Page 219 of Bliss & Her Idols

Will he accept this coup?

This is the moment of truth.

My insides cramp with anxiety.

Dread is heavy in my stomach, when Rory untangles himself from Immortal.

He shoves himself off the bed, shaking his head. “It’s not going to work.”

“Bit of optimism, yeah?” Jin protests.

Rory twists back with a snarl that startles me.

“Do you think that Una doesn’t know what’s going on in this pack? What’s always gone on? To you?” He points at Torin. “To the Idols? To me?”

He gestures at his own bruised cheek.

Torin looks at him, guardedly. “But she’s been as trapped as we are.”

“Has she?” Rory snorts. “She has a comfortable life with her own bonded pack. Have you noticed how she overworks her bondeds? Her poor Beta runs most of the estate. Una is selfish.”

Torin appears uncertain. “Una’s bonded pack have been kind to me. They’re the reason that I even had clothes or—”

“Kind,” Rory sneers. “Yes, Una loves to play at kindness. Ask yourself why she never stepped in to end your neglect or my abuse?”

Torin shifts like he hasn’t been able to face this question.

I’ve thought about it myself.

Una may have had soft doe-eyes, but both Rory and the twins appeared frightened of her at the breakfast table.

They’d also obeyed her.

There was no doubt who was in charge.

I also remember how she ordered Rory to sit next to her, and how reluctant Rory had been. Then the controlling way that she adjusted his tie, while he hadn’t protested but also hadn’t looked at his sister either.

Sometimes a caress or gentle word can be as effective a way to show your power over someone as a fist to their jaw.

Cricket shivers, as if he’s thinking the same thing.

“It doesn’t matter what she did in the past,” Torin insists, “as long as she sides with us against Mena.”

Except, devastation is already racing through me because I can tell what Rory is going to say, before he says it.

I also know that if we can’t trust Una in this coup — can’t trust that we’re not replacing one abusive Head Alpha with another — then Immortal will be sold and Torin will be locked up for the rest of his life.

None of us will come back from that.

“She won’t.” Rory balls his hands into fists. “She wears a better mask than we do. I approached her on my knees, when I was only a teenager. I couldn’t take what Mena was doing to me. Una had never hit me. I thought that if I told her…everything…and begged for help, then she’d do something to make the abuse stop. Do you know what she said?”

Torin carefully pushes me off his lap onto the bed and approaches his brother like Rory may shatter at any moment.

He shakes his head.

“She said,” Rory’s breathing is ragged, “that I needed to learn totake it like an Alpha.”

Torin’s growl reverberates through the bedroom.

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