Lilia’s POV
I said nothing more.
Jace’s sweet talk ran three parts true to seven parts air.
I didn’t believe a word of him, winning or losing would come down to me.
I gripped the bottle tighter.
Around us the heirs hadn’t stopped their commentary, and a few bolder men crowded up to flatter Jace.
“Alpha Jace, this Omega of yours is a rare treat.”
”A beauty like that , when you’re bored of her, mind sharing her with me?”
Each line filthier than the last, and Jace swallowed all of it, grinning his heartless grin.
I could feel Kael’s eyes on me the whole time, holding something I couldn’t read.
I refused to show him one inch of weakness.
The game restarted, and round after round thinned the field.
Dana stayed brutal, every bottle gone in a fraction of the time, her face never moving.
Thanks to years of tavern shifts, I held third place , never the first one dragged to that stone platform.
Five bottles in, only three of us were left: Dana, one other woman, and me.
The wound in my palm had begun to ache again, a low burn under the velvet.
My fingers shook, slightly, around the bottle.
The jeering crashed over itself as the men kept toasting Jace, each toast lower than the last.
Riding the sting, I slammed the bottle down on the table.
Crack.
The room went silent.
Kael looked up at the exact same moment, the corner of his mouth holding a curve that was almost a smile.
“Miss Lilia. Giving up?”
He asked it lightly, but the mischief underneath couldn’t hide.
He was waiting for me to fold , and if I did, he’d carry me out of this room in front of everyone.
Being carried out by Kael meant tearing the mask off publicly, and after tonight nothing about it would ever be containable again.
I pushed the panic down and gave him a contained little smile.
“Alpha Kael has it wrong. I’m only a little drunk , the bottle slipped. Jace spoils me, letting me lose as freely as I please. How could I possibly fold now? Deal me in.”
Across the table, the other woman was swaying, eyes wandering.
The fruit wine wasn’t weak , only now did my advantage show: of the three of us, I was the only one without a trace of drunkenness.
The timer reset.
Dana kept first place easily.
The other woman and I were locked together, never more than a few seconds apart , I was half a beat slow , when her face went white.
The fool exploded , cursing, shouting, shoving.
Under cover of the chaos I snapped my wrist counterclockwise, swirling a vortex through the bottle to break the foam, then tipped my head back, bottle dead vertical, and poured the whole of it down my throat in one breath.
I held the empty bottle over my head and swung it once at the room.
“I win.”
The room came apart.
Even Jace froze before slapping his thigh and howling.
And Kael, lounging at the far end of the table, cigarette burning unattended , his unreadable eyes settled on me, and something pulled tight in my chest.
A moment later he murmured something to Derek that I couldn’t hear.
Derek left at once, fast.
The final round: me and Dana.
I waved the waiter straight into starting.
The instant the timer went down , wrist snapped counterclockwise to kill the foam, then vertical, into the throat.
Seconds, and the bottle was empty.
I set it down and smiled at the third of a bottle still left in Dana’s hand.
“I win again.”
The room boiled over.
Even the show on the stone platform was forgotten , every eye nailed to my face.
Jace beamed at Kael, triumphant, as if he’d won the war himself.
“Kael!
What did I tell you?
The woman I pick , not bad, eh?”
”Mm.
Not bad.” Kael’s reply carried no tone at all.
He lifted his glass and said nothing further.
Jace closed his hand around my wrist, stroking the back of it through the velvet glove.
“Come on, everyone, my baby played this whole night through at my side.”
That word , baby , broke something.
Kael’s hand stopped dead around his glass, undisguised violence churning up out of those near-gold eyes.
The almost-smile vanished completely.
He set the glass down hard, stood, walked straight to me, took my other wrist , the one Jace had left free , and drew me half a step to his side.
Jace registered the challenge and stood too.
“Hey.
What’s wrong with you?”
”The woman I’ve set my eyes on spent the whole night serving drinks to everyone in this room, keeping her head down just to please you.” Kael’s voice was soft, filling the silence like a blade laid flat on the table. New chapters come out on novelping(.)com first.
” Tell me, Jace.
Is that an offense?
Every sound in the room died.
I stared at him, stunned.
The carelessness had gone out of Jace’s face too.
He stepped forward and closed his hand around my wrist , not hard, but with undisguised possession.
“That’s not yours to decide.” A cold laugh.
“There’s an order to things. Tonight, she’s my guest.”
The pressure climbed until no one in the room dared move.
I stood between them, unable to advance or retreat, breathing gone thin.
At that stretched-taut moment, a guard hurried in and bent to Jace’s ear.
“Alpha , the Rogues from the Western Territory, the ones held for transfer to the prison.
A group came out of nowhere and took them.”
”The point.”
”They’re gone.
And a lot of our people in the Western Territory are dead,”
Jace’s face changed completely, and he bit off a low curse.
“Alpha, the Alpha Alaric always meant to hand the Western Territory to Nathan anyway. If word of this reaches him and you haven’t handled it…”
Jace released my wrist and tossed a line at Kael without even turning his head.
“She’s yours. I’ve got real business. I’m going.”
He strode out without a glance in my direction.
I clutched my aching wrist and watched his back.
If I followed him into that chaos, I might pry loose something worth knowing.
I’d taken exactly one step when the warning came from behind me, low and rough.
“Don’t move.”
I froze, not turning.
Slow, even footsteps closed the distance behind me, and my breath stopped of its own accord.
“Drunk?” Kael had stopped at my back, his voice stripped of all tone.
“No.” I shook my head.
“Not drunk. Then why are you walking like that , swaying with every step?”
The heels had worn my soles raw.
“I’m not used to these shoes. My feet hurt.”
He snorted softly.
Before I could react, he’d bent and swept me clean off the ground, one arm under my knees, carrying me like I weighed nothing.
“You , what are you,”
I flailed, and his hands pinned me exactly where I was.
However uselessly I squirmed, he simply carried me , straight for the door.