Chapter One
Alphaholes
Booker: So, who wants to talk about the damn hit and run that Hollis just did to us? Tay? Anything to say about your assigned PA?
Silas: As if he’s gonna complain ‘bout his good fortune.
Kodi: Good fortune… yeah ‘bout that…
Kari: Lennon is sweet.
Laken: If not a little quiet.
Rue: Anyone want to swap? Monty, he sometimes smells of fish… my rhino doesn’t like fish.
Booker: I never got a whiff of fish from him and my bear loves fish. Are you sure it’s not for another reason?
Rue: What reason would that be? Are you trying to piss me off?
Jupiter: Little brother on a stampede, that’ll be fun. Remember the last time you did that, you spent a week without any privileges. LOLOLOLOL
Rue: Fuck you! It was your damn fault.
Jupiter: Is it my fault you can’t resist a dare?
Silas: Jup, it’s always your fault…
Jupiter: That’s right, pick on me. You did see who I ended up with? Wilder! I mean, have you seen how often the guy shifts into his raccoon?
Kari: He’s cute as fuck.
Jupiter: Then you take him, and I’ll have Bowie.
Booker: You think it’s gonna be that simple? That Hollis will just allow us to swap about when he’s listed the damn reasons why we have the assigned PAs?
Silas: Tay… your silence is fucking telling. I bet he’s dancing naked around whatever effigy he has of Hollis.
Booker: Honestly Silas, if I never read this again in any lifetime, it would be too soon and I’m out before you give me anything else to fucking think about.
Kari shut the brothers’ group chat, which Jupiter had aptly named Alphaholes because he had a sense of the ridiculous.
Kari counted in his head as he opened his computer and waited for Kodi to appear in his office doorway.
His twin was nothing if not predictable, and his comment in the group chat said he was going to have plenty to say about this new turn of events.
What Kari thought about his assigned PA, Bowie, he kept to himself.
If he mouthed off in the group chat, his brothers would be on him like flies on shit, and until he figured out how things would work with Bowie, his thoughts were his own.
Also, Kodi, who had no filter, would say whatever he thought about the PAs regardless of who could overhear.
Kari had learned his lesson long ago. He kept his thoughts to himself unless he wanted Kodi to tell the whole world.
Kodi didn’t mean to be offensive to anyone, it was just that he had no brain to mouth filter, resulting in Kari spending most of their teens—and most of his adulthood—apologizing for his brother. Mostly having to protect—talk folks around—Kodi from getting his ass kicked for being the way he was.
Kodi was and had always been the reactive one between them.
If there were an issue, then Kodi would voice it loudly.
Popi had often said that Kari had gotten all Kodi’s patience along with his own and that Kodi had gotten Kari’s temper.
They balanced each other, and Kari had long since taken on the role of Kodi’s keeper, because he most definitely needed one.
The door opened, and Kari glanced up, grinning at his twin, batting a hundred on knowing he would come. The aqua blue of his eyes, identical to Kari’s, held a hint of apprehension that was unusual for his brother.
“You’re getting slack. I had you here thirty seconds ago,” he said, in an attempt to get his brother smiling.
When he didn’t, choosing instead to come in and leave the door wide open, Kari eyed it. He was about to get up and close it when Kodi distracted him by flinging himself in the seat in front of Kari’s desk rather dramatically.
Slouching and wearing a look of misery Kari wasn’t used to seeing on his brother, he asked resignedly, “What happened?”
“This fucking allocation of PAs, that’s what happened!
First Dad and Popi suddenly decide to retire, then we get lumbered with Hollis as the ‘voice of reason’”—he air quoted at Kari—“like that’s even possible.
We all know that if Tay gets his claws into him, we’ll all be screwed.
Then, it turns out Hollis decides who gets to be with us! What fucking right does he have?”
Kari waited a beat to make sure Kodi had finished his rant.
“He explained the way he allocated the PAs to us. It is based on their individual interests and their understanding of the specialist areas we manage,” he explained patiently.
“It makes sense because it will make life easier with the additional workload we all now have.” He was the voice of reason while searching Kodi’s expression to figure out the real reason for this outburst.
Because there was more to it, he felt it. So he waited his brother out, knowing that he might not tell him what was on his mind right now, but he would, eventually.
Kodi threw up his arms, then let them flop back down in a show of petulance that got Kari’s lips twitching. Time ticked by as his brother seemed to debate with himself what else he wanted to say, so Kari didn’t fill the silence.
Settling into his seat, Kari waited him out.
Minutes later, Kodi scowled at him. “Aren’t you a little pissed to have gotten allocated Bowie?”
Kari stiffened, then forced himself to relax when Kodi’s eyes narrowed on him. “Why would I be pissed about that? As I said, we got those interested in the areas of the company we manage.” Did he sound like he was repeating himself to avoid the topic and an argument with his brother?
Kodi rolled his eyes as he came forward in his seat. “You got Bowie, bro. The one who is always a step behind. Fucksake, he’ll be more of a burden.”
Counting to ten in his head, he held back the anger that would alert Kodi to the unsettled feelings running through him at talking about Bowie with such disregard.
It didn’t matter that this was how his brother always reacted to shit, there was just something about him doing it when it came to Bowie that pissed him off.
When he believed he was under control, he sat forward, mimicking Kodi’s posture. “We all work differently. Bowie is reliable and has always met the deadlines set, has he not?” He stressed the point when it was the truth as he saw it.
Bowie was different in a good way as far as Kari was concerned, but he was not putting that out there.
He had already chosen to keep his distance from Bowie after their first meeting.
For good reason, when the guy screamed ‘I need a daddy’ with his huge, sad eyes that dug claws into Kari’s soft heart.
As Kari had no idea what the omega was into, he steered clear in the following years and kept it strictly professional.
There were only three people who knew about his relationship interests.
His parents were the main two, because he preferred not to have secrets about his relationships when they differed somewhat from that of his brothers.
One day he would bring home someone important to meet them, and he wanted to be able to be himself.
It had been a tough conversation, though more from his point of view.
His parents didn’t appear to bat an eye at his confession about what he liked.
The only other person who knew about his proclivities was an accident. Jupiter had been in a kink club at the same time as Kari and had seen him with the boy he had been dating at the time.
Jupiter didn’t care who knew about his tastes, but Kari did.
He wasn’t ashamed, just careful when those he dated could be upset with flippant comments his brothers were excellent at firing at each other.
He had no wish for a boyfriend to get caught in the crossfire.
The fuckers had no boundaries, none of them, including his twin.
The least they knew, the better as far as he was concerned.
“—whatever.” Kodi was back to making dramatic arm movements, bringing Kari’s attention back to their conversation. “I’m just glad I didn’t get lumbered with him.”
His scowl deepened, and Kari realized then that his acting out about Bowie was a distraction from what the actual issue was: Lennon.
Why would Kodi have a problem with him? Kari wracked his brain trying to recall if he’d ever mentioned the omega and came up empty. “Then good for you. Now, is there something else? I got a fuck ton of work to get through.”
It was the truth, but Kari also needed a minute or two alone to put the barriers in place before he went to search out Bowie. Self-preservation was always the best form of attack.
Kodi hesitated, and Kari eyed his brother, waiting to see if he’d bring up the real reason he was there.
Kodi rose gracefully, tugging on his tie and undoing the top button of his shirt under the knot as he shook his head.
“Nah… I’ll leave you to it as you’ll need to work extra hard now you've got slow coach.” He spun on his designer shoe and stomped out while Kari resisted giving him a mouthful over the last slur.
“Asshole,” he muttered under his breath with some heat.
He could already sense he and Kodi would be having words in the coming weeks if his brother said anything disrespectful in front of Bowie. The guy was super sensitive.
Kari was the one now scowling at his computer screen, with all his daddy instincts wanting to come out to play.
He shut his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. The move back home meant he’d need to search out a new playmate, and the sooner the better.
Feeling marginally better about the decision, his eyes opened, and he dragged his keyboard to him. Time to get busy.