Chapter Eleven – Pax
I’m in the middle of working with my team on their hand-to-hand combat skills when I get a call from my brother, Darius. When I pull out my phone and see who it is that’s calling, I hit the ignore button and resume instruction.
My team is acting like they all went out and partied last night or something. Nobody’s at their top game.
“Aaron,” I snap, “what the hell are you doing? You’re better than this. Shape up or I’ll have you do a hundred pushups then continue your drills.” The alpha, paired off with Steve, makes a face, but fixes his stance before Steve can land another punch as they practice blocking.
A team of twelve, they’re the fixers. The ones who get called in when shit really hits the fan.
Alabaster Security focuses on not only event security, but also location security.
Sometimes other methods are necessary, when the jobs get more complicated.
These alphas are the ones who handle the really complicated shit.
We train in the open section of the warehouse, under bright fluorescent lights. The other half of the warehouse has been transformed into interrogation rooms; Alabaster Security often works with the local law enforcement, though we sometimes tiptoe along the line of what’s legal and what’s not.
I hear the door to the hall that leads to the interrogation rooms open and close, and soon after that Rourke’s voice fills the air: “Yeah, I see him. I’ll tell him right now.
” He grins as he approaches me, though he makes it a point not to meet my stare; instead, his blue eyes examine the high ceiling above us.
“Oh, no, I don’t mind.” He chuckles. “Yeah, the asshole probably ignored your call.”
I frown at him and fold my arms over my chest, giving my back to my crew.
Rourke glances down at his tattooed bicep and flexes it for no one in particular.
“Yep. Oh, no problem, Darius. I’m happy to help.
” He ends the call, stuffs his phone into his back pocket, and finally meets my stare.
His expression reads far too happy, which means I’m not going to like whatever it is.
If Darius called him after calling me… it must mean something is time-sensitive. Shit. I should’ve just answered the phone. I should know better than to throw temper-tantrums—I’m still not too happy about being stuck with that bodyguard position last weekend.
And that omega, Raeka Whittenhall. As much as I hate to admit it, she’s been on my mind way too much.
“Hey, buddy,” Rourke says, flashing me his pearly whites. Someone who doesn’t know him might think he’s charming, and he is, but deep down he’s just a psycho waiting to emerge. “Darius says there’s a potential client who wants to meet with you. He’s at the office downtown with the client.”
“Did he say what it’s about?” I ask.
“No, but he did say he wants you down there ASAP.”
All I do is frown, which makes him laugh harder.
“I’ll make sure to whip your team into shape while you’re gone. Hey, by the way, you never told me how the job at the Omega Garden went. You and that omega looked pretty good together.” That earns him a harsh glare from me, but he’s unaffected.
“That was your job you pawned off on me,” I snap. Deep down, of course, I’m glad he pawned it off; I don’t like the thought of Rourke with Raeka.
“Well, I know how much you enjoy bodyguard jobs—” The fucking liar. He knows I hate them more than anything. “—and I figured you could use a breath of fresh air.”
“I should tell Darius you weren’t sick that night, that you were actively looking for an omega for yourself. Speaking of, how’d it go? You put in any offers? I hope so, since you stuck me with the prissy one.”
“Oh, they all looked good and smelled nice, but none of them caught my eye. Maybe next time.”
I give him a strange look. “Next time? You seriously looking for an omega? You never said.” A part of me thought Rourke was like me: a lone wolf, an alpha who didn’t need a pack or an omega. But maybe not.
His shoulders shrug. “After my mom’s health scare, she’s on my ass about settling down. It’s the only thing she wants, the only thing she talks about when I visit her. I figure, might as well try. If I stumble on an omega I like, then that’s aces, and if I don’t, well, least I tried.”
All I do in response is sigh hard and say, “I guess I should get going.”
“Yeah, go.” He slaps me on the shoulder. “I’ll take it from here.”
If there is one man I don’t mind leaving my crew to, it’s Rourke. The man takes his job seriously—usually—and I trust him with my life. I can’t say that about many people in this world, besides my family and my team.
As I leave the warehouse and head downtown, I replay what Rourke said to me. His mom wants to see him settle down before she dies. His mom should have many more years yet before she has to worry about dying, but after a cancer scare, you never know.
My mom, like all moms I think, wants me to settle down, too, but at the same time, she knows I don’t want to—and it’s not because I’m a tool or a playboy or whatever.
I don’t go out and hook up with a different woman every weekend.
I’m a loner. I don’t feel the need to surround myself with a pack. I don’t feel the need to have kids.
I’m just… me.
And now that Darius, Nic, and Warren have Mercedes, well, it’s only a matter of time until our mom gets her first grandkid.
They might not be trying now, but I bet they will in a few years, once the newness of everything has worn off and they aren’t so busy flipping that Solus Academy into New Omega Academy.
I’m happy for my brothers. I am. I don’t envy them at all.
Pack life just isn’t for me. In school, when all the others were pairing off and making packs that would end up following them throughout their lives, I was the odd one out.
That instinctual urge to be a part of a brotherhood, to make new familial bonds, was never a part of me.
Soon enough I’m walking into Alabaster Security’s main office. The receptionist gives me a polite smile and nod as I walk by, and I head straight to my brother’s office. The door is open, so I walk right in.
The room has a wall of windows, floor to ceiling, on the far left side of the room, so any extra light is unnecessary. Darius sits behind his desk, facing the potential client, who sits in the leather chair facing the desk, his back to me as I walk in.
Darius spots me, first. “Pax,” he says. “Shut the door, will you?”
I hold back a frown as I go to shut the door, giving us some privacy. By the time I return to the two alphas in the room, the potential client stood up and turned to face me, offering me his hand as he tells me his name: “Gideon Chase.”
Shit. Gideon fucking Chase. About as high-profile of a potential client as a potential client could possibly be.
I take his hand and shake it, saying, “Pax Alabaster, but I’m assuming you knew that.”
“I did,” Gideon says as he sits back down, and Darius gestures for me to take the chair beside Gideon’s.
“He asked for you, specifically,” Darius says. “He has a job for you, and he’s willing to pay top dollar.”
Shit. Why do I have the feeling I’m not going to like whatever this job is? The way my brother is watching me, as if waiting for me to explode, tells me I’m definitely not going to like it.
I study Gideon Chase. Older than me by a few years, the alpha clearly doesn’t have a physically-demanding job—and why would he?
He’s a Chase. They deal in designer shit I have no care for.
He’s slender for an alpha, though his legs are long.
He’s not quite as tall as I am, either.Not an über like me.
“I made an offer on an omega,” Gideon explains. “She… would feel better if there is a professional third-party around to make sure nothing happens that she doesn’t want. I want her to feel comfortable, so I’d like to hire you.”
It hits me that this is another bodyguard job, and I’m seconds away from saying I don’t want another bodyguard job when I fully comprehend everything else he said. An omega who doesn’t trust, who wants backup. Sounds familiar, but it couldn’t be her… could it?
“This omega,” I say slowly, “it’s not Raeka Whittenhall, is it?” As I say her name, my brother’s expression changes somewhat; he’s more interested. Of course he is—Raeka and his omega are friends. That’s how she wound up with an Alabaster employee as a bodyguard to begin with.
Gideon nods once. “It is. She seemed comfortable with you the night of the choosing ceremony. I want her to be comfortable once she moves in, and I’m hoping your presence might help with that.”
I can’t help it. I bark out an incredulous laugh.
“You’re saying she accepted an offer? From you ?
What—” And then I think back, to what Raeka said after she got back from the restroom: she spoke with an older alpha.
I mocked her, thinking nothing of it at the time, besides scolding her about being alone with another alpha.
Was that alpha Gideon Chase? A growl nearly leaves me, but I’m able to stop it from surfacing before either my brother or Gideon can hear it.
A growl ? Fuck. Don’t know where that came from.
“The whole point of having me with her that night was to scare off any potential suitors. She didn’t want any offers,” I say.
He doesn’t flinch at my hard tone. He simply says, “That may be, but that doesn’t change the fact that she did accept an offer from me. She’s moving in Friday. I would like you to move in then as well, provided you’re accepting the job.”
“I—”
Darius talks over me, “Of course he accepts the job.”
I wasn’t going to say anything of the sort, and I shoot my brother a deadly glare, but Darius is an über like me, and he’s not playing, so he matches the glare with one of his own. For the next few moments, we’re locked in a glaring contest, neither one of us wanting to back down.
“I’m no bodyguard,” I breathe out the words through my teeth.
“You are whatever this company needs you to be,” Darius says, matching my intensity.
“You’re taking the job. You’ll sign whatever NDA Gideon wants you to, and you’ll move into his home until it’s decided your presence there is no longer needed.
Until then, your apartment and all of your bills will be handled by me personally. ”
I don’t want to back down. Backing down isn’t a part of my DNA. Still, I remind myself that this job would involve seeing Raeka again, and that’s the only reason I relent and mutter, “Fine.”
Raeka. Raeka who accepted an offer from the alpha beside me. She must have a thing for older men, because someone like Raeka could get any alpha she wanted if she actually tried.
“Thank you, Pax,” Gideon says. “Hopefully I can make Raeka feel welcome and safe in my home so that your presence won’t have to be long-term. That said, I hope we can both agree that her comfort and safety should be our top priority.”
Well, I guess Gideon and I see eye-to-eye when it comes to that, at least.
I don’t know if I trust him. Hell, I don’t even know if I like the guy, but I sure as hell don’t believe he charmed Raeka to accept an offer.
No, there has to be more to this. She was so adamant about not getting any offers that night.
What could have possibly changed so quickly?
What kind of promises did this odd alpha make her?
I force out a smile. “Yes, her comfort and safety is definitely top priority.” For me, anyway. For him? The jury’s still out. I don’t trust him farther than I can throw him, and given his slender frame, I’m sure I can throw him a good ways.
Huh. Guess that saying doesn’t really work unless you’re talking about someone you absolutely can’t throw at all.
Raeka Whittenhall. I’ll be seeing her again.
I shouldn’t be excited, but I am.