties and fireworks for Independence Day were for me, as my birthday falls two days before it. When I moved out, I was just so used to not making a big deal out of it that it never occurred to me to mention it.
And after everything that happened last week, I didn’t want to add more stress to the pack’s plate. Rhett and Mateo would try to make a big deal of it, and I was tired of fighting with them. It’s just easier to ignore this birthday. Maybe if we were still together next year, I’d be more comfortable with them doing something for me, but it just feels wrong when life feels so chaotic.