I also told her all of my answers to those questions: I loved the color red, my favorite food was the chicken dumplings that my maternal grandmother used to make when she was alive, I loved 80’s rock and roll and confessed that I probably worked too much and didn’t have any hobbies.
It was… nice.
More often than not when I took women on dates we’d go to a bar or club or some other loud place. Talking wasn’t required and usually I didn’t care for the answer. This was definitely a change of pace and worth every second of it.
I also couldn’t understand the beta who had basically abandoned this omega. I also made a mental note to learn more about him.
12
It had been a week since the omega had moved into our home. Leon spent most of the time at home in the home office or in his bedroom, Owen went in once in a while to comfort him. The omega only came out of her room to eat or to talk quietly with Ric, Owen or Gage who she seemed to quickly become attached to. I was jealous that Owen and Ric were able to take the omega out with them to eat though Gage, the ever quiet giant, never asked. Instead he fed her and left her soft materials that I’m sure cost an arm and a leg.
The omega wasn’t exactly afraid of me, just wary. Which I suppose is fair, I come off aggressively at the best of times. What can I say, it's just who I am. Though my grandmother would probably take out my kneecaps if she realized just how many women I had slept with in the last two years since moving to San Francisco. But the old woman was enjoying retirement in Nice, France and was too busy to keep track of her wayward grandson.
I don’t know why it bothered me so much when Eloise skirted away from me when we ran into each other in the house. It wasn’t like she was staying permanently nor was it like I had the time to be courting a prickly omega anyways. But everytime she avoided me with those doe-eyes I gritted my teeth.
Even now I was deep in thought about the tiny omega as I sat in my BMW waiting for a phone call.
I had pulled up to my usual phone call spot, a road along the San Francisco bay near a picnic spot. Families were wandering around with their children, the cold bay wind snatching at their hair and clothing as they played in the sand or munched on picnic lunches. It was a foggy day in the bay area, gray and dull with a thick fog that curled in from the ocean to blanket the bay in an oppressive gray. This didn’t stop the hundreds of thousands of tourists from coming into the city everyday but I digress.
The time for the phone call flashed on the dash of my car and I gripped my phone in my hand, waiting for it to buzz. But it never buzzed. Instead two sharp knocks nearly made me jump out of my skin.
Five men flanked my car on either side, dressed in dark suits and wearing similar expressions of what I could only describe as menace.
With a sigh I opened my car door and stepped out, crossing my arms over my chest and glaring at the men, “I thought we were keeping all communications over the phone.”
“Current events called for us to meet face-to-face,” the man standing nearest to my car gave a dark chuckle and I had to fight to keep my grimace off of my face. I had been in contact with Dimitri Volkov for around 6 months, feeding the Volkov crime family information from Russo Enterprises for about that amount of time.
Don’t judge me. I had tried making the whole ‘pack’ thing work for almost a year before they made contact but I’m nearly two years into pack life and I am still kept on the outskirts of every single decision or discussion. I guess I’m not made for pack life. I am, however, made for money and keeping my grandmother comfortable in her house in Nice. So here we are.
“What current events might you be talking about?” I was confused, other than Russo Enterprises’ upcoming merger there was nothing too interesting going on with the company. Well, Dimitri threw ice water on that quickly with his next words.
“A little birdie told Mr. Volkov that an omega has started living in Russo’s house.”
Shit. I was going to try and keep the omega as far away from this dumpster fire that I was creating for Pack Russo as much as I could. I didn’t want to tell Volkov anything about her. Which was odd because I didn’t know her very well. But I couldn’t help but push down the protective growl that was building in my throat at Dimitri’s words.
“You can tell your uncle that the omega is off limits from our dealings. She is a problem child placed in our laps courtesy of the Academy. She’s only here for a few months and has nothing to do with this.” I fought to keep my voice neutral. Eloise didn’t deserve the fire storm that the Volkov’s were beginning to create for Leon Russo.
“I don’t presume to order my uncle around, Dubois. You would do well to learn to do the same. It’s no matter. We will send you our requests to your burner this week and remember we can find you no matter where you are.” With that the group turned and walked away, disappearing into the fog. I leaned against my car and groaned, this was getting out of hand quickly.
I don’t know why Volkov hated Leon so much but all I needed to do was keep my head down and mind my own business. I was very quickly learning that my life would depend on it.
“Again?” I growled and I slammed my office phone back down onto the receiver with a force that made my desk rattle.
“This is the fifth time that our business has been interrupted by Volkov in the last six months. They’ve just sniped the Worthington contract from under our noses.” Leaning back in my chair I scraped a hand over my face and tried to calm my breathing. Ric was sitting on the end of the couch that I kept in my office, his laptop open in front of him but he looked as angry as I did.
Pressing the button for my intercom I barked into the receiver, “Stanley please send in Owen, Gage and Dominic.”
“Right away, Mr. Russo.” my secretary chirped through the speakers. A few minutes later the rest of my pack had filed into my office and had all seated themselves except for Gage who stood silently leaning against the wall next to my office door.
“This is getting ridiculous Leon. I’ve been telling you we have had a mole for months.” Dominic said after I filled them in about the Worthington account. The alpha was a bit more aggressive in business that I would have normally liked but he also knew what he was talking about.
“And I’m starting to believe you. Owen, I need you to run a diagnostic through all of our systems and see if we’ve been hacked.” Owen nodded and popped his headphones in, no doubt blasting music so that he could work without getting distracted.
“Ric, I need you to secure tickets for the charity gala for tomorrow night. The best way to convince the Worthingtons to change their mind is face to face.”
“Got it, six tickets coming right up.” Ric stood and began to type in his phone.
“Six?” I asked.
