Page 12 of Scheme
“My brother died a few days ago,” I said with an extra pitiful dramatic sigh.
Kit made a strangled sound, hit squarely with the force of the awkwardness I’d been aiming at him.
“Oh. Shit. Um. I’m sorry.” Kit shifted, twisting to get a better view of my face. “I didn’t mean… Do you want to go home? I can borrow Nico’s car.”
Damn it, he was going to be nice.Now I felt bad for deliberately provoking him.
“I live down the road. I’ll walk after I’ve helped Violet pack up.” I flicked my hand dismissively, and he narrowed his eyes at my sudden change in mood. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have dropped that bomb on you. I usually have much better social skills, I promise. I didn’t even like my brother. I’m fine, really.”
“Are you?”
The question gave me pause. Perhaps because no one had ever asked me before. I was a practical omega, I got on with things and did what needed to be done. Generally, if I said I was fine, people took me at my word.
“Sure. Why not? Calum wasn’t agoodalpha. It was his own actions that sent him to the grave, and while I miss the sweet boy he used to be, he wasnota sweet man.”
“That doesn’t mean you’re okay,” Kit pointed out, as gently as I thought it was possible for him to be. He didn’t strike me as the talk-about-your-feelings type, and we were probably only hiding here because it was convenient for him, but I appreciated the gesture, nonetheless.
“I’m… well, Iwillbe okay. My parents aren’t taking it well. He was the only alpha out of the six of us. Do you have any siblings?” I asked, desperate to change the subject.
Kit shook his head. “It’s just me.”
I got the feeling there was a lot more to that statement than he let on, but maybe he wasn’t the type to unload his emotional sob story to a stranger at a party for no discernable reason.
Usually, I wasn’t either.
It’s just the sleep deprivation,I told myself. After a good night’s rest, I’d be back to normal.
“Oh, thank fuck, Margot. You’re finally sitting down,” Nico said, winding through the crowd to join us. Kit and I broke apart hastily—not that there was anywhere to go on the tiny bench—both facing forward as Nico came to a stop in front of us. “I see you two have met, good. I was going to introduce you earlier, but Kit was already surrounded by a flock.”
Kit shot him an irritated look. “Which Margot rescued me from, unlike you, leaving me out to dry.”
“I would have thought you were an expert at extricating yourself from those situations by now,” Nico replied, eyebrows raised.
Kit scoffed. “We’re both a little partied out. I was just about to walk Margot home.”
He turned and gave me an expectant look while I felt my eyebrows shoot up to my hairline. “Oh. But I’m going to help Violet with cleanup, remember—”
“Absolutely not,” Nico interjected. “You’ve helped us so much today, go and rest. You seem tired.”
“Just a busy week,” I replied, reflexively justifying why I wasn’t on my A-game. Kit’s eyes burned into the side of my face, but now really wasn’t the time to bring up Calum. “If you’re sure you don’t need me, then maybe I will head off. I can walk on my own though.”
Both alphas objected to that because it was dark out and instincts were a hell of a drug. Eventually I agreed with an exasperated sigh that Kit could accompany me down the road.
“I don’t want to interrupt her,” I told Nico, watching Violet tell a story to a group of her sister’s friends that had them all laughing. “Will you tell Violet I said bye and that the party was amazing?”
“Of course,” Nico agreed. “Thank you again for everything. We’d be lost without you, Margot.”
I waved him off, grabbing my purse and pulling on my cardigan, conscious of Kit shadowing my every step. Generally, I wasn’t a fan of strange alphas crowding my space, but he was a close friend of Nico’s, and Nico was one of my best friends. I trusted him with my life.
The tightness in my chest relaxed a little more as soon as we were outside, and I at least felt confident that I wasn’t about to burst into tears at any moment.
“It was kind of you to help Violet with the party.” His voice was filled with suspicion, which I found oddly hilarious. Apparently, satisfied I wasn’t on the edge of a breakdown, he was back to seeing me as an enemy omega.
“I’m not a kind person, really. I’m a lawyer—total shark, in fact,” I informed him primly. “I just happen to like Nico and Violet.”
Kit cut me a side eye, heading down the street toward my flat at my side.
“Yes. Total shark. Very believable.”
