51. Joel
Chapter fifty-one
Joel
Willow twists her blonde hair into a rope before trapping it in a flexi clip.
“Okay,” she declares, looking serious and utterly sexy at the same time. “The three of you are going back to school.”
School? Years of boredom sitting in classrooms rise in my memory. I’m about to raise my hand to refuse point-blank before I realize that would make my previous goal declaration void. I do want to know what our omega has in mind.
“What do you mean?” Jeremy asks, scratching his head.
At least I’m not the only curious one.
Willow grins.
“I run an online education program for omegas, which is mostly focused on finances, but also has some life skills training.” She taps her hands down on the coffee table, leaning forward with a burning light in her eyes.
“In fact, you’re going to be my beta testers for an entire new school.
One aimed at alphas. No, alphas and betas. ”
Her brow wrinkles faintly and she taps her teeth. “Hmm, do they need to be separate audiences? Alphas, and betas. Als and Etas. The Aleta program?”
Her eyes widen, which I think means she likes it.
“So, we’re going to learn . . . finances?” Alessandro asks, blinking hard.
Willow nods. “Uh-huh. How to make goals for yourself, and how to invest.” She lifts one finger. “Not only with your dollars, but in yourselves.” She taps her breast right over her heart. Without stopping, she digs her phone out, holding a finger up to us while the line dials. “Give me two ticks.”
I lean back in my sofa chair, flicking the pen back and forth between my fingers. So this is what Willow looks like when she’s excited. Her entire face lights up, and her energy changes. She’s glowing.
“Kylie!” Willow’s knee bounces as she talks rapid fire into her phone. “I need you to make a copy of the entire Boss College website and set me up with three test accounts. I’ll text you the email addresses.”
Her gaze slides my way, her plush lips curved.
I knew my omega had a beautiful body, and a stunning soul, but now I glimpse her mind at work. One small need from her men has sparked an empire. The stuff of empresses. Helen of Troy. Willow of Dallas. I smirk.
My omega, who fulfilled my greatest goal by saying it was already achieved, gets off the phone, practically sparking with invisible energy. “Are you all free today? Want to get started right away?”
“Lead on, Princess,” I purr, rising to my feet. “How do we start?”
She purses her lips. “You don’t have to run your business?”
I close the gap between us and tug her into my hip. “They’ve run themselves just fine the past two weeks. A couple more days won’t make any difference.”
She beams up at me, which feels like its own reward. “Okay. Jeremy, Alessandro?”
“I’m on medical leave for two weeks,” my brother volunteers. “All yours, Ms Teacher.”
Alessandro smiles, but it feels a bit thin. “I have no work today. But tomorrow, I must go.”
Willow reaches out a hand to him, pain flickering in her eyes. “There’s no rush. The program is designed to learn at your own pace.”
Something must be going on with him, and I’d like to know what it is. Later.
I bump her hip lightly. “How about you? We’re not disturbing your work schedule?”
She chuckles. “Well, this is about to become my new work schedule.”
I like that. Sounds as if the three of us feature in her vision of the future.
Within ten minutes, we’re all set up on the kitchen table. Willow’s gaze slides across the surface where we got intimately acquainted last night and her cheeks tint a gorgeous pink. She studiously drags her attention back to her laptop.
Pride blooms in my chest. In time, I want every room and piece of furniture in this house to carry spectacular memories of us.
Good thing there’s a lot of rooms.
I dust off my work laptop, and Willow finds one of her older model laptops and a tablet for the other two guys to use. We get our log-ins emailed to us, her assistant working at impressive speed.
The site we log into is called Boss College. A thin red strip at the top warns us it’s a beta testing site, but everything else from the colors to the wording screams omegas. When I mention it, Willow says that’s exactly the feedback she wants.
She turns her laptop around to demonstrate.
“Okay. So Boss School is set up in modules that unlock as you pass each one so that none of the content gets too overwhelming. What happens is, you start here at the onboarding,” she taps the clear button at the top, “Where you complete your profile and answer a bunch of questions that helps the system decide what training to offer you first. Which areas you want to work on.”
Her eyes sparkle.
I wasn’t the best at school, switching over in my final year for a trades fast track in order to ditch the essays and analytical exams. But watching Willow makes an old longing spawn in my heart.
It’s like stripping back the past ten years of failed relationships, draining day after day grind of learning a trade, and the endless upsets of starting my own business.
Back to when my whole life was still ahead of me and anything seemed possible.
“Are you spinning out, bro?” Jeremy asks. He turns to Willow, flashing his shit-eating grin. “He never was much interested in school.”
“I’m looking forward to it, actually,” I say, just to shut him up. Funny how our banter hits differently now we’re privy to each other’s emotions. I didn’t mean to bite him, but it’s kinda cool that we’ve formed a proper bond.
I drag my attention back to Willow. “But since we’re testing out her new idea, I am wondering how our omega will reward us, say for each module passed?” I lightly trail my fingers along her arm. “Bribery makes for very good students, if you didn’t know?”
Jeremy whistles and claps.
“I like the way he thinks,” Alesandro says, eyes lighting up.
Willow swats at my fingers, which is a very cute auto reaction of hers whenever she’s flustered. The three of us turn eager eyes her way, waiting for an answer.
“Isn’t learning its own reward?”
“Hmm, is it?” I purr, holding her gaze. “I’m not so sure.”
“Please?” Alessandro whines. For an alpha, he has a near shameless ability to beg like a helpless man, and it seems our omega’s quite vulnerable to his charm.
“Well . . . what would make a good reward?” she asks.
Hook, line, and sinker.
“A date,” I say before the others can chime in.
“A d-date? What—?” Willow stutters to a halt. Her back grows rigid. “No. Not outside. Never.”
I curse my clumsiness. “An internal one, here. Wine, cheese, movie, whatever we choose. But we take you out. In, I mean.”
She blinks at me like I’m speaking another language. “A date inside the house? Is that even a reward?”
"Absolutely." Clearly she has no idea how much we want to spend time with her.
After chewing on her lip for a moment, she nods. “Okay, then. One date per module. But—” She holds up one finger. “All three of you need to complete the same module before you get the reward.”
I laugh internally. “Deal.”
Jeremy and Alessandro echo right after me.
With a clear reward dangling in front and our day empty, all three of us get down to business.
While I fill in the survey, Willow works furiously on her laptop.
A few minutes later, when I click through to a new page, the website’s theme colors change from pink and plum to a lovely shade of sage green with white and gold accents.
Classy, and not so in my face with the feminine.
“Nice touch,” I say. “Did you just come up with that?”
She traces her keyboard for a moment. “It’s . . . your scents.”
I look back at the colors. The green’s easy—Jeremy with his aloe and rosemary—but I’m not certain on the rest. “The white and gold?” I ask.
“White is for Alessandro. He smells like sea salt on the breeze. Makes me think of sea foam washing up on a sandy beach too.”
“So, the gold’s for me?”
Willow nods. “Sunshine warming stones, clay, terracotta. Summer heat."
So that’s how she sees my scent, as something beautiful and warming. Nothing to be hidden away.
“Nature has the best color palettes,” she adds shyly.
Taking in her sparkling blue eyes and the loose blonde plait hanging over her shoulder, I have to agree.
I turn back to my studies. Even though we mostly focus on reading, it’s a companionable process.
Mouse buttons click, Alessandro asks for explanations of words, and Willow asks for our feedback on phrasing changes.
Feels like one of those intimate study groups with people you’ve been friends with for a long time.
The content itself, while easy enough to work through, challenges me.
I never thought too much about the future; maybe because lately whenever I made plans Tracey would twist them toward her own goals.
But to answer questions about what I want for the future, what family and time-freedom means to me, makes me face how much bigger the world is than what I’ve been picturing.
Growing my business has consumed so much of my time; hours I never worried about because I assumed that equaled success. But Willow’s Boss School asks me what my definition of success is. Feels like a trick question at first, until the modules unpack the concept.
“Well, that’s one done for me,” Jeremy announces, standing and stretching his arms behind his head. “You lads better not take too long.”
“How’d you get done so fast?” I grumble, craning to look at his screen.
“Maybe because I’m smart.” Jeremy pokes his tongue at me.
I roll my eyes, which makes Willow giggle.
Jeremy leans his hip on the back of his vacant chair. “Actually, to tell you a secret, I had to do some super study cram right before meeting Willow. Was pretty easy getting back in the groove. Since I’m done, how about I make lunch for everyone? Or is it closer to dinner?”
I check my watch and discover it’s already 4pm. We were so engrossed that no one noticed, or cared, about the time. My stomach rumbles.
“Merda,” Alessandro mutters, letting out a deep sigh. “This might take me a long time.”
“Don’t stress,” Willow reassures, getting up from her seat. She limps around the table and pulls out a chair by him. “We’ll all help you. Are you having trouble reading something?”
Maybe this is one reason she stipulated we all do the modules together.
I look back at the topic I’m reading about. “Hey, Willow?”
Her lashes flutter upward as she lifts her head. “Hmm?”
“What does success mean to you?”
She smiles, gaze softening. “For me, it’s been about achieving independence.
A big part of that is financial, but also the skills to be able to manage a team, grow a business from zero, and live alone.
” She sweeps one hand around to indicate the house.
“But having you guys here is making me think I might have missed a tiny element.”
She holds her thumb and forefinger and inch apart.
“Oh?” Jeremy asks from the kitchen. “What might that be.”
Willow smiles. “I’m not sure I can put it into words yet. Just something I was missing.”
Alessandro looks up from his screen. “Sounds like you need to do this course again.”
She giggles and nudges her shoulder into him, her Jasmine scent sweetening the room.
I go back to my screen, a smile tugging at my lips and a warmth growing in my alpha soul. Sounds like our omega is happy to have found her alphas.
“Wait.” Jeremy taps his knife on a cutting board. “Why are you asking about success, Joel?”
I shrug. “It’s in the module. Success and setting goals.”
His eyes widen. “What? My module was about financial freedom.”
Alessandro throws up his hands with what sounds like a curse in Italian. “Then why am I reading about how to attract new clients?”
Willow covers her mouth with her hands, but it doesn’t hide her laughter.
I raise my brows.
“I told you, the initial questionnaire directs you to what you show the most interest in.” She rises from her chair and heads for the door, throwing a cheeky grin over her shoulder. “You’ll have to all get on the same page if you want that date with me.”
As I suspected, she’s managing us. I like it. Her motives are so pure, and she’s enjoying herself so much, it only makes me more excited to see where this pack goes. Instead of forcing me to change, this omega is giving me ways to find what matters most for myself.
I chuckle under my breath as I turn back to my screen.