“I want to be in your life in any capacity that you will allow—to make up for lost time.”
I considered his words. I’d been in limbo for so long, waiting for anything to happen rather than the monotony of daily life at the academy. It had taken my pack crash landing into my life and demanded me to open up for me to realize what I’d been doing for over a decade wasn’t healthy. How did I want to proceed? Should I just tell him to walk out of my life and never return? Even the thought made me want to vomit. My instincts told me that he was pack but my brain was having trouble catching up to that fact… So what was the happy medium?
“I don’t want you to leave again but the fact of the matter is that we don’t know each other—as adults I mean. So I don’t really know what to do from here…” We all sat in silence until Owen had finally had enough, he pulled the fairy wand out of my hand with a scoff.
“I love you all but you are all obtuse as hell, without those alpha and omega instincts of yours it’s a wonder you get anything done. What do normal people do when they think they like each other but don’t know them very well yet?” He queried, looking at each of our blank expressions before rolling his eyes. “Date. You date each other. You go out on dates and see if you like each other romantically as adults.”
Oh. Yeah. I’d kind of forgotten that that was an option. With my omega instincts I could usually tell if someone was compatible with me by their scent alone. The ball was pretty fast rolling after that. It was probably very different for betas like Owen and Link.
“Are you okay with that?” Link asked, his eyes hadn’t left my face since we’d started this conversation. I thought about it for a minute, it would be no different than the alphas courting me as an omega. I also knew that despite the rough journey to this point that Link was still my person. He was there first, protecting me long before I’d ever met Pack Russo. I couldn’t imagine a future where he wasn’t present.
“I think… that I’d like that.” I finally said and Link rewarded me with a blinding smile. He really had grown up from the gangly thirteen year old into a man who looked like he casually modeled beach-wear in his free time. My inner omega approved.
35
“Well now that we’ve gotten that out of the way let’s move to the second half of our transparency talk.” Owen, who was still directing our group therapy session like the captain of a cruise ship, held the wand out to Leon.
“Why do I need that?” The alpha asked, his dark blue eyes narrowing at the beta.
“Because you need to get everyone on the same page about what is going on at Russo Enterprises. I normally wouldn’t push you to reveal information about the company but seeing as we currently have someone imprisoned in the basement of the building…” He trailed off.
“You have someone locked in the basement of your building?” I asked, who the hell could that be? My mind immediately went to the man who’d broken into the house and invaded my nest, “Please tell me it’s not charred meat man.”
“Charred meat man?” Link, who was totally out of the loop with the situation, asked.
“The man who broke into my bedroom.” I said before returning my attention to Leon who was looking a bit guilty, “I thought you would have turned him into the police! You can’t just keep a man imprisoned, Leon.”
“A man broke into your room?!” Link’s voice interrupted me, his green eyes were quickly filling with the overprotectiveness that was normally exhibited by my alphas. Good, it looked like he was already starting to fit in. I shot him my best ‘keep up’ look and turned to look at Leon again.
“I can’t believe you didn’t tell me about this. He did break intomyroom after all.” When all was said and done we were going to need to have a serious talk about ‘group decisions’ and ‘open lines of communication’.
“Ric, Dominic, Owen and Gage knew too.” Leon protested, immediately throwing the other members of the pack under the bus. I couldn’t believe this was the man who used to walk around like a grumpy thundercloud the entire first month of my time with Pack Russo. He was literally pouting.
“Thanks man,” Gage grumbled, glaring at his pack brother.
“Anytime. Look, you are right that I should have told you but there is a whole can of worms that is going to be opened by telling you the entire story. I just wanted to make sure that you are ready for it all.”
I didn’t hesitate: “Tell me.”
Before I could tell the story of Russo Enterprises I needed to make sure that everyone in the room was on the same page, namely Lincoln Sawyer. I still didn’t trust or like him. It was in my nature to be wary of newcomers and new outlook on life . It would still take time for me to be comfortable around the beta.
I glanced over at him, “I need your word that you won’t speak of this to anyone else or I will sue you ten ways to Sunday.”
Lincoln nodded, “I wouldn’t do anything to put Eloise in jeopardy.”
That I believed wholeheartedly. Especially since the beta had been willing to give her up forever on the chance that she would be sick or hurt in only his care. That went a long way.
Reaching across Gage’s lap I easily lifted Eloise over my pack mate and situated her between us so that I could hold her hands in mine, praying that what I was about to tell her wouldn’t send her running for the hills.
“I told you about my mother and my family’s criminal activities, yes?” She nodded.
“Well, while it is true that we are completely legit and legal now, we still have to deal with the remaining crime families that call the Bay Area their home. For the past five years we have been 100% an upstanding company and many view that as a betrayal—the idea is once you are in the life, you die in the life.” My grandfather had held a similar ideology to the rest of the heads of the other gangs.
But I wanted something different.
“But you wanted something different.” Eloise said, echoing my thoughts. Her brown eyes held understanding.
“My mother died because it was too hard on her—never knowing whether or not her mates were going to come back injured or not at all. I think the thought of me eventually joining my fathers and grandfather was just too much for her. It was in her memory that I decided to take Russo Enterprises and bring it into the light of the business world.”
