Chapter Thirteen – Pax
I can smell her diluted scent before she shows herself, and I can’t help it, the moment she steps into my view, my gaze turns upon her and the rest of the space around me fades away, even Gideon Chase.
Maybe Gideon might be saying something, but I don’t hear him. All I can do is focus on that omega and the way she stares at me with those silvery-gray eyes. Her lips part somewhat, and I hate that I notice how they pucker.
“Well, well,” I say, my sour mood about this job turning into something else…
something I’m not ready to name just yet.
“I’d ask if you’re surprised to see me again, but I have the feeling I already know the answer.
” Even though I’m secretly thrilled to see her again, I’m not about to confess that to her or to Gideon.
If she accepted an offer from him, that means she belongs to him. She’s not up for grabs.
She barks out a laugh. “I didn’t know you were the bodyguard Gideon hired, no.”
Before I can tell her I don’t believe her, Gideon himself coughs and earns both our stares. “She’s telling the truth. I assumed she was comfortable with you after seeing you two at the Omega Garden. Was I wrong?” He glances between us, waiting for one of us to speak up.
I could say all I want to say and it still wouldn’t be enough, so I let her do the talking.
Raeka does a hair flip I’m sure she’s practiced a million times in her life before she tells him, “You’re not wrong.
This is probably the only alpha I trust—mostly because my friend is his brothers’ mate, so. ” She shrugs.
“Great,” Gideon says. “Now, uh, before you bring everything inside, we need to discuss the NDA.” He gestures for me to follow him, and he leads me around Raeka.
It takes way too much self-restraint in me to not lean into her and breathe her in—even with her scent diluted and muffled, hints of sweetness still poke through.
What the fuck is stifling her scent like that? Whatever it is, it’s driving me nuts.
Gideon ends up leading me to his home office, which is next to a library room.
Raeka follows after us, humming to herself a melody only she knows.
For an omega who didn’t want to accept any offers regardless of the alpha doing the offering, she sure is happy to be here.
It’s odd, and it doesn’t make sense to me.
Was everything she told me that night at the Omega Garden a lie? Or is this some strange elaborate ploy whose endgame is something I can’t even fathom?
Gideon motions for the door, and Raeka shuts it for him. I move toward the lone window in the room, leaning against the window framing as I stare outside for a while. The other alpha pulls out some paperwork, while Raeka plops herself down in one of the two chairs opposing his modern-looking desk.
Finally, I turn away from the window and approach the desk. “Why do I have the feeling you’re about to drop a bomb on me, Mr. Chase?”
“Please,” he says, pulling out a pen from the lone drawer in his desk. “Call me Gideon. Mr. Chase is my father.”
“Fine, Gideon. What’s this NDA about? I don’t mind signing, but I need to know if there’s something you’re not telling me. Are there credible threats to your safety I should be aware of?”
“Not at all,” he says quickly. “It’s not that. It’s… actually about the nature of the offer Ms. Whittenhall accepted.”
She groans. “Raeka. Jeez, you two are going to be so annoying, I just know it. Let’s all agree to be on a first-name basis with each other, okay? No Ms. This or Mr. That… unless I’m making fun of one of you, then Mr. That is totally fair game.”
I narrow my eyes at her, and all she does is flash an innocent smile in my direction—this girl is used to playing games, I bet. There are a few things I could say to her after that, but I force myself to return my attention to Gideon. “What is the nature of the offer, then?”
Now that I’m thinking about it, it is odd for a recluse like Gideon to go after someone like Raeka. I don’t know much about him, but what I’ve heard through the grapevine is that he likes to stick to himself. Someone like Raeka is too outgoing for him.
Plus, why now? Why put in an offer for an omega now? The man’s older than me by a few years. If he wanted an omega, shouldn’t he have gotten one years ago?
Gideon pulls out a set of papers, along with a metallic pen, both of which he slides over to me. “Before we get into it, I need you to sign this.”
I don’t like being in the dark, but another NDA under my belt is no big deal. I lean forward, snatch the pen off the desk, and sign where necessary. “There.” I shove everything back toward him, meeting the alpha’s dark blue eyes. “Now tell me what this is about.”
“I did not put in an offer for Raeka for me.” He runs a hand down his shirt, and for a split second he appears uncomfortable. “I put in an offer on behalf of my nephew, Colter, a beta.”
His words hit me like a train, but I’m one immovable object, so I sit there, quiet, for a long while.
Raeka is here for a beta? Please. Betas can be with omegas, sure, there aren’t any laws against it, but omegas and alphas were built for each other—if a beta is involved with an omega, typically it’s within the confines of a larger pack, where the omega will still have alphas and their services while she’s in heat.
But a beta and an omega, as a pair? Let alone Raeka as the omega… no, I can’t see it. Whatever Gideon is trying to do, it’s not going to work.
“To the outside world, to everyone outside of this house, Raeka will be considered mine,” Gideon is busy saying.
“Only the four of us will know the truth. I haven’t yet spoken to my nephew about this, so please, don’t discuss this with him.
You aren’t here for him, anyway. You’re here for Raeka.
She wants to be free to come and go as she pleases—since she won’t be bonded, she’ll need you watching her back anytime she leaves the property. ”
I’m slow in glancing at the omega in question, and I find she’s looking at her nails, a bored expression on her face.
Her diffused scent bothers me more than I care to admit; being so close to her, I want to grab her, toss her over my shoulders, and throw her in the shower and see if a good scrub-down fixes that scent of hers. “You agreed to this?”
“I did,” she tells me, but I just can’t accept that.
“And what do you get out of this arrangement?”
“You mean besides being away from my lovingly overbearing mother who refuses to see the fact that I can survive without an alpha tying me down?” She cocks her head at me, oozing her typical attitude.
“I get to be free without having to give up the finer things in life. All I have to do is spend some time with a beta. It’s a win-win, for me, honestly. ”
I want to laugh. I want to laugh because this is so ridiculous I can’t even… I just can’t.
Gideon speaks, “I will break the news to my nephew tonight, after dinner. Colter is a special case. After my sister and her husband died, he stopped talking. You’re a rough personality, Pax, I can tell, and I might not be typical when it comes to the type of alphas you’re accustomed to dealing with, but I warn you: if you’re rough with my nephew in any way—”
The man is about to threaten me. While I can appreciate the sentiment behind it, it’s wasted on me. “You don’t have to do that,” I tell him. “Your nephew will be safe with me, just as your… nephew’s omega will be.”
Even saying it, it tastes wrong on my tongue.
Gideon must accept this, because his shoulders relax and he waves me away. “You two can go. If you want, you can bring up Raeka’s bags. They’re still in my car in the garage. I’ll let you know when dinner is ready.” That’s all he says as he turns his focus to the NDA I just signed.
Raeka is the first to jump to her feet and mutter, “Thank God. Meetings are so boring.” As she practically skips to the door, I’m much slower in following her—and as I do so, I can’t help but watch Gideon as I stand.
Though he’s trying hard, I can tell he’s dying to watch her go. His body is tense, his knee is bouncing beneath the desk. He’s acting uneasy, and I know exactly why.
He’s an unbonded alpha, and now he’s an unbonded alpha with a pretty omega in his house, an omega with a confusing scent.
If that scent of hers is driving him half as crazy as it’s driving me, I can’t blame him for acting like he wants to crawl out of his skin.
Not every alpha was trained like I was; I can hold myself back even from the worst kinds of temptation, Raeka included.
Or the best kinds of temptation, depending on how you look at it.
We leave the office, and Raeka leads me through the house. I don’t say a word as I follow her to the garage; it’s only after the man door to the garage swings shut behind us that I finally speak, “Is this really what you want?”
She stops behind Gideon’s vehicle, stopping just short of setting a hand on it to open it.
Her wide eyes turn toward me, watching as I approach her silently.
Her nose wrinkles. “I’m a Whittenhall. No Whittenhall alpha or omega has ever gone it alone.
When you’re part of a founding family—” She says it like it’s a curse.
“—you don’t get the luxury of choice. I’d be an idiot to think I’d be the very first.”
I stop when I stand only two feet away, towering over her small omega stature easily. “You didn’t answer the question.”
She fakes a smile up at me, and I can tell it’s fake because it doesn’t quite reach her beautiful eyes.
“Is this what I want?” she repeats the question softly.
“No, obviously not. If I was able to have my way, I’d be alone.
I wouldn’t need Gideon and his fake match, I wouldn’t need to pretend to be interested in his nephew, and I sure as hell wouldn’t need you to watch my back to make sure random alphas I come across don’t get any ideas.
If I was able to get what I want, the world would have to be a very different place. ”
She turns away from me and opens the trunk. “So, no, it’s not what I want, but I’m an omega, so what I really want doesn’t matter. It never does.” She sounds so disheartened when she says that, so unlike her, and it makes me furious.
Not at her, but at the world. Furious at society for not treating omegas better.
Furious that all omegas are defined by their heats—something they only have twice a year.
Furious that their only option is to go from the confines of their family to another pack, lest they’re stolen and used by greedy, criminal alphas who don’t care who they hurt.
If an omega is lucky, she lives the life of a pampered princess, even if she’s not from a founding family, but if an omega doesn’t have luck on her side, then her life can be a living hell.
The air around us is too tense now, after her answer to me, so I try to lighten the mood by saying, “Thanks for dragging me into all this. Believe it or not, my life was perfectly fine before my brother offered my services up on a silver platter.” I step around her and grab her suitcases and her bags.
I sling the bags over my shoulder, loading up.
She brought a lot of shit, but I can carry everything up in one go if I’m strategic about it.
Raeka waits until I get everything out of the trunk before shutting it, and she grins up at me and flutters those eyelashes like they’re a secret weapon. “Oh, don’t be like that. This’ll be fun. Think of it like a vacation or something. You can relax while we’re here.”
“I don’t take vacations.”
She chuckles. “I can tell, big guy. You’re a big bundle of nerves and grumpy as hell.”
I roll my eyes at her. “Just show me where your room is, then show me mine.” As we head into the house and Raeka leads the way, I can’t stop myself from hoping that our rooms will be close by.
Fuck. This is going to be miserable.