ELIANO #6
Theoretically, it could be the perfect hiding place. If I stayed there long enough, maybe Rocco would give up and lose hope of ever finding me. Two years in a place like that would greatly improve my chances. Maybe the bastard would assume I had left the country altogether?
All of a sudden, everything in my mind starts to click into a neat whole. It makes sense, damn it.
Did Fate put this in front of me as an opportunity?
Even if Salt and I are not True Mates, what does that change?
I would live with an attractive guy, have a free room, free food, and maybe even some sex.
The last part is very tempting. In the fortress, I did not want to get involved with anyone.
I had nothing to offer a potential partner except the risk that somewhere in a corridor of the fortress, Rocco would catch him and rape him, believing he had the right to every omega on mafia territory.
But now, out here, maybe I could discover new aspects of myself, test what I want, and what I don’t. Even if the program fails, even if nothing comes of it, I would leave with new experience.
Pros and cons weighed?
Okay.
Alrighty.
But what am I supposed to do now, just go back and make a fool out of myself?
Maybe I should wait at least a few hours.
But then a sudden anxiety grips me.
What if some pervert shows up and buys Salt’s contract?
Fine. I will make a fool of myself.
◆◆◆
The guards at the gate let me through without any trouble when I show them the ticket Damien gave me. I know the way, so I head toward the small office where I spoke with Storm before.
Right by the door, though, something stops me.
I hear voices raised in an argument coming from inside.
I bend slightly and listen. I manage to recognize Mr. Gessler’s voice and Storm’s, but it is hard to catch specific words.
Still, the longer I listen, the more I think I hear phrases like "this absolutely won’t fly" and "I’m not going to push this through the verification committee.
" A moment later, I hear footsteps, so I turn around quickly and instinctively move away from the door to avoid being seen.
Mr. Gessler steps out and heads back toward the beta section.
Luckily, he does not notice me. I hesitate for a moment, shifting my weight from one foot to the other and biting my lip, but in the end I decide to knock anyway.
Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
Storm calls me in, so I step inside.
I glance around and realize the setup has changed. The laptop is turned toward the room, and Storm and Damien are seated at the table. One chair is empty. Gessler must have been sitting there.
On the screen is a man I don’t recognize, wearing dark-framed glasses. He has a sour grimace. It looks like I walked in on their conversation.
When they see me, Damien and Storm stand, nearly identical surprise and mild confusion crossing their faces.
"Well," I clear my throat, "I’m back."
"Oh."
"Yeah… I just couldn’t stay away," I say, suddenly aware of how stupid that sounds, like I’m apologizing for something.
I straighten slightly.
What exactly is there to be embarrassed about?
"I thought it through. I weighed the pros and cons, and I’ve come to the conclusion that this might not be the worst idea after all, especially at this weird point in my life. It’s a safe option."
A heavy silence falls.
Storm turns toward the screen, where the unfamiliar man in glasses is still looking at me.
"Jordan, this is our client, the one we talked about. Eliano, this is Jordan Arnold, our lawyer."
Only then do I notice scratches and redness covering one side of the lawyer’s face. He is half-reclined, propped against a pillow behind him. It looks like they called him in the middle of his recovery.
"Um, Eliano, so… we might have a bit of a problem," Storm mutters.
A problem? My eyebrows shoot up.
"It took a lot for me to come back," pops out before I can stop myself. "So I hope it wasn’t for nothing!"
"We just had a conversation with Mr. Gessler, who is against accepting you. He also just checked the Beta Activation program rules," Storm responds gloomily.
"And? What’s the problem?"
"It’s about the whole True Mates thing," Damien murmurs.
"Well, I doubt it’s even real. How would that be a problem?"
"Mr. Gessler is convinced that if you are, in fact, True Mates, then you’re not eligible for the BA program. TMs don’t require fertility stimulation. It happens naturally."
My mouth opens involuntarily, and I stand there, staring at them.
On the screen, Jordan lowers his head and scrolls through something on his tablet, seemingly staying out of the conversation.
"Wait… so what would that mean for me and Salt if we don’t qualify for the BA program?"
Storm grimaces slightly, then lets out an awkward chuckle.
"No idea. Second Chance wouldn’t take you either. They require you to have a house and pay the full price of the contract, which wouldn’t be the case if you entered the BA program."
"But the TM thing is bull! We’re worrying over nothing."
Storm rolls his eyes. "What you believe doesn’t matter. Gessler already saw you react to Salt’s touch; it looked legit."
"Can’t you convince him to keep his mouth shut?"
So that was the heated conversation with Gessler I overheard behind the door.
"No. Hiding the truth from Second Chance is no longer an option. The question is what about the Beta Activation rules. Would that be a breach?" He shakes his head, clearly frustrated. "We have no idea."
For a moment, I sit there, feeling a vague disappointment. Before it even started, it ended?
I sigh. "So what now? You’re suggesting I just walk out of here?" I spread my hands helplessly.
My thoughts drift to Salt. His sharp, feline face. His mismatched eyes. The feral energy that ignited a hot shiver through me…
If I’m to be sent away, will some other guy buy his contract? Bend him, fuck him?
Whoa, what a thought!
Suddenly, a slight cough reaches us.
The lawyer on the screen taps his tablet, and we all look at him.
There is a slight pause, and I study him more closely.
Jordan Arnold appears to be in his early thirties, possibly a beta, though it is hard to say since he is well-built.
Quite good-looking, but the thick glasses give him a stern air.
There is something sour about the energy around him, like he is permanently dissatisfied.
Storm clears his throat.
"Do you have something?"
The lawyer responds in an irritated tone, "I may have. But firstly, I need to emphasize that I almost died at work, yet I am still taking calls during medical leave, and—"
"I’ll put in a good word about that raise!" Storm quickly assures him with an awkward smile. "But we really do need your help. The case is not theoretical at this point, since Eliano came back."
Jordan takes on an even more sour expression.
"I don’t have a magic solution for you. But I noticed something promising that may be our way out of it. I need to reread the contracts more carefully. Give me about twenty minutes, and I’ll check both our agreements with Second Chance and Beta Activation."
"Of course, of course," Storm says quickly. "We’ll wait, and thank you. So much. Call us when you’re ready."
Jordan gives him a crooked glance and disconnects.
"I guess he’s not thrilled," I mutter, looking off to the side.
"Jordan is never thrilled. He’s perpetually unhappy, " Storm replies, slightly amused. "But he’s extremely dedicated. I believe he’ll find something."
I lean back against the sofa, folding my arms across my chest. "Well, worst-case scenario, you tell me it’s not happening, and I’ll just leave."
Storm rubs his chin, then mutters dryly, "You touched, Eliano! The Pull will start between the two of you, not as quickly as between AOs, but it will. After a few months, you’ll get sick and you’ll need to find each other."
Now it’s my turn to grimace, almost like Jordan earlier. "That long? Can’t we test it sooner? Maybe run some blood tests?"
"With betas, the separation stress hormone, veradiol, only builds up over a long period of time, so the test wouldn’t be reliable until a few months have passed," Storm says quietly.
"In alpha-omega cases the True Mate Government Agency may get involved and help, but not when they can’t have proof of your TM status. "
"That sucks," I mutter, avoiding their eyes because I feel oddly cheated. "It still might not be true, right?" I add, glancing at them with my brows raised, almost hopeful, but I’m met with silence.
Finally, all these thoughts feel too heavy, and I decide to change the subject randomly.
"That Jordan," I say suddenly. "Was he here during the attack on Blue Lowen?"
Storm swallows lightly. "Yeah, he was. He was partially blasted by the bomb, just like I was. I guess working in a matchmaking agency is a dangerous job after all," he adds with a hint of dark humor.
I raise my eyebrows in surprise, something clicking into place in my head.
"Wait, I remember from the press reports that a purple alpha shielded Blue Lowen from the blast wave. Was that you?"
Storm gives a slightly shy smile.
"Yes. When Blue was scheduled to be here, our CEO asked me to act as extra protection. There were concerns about his safety."
"You shielded him from a bomb that destroyed an entire floor, and you walked away without any injuries?"
"Oh, I had injuries, plenty of them!" He laughs, seeing my confused face.
Damien chuckles too. "Hey, remember, we’re True Mates. Any injuries heal within a day."
I gape, staring at him for a moment. Right.
The famous Joining!
Like everyone, I had heard about the magic that binds True Mates, the one that heals, and rejuvenates, but I had never quite believed it, not really.
My parents were True Mates. But when Anzo shot my dad in the head, they both just died. There was no healing, no way to stop the death.
Still, maybe with less serious wounds? Would that work?
Healing… it sounds so magical.
My thoughts immediately jump to my back. If I had my fated mate, would my scars disappear?
I have always hated the marks of violence on my body. They remind me of my failure of a life, humiliation, captivity. I do not only hate the ones Anzo left behind, but also those tied to martial arts.
Since childhood, I’ve trained in jujitsu, wrestling, Muay Thai, and Kendo, the Japanese sword-fighting art.
The latter left me with a lot of thin scars on my hands and forearms. And wrestling gave me that typical ‘cauliflower’ ear shape. I pressured Anzo to bring in the best surgeons to repair the damaged cartilage. My ears look more or less normal now, though not perfectly so, which still pisses me off.
Without thinking, I raise a hand to my ear. With my curls no longer hiding them, I suddenly feel self-conscious.
I want nothing that reminds me of my past in cage fighting. I want to forget it and start over.
Erase, wipe it out…
A clean slate.
This thing with Salt, could it do that, maybe heal me?
But is it slipping from my grasp now?
An incoming call appears on Storm’s screen, and he accepts it quickly.
Jordan’s face looks slightly more positive than before, though only just. His permanent dissatisfaction clearly runs deep.
"Well, I have some good news for you," he says.
"The contracts we have in place are heavily protected by regulations that shield our company from liability.
We are not obligated to share any information with Beta Activation that has not been confirmed by officially recognized tests.
In this case, the True Mate status of our clients cannot be easily verified, so no one can accuse us of acting in bad faith. That is the first piece of good news."
"And the second piece of good news?"
Jordan’s face slips back into its sour expression. "That one is more of a sensitive suggestion. You could use your family connections to smooth the acceptance of our clients into the BA program."
His gaze shifts meaningfully toward Damien, whose cheeks suddenly flush red.
Damien looks at Storm and says, "You know, that’s actually a good idea. I could call my uncle. The program is his brainchild, basically. He has enormous influence over it."
I have no idea what they are talking about, but I choose not to ask. I only care about the final outcome, so any help is welcome.
Storm nods, a grin lighting his face. "You’re right. It’s worth a try."
"And the best part," Damien adds, "is that he has influence not only in Beta Activation, but also knows people at Second Chance. He could help us pull some strings."
"True!" Storm agrees.
Jordan gives them a thin smile.
"The most important thing is that Second Chance also has no obligation to provide that kind of tests to Beta Activation. I checked this, so Mr. Gessler can relax."
"Perfect. Jordan, you’re a lifesaver. That will calm Gessler’s ass down, for sure," Storm says, grinning.
Jordan wrinkles his nose. "Don’t celebrate yet. Make the calls first."
"I’m on it," Damien mutters, pulling out his phone, while both Jordan and Storm nod, looking far more optimistic now.
I sit there and watch them, listening to Damien talk. Did he call his uncle ‘Blue’?
But more importantly, is this the moment?
Is my fate about to change, just like that?
What a rollercoaster!
It feels unreal. The way everything has unfolded today feels dreamlike, and I suddenly realize that this possibility is starting to solidify, emerging from the vague, foggy outline it had just moments ago.
Again, my thoughts drift to Salt.
I don’t really know this man, but does that matter right now?
There’s a low, steady buzz of excitement I wasn’t expecting. A shiver runs back and forth over my body as the conversation continues, and I sense Damien’s rising optimism, his smiling face turning toward me.
Something new is coming.
That much is certain.