Chapter Thirty-Seven – Gideon
Once the aftermath of the heat is cleaned up and the house is back to normal, we fall into a routine.
I grab the official paperwork; we’ll have to bring it downtown to make the pack an officially recognized pack—basically it gives any member of the pack rights to visit in the hospital, among other legalities.
Raeka and Pax are going to change their last names, too, though they both want to meet with their families before that happens.
I still can’t believe it. Pax is the head of our pack, but he’s changing his last name to mine.
It doesn’t feel real. It’s like I’m caught in a dream I can’t wake from, but I won’t complain.
I was more than ready to become Gideon Alabaster, but it means a lot that Pax is willing to change his last name for Colter and me.
Pax is out of the house during most of the daytime hours that next week.
He’s got to sell his condo in the city and speak with everyone he works with at Alabaster Security.
Now that he’s not officially on a job, he needs to get back into the routine of things—as do I, although it’s been a much longer time since I’ve had any form of routine.
As much as I want to stay home with Raeka and Colter, I follow Pax’s lead and actually go to the office, to Chase Jewels HQ downtown. The secretary in the office is surprised to see me, but she doesn’t comment on it.
My office is a corner office in of the higher buildings in the city.
With tall windows on both walls, it means I have a great view.
I forgot just how spectacular the view is.
I spent so long at home, focused solely on Colter, that I forgot just how much I enjoy being up here.
Seeing the city below, seeing all the other tall buildings around—it’s stimulating. There’s always something going on.
My desk is covered in a thin layer of dust. I have to clean it before I can sit down, and then my blasted work computer needs about a thousand updates before I can use it. While I’m forced to wait, I sit back and let my mind wander.
And no surprises as to where it goes.
I think about Raeka, about how she and Colter are back at home, about how badly I miss them already.
For the first time in what feels like forever, I am out of the house and not worried that I’ll come home to find my nephew dead.
My nephew is happy for the first time in over eleven years, and I have Raeka to thank for that.
Heck, I’m happy, too. She’s mine. She’ll be Raeka Chase soon enough. My scent match. The omega literally made for me.
Of course I don’t want to be apart from her, but Pax was right. This company is mine. I might’ve been absent for so long, I might’ve phoned it in these past few years, but I’m not dead, and shockingly, I feel inspired.
Inspiration hasn’t hit me in years, and I owe it to the beautiful omega who’s at home, waiting for me to get back.
While I wait for my computer to update, I pull out a sketchbook I always kept close, in the top right drawer of my desk. I flip it open and study the designs I abandoned when I was last in the office.
Tepid. Uninspired. Boring. The Greek omega symbol in various designs.
Chase Jewels used to be a status symbol for wealthy omegas; it’s the legacy my parents left me and my sister.
After hearing Raeka talk about how much she hates being an omega, though, I can’t help but wonder if, perhaps, the core idea behind it all needs to change.
Perhaps… perhaps it is not omegas who should celebrate their designation. Perhaps Chase Jewels is in need of an overhaul. Everywhere you look, omegas are told to celebrate what they are, what they’re capable of—basically, how they fit into society and into an alpha’s life, into a pack’s life.
But what if we flipped that onto its head? After all, I know more than anyone how lost I was before finding Raeka. Other alphas must feel the same before they find their omega, lost to the grind, lost to their daily lives while knowing something crucial is missing.
Omegas should not celebrate themselves. Alphas should. Alphas should celebrate their omegas and everything they mean to them.
Yes, that’s it.
And just like that, with an idea fueled by the omega waiting for me at home, I start sketching something out, something unique, something that never would’ve been brought to life if it wasn’t for Raeka.