Page 68 of Villain

“The one they’ve tasked you to find?”

“Yeah,” he nodded. “We’ve managed to establish they’re most likely trying to stop Lake from ascending.”

Beck frowned again. “He’s next in line.”

“Yup.”

“There’s really nothing they can do to prevent him from taking the throne,” he pointed out. “The only reason he hasn’t already is because the mourning period on this planet lasts so long.”

Six months. That was how long they had to wait before Lake could officially be announced as the next emperor. Of course, they’d only been given two to unearth their enemy and present him to the club.

“If we fail this task, it’ll give someone reason to argue against Lake claiming the crown.” They both knew who West was referring to. The Order didn’t have many seats, but out of them, almost half followed behind Hendrix like lost little lambs. “The only thing that could stand against following the line of succession are the Essentials.”

It was a precarious situation. The government was so entangled between its two rulers—the Emperor who sat as the face of command, and the club who operated in the shadows. No one would dare try to argue against things if the entire Essential Order as a whole called for a change in the process and demanded someone other than Lake be named. The only way that would be possible?

If Hendrix could prove to the rest of the Order that Lake was unfit to rule, either because of his age, incompetence, or both.

“Lake’s wanted the crown for as long as I’ve known him,” Beck said. “He won’t give it up so easily.”

“Neither will I,” West confirmed. “I’ve hitched my star to his and we’re both in it to win it.”

“And Yejun?”

“Yejun goes where we go.” West cocked his head, unable to hold back the smirk. “When are you gonna grow a pair and confess to him? You wait any longer and you might miss your chance.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Beck lied, unable to meet his gaze while he did. He moved back over to his tablet and started flicking through reports again, clearly not staring at any of them long enough to actually process what was written on them. “But even if I did…What do you mean exactly?”

West grunted. As far as he knew, the others had yet to pick up on Beck’s crush, but he’d noticed. It’d been a while, too. Whenever they were all at those fancy events, Beck could be found sending Yejun longing glances from the corner of the room. He pretended like that wasn’t the case whenever he actually interacted with Yejun, which was probably why Yejun hadn’t realized himself since he was typically pretty good at picking up on things like that.

It was tempting to help them out and move things along by saying something himself, but it wasn’t West’s place, and he was no cupid. Besides, Yejun had never once shown any sort of interest in Beck aside from being friendly and polite.

He certainly had never looked at Beck the way he’d looked at Nix the other day.

“What? Don’t tell me you haven’t heard the rumors,” West teased, knowing that Beck absolutely had. Hell, some of the students in the class that had just ended had been not so quietly discussing it amongst themselves when West had walked in.

Beck’s finger paused over the screen before he got a hold of himself. “Even if the three of you have decided to choose a fourth, that doesn’t mean anything. Yejun is hardly the monogamous type.”

“I don’t know,” he drawled. “Maybe he just hasn’t found the right one yet.” Movement out in the halls caught his attention and he glanced out, grinning when he spotted Nix just as he passed by. “Speak of the devil.”

Beck followed his gaze, but Nix was already out of sight.

West dropped the fruit onto Beck’s desk. “Let me know if you end up hearing anything.” He waved but didn’t stick around to see if there was anything else Beck wanted to say to him, too focused on catching up to Nix in the halls.

It didn’t take long. West draped an arm around Nix’s shoulders, laughing when the slightly smaller man tried to pull away and set a surprised look on him before it registered who he was.

“West,” he said his name tentatively, almost as though he was gearing up for something crazy.

The two of them hadn’t interacted much since the blowjob. Maybe that was why. Admittedly, that hadn’t been the best first impression he could have made, but Lake had been the one calling the shots. West had simply been rolling with the punches.

“Where you off to, Nixie?” West pulled him to the side, stopping them by a row of coffee-colored lockers. “Can I make a suggestion?” He caught Nix’s chin and forced his face to turn back to his when a couple of giggling girls passing by had him looking away. “Focus.”

“I have class,” Nix said, brushing his hand off.

West allowed it since he didn’t make any moves to leave, standing there quietly as though waiting for him to finish whatever it was he’d stopped him for. “You adjust quick, huh.”

Most people would be freaking out if within their first week of school they were publicly claimed by a group like the Demons. Not only that, but Nix had been placed in several uncomfortable situations thanks to them. Maybe someone else had already smoothed things over?

“How was last night? With Yejun?” West asked.

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