Her laughter was a welcomed relief after the tension.
Of course, my palm reader felt like it weighed a freaking ton with Alex’s message just sitting there. I wanted so badly to tell him to go fuck himself, but that wouldn’t help. I had no power. Curse words wouldn’t do anything but make my punishment greater.
So I would wait.
The second half passed in a blur. I spent most of it tapping my leg and thinking murderous thoughts. The blatant manipulation of my life had gone on long enough, and I was done playing Alex’s pawn. Could the Society… the resistance, whatever the fuck they called themselves… could they help me escape the fate of a ballot winner?
Or would that just be a trap of a different making? Exchanging one cage for another wasn’t ideal, but Alex was never gonna happen. That much I knew for a fact.
Mattie jumped to her feet screaming, and I blinked, focusing on the game again.
Only it was over and we’d won, three points to two.
“Rafe scored,” she said, shooting me a smug grin. “And you totally missed it. He’s not gonna be happy.”
I snorted. “I’ll pretend I saw it. Did anything unusual happen that I should comment on?”
Mattie threw her head back and laughed. “How about the fact that when he scored, the first place he looked was at you?”
Well, shit. No point in lying then.
My palm reader buzzed.
Alex: First warning, Violet.
I hit ignore again, quickly moving through the names to my group message with Rafe, Nolan, and Jordan.
Alex wants me to have dinner with him and his parents tonight. Mattie said one of you might have a legitimate excuse I can use not to go. Something that won’t cause wars or get me executed. And… go…
As soon as I hit send, Mattie and I started down the stands, following the cheering crowd. It had been an exciting game, and I was surprised to see Alex exchanging friendly handshakes with a lot of the Australasian team. He clearly knew them from somewhere. Maybe school in his younger years?
I mean, how was it that he could have friends like that, be so personable at times, and then have this straight up asshole streak deep inside.
Growing up with those parents, though, an airhead of a mother, who no doubt was there to chirp about and look pretty, and an evil, arrogant tyrant of a father.
Alex had probably turned out okay, considering the circumstances.
When we were near the exit, my palm reader buzzed.
Angel: Do not fucking leave this stadium.
Jordan’s came a second later.
We got you, sweetheart. Wait for us just inside the main entrance.
Yin and yang at its finest.
Mattie and I waited, crowds pushing past us, already planning how they would celebrate tonight. There was the usual afterparty at Drake’s place and a few other smaller events that would be scattered around to avoid detection. No one showed the sort of tension that was swirling inside of me; instead they looked young and carefree and happy.
I felt like I was a hundred years older than most of them.
“Are you gonna tell them about Claudette?” Mattie asked as we waited, leaning back against the closest wall.
My hand rubbed at the mark on my face, happy to note it barely even hurt now. Nothing more than a surface graze. Sensei had taught me many times that it was sometimes necessary to inflict a small wound on oneself to ensure that you were in the position of control. Of power.
Claudette had learned that lesson today.
“Yeah, might as well. If she decides to go to the dean, I’m gonna need their backup.”
“Can’t go to the dean if she’s dead,” Mattie muttered, straightening as her twin came into sight.
Nolan wrapped his arms around both of us. He was still damp and smelled of his musky aftershave, having clearly jumped in and out of the shower in record time. He wasn’t the only one; Jordan and Rafe arrived seconds later.
Nolan released me so that Jordan could yank me into his arms, his alpha side coming out to play and turning my legs a little weak. Thank fuck the Australasian royals were gone so they didn’t witness a bunch of guys getting huggy with me.
“You okay?” he asked, pulling me back and looking me over.
I nodded. “Yeah, totally fine. I haven’t even seen Alex in person, just got the messages.”
Rafe was a little back, bag slung over his shoulder, eyes like blue glaciers. “What happened to your face?” he asked slowly.
I narrowed my eyes at the observant fucker. Only Rafe would have noticed that tiny mark. “Claudette attacked her from behind,” Mattie said in a rush. She shot me an apologetic look, and I just shook my head.
“Yeah, I was busy at the concession stand. I heard her before she got a hit on me, but I grazed my face getting into a better position to break her thumb.”
Rafe moved then, finally, edging Jordan out of the way. “Should’ve been her neck,” he muttered, lips close to my face. Then he shocked me by pressing them to the graze, just the briefest of kisses, before pulling away.
I swallowed hard when our eyes met. “Might be worth it for that,” I murmured, unsure about the strong rush of emotions I was feeling.
“What should she tell Alex?” Mattie demanded, bringing the focus back to that. “I mean, obviously she can’t go and have dinner with the insane would-be in-laws that tried to have the nurse forcibly rip her vagina apart.”
Nolan screwed his nose up. “Sis, please. The word vagina is so fucking fifth grade, can’t we refer to it as a puss—”
She punched him, and it was actually nicely done. Maybe Mattie had more skills than I’d been giving her credit for.
“Even more worrying,” Jordan said, ignoring the fistfight between the twins, “is that they’re going to try and find the nurse. They’ll want a progress report. If they think she hasn’t followed through on their plan, they’re only going to have another member of the medical staff step in.”
Rafe, still dangerously close to me, was the one I waited the most impatiently to hear speak. I needed to know his plan. I needed him to save the day on this one because I couldn’t pull rank in a royal arena.
He didn’t let me down. “It’s possible that I can take a trip to my parent’s estate tonight for some royal matters,” he started. “And I might have to bring Jordan and Violet with me to help. I’ll speak to my mother and see if I can get an official decree in the next hour, and that way the King and Queen of Australasia won’t be able to argue.”
He was turning to leave, so I reached out and grabbed his arm. “I—Uh, is that a good idea? I mean, what if your parents are as horrible as his and they have me killed for using the wrong fork or something?”
Rafe’s lips twitched, and I wondered what he would say to my blunt statement. “Vi,” he murmured, his hand wrapping around my shoulder and pulling me close, “my parents are good people. I promise. I would not take you where you were at any risk.”
His eyes darted over my head. “To make it even safer, I’ll request Nolan and Mattie too. That way it’s not obvious this is anything more than me taking my friends home for a week to hang out before the ball.”
We were alone in the stadium grounds now, but I still didn’t expect him to capture my lips like he did. “I’ll keep you safe,” he promised as he pulled away. Then he all but pushed me into Jordan’s arms. “Don’t let her out of your sight,” he warned before he lifted the bag he must have dropped at some point, threw it over his shoulder, and turned and stalked away.
Mattie let out a low shriek, clapping her hands. “Rafe’s place is un-fucking-believable.” She clapped and bounced. “You’re going to die when you see it. They’re somehow in the mountains but also right beside a huge lake, and it’s heated all year from an underground… something. I don’t know, lava or some shit, and we can swim as much as we want.”
She carried on a ton more about his home, but I was distracted by Jordan, who still had his arms around me and was tracing his hands across my back.
"Are you okay?" he whispered in my ear, his breath warming my skin with tingles. "Want me to smother Claudette with a pillow while she sleeps tonight?"
I grinned at the idea, then looked up at him to see if he was serious. "You'd do that for me?"
All traces of joking faded from his eyes as he pressed a light kiss to my lips. "I'd do fucking anything for you, Violet. Killing that self-important bitch would be a damn privilege." His voice was laced with dark violence, and my pussy clenched with arousal.
Fuck me. I really was going to hell.
"Hey, you two." Mattie snapped her fingers, regaining our attention. "Are you paying attention?"
"No," Jordan answered for us both, and I snickered. My cheeks were warm with pent-up desire, and I could barely focus on anything except the need to get him alone. Soon.
Nolan screwed up his nose at us, teasing. "You two are so sickening. I'm amazed Rafe hasn't lost his freaking mind yet. His alpha-male instinct must freak right the fuck out every time he sees you guys touching."
Jordan laughed him off, but I was inclined to agree. I'd been thinking the same thing just last night in the bathroom, when Jordan had walked out in a silent fit of rage after Rafe marked his damn territory on me.
This whole lust-triangle was destined for disaster, but I just couldn't bring myself to end it. With either of them.