Chapter 20 Pressure
Pressure
Mads
I don’t want to be bonded to a pack. Or whatever they want from me. But if I was forced to, then yes, I’d have some demands.
I decide to wear a tie.
And then I eat a bread and butter sandwich and take my meds. My mom is asleep. It’s her day off, and she’s sleeping in. So I’m being quiet as I get ready. We used to have a dog, and I almost fill the food bowl we still have out, out of habit.
Mr. Snoots died a few months back. I’ve debated getting my mom a new dog, but not while she’s working two jobs. The plan was for me to start working again, she can cut back, and get herself a new companion animal.
I’m already out the door before I even let myself think too much on this. I decide to show up late. They can all see me hobble into the café like a fucking disaster. Maybe it’ll make them change their mind and leave the broken man alone.
It’s one of those cafés grandmas take their daughters to and discuss only proper things.
I check in with the host, and he leads me to the table where all the alphas are.
Oscar is the only one smiling. He tries to shake my hand, but I use my right hand for my cane, so there’s nothing to shake.
I turn and make my way around the table to the empty chair.
I don’t hide anything as I prepare the space for myself.
Test the table to make sure it’ll hold my weight.
Then manipulate my body to get into the chair.
All three alphas observe me with rapt attention.
I sit and balance my cane against the table and the wall.
I give them a tight smile.
Yeah, fuckers, you really want this broken fucking toy to play with? Think again.
“Thank you for coming, Mads. I was getting a bit worried you’d stand us up.”
I level Oscar a look like let’s not pretend I’m here on my own free will.
The server comes over and takes our order. I order a cappuccino, a croissant with cream, and Eggs Benedict. I plan on eating it all too. Fuck these guys.
Locke keeps looking out the window, like we are expecting someone else. He’s a bit unfocused. Kol won’t look me in the eye. He’s ashamed.
He should be.
I drink my coffee. Eat my entire giant croissant, and I ask for a second cappuccino.
The alphas have just ordered coffees and small dishes of bacon and eggs.
Finally, Oscar brings up what we are here for. “I’d love to hear about your preferences and conditions, Mads. If you’ve prepared them.”
I wipe my mouth with a cloth napkin.
“What exactly are you asking? What are you asking me for? I need you to be clear.”
It’s Kol who answers. “We want to make you pack. Bonded and registered.”
“With a bite?”
He snaps his teeth together and nods. He’s as serious as a car crash.
“You’d be a full member. Access to our funds, data, and resources.”
“For how long?” I get the reaction I want. Alphas think in terms of forever. It is a shocking question to them to assume otherwise.
“You’d be ours. Always,” Locke answers. That surprises me. I haven’t heard much from the younger alpha.
“Why me? And don’t say it’s some magical knowing that led you to me. I want a real answer.”
Kol stops Oscar from answering by saying, “You’re considering it, aren’t you? Tell us what we can do to make this happen, Mads. Tell me.”
I click my tongue and lean back. “I went to the police. They told me I’d need to hire private security to keep you from me. I can’t afford that. So here I am, with very little options, considering this fucking insane path forward.”
Then our eggs finally arrive and I eat most of my food silently. Kol takes deep breaths. He’s definitely upset. It seems like he’s upset because of what they are all making me do. He keeps looking at me with pity, and Oscar with scorn.
I wipe my mouth, and ask, “If I were to consider this, what can you do for me? Can you pay off my medical debt? Give my mom a monthly allowance so she can retire? Make me a partner at your company?”
All three alphas are nodding yes to everything I’m saying.
“I wouldn’t have to fuck anyone, right? This isn’t sexual?” They shake their heads. Locke is the last to shake his head, and I note that. “You said you are getting an omega?”
“A scent match,” Oscar clarifies.
I don’t know the details of scent matches, and I hardly care.
“Would I have to fuck her?”
“If you’d like, but she’d be the one to dictate our relationship boundaries. She most likely won’t be happy about us seeing anyone outside of the pack. Intimately—sexually.”
Cadi races through my mind. Their omega wouldn’t want me seeing Cadi, that’s what he means.
“Would I have to submit to you, Oscar, or all the alphas?”
“Just me.” That’s not normal. Betas are at the bottom of any pack. Even I know this. He’s essentially saying I’d be on the same level as Kol and Locke.
I keep eating my food, and it’s only on the last bite I realize I haven’t once panicked about being around them.
I know it’s the power shift. I have something they want.
But this anomaly is weakening. I look down, and my hand is starting to shake.
The closer I get to losing my hold over them, the more panicked I feel.
“What about my condition?” I ask with my eyes down in my lap.
“Your physical condition?” Oscar asks.
“No, that I can’t be around alphas.”
“Mads,” Locke says. “We all have our issues.” He adjusts in his seat so he can lean in and make eye contact with me.
“I go into complete shut down when an alpha uses their alpha-voice on me, or even raises his voice at me. Oscar and Kol are very understanding. I’m sure they’d be for you too. I will be.”
Kol adds, “I have a severe rutting condition, Mads. I’m on medication and trying to manage it. Oscar and Locke help me every day with it. They’d never abandon me if it got bad either. They haven’t so far.”
I look at Oscar, who says, “I can’t get work right now. My pack supports me, and I do what I can for now while we work together to solve this problem. You don’t need to come to us healed. We have experience as a pack, standing together, broken as we are.”
I’m stunned. My mouth hangs open. I actually had no idea what a pack was even for. Why alphas and omegas formed them. What the benefit was. I had no idea they helped each other like this.
“Are you…together?” Do they do this because they are all dating each other? I gesture between the three of them.
“No, we aren’t like that in this pack,” Kol answers soberly. He’s not offended by my question.
I sit back in my chair and think.
Alphas form a pack and support each other like brothers.
More than brothers. More than friends. They all know the best and the worst parts of each other.
I know there’s some deal with knowing each other’s feelings or thoughts or something too.
So they can’t hide from each other. It’s never sounded more… desirable.
We talk logistics for a little bit. They have a two bedroom apartment they are living in temporarily.
They said the three of them will share a room to give me space.
Once they bond to the omega, she will pick out the house we will all move to.
That worries me a lot. They say I have to live with them after the bonding. We could risk bond sickness.
I ask about the likelihood that they won’t bond with the omega, and they just answer, “She’s Locke’s scent match.”
I can tell they aren’t disclosing everything, but I can’t really handle the information they are telling me now. I will probably need to process this all first.
“How long do I have to decide?”
Oscar answers, “We want to know now. As soon as possible.”
“I need more time.”
Oscar sighs.
Locke excuses himself to the bathroom. Kol and Oscar have their back to the window, so they don’t see Cadi stroll past without a care in the world. My eyes go wide. I’d jump up after her, but…you know.
She looks inside absentmindedly and spots me. She does a double take. I wave and she waves back.
She’s with a whole little crew of omegas. They are completely surrounded by security. She failed to mention her walks with omegas included armed security, or maybe I’m just too naive to realize they wouldn’t be protected.
“Cadi,” I say quietly. She keeps walking, so by the time Oscar and Kol look up, she’s gone.
“Your date?” Oscar asks. He doesn’t know she just walked by. This must be her neighborhood. I never asked, but it makes sense an omega complex would be in this area.
“You want me to cut off ties with her.”
“Our omega may not like you dating outside the pack. It’s best to not get attached until you know.”
I rub my hand over my face. “The omega will decide a lot of this pack. Almost like she’ll be pack lead.”
It’s bait. To see how Oscar handles being told he doesn’t have all the power.
“An omega is the sun upon which her pack orbits.”
Locke comes back to the table. He takes a long drink of his coffee. I want to know so much about the alpha. That’s a weird feeling. Is this what they mean when they say they just know we are pack? Because of this ease, when we are together?
“This is what we are going to do,” Oscar declares, and his alpha influence, his alpha aura, pushes out into the room.
It bears down on me and everyone. Betas aren’t immune to the alpha influence.
It feels like being pushed down into a bow before a king.
It’s wholly unpleasant. “Mads, you will spend the day with Locke. You will get to know him. Tomorrow, you spend the day with Kol. And Monday, you spend the day with me. By Monday night, you should be ready, and we can bond and register you.”
I’m upset about him using his influence. And I’m upset that it’s not a bad plan. He wants me to actually get to know the Soto Pack and then make a more informed decision.
And they will, in turn, get to know me, and maybe we will all realize how stupid this is when we spend one-on-one time, and I’ll be abandoned and can move on.
I’m thinking about it.
Oscar pulls back his influence as we all consider his plan.
“I’ll go settle the bill. Locke, you stay with Mads for the day. I’ll see you tomorrow, then.”
Oscar and Kol stand. They don’t offer their hands to shake. They just nod their heads to me. They hug their pack mate goodbye and leave.