Total pages in book: 59
Estimated words: 56786 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 284(@200wpm)___ 227(@250wpm)___ 189(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 56786 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 284(@200wpm)___ 227(@250wpm)___ 189(@300wpm)
Aksel just hummed, but he didn’t need to say anything for Lucien to pick up the unsaid words: it wouldn’t matter. For every good person like Royce, there would always be ten bigots. It was so fucking unfair. But they didn’t live in a fair world.
“You don’t need to work if you don’t want to,” Lucien said. Aksel’s job for the government was very high paying, but the Cleghorns were ridiculously wealthy. Aksel didn’t need to work a day in his life if he were so inclined.
A chuckle. “Neither do you.”
“It’s different,” Lucien said, pulling a face. “I’m not really a Cleghorn.”
“Don’t be stupid,” Aksel said, his thumb slipping under Lucien’s shirt and stroking the bottom of his belly. “You’re pack.”
“Everyone knows my marriage to your father was a sham,” Lucien said. His stomach was quivering. His body felt overly warm.
“It doesn’t matter. You’re—ours. You’re entitled to the money my father left for you.”
“I don’t feel like I earned that in any way.” Lucien knew Vagrippa resented him for inheriting such a big sum for doing nothing.
Aksel made a harsh sound. “And earning it on your back for my father would have made a difference?”
“Don’t be gross,” Lucien said, making a face. The others in the family had treated him like a sexless, fragile thing for so long that he’d forgotten how crude Aksel’s language could be with him.
Aksel lifted his gaze. “You know I’m right. If your marriage had been real, that’s the only thing you would have done to ‘earn’ the money.”
“A mate does more than that,” Lucien said. He felt flustered and uncomfortable, and he both hated it and loved it. Aksel was the only person who made him feel a wide range of emotions, the only person who pushed him out of his comfort zone. It was maddening but oddly exhilarating too. His life had been so safe and dull for years that being thrown off balance and flustered actually felt good, in a twisted way.
“Yes,” Aksel agreed. “A mate also cares for the pack’s young. Which you did.” His gaze dropped to Lucien’s chest, heavy-lidded and unreadable. “You breastfed Belinda. And then there was me, for months.”
His face burning, Lucien barely suppressed the urge to cover his chest with his hands.
“Maybe,” he croaked out, and desperately tried to search for another subject. A safer, less confusing subject. “But it doesn’t matter. I won’t touch the money Garrick left for me. It doesn’t feel right.”
“All right,” Aksel conceded, his expression inscrutable. “I understand why you would feel that way about my father’s money. But you still don’t have to work. You’re an omega of a prosperous pack with alphas who can provide for you.”
Lucien made a face. “I feel no different about accepting money from Royce than I felt about accepting it from Garrick.”
“What about me?” Aksel’s blank expression shifted into something different. His blue, intense eyes seemed to look right into Lucien’s soul. His voice dropped. “I could take care of you.”
Lucien’s stomach clenched.
There should have been no difference between Royce and Aksel for him. They both were alphas, both were the sons of his deceased husband. In fact, it was more socially acceptable to allow Royce to provide for him: he was the eldest son and he oversaw the family’s finances. Aksel’s share was significant, of course, but he had little patience for stuff like that, allowing his brother to manage and invest his money on his behalf. Xeus alphas tended to prefer active physical work to desk work, and Aksel was no different. His inheritance aside, his job as a captain in the government’s elite special forces was very high paying. He could provide for an omega on his salary alone, easily. He could provide for a dozen of omegas if he wanted to. But Aksel was Lucien’s husband’s younger son. Accepting his help should have been weirder than accepting Royce’s.
It wasn’t.
Something inside Lucien liked the idea of Aksel taking care of him. It didn’t feel strange or embarrassing. It felt… good.
“Society is changing,” Lucien said stiffly, confused and mortified by his feelings on the matter. “Omegas don’t need to be provided for by an alpha. I can take care of myself.”
“Of course you can,” Aksel said. “But you don’t have to. That’s my point.” His eyes bored into Lucien’s, his thumbs pressing harder against Lucien’s belly. “You didn’t answer. Would you accept my money?”
There was a weird inflection to Aksel’s words, and Lucien had the strangest feeling they were talking about something else, not money.
“I don’t need your money, Aksel,” he said, his stomach quivering under Aksel’s head.
“It’s not a question of need,” Aksel said, still holding his gaze intently. “I want you to know that you can always count on me—now and in a hundred years.”
Lucien stared at him, his insides growing warm. It was a nice sentiment, however unrealistic it was.