Page 14 of Cassian is Getting Out

“We have one,” the Lumineer said, and his chest expanded. “Our Cassian. The youngest Calyx in the Family’s history. A male omega of extraordinary Receptivity.” He smiled. “Recently married to his Evermate in a union the Universe itself ordained. We are sure that he will be very blessed and fruitful.”

The shot cut to a paddock behind the prayer hall, where Cassian was sitting cross-legged in the grass with a lamb in his lap. He held it against him while it tore at the teat of the bottle. His hair was loose and tangled, his feet bare and filthy, and he was talking to the lamb in a low, steady murmur that the microphone barely picked up.

Hamish sat beside him with a handful of feed, and a second lamb immediately went for his fingers. He let it chew on him. “She’s a feisty one,” Hamish said, pointing at the lamb in Cassian’s lap.

“She’s missed me,” Cassian said, adjusting the bottle as the lamb latched harder. “I live outside the compound now, so I don’t get to see her as much. She gets cross about it.”

“That’s right,” Hamish said, holding more feed out for the lamb at his knee. “You live with your husband now.”

The flush started at Cassian’s throat and climbed to his cheekbones. He kept his eyes on the lamb.

“Charles is very kind,” Cassian said. “He leads me well.”

“What does that look like? Leading you well.”

“He provides for me. He makes sure I have everything I need — clothes, and food, and a beautiful home.” Cassian’s thumb moved in small circles on the lamb’s ear. “He’s trying to put a baby in me. We’ve been trying since the bonding ceremony, and I’m doing everything I can to be Receptive. That’s… It’s a state of openness. Of surrender. The senior women taught me how to prepare my body for it.” His hand drifted to his stomach, then returned to the lamb. “It hasn’t happened yet. But I’m hopeful. I think I just need to be more open.”

“And what do you do, Cassian? Now that you’re married?”

Cassian’s hand stilled on the lamb’s ear. “I serve him,” he said, his chin lifting.

“And when he’s at work?”

The lamb squirmed in his lap, so Cassian adjusted the bottle.

“I stay at home and I improve myself by listening to recordings of the Lumineer’s lectures. I talk to the staff at the house, they’re all very nice.” He paused. “And I wait for him to come home. So I can serve him.”

Ruari set his whisky down on the coffee table.

The shot held on Cassian’s face for another three seconds, and in that time Ruari watched a twenty-one-year-old boy run out of answers and fill the gap with a smile that would have fooled anyone who didn’t know what had come out after the documentary aired.

Chapter Six

Cassian had not been to Proving Ground in two days, and in that time, he’d watched My Brother’s Alpha Best Friend four times.

The first viewing was for research. The second was to confirm his findings. The other times, he watched for the bit where Lily finally walked into the bar in her new dress and Victor’s beer stopped halfway to his mouth. That scene made Cassian’s stomach do flips that he wanted to feel over and over again.

The film was instructive. Lily had spent the entire first act being invisible to Victor, who’d known her since she was twelve, so he still saw her in her school uniform and braces even though she was twenty-two now and objectively fit. Then her friends had taken her shopping. She’d emerged from the changing room in a tight black dress, and Victor had looked at her like she was a different person.

This was Cassian’s situation exactly.

Ruari had held up a pastry in front of his face and gone choo choo, like Cassian was Tala. Colin had tried to explain it away afterwards, sitting on the edge of Cassian’s bed while Cassian lay face-down in his pillow and refused to engage.

“He was being a stupid jokey alpha, Cass. That’s what they do when they don’t know what to say. They make jokes. It’s all their little brains can come up with.”

“He thinks I’m a kid.”

“He doesn’t think you’re a kid. Believe me. I’d be worried if he did, the way he looks at you.”

“He went choo choo at me, Colin.”

“If I’d given up on Diwa every time he said something stupid early on, I’d still be living in Barking. Diwa’s given me tens of thousands of reasons to walk out the door, and I’m still here.”

“But he trapped you with a baby.” Cassian sat upright. “Like in the movie Billionaire Baby Trap! Only then it was the poor omega doing the trapping.”

Colin bit down on his lip. “Well…no, Cass.”

Lily, from the film, had solved her Victor problem with a makeover. She’d gone from invisible kid sister to the woman Victor couldn’t stop staring at, and all it had taken was a tight dress, some eyeliner, and a scene in a hair salon where her friends had clapped when she came out with really bouffy hair.