16. Chapter 16
sixteen
Cyrus led Gabe through the parking garage and into the building. When he saw Lilo at the desk instead of the usual, he cocked a brow.
“I’m filling in,” she said. “Where have you been? You’ve not been on the schedule in a week.”
Cyrus sighed. “Pack drama. Understatement, you’ll be getting an email about it in a couple days,” he said.
Lilo sighed. “Great,” she mumbled and looked over at Gabe, eyeing him. “Who’s this?”
“Gabriel Sinclair, Alpha,” Cyrus said waving a hand at him. He felt like he was introducing a duke.
Lilo chuckled. “Well, nice to meet you, I’m Lilo.”
“Nice to meet you Lilo.” Gabe smiled softly.
“Better be less of an…well, I’m sure you heard about Liam,” Lilo said, zipping her lips.
“I’m going to sign in but I’ll be heading to main room to introduce Gabe to them.” Cyrus explained.
“Alright, both of you sign in,” Lilo said and slid over the clipboard to them.
After putting their names, the dates and times, Cyrus led Gabe over to the elevator. They stood there alone, waiting on the glowing buttons one by one. Cyrus leaned against the wall across from Gabe.
“These people are…head of security,” Gabe noted. “Will they have anything to say about the situation, given they’re meant to protect?”
“Oh you bet your ass they will but, this is about all of us. They’re the most likely to stick by our sides and they’re trained to but they don’t get a final say in things, you do.” Cyrus reminded him. “So don’t let them push you around, they can be…abrasive.”
“And you can’t?” Gabe mumbled.
Cyrus looked over at him, the way he was leaning against the wall and looking over at him with a similar look to what he’d given him after he’d lost to him at pool. Cyrus took a step closer to him.
“You could find out,” Cyrus said low. He watched Gabe shift where he was standing, face pink.
Unfortunately, a second later the door opened with a ding and Cyrus led Gabe out into the hallway though hesitantly.
Several pairs of eyes were on them as he led Gabe down the hallway.
With a knock on a closed door that said ‘Security Only’ he opened it before he got a reply, just for the absolute basic courtesy, and several heads from their chairs turned to look at him.
“Cyrus, where have you been?” Vincent asked and stood up from his seat, folding his arms, “A week off work, finally take a vacation?”
Cyrus rolled his eyes. “Unfortunately not,” he said and motioned in Gabe’s direction.
“This is Gabe, our Alpha,” Cyrus explained.
“Ah, so you’re the young guy who beat out Liam,” Vincent chuckled.
“Wouldn’t have expected that,” Isaac from another few feet away said, but didn’t stand.
Gabe stepped closer and shook hands with Vincent.
“Vincent Teller,” the man introduced himself. He was late fifties but didn’t look much older than forty. Weres tended to age well.
“Nice to meet you,” Gabe said slowly.
“So, you just here to introduce or somethin’ going on?” Isaac said, and then tossed a “Isaac.” At Gabe but didn’t seem much interested in anything else.
Cyrus had to stop himself from explaining. He knew the guys would prefer he told them and looked up to him more, but, he needed to set a precedent. He motioned at Gabe to tell them.
“We have a conflict with…the Lotuslacker pack,” Gabe told them. “They want our districts. We have until the full moon to come up with a plan. We’ll be sending out for everyone to gather for a meeting in a week.”
One woman, quiet in the back, Theresa, opened her mouth to speak.
“Damn I think th—” she started but Vincent cut her off. Before he could get much out, Gabe cut him off.
“Let her speak,” he insisted. “Who are you?”
“Theresa Danners, sir,” she said and stood up. “I saw this kind of thing coming eventually.”
Cyrus tilted his head to the side, but let Gabe respond.
“Oh?” he asked.
“Yes, with how much drama Liam started, no disrespect, and how long it had been since peace was made with them, one could only guess how long it would be before another conflict struck up,” she told him.
Gabe nodded. “I don’t know much about Liam, but I know he certainly didn’t help manners,” he replied. That was an understatement if there ever was one.
Cyrus continued to talk with the three of them and Gabe, nothing too serious came up but for the meeting that would be called.
Instance that Lokk not attempt to get involved in any of it until the meeting.
Isaac, Vincent and Theresa all insisted that they would be sticking around to fight if it came down to that.
Which they were all pretty sure it would.
Opinions on how that should go down weren’t totally shut down but after so long were brushed to the side for the time being.
After about fifteen minutes, Cyrus and Gabe were walking out of the room.
“Shit, I forgot to ask if I’m on halls or a room tonight,” Cyrus mumbled and unclipped his walkie-talkie from his belt to give Lilo a squeak.
“Hey, this is Cyrus, what am I on schedule for tonight? Over,” he asked.
After a moment her voice came through with some feedback and a beep.
“Halls until room 64B gets in around midnight. Over,” Lilo told him.
“Thanks. Over.” Cyrus clipped it back into his belt and looked over at him.
“Alright well, I introduced you to some of the gang, you can take an Uber home if you want or stick around here, there’s some vending machines in the common room downstairs, TV,” Cyrus explained.
Figuring that Gabe wouldn’t want to walk around for several hours with him, and stand around at a door.
Besides he wasn’t really trained if there were any potential problems.
“Ah, alright, I guess I’ll pop downstairs for a bit.” Gabe took the out.
Cyrus nodded. “Text me if…well, nothing should go on.” Cyrus shook his head and then watched Gabe disappear down the hallway and into the elevator.
Cyrus started his round of the floor before moving onto the next one via the stairwell and not the elevators.
He passed a few more guards as he did so and gave them a nod, mumbling something vague when they noted that he hadn’t been there the last week, and they didn’t pry.
They were on the job, had things to do, money to make.
As Cyrus was making his rounds he couldn’t help but think about Gabe.
So much had changed in such a short amount of time.
He was more willing and doing his best to give Gabe the chance to show he could lead…
Gabe was doing far better than he’d had ever given him credit for.
Even without the unexpected relationship forming between them, things were not how he would have thought they could be even a week prior when he’d been so caught up in figuring out what was going on all by himself.
Cyrus shook his head. He felt like he had some things to say to Gabe but, getting him to admit how he was feeling wasn’t the easiest. See: the most recent arguments with Gabe. Any time he was expressing himself and his emotions, he was usually angry and it was forced upon him.
He wasn’t entirely sure how to remedy that, but he had several hours to think about it after all.
Nothing was going on. Literally nothing. After some weeks of excitement in the form of attacks, missing people, and a new Alpha, walking around a building to make sure no one was where they weren’t supposed to be and everyone was safe, wasn’t exactly work that he was enjoying.
It made Cyrus think back to his conversation with Gabe about how he had quit the more intensive and close up security jobs after what had happened with his family—though that wasn’t even kind of the only reason.
Could he handle it even now, years later?
He wasn’t so sure, but, he was starting to feel like he couldn’t really live the way he was then.
It was so monotonous at times that it was exhausting.
But, was he really willing to put himself in the kind of danger and potential pain that he was in previously?
Cyrus shook his head and continued walking. As he stepped at the stairwell once more, he pulled out his phone just to see if he’d gotten any messages or anything important. With everything going on it was better safe than sorry, right?
His gaze flicked along the screen and he felt a strange pang as he saw the text from Gabe.
Gabe: I’m going to get a Uber home after all if there’s nothing else I need to do.
From fifteen minutes before.
Cyrus chewed at the inside of his cheek.
Cyrus: Alright.
He shoved his phone back into his pocket and continued about his work.
It was a long night. After his rounds as midnight rolled around he escorted a family of four to their room, and as he was asked he stayed by their door until it was time for him to clock out around four thirty, being replaced by someone in the morning shift.
Tired, hungry and a little bit caught up in the stress he was feeling, he made his way back to the pack house with the intention of passing out immediately and waking up in a few hours from hunger, eating, and going back to bed.
As he stepped into the dim and quiet house however he could smell something being cooked and he couldn’t help but kick off his shoes, hang his jacket up and go check it out.
His nose and stomach guiding him. He knew Ryan and Michelle wouldn’t be there cooking, they’d likely gone home way earlier in the evening.
Much to Cyrus surprise he saw Gabe there, out of the clothing he’d been wearing previously and back into his sweats.
Standing over the stove and flipping over bacon and scrambled eggs.
Not nearly enough for several handfuls of people.
As Cyrus watched him plate the food, he realized it was just enough for them.
Gabe turned around to look at him. The kitchen dimly lit by the light over the stove.
“I thought you could use some breakfast, or…dinner, before you go to bed,” Gabe told him. “I’m starving too, vending machine food wasn’t the best.”