2. Lucy
CHAPTER 2
Lucy
The sounds of the city around us became muted as I absently tried to remember that boy’s face for the millionth time. We made our way down the street, my steps slowing when the rain started pouring even harder. Frankie pulled me in close, used to my long silences.
That boy had begged me not to forget him before leaving to wherever it was his parents insisted he had to go, but I’d found out later there were no records of that boy attending my school when I’d gone to look. It was like he’d never existed.
A figment of my imagination.
At least, that’s what I’d believe if I didn’t have proof he existed.
That boy had sworn he’d find me when he got back – when it was safe. Whatever that meant. I had a few suspicions, but without a lead I’d never know for sure.
Back in middle school, neither of us had perfumed yet, but I distinctly remember how he smelled a bit like citrus, even if it was just the barest hint of what his scent would become when he went through puberty in a few years.
The day he left, his scent was stronger than usual, as if the rain had brought out the scent of sweet oranges to comfort me when I was sad. We’d been so young, but even at twelve years old, I’d hoped we’d be compatible after we settled into our designations.
There was just something about him…
One day, I waited for him after school, but he never showed up. It had scared me when he was always so diligent during the week. I clearly remembered the way the dark sky had felt like a warning as I’d searched for him everywhere I could think of.
I eventually found him on a bus bench, looking miserable. He’d had an umbrella with him, but he’d let the rain drench his hair and clothes. When I’d gotten close enough, it was easy to see why. For once, I’d been quick enough to pick up on something obscure, and I had managed to do him the favor of pretending those tears on his perfect skin were nothing more than rain.
His voice had been sullen when he’d told me we wouldn’t be able to see each other anymore – that he was being sent away to a special school across the country.
Seeing him cry that day…I’d done the only thing I could think of to make sure he’d never forget about me. I’d run back to my house as fast as I could, not having the words to really explain what I was doing, afraid he’d tell me no.
By the time I’d made it back with the small fishbowl, his eyes were swollen and puffy, but they’d lit up the second he saw me again.
My axolotl had just had babies, and I gave him one of those precious creatures as a farewell present, trusting him to take care of it the same way I would have.
They could live up to fifteen years old in captivity and every time it rained, I wondered if that axolotl was still alive, reminding him of me the way that rainy days reminded me of him.
It was a long time ago, but I’d never forgotten him. His name though? Even if he’d told me his real name, I wouldn’t have been able to remember it long enough to write it down before I forgot. I couldn’t remember what his face looked like either—couldn’t imagine what it might look like, which was somehow worse than completely forgetting about him.
And every record of him attending that school had disappeared. None of the faculty would say a word either.
Shaking my head to dispel the melancholy thoughts, I tried to remind myself that none of it mattered. I wasn’t that little girl anymore.
What if he’d settled as an alpha? There was no way I could never be the kind of omega he would want.
Frankie led us toward Valor Enterprises and I refocused on the task at hand, wondering if we could really pull this off.
It wasn’t going to be easy.
Genesis may have assigned us the case, but we had to convince Valor that we were just as capable as our reputations had led them to believe, because the second someone laid eyes on us, they decided two women couldn’t possibly manage what Frank James and Lou Parker had over the last five years. Even if one of them was an alpha.
It went even further south if they picked up on the fact that I was an omega, not a beta.
The Valor pack alpha had called our agency herself though. She’d requested only the best, fastest, and most competent team to take point. They would pay for more bodies to do the grunt work if that’s what Frankie and I needed, but we had to make it through this initial meeting first and have them officially assign us to the case.
With something this high profile, it would make or break our careers.
If we could find Gideon Valor’s killer, I could publicly announce I was an omega. Maybe then the world would see omegas could do more than pushing papers.
“Did the commander give you any other info?” I matched my footsteps to Frankie’s as much as I could with our height difference. “I don’t know much about Valor other than what’s on the internet.”
“All he said was that we needed to convince them to give us, or at the very least our agency, this job.” Frankie stopped walking and pulled me to the side so we weren’t blocking the flow of traffic on the sidewalk. “This is going to be very public, and we’ll be working closely with a lot of unfamiliar alphas.”
“And that’s different from any other day, how?” Leaning into her, I took the opportunity to inspect our surroundings, mentally placing our location on a map before focusing on the rain again.
It was coming down hard enough the cars were driving slowly, their windshield wipers furiously trying to keep up with the downpour.
“These aren’t just any alphas,” Frankie reminded me, shifting her body so the cars wouldn’t splash me with water. “These are legacy alphas, Lucy. They’re a completely different breed.”
Yes, I was aware of that.
Raising an eyebrow up at the alpha before me, I tried to figure out what her real issue was. We both knew alphas didn’t bother me as long as they kept their hands to themselves, and I wasn’t afraid of them the way most omegas were.
It was rare an alpha even recognized what I was thanks to my size and the fact that my scent was damn near nonexistent, even without scent blockers.
“Are you worried they’ll ask for someone else because of my designation?”
Frankie grimaced and looked away. “Like I said, legacy alphas are a different breed. They’ll know what you are, and they’re usually very…traditional.”
We both knew that better than anyone considering Frankie was born into a legacy pack as well – not that many knew that since she didn’t go by her pack name anymore.
“We both know I’m more than capable of doing my job, even with omega pheromones,” I reminded her, trying not to get irritated. If I did, it would only make things worse considering how on edge she already was. “We’ve done this a thousand times before, and I trust you to keep me safe when it comes to other alphas.”
“Okay, well…if you’re sure, then I’m sure.” Frankie took a deep breath and nodded before pulling me toward the skyscraper with the name Valor stamped across the top. “Do you have any theories about who might have the ability to do something like this?”
I had a few, but they were nothing more than speculation based on the very limited information I had on the circumstances.
Gideon Valor had been a very dominant alpha and the president of Valor Enterprises. He’d been slated to take over as chairman of the board when his mother retired from the position next year. He’d also been married to a very pretty omega named Melinda Valor who had once been the most sought-after fashion model in the world.
They’d been married for nearly a decade, but had no children. Because of that his brother, Liam Valor, was still the next heir after Gideon.
There was gossip about the Valor pack just like all the other wealthy packs and celebrities – there were a thousand different theories about their personal lives and every single one of them was splashed all over the internet, gossip columns, blogs, and online newspapers.
They all loved to speculate about how unhappy Melinda was – how one, or both, of them must be cheating. There was even gossip that she was infertile, but no one had ever doubted Gideon since he was a legacy alpha.
Frankie didn’t push me for a response though. She knew me so well by this point that she didn’t need me to explain I was considering everything I’d ever read about the Valor pack, true or not. I also understood she didn’t expect me to answer, she just wanted my brain churning the moment we stepped into that building. It was one of the benefits of working with someone you knew better than you knew yourself.
She opened the door of the massive skyscraper for me and I went inside first, waiting for her to close the umbrella and shake it out as I watched a little army of robots trundle over the gorgeous tile to mop up all the rain water.
Fancy.
The lobby was massive, and yet the sounds were softened somehow despite the size and the number of people rushing to and from lunch. Each person had to have their badges checked against their faces by one of the security guards after the machine gave off a green blip.
Frankie linked her arm through mine again and led me toward the reception desk as I took in all the guards. Every single one of them was massive – an interesting mix of alphas and betas. Despite their size and presence, they were unobtrusive.
The reception desk was manned by an army of betas who looked quite capable of forcibly removing someone from the building if they needed to, despite not being quite as big as the security guards. Frankie gave one of them our names and the agency we worked for, filling out the paperwork for both of us to gain access to the building while I absorbed every little detail of our surroundings that I could.
Cameras were everywhere and they didn’t look new, which meant there should be footage of the killer leaving the building. The scanned badges would give us a list of suspects along with the timestamps for everyone who was in this building at the time of the murder.
Too bad the police were the ones in charge of the autopsy. We’d need to have a private one done as well, which was going to be a bitch considering how high-profile all this was.
My hand brushed against my neck as I adjusted my earring, hiding the fact that I was checking to make sure my scent blockers were still in place. I sighed and signed where Frankie pointed, handing over my ID.
“Why are you asking for our designation?” Frankie demanded, her sharp question jolting me out of my inspection of the building.
“We need to keep track of everyone who enters and exits this building,” the big beta told Frankie, his deep voice surprisingly gentle and soothing as he tried to calm her down. “As I’m sure you’re aware, there is currently a police investigation going on in Valor Enterprises, and we need to be thorough.”
Either for personal reasons, or because the cops were watching Valor very closely right now.
“It’s fine,” I reassured Frankie, ticking the box for omega. “It’s not like it’s a secret.”
To his credit, the beta didn’t react to my designation at all. He simply filed the paperwork and printed out our visitor passes.
“I just don’t like it. It’s none of their goddamn business,” Frankie muttered, angling her body so I was shielded from the rest of the lobby.
Her alpha instincts were raging lately, which meant she was probably due for a rut. Hopefully, that didn’t happen until we finished this new case. We’d be in the public eye the second the press got wind of the fact that Valor Enterprises had hired private detectives to investigate Gideon Valor’s murder.
We couldn’t afford for anything to go wrong. Not when I was an omega out in the big bad world trying to solve a murder.
No matter how well I did, there would always be those ready for me to fail just so they could point fingers and remind the world why omegas should stay behind a desk. Or better yet, at home with the babies.
I couldn’t help but wonder what a legacy alpha like Liam Valor would think of me.
Curiosity was going to get me killed one day. I was sure of it. There was no reason why I should care what a legacy alpha thought, especially when I was defective. Not to mention I didn’t exactly come from a normal family. If it hadn’t been for Frankie pushing me to get a new identity, I’d still be that terrified little girl who’d settled into my designation way too early.
Stunting my full potential as an omega.
Probably for the best, honestly. I didn’t have the conventional omega traits or interests anyway. Solving murders hadn’t always been one of my special interests, but that burning need to understand – to know what could drive my father to do something like that…
There was no way an alpha would ever find someone like me desirable – someone who was regularly driven mad by the need to understand why .
I took the visitor pass the receptionist handed me and slipped it around my neck, making sure my name was clearly displayed over my long, black peacoat.
Fifteen years now since I found out what my omega father had done and for a long time trying to figure out why he’d done it was all I could think about. Then Frankie had given me a way out.
Our codependency was borderline unhealthy, but neither of us cared. This world was a harsh, cruel place for a female alpha from a legacy pack with a dangerous secret and a defective omega who looked and smelled like a beta.
I had no idea what the fuck I would do without her.
“I’ll alert Mr. Valor’s secretary that you two are on your way up,” the receptionist informed us. “There will be a bit of a wait as he’s just now heading back from the police station.”
Surprising that he would tell us that, but the way he dropped the volume of his voice as he beckoned us through a separate entrance told me he recognized us.
Frank James and Lou Parker were pretty famous in certain circles.
Not that many civilians realized we were female unless they managed to find pictures of us. If they knew Lou was also an omega they’d probably faint from the shock. We even had our own online fan groups thanks to Frankie’s blog for the agency. It was wild when I took any time to think about it.
My eyes stayed on the floor as we followed the receptionist through the lobby to an elevator that was separate from the others. I didn’t keep my eyes down because I was submissive either. Most people who knew me would say I was the least submissive omega they’d ever met, but that was because I had to be a bit of a bitch to make sure I clawed even a tiny shred of respect from the other detectives.
No, the real reason I preferred to keep my eyes on the ground when I walked was so I didn’t trip or stumble while I was thinking. Frankie always made sure to lead me around like she was my very own personal, seeing-eye dog in the form of a very tall, very built, muscle mommy.
My scary dog privilege.
It was the best, honestly. No one bothered me, and no one saw the grey of my eyes that told them I was an unclaimed omega. I wore colored contacts if we had to do social things that required more eye contact, but otherwise I left them at home. Like today.
A strange flip in my stomach made me wonder if that had been a mistake.
I had no idea why I would think that other than the fact that I was about to meet one of the most dominant alphas in the city of Acheron, maybe even the whole country.
My hand drifted up to my neck again, feeling reassured by the sensation of the scent blockers still in place.
Some of the sudden, inexplicable anxiety settled and I tucked my hand in my coat pocket as we waited for the elevator. Frankie released me to ask the receptionist who else was allowed to use this particular elevator, and I listened to the mechanism whirring as I considered the potential motives one might need to kill Gideon Valor .
There had been almost no bad press about him over the years, and for the most part, he’d kept to himself.
Despite his wealth and position, he hadn’t flaunted it. He’d take his wife out about once a month to some event or dinner that only the extremely wealthy were invited to – events that Frankie kept declining.
A click, and the whirring of the mechanism stopped. I watched as the elevator doors opened and then stepped inside to make sure they didn’t close before Frankie was done talking, wondering if the killer had used this elevator, or the stairs.
There was also the private exit, or maybe even the service elevator.
The toe of my shoe caught on the slightly uneven height of the floor into the elevator and I stumbled, reaching out to stop myself before I faceplanted.
My hand pressed against something warm and my mouth went dry when I realized it wasn’t a wall or a door, but a person.
I kept my eyes down, nervous for some reason.
The amount of people who could use this elevator was probably very small and I really hadn’t been paying attention…
He was warm, and for whatever reason, that was all I could think about. The chill in my hand was slowly disappearing the longer we stayed in contact. I should say something— anything . What the fuck was I even doing, standing here and staring at his chest?
Heat circled my biceps, and I looked up in surprise when the sensation didn’t make my skin crawl.
Jesus Christ, people looked like this in real life?
Glimmering garnet-colored eyes stared down at me with amusement and the color was breathtaking. It was impossible to look away from the warm red with flecks of ruby in them so dark they were nearly black – the eyes of a legacy alpha.
It’s been a long time since I’ve seen eyes like that .
When he raised an eyebrow at me, I realized I was still holding onto him like an idiot.
Shit .
This elevator, those eyes…
The blond, legacy alpha with his intense gaze could only be one person.
Liam Valor – the newly minted heir of the wealthiest legacy pack in Acheron.