6. Graeme
Graeme
I t was agreed.
Mr. and Mrs. Huntington would come to my home tomorrow, with their son and daughter and their mates, to meet my brother and his wife, and we would all dine together and set a date for the wedding.
Our nuptials, of course, would be a spectacle, where people would come and formally acknowledge my mating to Avery.
An over-the-top extravagant event was expected from any member of the jarl .
As my family was, in essence, the pinnacle of the social hierarchy, the affair would be obscenely lavish.
To say I was dreading it would be the understatement of the year, but truly I could endure anything, because starting tomorrow, Avery was mine.
He would live with me, dine with me, sleep in my bed, and most importantly, stand at my side.
I wanted that more than I ever thought possible.
I had no idea I would care as much as I already did.
And yes, I’d have to be crazy not to want to be back inside of him almost desperately, but even more, I wanted him wrapped around me in the night.
To see him had become, in a little over an hour, as necessary as breathing.
His presence was greater than a need or a want but, instead, an absolute that I would not, could not, live without. He was mine, and I would have him.
“Why aren’t you happy?” Kat asked, seated beside me in the back of the Bentley Bentayga Mulliner we had driven over in. Isabella Straeger, Izzy, my other shield, personal bodyguard, and in her case, driver, was, as usual, navigating us expertly through traffic. “You have your mate.”
“May I offer my congratulations?” Izzy asked from the driver’s seat.
“Yes,” I whispered, meeting her warm henna eyes for only a moment when she turned her head, glancing at me over her right shoulder.
Izzy, like Kat, was a beautiful woman, and men hit on her a lot, even after noting the rock and accompanying band on her left ring finger.
It was her smooth russet complexion with the warm undertones and bewitching smile that drew admirers like flies to honey.
The high bun she wore at work, her long box braids swept up, showed off the delicate line of her throat, and men, especially alphas, noted the lack of a mating mark.
That didn’t matter, though, because if they were too forward, Izzy would put them on their ass.
She was, first and foremost, deadly. No one tried to touch her twice.
“Congratulations, Graeme,” she imparted kindly, and then, because it was how she was made, added, “it’s about time you chose.”
“Really?” I snapped at her.
“She’s not wrong,” Kat threw in, making a face, nodding. “I can’t wait to send word to your grandfather. Maybe he’ll visit and it won’t be a horror show.”
“At least he won’t bring unannounced visitors anymore,” Izzy stated, shuddering for good measure. “When he brought those two betas with him the last time, and that omega with all the…what were those?”
“Yorkipoos,” Kat informed her. “Five of them.”
“And they peed whenever Graeme looked at them,” Izzy groaned. “Remember that?”
“How could I forget? The rugs were being cleaned on a continual basis, and we had a revolving color scheme every day. It felt like we were living in the middle of a going-out-of-business sale.”
Izzy snorted. “Well, at least we’re done with all that now Graeme is bonded. Again, sir, I’m thrilled you finally settled on an omega who pleases you.”
“No, no,” Kat corrected her. “He’s mated, not bonded.”
Izzy caught her breath. “Graeme,” she whispered, her voice failing her, “that’s amazing. I wouldn’t have teased you if—I’m over the moon for you.”
I nodded.
“This is the best news. Now I really can’t wait to meet this amazing man who—Graeme? Whyever are you making that face?”
“What face,” I demanded, hearing the annoyance in my voice.
“The one you get when you have heartburn.”
“I do not get heartburn,” I growled at her.
“He left,” Kat explained to Izzy.
“What do you mean? Who left?”
“Graeme’s omega.”
Several seconds ticked by.
“I’m sorry, what?”
“Could you two not discuss me as though I weren’t sitting right––”
“Graeme seems to think,” Kat continued on, ignoring me completely, “from the conversation he overheard, that Avery had to go to work.”
“Ah, well, that’s under––”
“No. You’re not getting it. Avery didn’t get Graeme’s permission first; he just left. And he’s keeping his job even after the mating.”
“I don’t understand.”
“He’s an omega raised like an alpha.”
“I’m sorry ?”
“His mother raised him and his siblings the same.”
“I don’t understand,” she repeated.
“You do understand. She raised her omega as one would an alpha.”
“But that’s not a thing,” she told Kat. “It’s not. It can’t be. And how would that even work? My God, the freedoms allowed an alpha could be the death of an omega.”
“Wherein lies Graeme’s concern.”
“You’re telling me that Avery’s family allows him to do as he pleases?”
“No, it’s way better than that. He’s a police detective, and he’s going to remain a police detective even after the mating. It’s in his contract.”
Izzy sucked in a breath.
“Yeah.”
“You’re screwing with me,” she accused Kat. “Why the hell are you screwing with me?”
“I’m not, I swear. Hand to God.”
“Well then, that section or clause, or whatever the hell it is, needs to be stricken. Draft an addendum or whatever needs to—for fuck’s sake! That’s the stupidest thing I ever heard. An omega, even a mated and marked one, is still far too vulnerable to be out alone in the––”
“Let me tell you about his crazy-ass family,” Kat stated, leaning forward in her seat.
I tuned out the conversation, because it wasn’t helping in the least. Izzy had the same concerns that any lupine with a modicum of good sense would.
Omegas needed to be protected, and even those who were mated and marked, as she’d said, were in constant danger.
And Avery was neither of those things. He wasn’t carrying my mark, and the mating ceremony, our wedding, had yet to be performed.
My omega, my mate, was out cavorting in the world, free to be accosted by any alpha, beta, gamma, or human, for that matter, who he came across.
It was like a ticking timebomb in my chest, and even his contract beside me on the seat did little to reassure me.
I needed to see him and convince him to come and stay with me.
There were ten free bedrooms; he could take his pick if he didn’t want to…
Who was I kidding? If I got him in my house, I would make damn sure he’d be sleeping with me, because it was all I wanted. The reality was, waiting a whole day to see him would be the death of me. By tomorrow at this time I’d be a raving lunatic.
“Graeme!” Kat nearly screamed my name, and I understood I had been lost deeper in my own thoughts than I realized.
“I’m sorry, what?”
Her face was stricken, and when I glanced over at Izzy, I saw that her hand was pressed across her mouth. She’d pulled the car over, and we were idling beside the curb.
“What’s wrong?” I demanded.
“It’s Remy,” Kat answered, her voice catching. “The police are at his home. There’s been an attack.”
“What kind of attack?”
“That’s why he wasn’t at the party tonight,” she apprised me.
“Kat,” I said hoarsely, fighting not to yell at her. “What kind of attack?”
“Oh, Graeme,” she replied shakily, “the police are saying we need to go there now. Your cousin’s been killed.”
And as I sat there and absorbed the news, Izzy turned away from the mansion I shared with my brother and his wife on Dearborn Street in Lincoln Park and directed us instead toward Remy’s home in Highland Park.
The mansion on Sheridan Road was newer and built right on the lake, with a private beach, a heated indoor pool, an enormous kitchen, a vast library, and a media room with leather seats.
Those were the things Remy had listed when he explained to me why he wanted an advance on the monthly payments from his trust fund.
He sought to purchase the property. I had made the arrangements promptly, because it was a good investment—for once—and I didn’t want to get in the way of him finally growing up.
In exchange, he was taking the job I’d been pushing him to take in marketing, where I felt his ideas and enthusiasm would be most beneficial to the company.
A month later, when I was informed by the director of marketing that my cousin had not shown up for work in three weeks, I’d visited his home for the first time.
I found the mansion filled with people in various stages of undress, with drugs and alcohol for the humans and all manner of blood play for the wolves.
It was the last time I’d been there, and we didn’t speak.
I’d seen him, poolside, sharing a man with another, turned and left.
It was, as it turned out, the last time I saw him alive.
Now, in hindsight, I wondered if I would have done anything differently, and if I was being honest with myself, the answer was no.
I had thought, after I defended him in mortal combat, we might become close, my only uncle’s only son and I, but it was not to be.
So while I wanted to know how he died, and why, I found grief was not tied into those questions.
Stone reacted much the same when I called to give him the news.
He was shocked, but he had no feelings beyond that.
“If it’s a crime perpetrated by a human—” He sighed.
“—then that’s one thing. The police can be allowed to do their job.
But if it’s a lupine attack, which you’ll know when you see him, then that’s another matter entirely, and you have to be included in every part of their investigation as the holt leader. ”
“Yes,” I agreed woodenly.
“If someone is coming after our family, we need to know who and why. Shall I call Burman now, or do you prefer me to wait?”