Chapter Seven
Quinn
W e left Remington at the door to his suite before heading upstairs, where we’ll be stuck for the next few days. Well, this and the third floor, but since our rooms are on the second floor, we’re likely to spend most of our time here.
As I step off the stairs, I hear voices in the living room. Deciding I don’t want to be alone, I step inside with Lee and Brooke at my heels.
“Hi,” I call and four heads turn my way—three men and one woman. “You must be the day one suitors.”
The woman nods, her long dark hair swaying as she glances at the clock on the wall. “You’re back earlier than expected.”
Dropping into an armchair next to the couches they sit on, I sigh. “Yeah. None of us were feeling up to continuing the date after Bree and Tessa informed us that Lorenzo was in a coma—Remy, most of all. I’m Quinn, by the way.”
“I’m Victoria. These are my pack mates, Eric and Milo. This is Daniel. He’s the other suitor from day one.” She smiles, but it’s tinged with worry.
Brooke and Lee hurry forward to introduce themselves before sitting on the loveseat beside me.
“I met Lorenzo last night. His room shares a room with mine, and we ran into each other,” Daniel says. “He was having a hard time sleeping—said his sleeping pills weren’t working for shit, so he invited me to have a drink with him. I followed him upstairs to the game room and shared a drink. He didn’t talk much, but it was kind of nice sitting there in silence. Not everyone knows how to enjoy the silence. After I finished my drink, I headed back to my room, and he was already pouring himself another drink.”
“What did they tell you guys?” Lee asks.
Victoria shakes her head. “Not much. We were having breakfast in here when Carlos started yelling about needing a medic. Tessa and Bree rushed upstairs and asked us to stay in here. An ambulance came for him and about an hour ago, Carlos told us that Bree would update us during the interview tonight, but that Lorenzo was in a diabetic coma.”
“Yeah, that’s what they told us. It’s not like they can pass along medical information without his permission, and if he’s in a coma, he can’t exactly give it.” I run a hand down my face. “Remy took it really hard.”
Milo sighs. “Of course he did, and we can’t even go down there to make sure he’s okay. This fucking sucks.”
Eric snorts. “You can say that again.”
“This fucking sucks,” Milo and Brooke say together, both grinning and laughing.
“Well, that was adorable.” A smile slides across my lips, and it’s nice.
This whole Lorenzo thing threw all of us for a loop. I might not know the guy since he barely spoke to any of us last night, but I’m still worried about him. As worried as I can be for a complete stranger.
“Wait a minute!” Milo jumps to his feet as he prowls toward me, coming to a stop a few feet from my chair. “Holy shit! You’re Quinn Nichols! I bet Remy lost his shit when he saw you.”
“How’d you know? He freaked out so bad,” I ask as his scent reaches me. Mmmmm, that’s a pleasant combination.
He turns back to his pack mates. “Quinn was a suitor on season two, and he’s like uber famous.”
“I don’t know about uber famous.” I start laughing when he gives me an Oh, come on look. “Okay, I’m kind of famous.”
“E, he was in that movie you loved last year! What was it called? Something with Titan in the title?” Milo taps the side of his head.
Eric glances from his beta to me. “ Titans Unite ? That was you?”
“Guilty. It is harder to recognize me for that role because of the makeup effects. Playing an alien will do that to a guy.” I snort. What a pain in the ass that had been. There were so many prosthetics and body paint. It took hours to get all of us ready—not to mention how long it took to take it all off.
Turned out to be a pretty damn good movie, if I do say so myself.
“Damn, dude. That was an amazing movie.” Eric stands, coming over and offering me his hand. “You were amazing.”
He smells delicious, too, is all I can think as I shake his hand. Wonder if Victoria smells just as good?
“Thank you.” Feeling a little uncomfortable with the praise, I clear my throat. “Do we have any idea what time to expect Bree?”
Everyone shakes their head. I guess that means we’re going to be hanging out here for a while then.
On second thought…
“Do you want to go up to the game room?” I ask, already on my feet. “I might not be freaking out as badly as Remy was, but I need something to take my mind off everything.”
“Gods, yes. That sounds much better than sitting here worrying.” Milo grins. “Vic? E?”
Eric looks undecided until Victoria stands. “I think that’s a brilliant idea, Quinn. Let’s do that.”
She pats my chest lightly as she walks by, a sultry smile on her lips as she leads her pack away. I’m left blinking at the remaining four suitors.
Brooke giggles as she rushes over to me. “She was flirting with you.”
“Was she?” I ask, shooting the younger woman a wink. While I’m not sure of Daniel or the members of Pack Hawthorne’s ages, I’m fairly certain they’re all at least in their thirties. That leaves Brooke as the youngest among us at just twenty-three.
She wrinkles her nose. “You know she was, and she’s fucking gorgeous. I wouldn’t mind if she flirted with me—that’s for sure. Come on! I need a distraction.”
Lee follows her out, and Daniel stops beside me. “This wasn’t how I saw today going.”
“Me neither.” I offer him my hand. “It’s nice to meet you.”
“And you. Eric was right— Titans Unite was fucking awesome, but I could also tell it made you uncomfortable to talk about it. I promise not to bring it up again.”
“Thanks, man. I guess we should catch up with the others.” I follow Daniel to the stairs and up to the third floor, finding the others already talking about what we should do.
Brooke, who’s now standing next to Victoria, clears her throat. “Don’t tell Remy because I know he loves them, but I’m terrible at video games.”
“He’s going to be so disappointed.” Milo tosses an arm around her shoulders and tugs her against him. “I promise not to tell him, but it’s totally going to come up. If you want, we can play a few games now, and I can try to help you improve.”
I snicker when she wrinkles her nose. “I also just don’t like them.”
“That’s a whole different story,” Milo agrees. “There’s always pool?”
“Yes, let’s play pool.” Victoria nods. “We can play on two tables with teams—except Eric. He’s a pool shark. Two of us against one of him will sort of even the odds.”
Eric doesn’t say anything as he smirks.
Somehow, I end up on Victoria’s team—much to Brooke’s disappointment. Luckily, she doesn’t seem to mind when she’s teamed with Milo instead. That leaves Daniel and Lee on a team.
We play a few games over the next few hours, and it becomes very clear that Victoria wasn’t exaggerating. Eric destroys all of us before we move over to play darts. They all seem like nice enough people. Eventually, we decide to have a few drinks and the flirting really picks up then.
Poor Brooke. It’s very clear Victoria isn’t into women, but that doesn’t seem to keep Brooke from trying. I can’t blame her.
Victoria is a vision, and when she informs us she’s a model, I’m not surprised. She’s a lot more laid back than most of the models I know, but she’s also the first female alpha model I’ve met, so maybe that has something to do with it?
“There you are!” I spin around at the sound of Bree’s voice, finding her standing by the stairs with her hands on her hips. “I should’ve checked here first.”
I shrug. “We all needed a distraction.”
She nods. “That’s understandable. I’m ready to start the interview now. If you’ll head back to the living room, then you can get back to your night.”
We trail down the stairs behind her, finding that the living room has been slightly rearranged. There are two couches across from one another, with a loveseat in between them. They’re all angled toward the cameras already set up. I’m glad they decided to stick with the format they came up with for season two.
While it sucks to meet the season’s omega, have a date with them, and then not see them for days, I can’t imagine trying to wrangle twenty-one people meeting all on the same day. It sounds like utter chaos.
Choosing to sit on the loveseat, I settle in as Pack Hawthorne sits on one of the couches. Brooke looks between me and the empty couch before coming over. “Do you mind if I sit with you?”
“Please do.” She sits and pulls her feet up so her legs rest against her chest.
Daniel and Lee sit on the other couch as Bree smiles. “So, today hasn’t quite been a regular day on set, has it? How are all of you doing? How are you dealing with Lorenzo and the emergency?”
We all glance around at one another, and when no one else speaks up, I shrug. “It’s just kind of weird. None of us really know him, but I’m still worried about him. I feel like that’s how most people would feel about the situation. It also makes me wonder how it might affect the show and Remy? This might sound terrible, but right now, I’m more worried about him. Lorenzo is surrounded by a team of doctors, but Remy’s here—with us, but not. We don’t know how he’s doing, and that’s driving me crazy.”
“Of course it is. We don’t have any updates from the hospital as of now, but Remy has decided to go forward with meeting the day three suitors. He’s promised to let us know if it becomes too much. Finnegan will be on hand as well, just in case. We’ll take care of him, I promise.” Bree glances at the others. “How about the rest of you? Are there any questions I can answer? Or at least attempt to answer?”
Bree does her best to answer our questions, but there aren’t too many of them. It’s clear where our heads are—worrying about Remy.
We dive straight into the interview, but there isn’t much to say. Overall, I’d say we’re all just feeling a little overwhelmed. Bree seems to realize that and calls the interview to an end.
“I think that’s enough for tonight. Thanks, everyone!” Bree claps her hands and the cameramen grab their gear. Within a few minutes, they’re gone and we’re left alone.
“Did Remy end up playing twenty questions with you?” Milo asks, wrinkling his nose when I shake my head. “We played yesterday, and he said he was going to do it on his other dates. He probably forgot with how worried he was about Lorenzo. He’s got a big heart and a lot of anxiety.”
I nod. “You noticed that?”
He shrugs. “It’s hard not to. I just want to wrap him in a hug and hold him until he knows everything will be okay.”
It makes me smile, and part of me wishes we could do just that. There’s something about Remington Montgomery that calls to me—besides the fact that he’s an omega. Sophia and I got along great during season two, but I never felt this kind of pull toward her.
I don’t know what it is, but I want to make everything better for him. I want to get to know everything there is to know about him.
“If only that worked,” Victoria says softly, patting her beta’s hand. “If it did, I’d send you to give everyone hugs since you give the best ones.”
“Hell, yes, I do!” Milo grins. “Why don’t we play twenty questions? We need to get to know one another just as much as we need to get to know Remy, right?”
Lee shrugs. “I’m down as long as we get some food. We didn’t eat much of our lunch once we found out that something was wrong.”
My stomach rumbles then, and I snort. “Clearly, I agree.”
Laughter fills the room, and we decide to see if they can make us some pizzas. Once the kitchen agrees, we sit around chatting. Eventually, I can’t sit still any longer and make my way to the window.
Because it’s only February, it’s already fully dark outside. There are lights set up along the walkway and around the circular driveway so they can record Remy meeting each of his suitors. I know where he’s standing so I’m able to find him easily, but he’s barely more than a speck on the landscape.
I really hope he’s doing okay.
“Worried about him?” Victoria asks as she joins me.
“I am, but mostly because there’s no way for us to check in with him. It’s the one downfall to him only meeting four of us at a time. The rest of us are left up here, wondering how he’s doing and not able to do a damn thing about it.” I lay my head against the glass and sigh.
She nods slowly. “It’s hard to care about someone and not be able to help them when they need it—especially for an alpha.”
“But should I care so much after just meeting him?”
She laughs, a breathy sound I want to hear more of. “When it comes to alphas and omegas, time doesn’t matter much, does it?”
She has a point.
“I guess you’re right.”
“Don’t worry, the seven of us will be there for one another and for the rest that arrive. It’s only a few more days.” Victoria’s smile is soft. “The kitchen called up to let us know the pizzas are on their way up, and Milo is insisting we play twenty questions. Will you join us?”
I glance at the others, who are laughing together and find myself nodding. “Yeah, I think I will.”