Chapter 47

This time, I knock. Neil’s voice invites me in and I open the door. He’s alone in his room, standing at an easel with his hands on his hips. His brows are furrowed in thought. They immediately relax as they see me.

I smile gently. “That’s pretty,” I say of the painting.

Neil looks back at it and shrugs. “Needs work,” he says. He looks to me. “Can I help you?”

“Yes, actually,” I say. “Archer freaked out on me because Coach White invited me to combat club.”

Neil frowns and cocks his head. “Combat club?”

“Yes!” I shout. “Literally a club. Absolutely no big deal at all.”

Neil sets down his brush and looks at me seriously. “Chloe,” he starts. “Combat club is traditionally all men. White uses it to weed out freshman interested in the Warrior program. I’d argue it’s a very big deal.”

“I wasn’t even going to join it,” I snap. “I don’t need any more attention on me.”

I say the words but I don’t mean them. Now knowing what combat club is, I have to get in. It’s my key to the Warrior program and a chance at realizing my dreams. But I can’t tell Neil that. I don’t trust him enough yet.

“Although Archer’s freak outs are usually unwarranted,” Neil muses. “I’d say I’d be a little freaked out too. That completely changes the timing and scheduling for Mia. That’s what we hired you to do.”

“Hire me?” I wheeze, incredulous. “I think more like my hand was forced.”

Neil shrugs. “You’re good at this,” he says. “We’d have gotten you one way or another.”

“Oh my Gods,” I groan. “Next you’re going to tell me I should pursue Nanny-ing full time.”

I look at Neil and he simply blinks at me. He shrugs and I read through it at all the words he’s not saying. He does think I should pursue it full time.”

“You’re all disgusting,” I snap. “Misogynistic and horrid. I’m ashamed for myself to be associated with you. I’m ashamed for Mia as well.”

“If you truly think were horrible then nothing I can say is going to change that,” Neil says. He sounds hurt.

I tip my chin up. “Try me.”

Neil sighs. He takes off the apron he was wearing and hangs it on a rack on the wall. He starts to slowly walk towards me. His gaze is pointed at the ground, like he’s trying to formulate what he’s going to say next.

“It’s our father,” he sighs. “He’s instilled these views in us since we were young. Always talking down on women. Making us think they were nothing more than brood mares. He always made sure we kept the women around us in line.”

“That’s horrible,” I gasp. “Tell me you at least know that it’s wrong.”

“I do,” Neil says. “But it’s in blood. Breaking it is like trying to cut a diamond in half. Near impossible. I don’t know if I can say the same for my brothers.”

I immediately think of Archer and scowl. “But why the sudden shift?” I say. “We got along well last week.”

Neil sighs. He looks at the floor and chews his lip. He’s contemplating if he should tell me. Just as I’m about to beg, he looks up at me.

“One of my father’s associates was at the game Saturday,” he whispers.

“So?” I snap. “We won? What could he have possibly reported back?”

“He was in the box,” Neil goes on. “You weren’t. He told my father that a member of the Court was standing among the rest of the population and not at our sides. He was furious we let Mia go with you. Said it makes us look weak, not being in control of our people.”

My heart is hammering out of my chest. “Okay, then what?”

Neil sighs again. “We had a family meeting on Monday,” he says. “Father berated us in front of the entire board. He was especially hard on Archer. He told Archer that you weren’t kept on tight enough of a leash. He even proposed actually leashing you to keep you close to us. He said that you were a pawn and not a Queen.”

I open and close my mouth a few times. I’m shocked for the third time that day. But it all makes sense: the sudden shift, Archer’s white hot rage and Steven’s regurgitation of his father’s words. They were looked down upon for being nice to me.

“We all agreed we need to change our mindset,” Neil goes on. He sounds solemn now. “We’d treat you like an employee and nothing more and nothing less. Friendship of any kind was out of the question.”

The anger is back in me. It’s threatening to escape from my mouth so I take a few deep breaths, willing myself to be calm. My voice still sounds harsh when I speak.

“That’s absurd,” I say.

“I know,” Neil replies. His eyes flutter shut.

“It’s horrible.”

“I know.”

“It’s inhumane.”

“I know, Chloe,” Neil says, firmer this time. “But we can’t go against father. He’s t the Alpha King. What he says goes.”

I bite my lip, fuming internally. I give one last look at Neil before I shake my head. They’d made up their minds. It was no use trying.

“It’s a shame,” I say, low and threatening. “I was beginning to like you.”

Neil’s entire face falls and he looks positively distraught as I turn to leave. I think I hear him say my name once more before I leave the room but I’m too angry to think about it. I slam his door shut behind my back.

I stand still in the hallway for a little, processing my thoughts. It was bad enough that the Hayes brothers had a target on my back. Now, the Alpha King does too? I can’t help but feel dread all over me. To betray him is to betray the territory. I swallow thickly. I am in thick shit.

As if the day couldn’t get any worse, I hear a muffled scream coming from down the hall. I tentatively walk down, thinking my mind is playing trick on me, when I hear it again. Only this time, it’s louder.

I continue slowly down the hall. The screams are coming in quicker now, faster and louder. They sound like a woman in pain. They’re all coming from Beau’s room. I count to three in my head before I slam my shoulder into the door and pry it open.

I don’t know what I expected to see but it sure as Hells is not what I got.

Beau is lying in his bed. The sheets are pooled around his hips. Straddling him, naked as the day she was born, is none other than Angela.