Chapter 4 Caleb
Caleb
My heart calms while I watch my pack for a couple of minutes as they settle down, as much as they can. Mathew behind his computer, Riley and Jorge on the couch and Vera and Luca in the storage-room-turned-quiet-space. Everyone is doing what they can to get a grip on the situation.
The moment I turn to join Derrick, Timothy and Eli in the hallway, Milo slips past me, taking up my spot near the door to keep an eye on everyone. It’s not like much can happen when everyone is in the office, the whole building is well-protected, but having him stand guard still feels safer.
“Any obvious threats that have shown up yet?” I look at Timothy, who’s frowning at his phone.
“Not yet. We should keep all the usual suspects in mind, competing organisations, people who’ve got issues with Mathew personally, maybe even people after you, Vera, Jorge or Riley. But no clear leads yet.” New notifications pop up on his phone like a stream, mostly from the tech team.
That’s good to hear. While I don’t think this will just blow over, having some time to prepare what to do next is good.
“What happened at the meeting?” I now focus on Derrick so Timothy can deal with his team.
“There were a lot of people waiting outside. It looked suspicious. Mathew made the right call to keep driving. At the same time, Timothy got a message about the first of the articles. We decided that going straight home was our best bet. There’s a lot going on right now.
Powers moving. Organisations needing to rethink their plans. ”
Eli lets out a sound that’s almost a laugh, but not quite.
“They’re probably most upset with the fact that an Omega was their superior in business for the last decade.
I think we’re going to see some interesting moves when the blaming game starts.
When they start arguing who’s at fault for Mathew’s organisation being so dominant in his line of work, because ‘an Omega can’t do that on his own’. ” He sneers.
Eli mostly keeps to himself, happy to be in the background, mostly taking on an observing position, but times like these make it clear why all three men of Derrick’s pack are so close to Mathew.
He’s shrewd and he knows a lot about how the Hearts and other organisations work.
He’s very aware of social structures, and that makes him invaluable in situations where social status and things like that are important.
There’s one other thing on my mind. “What about the staff and the teams? Is there a chance we might need to worry about them?”
“I’ll keep a close eye on the kitchen staff and check the rest of the house staff, but I don’t think any of them will be an issue.
Everyone here has always been aware that Mathew is an Omega.
But this news can create issues for their family and friends or other people who are aware they work here, so it’s good to stay on top of the situation. ”
“Any food or other deliveries?” I don’t think anyone would try to sneak in poison, but you never know.
Eli grins, like I’m asking obvious questions. “Already taken care of. Luckily, we got a big grocery delivery in yesterday, so we should be good. Plus, we’ve always got extras for situations like this. We can last two weeks in full lockdown without any issues.”
“Always prepared, my smart Omega.” Derrick pulls Eli close, giving him a long and soft kiss, their clove and lavender pheromones mixing. When he pulls back, his eyes go wide. “That reminds me. I should probably go pick the kids up and let their teachers know they probably won’t be in for a while.”
“There’s already a team at the school, keeping an eye on things.
They left as soon as we heard something was up.
” Eli leans against Derrick, his face troubled.
“I didn’t want to wait in case stuff was going to kick off there.
But also didn’t want to pull them out of class unless I was sure there was no way around it. ”
Derrick kisses his Omega again. “I love your quick brain.” Then he puts his phone away. “I should probably change into something a bit less formal, and pick them up once school is over. Unless there’s an immediate threat?” He nudges Timothy, who shakes his head.
“Nothing immediate.” He looks up, seeming to struggle to pull his attention away from the constant updates from the tech team.
“Nothing immediate what we’ve seen. We don’t need to pull them out early.
” He blinks as Derrick leans close to him and gives him a quick kiss, before he lets out an embarrassed laugh.
“Sorry, I was listening. I promise.” Then he hugs his Alpha, before pulling their Omega between them and hugging him close too.
They’re so amazing together. When you see the three of them, it’s hard not to envy their bond and their trust in each other. Then again, they’ve been together for longer than even Vera and I have been together.
I guess that from the outside, Vera and I also always looked like that. A strong unit with an even stronger bond. People who seem to know each other so deeply that they don’t need words, like they can communicate in ways that are almost supernatural, even when they aren’t.
Without a word, but somehow all at the same time, the men step apart.
Timothy looks at his two mates. “I’m going to join my team in the security room.
I’m not good at reading this stream of updates from my phone.
As soon as the little ones are back from school, I’ll keep an eye on them until one of you gets off duty.
I’ll set myself up in the study, for the time being. ”
Looking after kids and running the tech side of the security team seems a little much for a single guy. “Vera and Luca probably wouldn’t mind keeping an eye on them, if you need people? I’m also happy to look after them if you’re in a pinch.” The kids are sweet and I love their curiosity.
Derrick gives me a flat look. “I’m sure they’d be interested.
Only, between getting ready for the attack on the brothel, and now this, I don’t know how much time any of you will have to babysit.
Work doesn’t stop just because we’re in lockdown.
But, thank you for the offer, and we might still take you up on it. ”
Right, because things are never quiet and easy here. At least, not lately.
The person who took the pictures of us wasn’t anyone of notice.
She was some small-time pawn from an organisation that Mathew does business with from time to time.
She recognised Mathew, realised the significance of the location, his clothes and how he looked and realised she could make some good money from selling the pictures to interested parties. Which she did.
She apparently spotted us as we were walking into the hospital, had waited for us to come back out, took some pictures, and then followed us to lunch and took more pics there.
None of us had noticed anything, so she was pretty good at staying hidden. But not good enough to make sure to hide her identity when she sold the pictures later.
Which is why she ended up dead in a trashcan in front of some high end restaurants this morning, before the article about Mathew started showing up all over the media.
The trashcan had been purposefully dragged to that spot, creating a display for her body, so as many people as possible could see her.
This wasn’t just a killing, this was a warning.
We have no idea if she got killed because she was asking too much for the pictures, if she got caught up with the wrong people or if someone was trying to protect themselves or Mathew.
But the end result is the same, we can’t ask her any questions about who she sold the pictures to, so we don’t know who saw them before they showed up online.
Timothy and Jorge are trying to get their hands on her financial information, her social media and anything else that could give us more insight into who she spoke to and what she might have been up to.
We need to know if she just took and shared the pictures or if she knew more, and if so, who she shared that information with.
The author of the article was a dead end.
They got the pictures from an anonymous source and when they’d shared them with some rich people Mathew had done jobs for, they’d been more than happy to provide quotes for the article.
The author promised that they had nothing to do with what happened to the photographer, as they’d received the pictures this morning, well after the photographer had been killed.
That the author managed to get quotes bashing Mathew so quickly makes sense.
Mathew’s good at his job, both his public-facing and his real job, and him being handsome and young was already enough reason for plenty of people to hate him.
That he’s also an Omega is a perfect excuse to drag him through the mud.
And it’s not like Mathew is some entirely unknown person, he’d been rubbing shoulders with rich people for years, so there are plenty of articles about him. But to have the rest of us so prominently visible in the pictures, that’s making me worry more.
People who knew Vera and me when we were on the run, will now find out that we’re not two Betas, as we used to claim, but an Alpha and an Omega.
I have no idea if that’s going to have any impact.
Though, I suspect most people will be smart enough to realise that with Mathew’s high status and rumoured —but never confirmed— connections to organised crime, it’s probably a good idea not to reach out to anyone to gossip about us.
Vera’s family and the pack she was supposed to marry into might have other ideas, but we’ll deal with that if the problem arises. We already know that the Hearts are connected to them, so if they try anything, it wouldn’t be a surprise.
People who’ve worked with Jorge and Riley in the past know that they have very loose connections to the law, but they also already know that they’re in Mathew’s pack. So photographing them together won’t make any difference in that way.
Though, that was when people thought Mathew was an Alpha. Having questionable morals and a reputation of being ruthless to get what you want is expected from Alphas, celebrated even. From Omegas, not so much.
Some of their clients who care about status might even drop them for ‘demeaning’ themselves for ‘working under an Omega’. Which is bullshit and I’d say, good riddance. Those people are weird and probably have many other ideas about Alphas, Betas and Omegas that are gross.
And Luca... The poor guy finally found some semblance of normalcy —as much as he can around us— and now everything is all getting messed up again.
His parents already called him, panicked, but once he explained that he was safe and that everything was being handled, they calmed down.
His family is protected by Erika and her pack, so even if people know that Luca is their kid or sibling, they shouldn’t be in any trouble.
Since the initial article released a couple of hours ago, there’s been plenty of chatter online, and a couple of new articles too.
Most of them insisting that ‘they always knew Mathew was an Omega’ when they very clearly didn’t and that ‘he’s only the pretty face, the Alpha who knocked him up must have been running everything behind the scenes all this time’.
Most of the articles insist that Derrick or Timothy are the ‘real brains’ of the organisation, since they’ve been with Mathew the longest. Those articles have been interesting to read because of how confidently they’re wrong.
There was one post I saw somewhere that said that I —being the tallest, oldest and most imposing— was ‘clearly’ the Alpha behind it all, and that I’d simply been ‘waiting’ behind the scenes until I got Mathew pregnant so I could take my ‘rightful’ place as the head of the organisation.
I have no idea what the logic behind that one was. Why would I wait for a decade to show myself? Why would I ‘let’ Mathew be the head of the organisation when I’m right there? Why would I have to get Mathew pregnant before I took my place as the head?
None of it makes sense.
People are twisting themselves into knots to try and undermine everything Mathew has done for the last decade, trying to say that his achievements are ‘really’ the achievements of Alphas around him, that he’s ‘only’ a figurehead or that he’s a pawn.
It could be funny, if it wasn’t so sad.
This so clearly shows why Mathew pretended to be an Alpha for the last decade, because it makes life so much easier and he’s taken much more seriously. And I don’t fault him one bit that he chose the path of least resistance.
He didn’t have noticeable pheromones, he was built like an Alpha, he had a presence like an Alpha, so nobody even thought to doubt his words.
It’s not that different from what Vera and I did when we were on the run, though hiding our pheromones was more work.
Sometimes, hiding who you are makes life so much easier, and quite often safer too.
But we’re all out of hiding now. Those pictures and articles have exposed our secrets all in one go.
And now we’re going to have to deal with the fallout, whatever it may bring.