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The woman accompanying him—his new spouse—gave Lucien an uncomfortable, strained smile. “Come on, darling, let’s find your room so that you can rest,” she said, addressing the pretty omega. “Dylan has a delicate constitution,” she explained to Vagrippa with an indulgent smile. “I don’t know who he gets it from. His father isn’t like that at all.”

Lucien went still as his brain finally connected the pretty omega to his father. He looked between the pretty omega—Dylan—and his father, and his stomach sank when he noticed the similarities. Dylan looked like Lucien’s father. And like Lucien. A much younger version of Lucien.

Nausea rose in his throat.

Lucien shot Vagrippa a furious look, unable to believe she was actually considering Lucien’s own half-brother for the role of Aksel’s mate. Did Aksel know? Hadn’t he approved all the omegas invited to this party? Why would he do this to him? Did he hate Lucien that much now?

Before he could stop himself, Lucien looked at Aksel.

But his handsome face was inscrutable. His eyes were only on Dylan.

Lucien felt sick.

Sick and utterly betrayed. And furious. He didn’t believe in coincidences. He didn’t believe that this choice of a prospective mate wasn’t malicious, wasn’t aimed to hurt him. There were thousands of young, suitable omegas out there, and yet one of the few Aksel and his mother handpicked was Lucien’s brother?

He hadn’t thought Aksel was capable of such cruelty.

But maybe he was wrong. Maybe Aksel was that hurt. That pissed off.

Well, screw him, and screw his mother, and screw Lucien’s father. Lucien wouldn’t give them the satisfaction of showing how much this hurt him.

“Welcome,” he said with his nicest smile, looking at his father. “I hope you had an uneventful journey, Mr. Deveraux. After your recent... troubles, you deserve a bit of respite.” Maybe it was petty of him, but he couldn’t resist taking a dig. Although Lucien had avoided looking up his former family, even he had heard the rumors that his father was in financial trouble. Judging by the subtle tensing of his father’s mouth, the rumors weren’t wrong.

“Thank you,” he ground out, without quite meeting Lucien’s eyes.

His wife’s smile was even more strained now. Their son gave Lucien a long look before averting his gaze without even a nod of acknowledgment to him. He didn’t shake Lucien’s hand. His own brother.

It shouldn’t have hurt after decades of such treatment.

But somehow, with Aksel just standing there and not even looking at him, it hurt more than ever. Twenty years, ten, even a year ago, Aksel wouldn’t have tolerated any perceived insult toward him. Clearly those times were in the past.

You can blame only yourself, a rational voice tried to tell Lucien at the back of his mind. But right now he couldn’t be very rational. He didn’t want to be rational. He was furious, and so damn hurt. The fourteen-year-old in him couldn’t believe his Aksel could ever be so cruel. This was his father and his second family. Aksel knew how much his father had hurt him, how much his actions had broken him, and now he was standing there, shaking his father’s hand and ogling Lucien’s brother—the brother who had everything Lucien didn’t. Regardless of the rift between them, Lucien couldn’t believe Aksel could ever be that cold-hearted and cruel.

Apparently, he could be.

Realizing that his eyes were stinging, Lucien turned away and headed back into the house.

It wasn’t as though he would be missed by anyone.

***

Unfortunately, that set a pattern for the rest of the house party.

Royce had been wrong: being in Lucien’s home didn’t stop the guests from scorning him. Sure, it was subtler than how people treated him elsewhere, the offensive remarks vague and not so obvious, but it was humiliating all the same. In some ways, it was more humiliating, because this was supposed to be his home, his safe place. If he was ostracized even here, several decades later, it meant there was no hope that people would ever move on from the scandal in his past.

The thought was incredibly depressing.

But it wasn’t even the most depressing part. Even his former family’s presence wasn’t the most depressing part—over the past ten days, Lucien had learned to ignore them as they ignored him.

It was the omegas. The young, beautiful, pure omegas paraded in front of Aksel. They didn’t have a sordid scandal in their past. They weren’t Aksel’s stepfather. They were young,healthy, and presumably fertile. They were everything Lucien wasn’t.

Lucien hated them.

He knew it was irrational, illogical, and completely unfair to those omegas, but he hated them. He did. He wanted to wrap all his limbs around Aksel and hiss at them like a feral cat. No matter what his rational side said, no matter how angry and hurt he was, Aksel felt like his on a bone-deep level. On a soul-deep level.

But Aksel barely looked at him these days, his blue eyes cold whenever he happened to glance at him.It made Lucien feel small.He longed to hide in his room for the duration of the party, but his pride wouldn’t allow him to do it. And there would be questions if he did.

So he put on a bright smile and went downstairs every day—to be ignored and sneered at and looked down on.