Chapter 24
Chapter Twenty-Four
“We’ve been invited to Izzy’s place tonight. They want to show us the updates to the app, and I figured I could show off the new website design while we’re all together.”
Adam makes this announcement when he enters the house. Jasper and Ezra are already seated in the living room with me.
“That sounds amazing. We need to bring something with us.”
Adam grins. “I already took care of that. We can take my car when we go.”
I shoot him a suspicious look. “What did you get?”
“Booze and beer.”
“Sounds like my kind of party,” Jasper chimes from beside me on the couch. “And don’t they grow the good stuff?”
“That they do. Well, Izzy does. I think her guys help.”
“What’s ‘the good stuff’?”
Jasper laughs, reaches out to pull my back against his chest and hugs me before whispering in my ear, “They grow weed.”
Now, I laugh. “I should have guessed that. I think my brain is in overdrive.”
“Everything okay?”
I look at Ezra and smile. “Yeah, everything’s fine. It’s just the usual. Although meeting the architect with you guys tomorrow is going to be both fun and stressful.”
Ezra hums as he nods. “Let’s lean into the ‘fun’ part.”
We’ve all spent a lot of time together, figuring out the layout we want for the new build. The architect is going to inspect the house and its “bones” tomorrow and figure out which walls stay and which go to achieve our dream.
I can’t say I’m not looking forward to it. I’m actually super excited about the whole thing. It’s the part that comes afterward that has me stressed.
This weekend, we’re going to have to start relocating the dogs and cats—and me—to the trailer with Ezra. That also means we need to empty the house, so recruiting some help is going to be a must.
The logistics are already tiring, and we haven’t even started yet.
By the time the late afternoon rolls around, we all climb into Adam’s car. Ezra sits up front, and I make sure to sit behind him so he can push his seat back and have more room.
Adam is only a couple of inches shorter than Ez, but he’s nowhere near as muscular and wide. And I don’t think Ezra is particularly comfortable.
Izzy’s house isn’t too far from mine, further on the outskirts of the city limits.
The exterior is all modern and boxy with huge windows, the wall paneling a dark gray.
The light fixtures are matching, whether mounted to the walls or staked into the ground along the walkway, or even on the few light posts near lush green trees.
“This place is beautiful,” I breathe.
“Is this the kind of style of house you like?”
I turn to Jasper and frown. “I don’t know…”
His smile is kind and more patient than I deserve, given the fact that the decision needs to be made, like, yesterday. “I’m sure Blake will help us all figure it out.”
“I’m not picky,” Adam calls before he opens his door.
“Neither am I,” Ezra chimes before pulling his enormous frame from the car.
Jasper leans in to kiss my cheek and remains there as he whispers, “And I’ll be happy with whatever you want, little Omega.”
A shudder wracks my body and he shoots me an evil grin before getting out of the car.
Jerk.
The front patio, I realize as I approach it, is just as modern as the rest of the house. It’s a smooth, poured concrete, nearly as dark as the paneling, and it’s stacked in levels to make stairs, but each level is super wide and could probably fit some tables and chairs.
The door swings open and Izzy stands there, smiling wide and cheerfully. “Welcome!”
“Thanks so much for having us,” I say as I come up the stairs.
“We’re glad to do it. Come on in and I’ll make introductions.”
We follow Izzy, and the interior of the house is just as modern as the outside, and absolutely beautiful. White and black, gray and silver are everywhere I look. Everything is sharp and straight, even the cylindrical lights.
“Let me introduce my Alphas. This is Matthew, Will, and Asher.”
Matthew has dark hair, his skin is sun-kissed bronze, and he sports a well manicured beard. What stands out the most are his mismatched eyes, one green and the other hazel-brown.
Will looks a bit younger than the other two, his brown hair a bit longer to the nape of his neck, shorter around his face and slightly disheveled. His eyes are dark blue and kind as he smiles at us.
Asher is tall, dark, and handsome, his hair perfectly styled, the stubble on his face even. He looks like a movie star. In fact, I’m pretty sure he really is one. His face is so familiar, but I’m too embarrassed to ask.
Once introductions are complete, Izzy leads us all to the sprawling living room where the kitchen can be seen on the opposite wall.
Persephone and Demeter are lounging quietly and comfortably on a love seat opposite the giant black sectional couch, where we all take a seat.
Adam joins us last after dropping off his offerings of alcohol in the kitchen.
“Matthew, if you would, please.”
Matthew turns on the giant TV mounted on the wall in front of us and pulls out a large tablet from the coffee table, placing it on his lap.
“We made some final touches to the app we really want you to check out.” The familiar loading screen of the app pops up on both his tablet and the TV he’s mirroring it to.
“What we have here is the main menu, where people can learn about the sanctuary at a tap or even make a direct donation if they want. But even if they don’t care about any of that, it doesn’t matter.
As soon as they go to the main focus of the app, here,” he taps away again, “Springer's Sanctuary starts earning money.”
On the TV, there’s a flash of rainbow light as cute and fun music begins to play. Then, the most adorable little drawings of the cutest animals I’ve ever seen pop on the screen, all smiling, some waving or dancing, others holding flags with greetings written on them.
“Players get to pick their starter animal here,” Izzy says, gesturing to the screen, “and then the game begins! They care for their pet, and shop for their pet, expand their habitat, play with them. And they can earn more pets as they level up. More pets means more micromanagement, which means more time in the app. More time in the app for free players means more ads. And the people who pay the small monthly fee don’t get any ads.
Either way, the sanctuary gets all the proceeds after the distribution fees are paid. ”
My jaw drops when the screen changes to show all the little pets, including cartoon versions of all our babies at the sanctuary, all smiling and bouncing around. Even a little Springer is there.
Tears spring to my eyes, and I’m sniffling before I even know what’s happening, wiping my face with the backs of my hands. “I don’t know what to say. How can I ever thank you all for this?”
“There’s no need.” Will sits forward in his seat, that same kind smile on his face as when we came in. “We wanted to help out as soon as Adam came to us.”
“He was rather persuasive, I’ll give him that.” Asher, whom I now know for sure that I recognize given his British accent, winks at me.
“But that didn’t matter. We would have helped without Adam making a very good case for why it was so important.” Izzy has moved to the love seat where she scratches her dogs behind their ears. Their eyes close as they lean into the loving gesture, and my heart just about explodes.
“Thank you. All of you.” I turn to Adam and reach for his hand, grasping it. “Thank you, love.”
His smile is bashful at first, but as adoration grows in his gaze, he says, “Anything for you.”
Matthew clears his throat comically loud. “I think Adam wanted to show us all something, too?” He passes the large tablet to him.
Adam takes it with a dry expression and starts tapping away.
The TV changes from the cute app to the internet.
“This is a hidden URL,” he says as he types into the bar.
“We bought multiple web addresses, and I redirected them all to the same site.
So, we have Springer's Sanctuary-dot-com and Crescent Lake Animal Sanctuary-dot-com, for instance.”
The screen loads a landing page featuring the absolutely adorable logo of my smiling Springer, with the sanctuary name printed beneath her chest. The page includes several buttons that take you to other pages on the site.
Adam cycles through photos of all the animals I never knew he even took, and they’re all wonderful.
There are some pics that are not the most flattering of the property, though.
He must see my face, because Adam laughs.
“One, this is just a draft, like I said. It isn’t live.
But two, we don’t want them thinking we don’t need the donations, because we absolutely do.
I know you’re standing firm on paying for the house renovations ourselves, and I support that completely.
” He cycles through some more photos, and then a blank page with an “About Us” title at the top.
“We’ll need you to write up something for this. ”
“Like a mission statement?”
“Well, yeah, but I was also thinking a tribute to your uncle would be nice.”
Of course. That’s perfect. I look over at Adam and smile. “Thank you. This is so beautiful. And the app, too.” I look at Izzy and each of her pack mates. “Thank you for all of your hard work. It’s amazing.”
“Ah! Hang on.” Izzy pulls out her phone and taps away on it, and my phone dings at the same time as each of my Alphas. “I took the liberty of getting your numbers from Adam. I just sent you all the link to download the app.”
I check her text message, save her contact, and click the link to begin the app download.
After a lively dinner, the guys all migrate to the basement, leaving Izzy and I in the living room with her dogs and a couple of glasses of wine.
“Ugh,” Izzy grumbles, tossing her head back against the plush couch. “I love those men—I swear, I’d kill for them—but they are so beyond clingy. Let a girl breathe once in a while!”