Omens (The Triad 3)

SEBASTIAN

“She’s going to be insufferable after this. You do realize that, right?” I asked them both as I stared at the text on the screen.

I’d like to explain. Name a place and time.

My fingers were itching to respond, telling him to fuck off. I didn’t trust the fucker as far as I could throw him. But I was trying to be better, do better. I wanted Scarlet to feel like she was just as much a part of this family as us three were. I wanted her to feel like we trusted her and valued her opinions.

But I couldn’t help that the bloodthirsty monster inside of me wanted to burn this whole fucking world down for her. When I saw them grab her, I couldn’t think properly. All I knew was that I wasn’t going to lose her again. I didn’t care if saving her killed me. I was prepared to die if it meant making sure that she lived.

“We have to show this to her,” I told them, handing the phone back. “She’s already going to feel like we tried to hide it from her waiting this long.”

“It literally came through ten minutes ago,” Elliot said, rolling his eyes.

“Doesn’t matter. We should’ve gone straight to her with it.”

“Seb is right,” Tristan said. “There’s four of us in this family now, not just the three of us. She needs to be included as soon as any of us are, or she is never going to feel like she’s truly a part of this.”

“Fine,” Elliot huffed, walking over to the fridge and pulling out a beer. He popped off the top on the counter and downed half of it before leaning against the edge. “But when she’s taken or, even worse, killed for trying to meet up with this asshole, I’m blaming both of you.”

“Did her blowing you a few hours ago in the hospital not do anything to soften that fucking mood of yours?” I asked him, anger rolling around in my gut that I didn’t get to at least watch.

“Nope,” he smirked, taking another drink of his beer. “Jealous, Seb?” he asked.

“Unlike you, El,” I told him, “I know how to share.” His face fell. “I’m just upset you didn’t let us at least watch. Take some pity on me next time and at least give me a show. Do you know how boring it was to lie there in that hospital bed with nothing to do but stare at the walls?”

“You had a catheter in…” Tristan commented.

“And?” I asked, genuinely confused by where he was going.

“Seb, I—you couldn’t have even participated.”

“Participate in what?” Scarlet asked, walking into the living room and plopping down next to me on the couch before lying down to rest her head on my leg.

“The fun you two had in the janitor’s closet,” I answered. “When is it my turn?”

She laughed, and I swore the entire room got brighter with her smile. I traced the pink scar on her throat, and she shivered.

“Not to be the bearer of bad news,” Elliot said, changing the subject, “but we have something to show you.”

Her face fell, and she sat up to look at him over the back of the sofa. Tristan unlocked his phone and handed it over to her. She took a second to read it and then looked up at all of us.

“And what did you all have to say about it while you had a chat before showing me?” she asked before handing the phone back to Tristan.

“As you can see, Scar, it only came in a few minutes ago when we were coming upstairs. I only showed Seb while you got Kenna to her room.” Tristan sat down at her feet and tried to give her a reassuring smile. “We aren’t trying to hide this or anything else from you. I promise.”

“But if you want my opinion,” Elliot started but promptly stopped when she held her hand up in the air.

“I want to meet up with him.”

All three of us collectively tensed. We knew it was coming, but it didn’t make it any easier.

“We know,” I told her as I ran my fingers over her braided hair. “And we want to trust you and give you the opportunity to make your own choices. Because you aren’t a kept woman. We don’t want you to feel like you have no say. But when it was only us three, we all had to agree on something before moving forward.”

“And that isn’t going to change,” Elliot chimed in.

“We just want to keep you safe, and we want to make sure we all agree on every single choice we make,” Tristan continued, trying to cut Elliot off from saying something that was just going to start a fight.

He was constantly poking the bear, wanting that angry reaction from her. I didn’t blame him—she was hot as fuck when she was angry. But now wasn’t the time. We all needed a clear head to make this decision.

“Okay,” she said, taking a deep breath. “This is what I think. I think Elliot is right when he says that Motshan may have been trying to please our father and at the same time had my best interests at heart. Especially now that he’s reached out. I can’t tell you why, I can only tell you that I believe he has something going on that could help us.”

“There is some talk,” Elliot said, drinking the rest of his beer down and tossing it in the bin, “that he’s trying to change things, get rid of the old-timers that blindly followed your father. Word on the street is that he’s trying to bring you back to the throne.”

That made her laugh out loud, throwing her head back and covering her mouth with her hand.

“That’s fucking ridiculous. He knows I don’t want it, that I’ve never wanted it. Why would he do that?” Her laughs died down as we all stared at her. The thought had occurred to all of us that she may change her mind about that once her father was out of the way.

If Motshan could get the family under control and get them to a place where it was safe for Scarlet to go home, then maybe she would want to leave us. She would maybe want to go back to her real home.

“What?” she asked. “Why do you all look so serious? You can’t honestly think I would want to go back there?”

“It was always a possibility,” Tristan said, his fingers tracing idle circles over her thighs. “It was your home for ninety percent of your life. If it was suddenly safe for you to go back…I don’t think any of us would blame you.”

“Okay,” she said, standing up and pulling away from us. She stood in the middle of the living room, letting her eyes move from me to Tristan to Elliot and back again as she spoke.

“I’m only going to say this once, and that’s it. All three of you are going to sit there and listen to me and believe me. Because this shit needs to be put to bed so that we can move on from it. And I don’t think any of you will fully trust me until you believe it.

“But I don’t want it. I don’t want to go back there. I have more bad memories than good. I was mentally, emotionally, and physically abused. I was almost raped and killed in my bedroom. I was never loved by anyone besides Motshan. I do not want that fucking throne or anything that family has to offer.

“As far as I’m concerned, that isn’t my family and never was. They never treated me like anything other than a burden. You are my family now. These boys are my family. You are my home now. You all may push my fucking buttons and try to piss me off on a daily basis, but you’re my home. I will always choose you three. Got it? Understood?”

I looked at her with little fucking hearts in my eyes. If I had been a cartoon, there would be stars and hearts floating around my head while I watched her pace around the living room and put us all in our places. She was a fierce fucking woman, and I couldn’t believe how incredibly lucky I was to love her and be loved by her.

And get to taste her whenever I wanted.

I stood up—with a lot of effort—and hobbled over to her, grabbing her face in my hands and pulling her in for a kiss I knew would go straight to her cunt and curl her toes. I put all of my love behind that kiss, swallowing her and letting her feel just how much I believed her.

“I trust you,” I told her, breaking free from her mouth and staring into those sharp blue eyes. “And I will back you up. I love you.”

“I love you too, asshole.” She smiled at me a moment before her gaze drifted past me and to the other two in the room. “And you two?”

“Okay, Scarlet,” Tristan said from his spot on the couch. “I believe you. I trust you. And if you think this is the way to go, I’m in.”

She nodded and then looked over to the grumpy shit leaning against the counter and sipping on another beer. He looked at all three of us, hiding his emotions behind a very thick wall he had built around himself over the years.

Scarlet saw he was hesitant and made her way over to him in the kitchen. If anyone could break through those and teach Elliot how to trust in someone, it was going to be her. She wrapped her arms around his torso, and I could see him relax into her.

“And you?” she asked.

“On one condition.”

“And that is?” she laughed.

“That if this fails again,” he said, grabbing her jaw, “we all get to punish you. Together.”

I liked the sound of that.