My nest and my numbers. It was all I needed, no matter what anyone else said.
At least for the moment.
Chapter 2
Spencer
Tuesdays were so easy, they were almost boring, which was not something I excelled at… I wasn’t one to embrace being idle; it gnawed at me, making me restless.
“You want a coffee?” Percy asked as we walked into the building. “The guy working the cart makes surprisingly excellent drinks.”
“I’m good, thanks,” I replied, a step or two behind him. Even though I was keeping up a conversation with him, I was scrutinizing everything around us, every student. What were they doing? What were they preoccupied with? Were any of them plotting?
With a deep inhale, I searched for familiar scents. An alpha’s nose was a damn exceptional tool, and I knew how to use mine. Scent gave away a lot about a person, especially omegas. It was why, whenever I was working, I wore an industrial strength descenter. That way, no one was privy to what my emotions were. I needed to be a blank slate.
My pack and I had protected witnesses on the run from the mafia, whistleblowers, and those in perilous situations, andconcealing your scent was critical to avoid detection and recognition.
“You sure?” Percy asked, looking back at me. He wore that laid-back grin of his, unbothered by the world around him, his blue eyes bright and cheery, a stark contrast to my vigilant demeanor.
“I’m sure we’re late enough as it is. If you want a caffeine fix, I’ll grab some while you’re in class.” I laughed, knowing full well that would royally piss off the professor.
I was a highly trained protective agent, yet my life had been reduced to babysitting a hockey player while he went to class.
He was a good kid, at least. All his pack mates were, too.
I thought of him as a kid, even though he was only a few years younger than me. More than a decade of security work had hardened me, making me feel a lot older than my twenty-seven years.
Percy chuckled. “McCreevy will have my hide, especially after I’ve missed the last two weeks of his classes. Nah, I’ll wait until after. Coffee is required, though. The lack of sleep is real, and I want to get some pastries for Mable.”
“Babies and sleep don’t mix.” I chuckled. The arrival of their daughter a little over a week ago had thrown the pack into complete chaos, but they were blissfully happy. Percy had taken two weeks off once Mable’s due date drew near, but he could only miss so much. His omega was being doted on by her other mates, who had six weeks’ paternity leave scheduled.
Percy nodded as we entered the room. “I may as well get a head start on the raging caffeine addiction I am no doubt going to develop.”
When we entered the room, we separated, as had become habit. I took my seat at the back, where I could easily observe all the students coming and going, a priority if I wanted to havea handle on the entire space. My seat also allowed me to see most of what was going on outside the double-door entrance.
Good vantage point.Check.
It had been almost a year since the NHL team—the California Chargers—had contacted the security agency I ran. One of their players had been receiving some concerning fan mail, and we’d been contracted to provide additional protection, which was how I ended up working with Pack Garnett. They wanted security that would hold up to their name—trusted and reliable—and we were both, as well as being expensive. As I was personally overseeing operations, it had turned into something akin to a well-funded break, thanks to the pack’s low-maintenance nature.
Pack Garnett consisted of four alphas, all of whom were part of the California Chargers. They were good kids and not particularly difficult to watch, so I didn’t hate the job. In fact, over time, I’d become quite attached to them. They were only a few years younger than us, but given our vastly different lives, there were moments when I felt decades older than them.
When I started working with them, I did extensive online research and learned that Saint Garnett had some pretty obsessive fans—he was the primary reason we were hired. His boyish good looks and playboy attitude attracted a lot of attention. Usually from women, though there was also the occasional basement dweller.
What the pack had failed to tell me was that they had been communicating for several years with a pen pal. This revelation raised substantial alarms that could jeopardize their safety.
When I discovered this information, I was furious because it pointed to a potential high-risk security breach. During the onboarding process with Pack Garnett, we specifically asked about any existing risks. They had hidden their pen-palrelationship, and I took their assurance that there were no risks at face value. I hadn’t carried out a detailed review of their online activities, assuming it was unnecessary.
Hindsight truly was twenty-twenty. Then I met Mable—the girl they had been talking to—the guys were all madly obsessed and quickly settled into family life as if they were born for it. Each member of the pack doted on their omega. In a few short weeks, she had become the center of their world, even if their meeting had been somewhat unorthodox.
Saint had met a random omega in heat in the university hockey rink showers and gave in to the alpha within him. Later learning that the omega in question was in fact his pen pal, and neither of the pair hadanyidea.
When he finally explained that to me, I was so close to screaming at him and wringing his neck for being so incredibly stupid. It was a miracle that the boy had survived so long. At the time, the kid had been so driven by the alpha within him—notably, his cock—he’d forgotten entirely that he needed a security detail in the first place.
I was not so absent-minded.
Thankfully, it had all ended well, and Mable was living in the penthouse with the guys. In fact, I was guardinghermore than them nowadays. As alphas, their innate instinct was to defend their omega, so it made sense that the members of Pack Garnett pushed for my team to protect their omega over them, although the pack weren’t the ones footing the costs.
In fact, a few weeks after we started watching over her, we approached the Chargers and explained it would be in their best interest to keep her safe, because psycho, over-enthusiastic fans might target her, and the boys were always by her side regardless.
