Chapter 12: It Was Worth It

Roxanne's POV

The door opened and the music hit first, then the heat, then the eyes.

Every single one of them.

The conversation near the entrance didn't stop immediately, it stuttered, like a record skipping, and then the whispers started moving through the room in a wave I could physically track from face to face.

Is that Roxanne Sinclair?"

"No fucking way."

"Since when does Blackwood date Omegas?"

"Holy shit, she's actually hot!"

I kept my chin up. Tyson's hand sat flat against the small of my back, warm and steady, and I felt him lean slightly closer without breaking step.

"Don't tense up," he said quietly, lips barely moving.

"I'm not tense." My voice came out tight.

"Your whole spine just locked." He said.

"That's just how I stand..."

"Roxanne, you look good.." His thumb pressed once against my spine. "Walk like you know it."

I breathed in through my nose and walked.

Three of his teammates cut across the room toward us before we'd made it twenty feet, beers already in hand, wearing matching expressions of pure disbelief. The one in front stopped directly in front of Tyson and looked at me like I was something he needed to verify was real.

"Wow, what the...." He stared. "When did this happen?"

"It happened recently," Tyson said.

"She's.." The guy's eyes moved over me, slow and obvious. "Damn, man. I didn't know you were into her type."

"I'm right here," I said flatly. "I can hear you."

"Okay." He blinked at me, then laughed. "I like her."

"I don't need your approval," I said.

"Well aren't you a feisty one." He smirked.

"She's mine," Tyson said, his arm shifted from my back to my waist, pulling me against his side, and the warmth of him pressed along the full length of me. "Not everyone can handle her, but I can."

"Alright, alright." He raised his beer. "She's yours, man. We see it."

"Good." Tyson nodded once. "Go enjoy the party."

He went, the others filtered after him and I waited until they were out of range before I turned to Tyson.

"You didn't have to grip my waist like that." My voice dropped low.

He looked down at me. "It's all part of the show."

"It wasn't necessary, and the she's mine thing too." I kept my face angled toward him so it looked like couple conversation from the outside. "We're supposed to be subtle..."

"That was subtle." His voice was flat.

"You basically peed on me..."

"I defended you." He corrected.

"I don't need defending." I held his stare. "Keep your hands at a normal level and stop with the possessive Alpha routine, it's excessive."

"Skylar needs to believe..."

"She needs to believe we're dating, not that you own me." I exhaled. "Can you just act normal? Like a person who is dating someone. Not like a documentary about territorial wolves."

"I'll try." He said.

"Thank you." My eyes moved through the crowd without meaning to.

"You enjoyed it though." His voice was low. "The possessive boyfriend act."

"No I didn't." My eyes didn't stop moving.

"Your ears are red." He said. "Both of them, very red."

"They're not..."

I stopped talking because my eyes landed on Liam standing near the back wall with a beer in hand, laughing, completely unbothered, with a girl standing close enough to make my stomach drop.

"He came," I said quietly to myself.

"Who?" Tyson asked.

"Liam." I kept my voice low, eyes still on him across the room. "He told Charlotte he was wiped from practice, bhat he couldn't make it. She stayed home because of that." I watched him lean toward the girl and say something in her ear. My stomach turned. "But he's here, with some girl."

Tyson followed my eyeline. "That doesn't concern you right now."

I looked at him. "Are you serious?"

"Tonight you're my girlfriend..."

"Charlotte is my best friend," I said, keeping my voice down because I was aware we were still in public and still performing. "If her boyfriend is out here with another girl when he told her he couldn't come, that absolutely concerns me. I'm not going to just stand here and..."

"I know, and you'll deal with it." His jaw shifted. "Tomorrow, when it's not the middle of a packed room and every person here isn't already watching us." He held my gaze. "If you go over there right now it becomes a scene, it becomes gossip, and Charlotte finds out through other people before you can get to her first. Is that what you want?"

I looked back at Liam, the girl laughed at something he said.

"I hate this," I said quietly.

"I know. Let it go for tonight." His thumb moved once against my side, brief and almost involuntary. "Handle it right tomorrow."

I looked away from Liam and exhaled once. "Fine."

Tyson turned back to me and something shifted in his attention. His eyes moved briefly past my shoulder. "Skylar just walked in."

I didn't look. "Where?"

"Behind you, in a blue dress. She's scanning the room." He pause. "She found us."

"Already?" I asked.

"Red hair, black bodycon dress." The corner of his mouth moved. "You're not hard to find."

I kept my face forward, looking up at him instead, and tried to look like a girl who was exactly where she wanted to be. It was harder than I expected, not because of Skylar, because of his eyes, which were on me now and not in the way they were during the check-in walks or the planning meetings. Something different in them tonight.

"Is she still looking?" I asked, my voice tight.

"She's still looking," he said. "Let's give her something to look at."

Something moved in his expression. He reached up and touched my jaw with one hand, fingers curling along the side of my face, and tilted my chin up, then he kissed me.

His other hand gripped my hip and pulled me in and I was pressed against his chest with nowhere to go and my hand came up and grabbed his shirt. His thumb traced slow along my jaw and I felt it from my face down through my chest and into my stomach and my wolf went completely feral. She pressed forward and stayed there.

He tasted like whatever he'd been drinking and something underneath it that was just him, warm and Alpha, and a sound started somewhere in my throat that I stopped before it could come out slowly.

He pulled back slowly.

His thumb was still on my jaw. His eyes were dark and his chest was moving slightly faster than normal and he was looking at me.

I could not speak. My lips were swollen and my chest was beating so loud, I was sure he could hear it. My hands were still in his shirt and I just stared at him.

"Skylar's face just changed," he said quietly. "She's pissed."

I felt my stomach drop. Right, the plan was the only reason any of this was happening. I was standing in this room in this dress with my lips like this because of a plan, not because of anything else, not because of the way he'd kissed me like I was something worth kissing properly. Not because of my wolf sitting heavy and certain behind my ribs.

Because of Skylar.

I released his shirt. Smoothed the fabric down.

"That's... good," I cleared my throat. "At least the kiss was worth it."

The corner of his mouth moved. "Told you you'd like it,"