“And why the hell would you do that?” If Gage successfully looked this beta up, then we were basically packing Eloise’s bags for her to leave us.
“Because it’s what she wants.” Was all he said and I wanted to tear my hair out. For once I wished that Gage wasn’t the ‘silent giant’ as everyone at the office had dubbed him.
“It’s what who wants?” Owen asked as he stepped into the kitchen. He looked as if he hadn’t slept at all last night, the cut on his cheek looked red and angry. With a sigh I headed for the first aid kit which we kept under the sink. Owen was terrible at looking after himself. I was surprised that Leon hadn’t forced him to clean the cut when we arrived back home last night.
“Sit.” I ordered and began to dab at the cuts with a Q-tip of neosporin.
“It’s what who wants?” Owen repeated again, grumbling when I grabbed his chin between two of my fingers and turned his head so I could get a better look at the cut.
“Gage promised Eloise that he’d look for her beta last night and we were just discussing why that is completely an awful idea.”
Owen looked down at his hands, his unhappiness wafting off of his body as he hunched his shoulders.
“I think that’s my fault. Eloise kissed me last night before the whole mess with that alpha. I thought it went well but I guess… maybe she realized that… I don’t know, maybe we aren’t compatible with her.” Owen sounded like he wanted to crawl into a hole and never come out and I was still reeling from the fact that he’d gotten to kiss Eloise. I guess this was just my morning to be jealous.
Gage harrumphed and turned the burner down on the stove, turning to face our beta. He reached out and gripped the back of his neck, forcing Owen to turn and look at him.
“You didn’t mess up. As far as I can tell she liked the kiss.” The two shared a silent look and Owen seemed to relax into Gage’s touch after a moment, nodding.
“Thank you Gage. I’ve been beating myself up all night about it.”
Gage and Owen had never been anything more than friendly in the few years that Owen had been a part of our pack. Our relationships, while interconnected, had always had an air of separateness. Gage took care of us at the house but none of us were romantically connected with him—for Leon and I, Gage was like a sibling. But we tended to monopolize most of Owen’s free time and Gage silently accepted that. As I watched them I idly wondered that, if given the chance, Owen and Gage were compatible in that way.
“Where’s Leon at? I noticed his car wasn’t in the garage this morning.” I asked as we moved on from the moment and all started to move around the kitchen. Gage began to plate what he was cooking, Owen put away the first-aid kit and I fired up the coffee maker.
“He left last night after a few hours.” Owen said over his shoulder, “I think he wanted to make sure that that asshole Smythe was actually being blacklisted from the bay area. I think he took Dominic with him.”
I’d wanted to pummel the smug alpha’s face when we’d arrived in the garden last night and saw Eloise shaking and crying behind Gage and Owen scratched up and bloody. I didn’t let my inner alpha out very often—it didn’t usually make for successful business deals—but last night my instincts were riding me hard to get out of the limo and go back and finish what Gage had started.
“I’m pretty sure he won’t be getting any work in San Francisco anymore after that scene from last night. I still can’t believe that SFOFA would pair Eloise with a pack like that. I thought they screened their packs better.” I poured cups of coffee for everyone and left out an extra cup for Eloise whenever she woke up.
Owen sipped his cup of coffee, filled with an obscene amount of sugar and cream and shrugged, “you can only screen so much. Unfortunately they don’t have alphas take a personality test before applying to court an omega.”
“They should.” Was all Gage added to the conversation. A thump came from upstairs, telling us that Eloise had finally awoken.
“No talking about the beta until we find him. I want to vet him before we even let him see her.” Something deep inside of me instinctually told me that looking for this beta was going to bite us in the ass. But I also knew I would get bit in the ass a thousand times if Eloise asked it of me.
Eloise came into the kitchen a few minutes later dressed in a pair of jeans and a t-shirt, looking sleepy and rumpled. She hadn’t brushed her long brown hair yet and it stuck up a little bit on one side of her head. She looked adorable.
“Good morning sleepyhead.” I greeted and handed her a cup of coffee with only a little bit of cream in it. Eloise accepted it gratefully.
“Mornin’” she grumbled as she sat at the island and sipped on her coffee. Gage and Owen were silently staring at her arm and I stepped closer to see what they were fixated on. What I saw made my alpha instincts kick into overdrive.
On Eloise’s upper arm was the perfect imprint bruise of a hand. It looked dark and angry and just showed how hard Smythe had grabbed her.
“What the fuck.” I muttered as I gently grabbed her hand and straightened her arm so that I could gently turn it to look at the full extent of her bruising.
“I bruise like a peach.” Eloise said with a shrug, “It doesn’t hurt too bad.”
“Doesn’t matter. I should go and kill that asshole for even thinking about putting his hands on you.” I growled, seeing red.
“While I appreciate the thought, Ric,” Eloise put her hand over mine and gave it a gentle squeeze, her chocolate scent washing over me in a soothing wave. “I really don’t think you’d look good in a prison jumpsuit. Orange really isn’t your color.”
Her lighthearted joke and omega pheromones seemed to push the red in my vision back and I looked into her brown eyes and relaxed.
“I’m much more partial to blue tones anyways.” I said and the tension in the room seemed to break.
We ate breakfast in a comfortable silence, Gage making sure that everyone got enough to eat and hovering near Eloise as if she was going to disappear if he didn’t.
