“We can live here for some of the year,” Valak adds.
“Why not all the time?” I ask them.
“We’re not making you move, Dove. You’ve got too much to do with your life before we live like a retired pack. We’ll all move to be with you.”
“What about your work?”
He shrugs, still hovering over the top of me like a warm, comforting blanket. “Sweet woman, you can figure that out. I’ve already told Alpha Stars to cut off their negotiations. I added salt in their wound by announcing I’ve signed with you, so please get your breakfast done and go answer the dozens of emails and calls probably blowing up your phone.”
“You didn’t!”
“Of course, I did. I told you, you were in charge of me and my career out here. Chop, chop, woman, we’ve got money and plans to make.”
“Valak?” My focus darts to him.
“Packs and lovers stay together, no part-time bullshit. I want morning sex in my bed and time at a shooting range with you, Lennon, before we plan who we’re hunting first.” Valak pulls off his t-shirt and holds it out for me as Lincoln rolls me up to sit.
“Gabe went to get me some clothes,” I offer, completely distracted from our conversation as Valak dresses me. His scent, even more heady after he’s been working in the sun, makes me shiver.
“Now you’re wearing mine. Don’t ignore us all arranging things around you. You’ve got plenty of say, but we’ve also had plenty of time to figure out a few things while you’ve slept. Get some food in your stomach. We’re catching the ferry back in less than an hour.”
“What?”
“Noah’s got surgery tomorrow followed by on roster at Carter General Hospital for four days. So, we’ll drop him off on our way to your place,” Lincoln says, helping me stand. The towel drops to my feet just in time for a wet Noah to feel me up.
I swat him away but pull him closer, confusing the both of us before I smile and shrug. “That’s a big drive.”
Noah talks next. “Lennon, Gabe has booked you a private charter service flying out from Darlington. Then we’ve still got Valak’s or Gabriel’s cars. We’ll leave your car here, take mine back now. In case anyone is still looking for your Jeep.”
“You guys have everything planned?”
“Wonder the fuck why, Len? Hello, pint sized lilac-haired girl, who blows into our lives and changes us and everything about us. Of course we’ve got shit planned. I’ve also gone back through the Alliance system and added Pack Teo and their spunky omega to the register. I wrongly filed all the forms and the notice, but everyone there makes the same mistake. It’s an easy explanation when people ask why they didn’t know. I’ve woven my magic,” Gabe wiggles his fingers for extra effect, “and apparently we’re coming up to our six-month anniversary.”
“No one will believe that.”
“Sure, they will. Valak will deal with them before I do. Honestly, you watch people scramble when they know I’m involved. No one wants to get the crazy twin upset.”
“Why?”
He laughs, a little maniacally before bowing down to show me the way to the table. Valak walks off too, grumbling over his shoulder. “You’ll see, Lennon. Trust me, you’ll see.”
24
LENNON
Noah’s Lexus is packed to the brim with us and all our belongings. I was a little surprised he took up Lincoln’s offer to drive, but it seems my most favourite surgeon in the world is worn out.
Gabe sits on the little bitch seat near our bags, but he insisted on it, leaving me stretched out over the back seat with Ares under my arm and my head on his brother’s lap. Each time we stop, I hop out with Ares, stretch my legs, and get weaponed up. It’s not just me getting more anxious as we get closer to people. Valak has an impressive cachet of weapons hidden and strapped to him, while Gabe just wears a shoulder holster with a mad gleam in his eye.
I know we’re moving into unchartered water, but so far no one knows who we are, and that we’re back. Except it seems, all my clients. My phone blows up as messages keep pouring through, and my laptop pings with a flurry of emails.
Gabe’s taken up a job as my assistant, and the both of us work through the dozens of emails Lincoln warned me about. Being overly cautious, he patches me through a secure network, bouncing off the Alliance’s own system so I stay off data roaming.
Alpha Stars are pissed off, and ready for war. Too bad for them, they’re as lazy and sloppy with their contracts as they were with my newest star. I can’t keep the smile off my face, and I’m stinking up the car in my excitement.
“That,” Gabe reaches over from the back to point at my laptop screen and the newest email from Alpha Stars, “right there is a fucking threat, Len.”
Swatting his hand away from my screen, I refocus on my call to the producers of Late Night with Lincoln MacGregor; Travis, Fiona, and Benjamin are a pack of entitled twats who suddenly have a lot of time for me. I’ve tried developing a better relationship with them over the past few years but they’ve always brushed me off. Until now.
