Page 98 of One Winter Knight
Saoirse bit into one of her tacos.
“Why not simply break up with you? Why cheat, scheme, and gaslight?” I just didn’t get it. “And for your parents to back them up? That’s the worst.”
“My parentsarethe worst. My grandparents stood up for me and said that if my sister wanted to be with Liam, fine, but Liam would have no place in our clan–she’d need to go to his. Liam has older alpha siblings, so I’m guessing he was hoping one of us would get him to power in our clan,” she added.
“What did you do then?” I reached over and squeezed her shoulder.
She put her hand over mine. “She went with him, but they stilllived in our village. I wasn’t about to stay and watch them play happy family, so I left and joined the Company. They’d been trying to recruit me anyway, and I’d been sayingnobecause Liam wanted me to stay with him.”
“Wait, he wanted to be with your sister, but wasactivelykeeping you with him?” I couldn’t even fathom that.
“Yes. If I left, I wouldn’t do anyone any good, because I’d be beyond their control. He also thought that he could somehow have us both.” She made a face.
“That’s fucked. And your family?”
“They expected me to stay, sulk, and tutor my sister. Help her get her skills up to speed to impress Liam’s family. While Liam might see her as his true love, and my parents supported it, his family was unimpressed. Her fighting skills aren’t great. In our clan being able to protect your family is vital–even if you’re not an assassin. My sister’s much better at making schemes.” She sighed.
“And so you left.” Who wouldn’t? Anger for her raged inside of me.
“Yes. Now I’m not really welcome, but after my gran died, there wasn’t much of a reason to go back, other than to see my grandfathers. Even then, they’re just as happy with the occasional phone call, same with my brother. I also make people very unhappy when I actually come home for a visit, even though they rage at me all of the time for not coming.” She shook her head. “Some people are never satisfied.”
“You deserve to be happy and I’m glad you left the people who don’t bring you happiness. I’m glad you have Fiona, because she most definitely brings you joy.” It was in their smiles, the stolen glances, the little things that they did for each other.
“A lot of the alphas in my life disappointed me. But that’s not something I should take out on you.” Her blue eyes met mine.
“It’s okay. Now I really want to eviscerate your sister and ex in song. I think my sassy assassin definitely deserves that,” I said,finishing up my last taco.
“Sassy assassin? Don’t ever say that again.” She gave me a playful little shove.
“Is a-sassy-in better?” I flashed a silly smile.
“No, that's worse. I forbid you from ever saying that,” she laughed.
“Forbid?Oh, now I really want to make a song calledA-sassy-in, and totally different from the song I’m going to write about your ex and sister.” I laughed.
She scowled. “Don’t you dare.”
“I love dares.” My grin widened. “Hey, I’m sorry you had to deal with bad alphas. I always try very hard to be a good alpha, not use my alpha powers for evil.” I gave her a baleful look, not wanting her to lump me in with everyone who harmed her in the past.
“I can see that.” She focused on eating her last taco for a moment.
The sounds of the festival surrounded us. The giant swing swayed softly, but not so much it bothered us while eating.
“I grew up in a family a lot like Carlos’, though instead of one beta mom and one beta dad, it’s a pack of six beta moms,” I explained. “Five are Latina and one’s Italian if that helps you visualize it. They’re all artists of various sorts.”
Saoirse looked over at me. “I knew you had beta moms, but I didn’t realize you’d grown up in an all-beta pack. It feels uncommon, especially for New York.”
“For New York City, yes? But since the laws changed, all-beta packs are pretty common in areas where there aren’t a lot of alphas. While I love my moms, one of the things they always impressed on me, being the only alpha in the house, was to not be an alphahole. Possibly, too much,” I admitted softly.
I’d done a lot of work on this with my therapist. Given my beloved assassin had been so honest with me, I should be honest with her, too.
“For an alpha, I can be a pushover sometimes, because I was always terrified of beingthatalpha. Yesterday, when I thought I crossed the line, it horrified me. They’d be so ashamed–”
“No.” She took my hand and gave me a hard look. “You didn’t cross the line. There is no line, or if there is, it keeps moving. This was me being a cold-hearted, ruthless bitch.”
I gave her a skeptical look.
“Your advances aren’t entirely unwanted,” she admitted quietly. “I like the sex. I like the little dates. I even like your impossible ridiculousness, until I don’t, but I can get over that.”
