Chapter One
Ronin
Ronin lay in bed for a moment after his alarm clock went off. He’d purposely left it on the table far away from his bed so that he would have to get up to turn it off.
He groaned as he sat up in bed. The last thing he wanted to do was go to the meeting he had scheduled this evening. Ro had an appointment to meet with the Alpha leader of the pack on the outskirts of town. And he couldn’t exactly bail, especially since Rick, his oldest brother and Alpha, was the one that set up the meeting.
Ro had driven all day after his last meeting the night before and had crashed once he’d checked in to the hotel in Chesterfield.
His alarm clock didn’t seem to be letting up, the sound making him want to smash his phone, so he got out of bed and walked over to it.
All you have to do is attend and hope for the best.
They were in the midst of trying to set up a work exchange program. Although calling it that was a tad disingenuous since it was really a chance for alphas and omegas to find their mates. But, even with that being the case, they needed to set up volunteers to live with host families. They’d also made a rule that all host families had to be mated couples to keep their omega charges safe.
Rick thought it was the perfect way for alphas to meet their omegas, especially those that hadn’t found their mates in their respective packs. Ronin knew that as much as his brother wanted mates to come together, Rick was really searching for his own mate since he couldn’t leave the pack unattended to go looking, and he definitely didn't want to have to mate with one of the women the elders in the pack kept parading his way.
Ronin wasn't exactly on the mate search… not that he didn't want one, but he wasn't exactly sure he was ready for an omega, though if he happened to meet his mate, well… still, he wasn't actively looking.
“Time to get ready,” Ro said on a sigh. “Might as well get it over with.”
He got through his shower and didn't bother with a shave since he was already running late. By the time he was on the road, he had barely half an hour to make it to his destination.
Ro was about ten minutes into his drive when his phone started ringing. He glanced toward it over on the passenger seat and breathed a sigh of relief. His first thought was that it was Rick calling to check up on him and see how things were going. He wouldn't have been surprised, either, if his brother had called to find out if he was going to make it to the meeting on time.
Thankfully, it was Maddox's name on the caller ID. Maddox was a friend from his days in the human army—they'd belonged to the same team. Those men he'd served with were like his second brothers… for lack of a better word. Ronin tried to catch up with his former teammates, but they didn't do it nearly enough.
He answered the call using his Bluetooth, and his friend's voice immediately filled the car.
“Yo,” Maddox said.
“How's it going, bro?” he asked.
“Going well. Going well,” Maddox replied.
Ronin could clearly hear noise in the background, and couldn't help asking, “A little early for a party, isn't it?”
Maddox laughed. “Nah, man. I'm at the bar, and you should be here too.”
Fuck, that sounded perfect to Ronin right now. He'd give anything to be there and not on the way to a meeting that was sure to drag on and waste his night. “Wish I could, but I can't,” he sighed. The reluctance was heavy in his voice.
“Come on, man. It's been ages since we got together with the whole gang. Say hello, men.”
Ronin heard the voices of a few of his teammates, although instead of, “hello,” it was more along the lines of, “join us asshole.”
“Trust me, I would rather hang out with y'all tonight. It sounds like a blast, but I'm not in town. I'm in Chesterfield. So, I'm going to have to make it another night.”
“Did you say Chesterfield?” Maddox asked. “Did I mention that we're… hmm, let me check. It looks like we’re in the same town.”
Ronin snorted. “No, you failed to mentionthat. What a coincidence.”
Maddox laughed loudly into the phone. “We might have had a bit of a head's up of where you’d be. We spoke to Finn, and he mentioned you'd be down this way today. We've been working a job about thirty minutes away, so we figured we'd run on over here, and, well, here we are. There's really nothing you can say now to get out of it.”
Other than Rick will have my head if I bail.
But somehow the words that came out of his mouth were, “Maybe just one beer.”
“Great! See you soon. We're at 54th Street Bar.”
