Chapter 9
CHAPTER NINE
Shawn
Ihad so much to think about for the next few days that I thought my head might explode with the weight of it.
Never in a million years would I have suspected that a single twenty-four-hour time period could completely change everything for me.
But between discovering new things about myself by playing with Enzo, finding out about Walt being pregnant, and learning everything about Enzo, full stop, I didn’t think my life could ever be the same.
“I have that list of job recruiters in Norwalk that you asked for, Mr. Wythe,” Trudy, my admin, said as she stepped into my office halfway through the day on Thursday. “There are actually a lot of reputable agencies to choose from.”
I blinked my way out of the near stupor I’d thought myself into as I’d sat there for the last fifteen minutes, staring out over the skyline of Barrington through my corner office windows, out toward the mountains and Norwalk beyond them, where Enzo was.
“Hmm? Oh, yes, thank you,” I managed to say without looking like too much of a fool. At least, I hoped.
“Rough night?” Trudy asked with a kind smile as she put the file on my desk. “You look like you didn’t get a lot of sleep.”
“I did have trouble sleeping,” I admitted, reaching for the file with as much of a smile as I could manage.
In fact, I’d been having trouble sleeping all week.
I didn’t seem to be able to rest without Enzo in my arms. That felt strange, though.
We hadn’t actually slept together when we’d slept together.
Walt had interrupted before the two of us could take a nap, all wrapped up together the way a real alpha and omega pair should be.
“Well, if it makes you feel any better,” Trudy went on like the mother hen she was, even though she was just a beta, “Mr. Walt Wythe canceled the meeting the two of you were supposed to have over lunch, so maybe you could pop home for a little bit to take a nap?”
I tensed hard at her statement. “Walt canceled our meeting?”
“He didn’t call you directly?” Trudy asked in return.
Instead of answering, I scooted forward and reached for my phone. “Excuse me,” I said as politely as I could with anxiety and frustration swirling up in me.
“Of course,” Trudy whispered before backing away from my desk then leaving the office. She shut the door carefully behind her.
I swiped up my phone and immediately dialed Walt. He didn’t answer the first time, so I did what he had a tendency to do to me and called him right back.
It wasn’t until my fourth time calling that he answered with an exasperated, “What?”
“Why did you cancel our lunch meeting?” I asked with just as much abruptness.
Walt didn’t reply. I could feel his sullen guilt through the silence.
“I know about the baby, so it’s not like you have to hide that from me anymore,” I said.
“Oh, so you’re going to use my baby against me now?” Walt snapped.
That was it. I’d had it. “Stop being such a wounded animal,” I said, throwing myself back in my big office chair and pinching the bridge of my nose.
“A what?” Walt asked defensively.
“A wounded animal. You’re hurt, but you’re scared, so you’re lashing out at the people, the person who is trying to help you,” I said.
“I’m not—”
“Walt, stop!”
I’d never really gone full alpha on my brother before.
I’d never been sure I had a full alpha in me.
Enzo had definitely brought that out, and you know, it didn’t feel so bad after all to puff myself up and put my foot down.
Walt was my brother, and as an immediate family member who shared DNA with me, he was incapable of reacting with lust and submission, like pretty much every other omega I wasn’t related to would by instinct, but he was definitely affected.
“I’m not trying to be a wounded animal,” he said, his voice quiet and sad. “I just know you’re going to tell Dad and Papa, and they’ll be so disappointed in me. I’m disappointed in myself.”
My skin went prickly and I couldn’t sit still.
That. That was exactly the sort of red flag I should be able to do something about.
I needed to make it so that my brother was okay, but I didn’t have the first clue how to do that.
Enzo would know. Enzo had been great with Walt when they’d met.
But Enzo wasn’t here now. Enzo hadn’t called me all week.
That was a whole other problem that had me pacing the halls of my condo at night instead of sleeping restfully.
“How did it happen?” I asked, sounding way too tired for an alpha who had so many people to take care of. “The baby. How did it happen?”
“My heat came early,” Walt said, sounding miserable. “I wasn’t ready for it. It was that week I was down at our house in the islands.”
“I remember that week,” I said, nodding. “You really needed a vacation.”
“Yeah, well, I got one,” Walt went on. “My heat snuck up on me, they don’t have Bangers & Mash down there, and I’d been flirting with a hot alpha at the hotel swimming pool bar.”
I did not want to know more about who my little brother flirted with or how far he took things when he was on vacation.
“We were getting cozy when my heat struck,” Walt continued.
“That short-circuited my brain, and when the alpha offered to take my heat, I was in no position to say no.” He paused, and I had the feeling he was remembering the moment.
“It was actually pretty great,” he went on after a bit.
Again, I didn’t want to know a damn thing about my brother’s heats.
“But after day one, my heat suddenly ended. We both knew what that meant. The alpha scrambled to get out of there so fast he burned a trail in the carpet.” Walt paused before admitting gloomily, “I didn’t even get his name. ”
My soft heart ached for him. My alpha growled with indignation. Taking an omega’s heat, getting them pregnant, then running out on the responsibility was the lowest of the low, as far as I was concerned.
“It’s not your fault,” I said, wishing I could give Walt a hug.
“Yeah, well, Dad isn’t going to see it that way,” Walt said.
“Just watch. He’s going to hit the roof and call me every sort of vile name in the book.
He’ll say this is why omegas shouldn’t have any part of the business world, and then he’ll fire me.
And Papa will probably scrape the bottom of the barrel to find an alpha who will take a spoiled omega for me to marry. ”
I didn’t even know where to begin to argue against all that. Partially because he wasn’t making any of that up out of the blue.
“I’ll speak up for you,” I said, feeling impotent in advance.
“You?” Walt huffed, though he didn’t have his usual edge. “You’re the one who stands to benefit from all this. You’re the perfect child. And now you have a perfect boyfriend, too.”
Another wave of frustration hit me. I didn’t have a boyfriend.
I don’t know what I’d been thinking when I said Enzo was mine.
I mean, I wanted him to be mine. I wanted to know so much more about him and be someone important to him.
The little I had learned about his life had me deeply concerned for him.
He was in a bad position. Admitting he didn’t have any money was one thing, but when his father had made an appearance at the diner, my alpha had freaked out with possessiveness. Enzo’s dad was bad news.
Why hadn’t Enzo called me in five days? Was he okay? Had something happened? Why hadn’t I thought to get his number, too?
“See?” Walt said. “You’re speechless. I can only imagine what you think of me.”
“I think you’re my brother and that you need my help,” I said.
“I don’t need anyone’s help,” Walt grumbled. “I know full well I’m on my own here. I’ll do whatever it takes to give my baby the best life I can, and I don’t need you lot strutting around, lording it over me, and thinking you’re better than me.”
“That’s not what—”
Walt ended the call before I could set him straight on how I felt about things.
I yanked my phone away from my head and wanted to throw it across the room in frustration at the glittery reindeer statue Trudy had put on the shelf across from me.
It was way too early for Christmas decorations, but more importantly, why did Walt have to be so difficult?
And where was Enzo? I couldn’t shake the feeling that he was in trouble and that he needed me.
The conversation we’d had at the diner haunted me.
He was far more intelligent than he let on.
His insights about the Christmas Eve supper were spot-on.
I was already making changes based on the things he’d said.
It wasn’t just about the Christmas Eve supper.
I needed Enzo. One night with him and I’d realized how cold and stuffy my life had been.
Enzo had brought fire and understanding to my life.
He’d let me do things I hadn’t even dared to dream about.
I wanted more of that…but I also just wanted to hold him and breathe in his scent and feel like I wasn’t alone in this sometimes-cruel world.
I huffed out a breath and stood from my desk, decision already made. I would go back to Norwalk and look for him. The woman at the diner clearly knew him and his dad. She would probably know where he lived and worked. I would go find Enzo and tell him—
My phone rang with the distinct tone I had programmed for my father. The sound made me sit back down again heavily, wariness filling my gut as I reached for my phone.
“Hi, Dad,” I answered the call.
“Shawn,” Dad greeted me. “What’s all this about changing the Christmas Eve supper? It’s not a job fair, it’s a meal.”
Now was not a time when I wanted to explain how I was acting on the information Enzo had given me, but Dad wanted the things he wanted when he wanted them and not later.