Page 99 of Bliss & Her Idols

I can’t tell Torin that the whole reason I was at the concert to start with was to rescue Jin.

At least, not without Jin’s permission.

I cast Jin a questioning look, but he gives a quick shake of his head.

Why doesn’t he want to tell Torin? How much loyalty does Torin still hold towards his Head Alpha, Philomena? His brother, Rory?

If Torin loves Jin, won’t he understand about the Idol trying to escape?

I keep quiet.

Disquiet makes my breathing speed up. My skin goosebumps.

Cricket squeezes my hand again, and I squeeze back twice.

I love you and I’m here for you.

I wish that I could do the same for Jin.

Torin lets go of Jin’s hair, smoothing it down. He sharply turns away, finishing the final button on his shirt.

Jin catches him by the hand and yanks him to sit down on the edge of the bed.

Torin looks startled, when Jin turns his seductive but cold Ice Dragon persona back on like a switch has been flipped.

“If even I can smell how anxious you’re making these Omegas, then you definitely can.” Jin’s eyes flash. “Don’t try and pretend that you’re not affected. You’re softer than I am on the inside. You just like to hide it with a harder outside.”

Torin arches his brow. “Like to test that?”

“Charming,” Jin’s voice gentles, “I know that you’ve been lonely and isolated. But things will change. Hey, they already are. Can’t you feel it? Things won’t always be this tough.”

“How are things tough for an Alpha billionaire?” I can’t help asking.

Torin’s expression immediately closes off.

I wish that I could kick my own ass.

“I’m asongwriter,” Torin corrects. “Take a wild guess what an elite family like mine thinks about an Alpha becoming one of those or wasting his time learning music.”

I wince. “Not keen on the creative arts then?”

He snorts, crossing his arms. “In my pack, Alphas are meant to be all about the business.Money.Creatives are Betas. They’re commodities to be exploited.” When he glances down, his thick, black lashes fan across his cheeks. “I have a memory, a faint one, of my Alpha dad sitting me on his lap and singing with me. It may be false because I was only two year’s old when he died. Maybe I made it up because I wanted a good memory of him. I don’t have any of my Omega mom. I didn’t know her. No one else has sung to or with me, apart from these infuriating but warm hearted Idols. They sang with me all the time. You couldn’t get them to shut up. Especiallythis one.”

When he pokes Jin’s side, Jin grins unapologetically.

“Hey, you love my voice. And what do you meaninfuriating?”

Cricket chuckles.

Yet a sadness washes over me.

Torin is an orphan like I am.

Yet he barely knew his parents. He only has the ghost of a single happy memory and he doesn’t knows if that one is real.

I lost my own parents in the most traumatizing way. But at least I remember them. I know that they were good people.

Perhaps, they weren’t always around as much as some people’s parents are. Chase would babysit Piper and me, reading Piper bedtime stories and making sure that I finished my homework for years before my parents were executed.

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