His face turns bright red. “Howdareyou call the integrity of this firm into question?”
“Let’s move on, Mr. McMillan,” I say, repeating his words from earlier. “This was never a good place for me.”
“You walk out of that door, you will never be allowed back in, do you understand me?”
I just huff out a laugh. “Lucky me.”
His anger explodes as he stands up from his desk and yells, his finger pointing in my direction accusingly. It all jumbles together in his heated emotion, sounding like a tantrum as I turn to leave his office.
“—you snot-rotten little brat, always turning yournose up at our cases, annoyed by our principles. Who the hell do you think you are?—”
“Good luck, Mr. McMillan,” I say and I walk out of the room, his screaming echoing behind me. Everyone in the next room looks between me and the door, startled by the boss’s reaction, but he isn’t my boss anymore, and that fact has me smiling all the way to the parking lot.
When I walk outof the building, I feel light. So much stress has been released from my body that my alpha stirs up a purr in my chest. It’s a weird feeling, and my hand hovers over it, feeling it to self-soothe. I’ve only ever heard of alphas purring for themselves in fiction, but the proof is hard to deny when I feel the steady vibrations with my palm.
As I make my way across town, things become clearer to me. My friends have noticed how much of a bind I’ve been in for weeks, so I know where to go next. Just one more stop before I fix things with the whimsical omega that has become a staple in my life. My skin’s clammy from the anticipation, but I’m also extremely relieved. I hope to have all of my cards out in the open tonight. Without any secrets holding us back, I hope we can finally move forward. For each other, and for the pack I’m meant to lead.
When I get to my destination, my cell phone rings once again. Instincts have me answering it before I can even look at the caller ID.
“Hello?”
“Hey, dude.” Thatcher’s voice sounds light, happy. Nothing like my grouchy friend from freshman year.
“Oh, shit, hi.” I feel a smile take over.
“Did I catch you off guard?” he jokes. “You must be having a day then.”
“I am. I quit my internship.”
Thatcher makes a choking sound. “You did what?”
“I got an offer from another firm and I took it. Less hours, a more appropriate workload.”
It’s quiet for a few moments before he says, “Shit. That’s incredible. So, you’ll be home more often?”
“That’s the plan,” I confirm. “I haven’t been myself, so I need to slow down. Even though it’s hard.”
“I’m proud of you, Sam.” The honest tone in his voice makes me smile. “Things are changing for the better, it seems.”
“For the better,” I reaffirm. “Maybe we can all eat dinner together tonight.”
“Kit and I are going on a date tonight, actually,” he tells me. “It’s a late showing at the drive-in, so we’ll be gone for a while.”
A tiny, hollow spot in my heart seems to close at the sentence. “First off, that’s amazing. I’m, uh, sorry I wasn’t there for you these past few months, Thatcher. I thought bringing up the situation with you and Kit would add more pressure, but I should have been a better prime.”
Thatcher makes a dismissive noise. “Even if you had asked, I would have lied to you. I seemed to do a lot of that, even to myself, before Opal came around.”
Her name echoes, my focus so stuck on the redheaded omega living in our house, the place where shebelongs. “I should have been paying attention to her, too,” I told him. “But I was avoiding it. Like I’ve been avoiding everything else. I wanted us to be perfect, and I thought acknowledging our faults made that impossible. I realize now that it can be… freeing. So, I’m sorry.”
“Sam, you put too much pressure on yourself.” He sighs. “We were all avoiding the truth, which is that something was missing.”
“Or someone,” I say, echoing his insinuation.
Despite being miles away, I can tell Thatcher is cracking a smile by the tiny sound that emits. “Or someone,” he agrees. “And as I said, Kit and I will be gone for most of the night.”
“Don’t be crass,” I joke, but my mind already goes to tonight and how much I need to tell Opal. “I have someone I need to talk to first, then I’ll get home to see our girl.”
“Be good to her, Alpha,” he says, but the tone bleeds nothing but softness.
