Chapter 15
NEVEN
“How long did you fucking know?”
Reed burst into my apartment, anger still sparking off his scent as if he hadn’t had two days to come to terms with the reality of having scent matches.
“Same amount of time as you, dickwad,” I say, not looking up from my computer.
If what I’m looking at is correct, then I have a way bigger fucking problem than Reed’s insecurities.
He hurt my omega’s feelings.
Our omega’s feelings.
And he hasn’t called her. Asher and I tried to glue ourselves to her after his disastrous reaction to being scent matches, but she wouldn’t let us. Actually asked us to leave after we made it back to her dorm.
We stayed outside the door until security kicked us out.
I visited her today, a box of cookies in tow, and she wouldn’t open the door. This asshole royally fucked up so monstrously that Esper wouldn’t let us in for the cookies she had repeatedly told us she couldn’t go a day without.
The only way I could cope without finding Reed and pummeling him into the dirt was to throw myself into working on the task I got from Prez. The desire to beat Reed down lingered in the back of my head, running and whirring like a dormant program in the background. I tried my best to ignore it.
He’s my packmate, after all. For Esper’s sake, I won’t kill him.
But now he’s burst into my apartment, and my patience is thinning quickly.
I rest my legs up on my coffee table, my dark green coaster next to my feet. I’ve never had a coaster before, but when Esper gave me one, I decided then I’d start using one. My water bottle sits on it. I home in on it now, letting thoughts of her calm my mounting ire.
Reed is waving his hands in my face. He must have said something, but I didn’t hear him.
“Keep waving your hands in my face, and I’ll bite them off.”
“Don’t get all tough on me. I’m just…”
“Lost, confused, scared?” I snapped. “Yeah, so is Esper. And her scent match rejected her and now she won’t talk to any of us. So no, Red, I don't want to help you figure out your damn issues. Get the fuck out.”
“I—”
“Need to apologize to Esper.” I scroll through the payment wires one more damn time. I can’t bring this to Prez unless I’m absolutely sure.
Someone’s been stealing from Wolves Garage, and it’s none other than its own fucking boss. Hunter has worked with Prez for almost as long as the club has existed. That's nearly three decades of loyalty.
Right until about four months ago. He’s been sending payments stolen from the Garage, not just his own paycheck, to an account. One I’ve yet to uncover.
He sends about ninety percent of his own paycheck as well, which is odd. It gives me a sliver of hope the guy isn’t actually betraying the club, but…
But at the end of the day, stealing is stealing.
“Neven, I just— I can’t be in a Pack.”
“Why?” I can only understand his position so far. Hell, I completely understood it until I met her. Esper Winnie Malent.
My scent match.
We haven’t known each other for long. We’d both gone onto Heat Seekers looking for a short-term reprieve—her, for her heat; me, for the loneliness. After that first date, I knew I couldn’t let her go. How could I, when she feels so right?
How can he?
“You know why.”
Red collapses on the couch next to me. His burned pancake smell is setting me off. My alpha wants to go into fixit mode, but this isn’t something I can fix.
“Why would Esper change whether or not the members respect you?”
“It’s not Esper.”
“Then why are you rejecting her?”
“I’m more so rejecting you.”
I roll my eyes. The nerve of this omega to joke right now. “I have no fucking interest in being Prez. You know that.”
“But being in a Pack would mean the lead would automatically take my place in the running for Prez, and why the fuck would the club trust an omega over an alpha?”
“Because you’ve grown up here, you’ve shown you can lead your whole damn life. It’s time to either shit or get off the pot.”
Red sighs, his gaze moving to eye my place some more.
“What’s that?” Reed picks up a piece of paper I definitely shouldn’t have left on my fucking coffee table. Though I wasn’t expecting any club member—or Pack members, I suppose—to storm into my apartment.
“Nothing,” I say, sliding my computer off my lap and trying to grab it from his hands, but he’s already up and across the room, out of reach and reading it.
“You’re giving me shit and you’re the one fucking leaving? This is rich, Neven.”
“That’s not your damn business. You’re not in the Pack, remember? You took yourself out of the equation.”
“You can’t fucking leave! You can't leave Esper.”
“I’m not the one who left her.”
“This is fucking worse!” he shouts, shoving me back, and I growl. My alpha can only take so much from a hypocrite. “You’re her alpha! Her lead probably, how could you even consider this?”
“You’re her omega, and yet you left her like it was no fucking problem. So look in a damn mirror before you come judging me.”
“At least I’m up front. You’re letting her grow closer to you—”
“I’m not taking the fucking job, Red!”
“Then why is the offer still here?”
I close my lips. Really seeing Reed for who he is. He’s panicking. His scent wafts under my nose like a dumpster that’s just caught fire.
He’s scared.
He’s so scared.
And he’s feeling it hard. He thinks he’s losing something he’s worked for his entire life when that literally isn’t the case.
There are only two alphas in this Pack, Asher and me, and neither of us wants that damn position. You could pay me a million fucking dollars and I would tell you to shove it.
My purpose is in my computer. And my Pack now.
“Reed.”
“What?” he snaps from between clenched teeth.
“Get your shit together.”
“Fuck you.”
“Seriously. If you’re gonna lead the Midnight Wolves, you need to be stronger than every fucking alpha in this house, in this damn world. You can't let a threat this damn small take you out like this.”
“You don’t understand.”
“Yes, I fucking do. You think I wanted to leave Midnight Wolves? No. But to achieve my goals, I fucking would. You need that level of willpower to do this job.”
“I’m not a fucking alpha, they don’t—won’t believe in me.”
“So make them.”
“It's not that damn easy!” Reed’s hands slash through his hair as he falls back onto the couch, which is good because if the fucker put his hands on me again I will actually toss him out my damn window.
I grab a smoke from the drawer in my coffee table, lighting it and taking a hit before sitting back down. I offer it to Reed and he takes it, hitting and giving it back to me.
“It’s not supposed to be easy, brother.” Another hit, the smoke burning its way down my throat and through my system. “But to have it all, you have to work for it.”
“For twenty-five, you are pretty wise.” He leans back and crosses his arms as he stares at the damned piece of paper on my coffee table again.
“You could be too, if you take your head out of your ass.”
Reed looks up at me. “Are you really not taking the job?”
I shrug with one shoulder. The job had been an exciting new possibility before. Now…“I wanted to see if they’d be open to remote work. I like the work for Wolves, but it’s not enough. I need more work, more consistent work too. Benefits wouldn’t hurt either.”
“That’s fair.”
“Yeah,” I say. Grabbing my computer and opening it. “First order of business: Esper. What are you doing?”
“I can’t make a decision right now.”
“I’m telling you to.”
He sighs and rolls his eyes, staring out the window. “These two days have been hell.”
“I know.”
And I do. He’s hurting, maybe as badly as Esper is. But it doesn’t change the fact he hurt her. As lost and scared as he may be, he's the one who has to make it right.
Reed swallows and folds his hands together, arms resting on his bent knees. He whispers, “I need her.”
“So you know what you have to do?”
He nods and grabs one of my pillows and hugs it.
Such a damn omega.
But when he speaks, his voice is clear. “Start acting like a Prez.”
Thank god that wasn’t as hard as I thought it’d be. Reed used to be so confident, so collected, it would be a no-brainer this man was made to lead. But since he presented as an omega, something died in him.
This isn’t the Reed I know. I need that Reed back, but I just don’t know how to get him there. I sigh, knowing this isn’t a problem I’m going to be able to fix overnight.
“Second order of business: the theft,” I say, showing Reed my computer.
“So it actually is theft?” Reed asks.
I sigh. “And you’re not gonna believe who it fucking is.”
Prez’s office isn’t extravagant, positioned just behind the Bar but in front of the apartments.
Close enough to hear if he needs to come down to the Bar but far enough away to have some peace.
A large desk sits on the back wall, close to the door.
The chair in the corner he keeps for Queen sits now at his desk next to him.
He has two ratty chairs in front of his desk where Bear and Thunder sit.
The opposing wall is covered with bookshelves that are full with all sorts of books.
Some are Queen’s romance novels, others cover war politics.
Queen, Prez, our enforcer Bear, and my dad Thunder are all in his office when I come to break the news. The most trusted members of the club all sit in a stupor as I reveal who's been stealing from the club.
Before me, Hunter was the best guy to ask when you needed to find something, or someone. He could be gone for days and find whatever it was you needed and he was damn loyal. Until now.
“The books are unbalanced. It started small, fifty here, twenty there. But as time has gone on, it’s gone up by thousands,” I explain as my computer goes around to each person so they can see for themselves.
Reed stands next to me, silent as he watches our elders look over the information. Prez is unusually quiet. His gaze on Queen as if they are having some sort of telepathic conversation.
“What should we do?” Prez asks Red. The single question has Red tensing as all eyes land on him, and I have half a mind to kick him in the back of the leg. But I don’t have to as he relaxes and thinks.
A leader never rushes a decision. That’s the first lesson Prez taught Red, and it’s one he normally listens too. Whenever it applies to club stuff. His personal life though, that's a different story.
Prez’s piercing green eyes bore into Red. I square my shoulders, trying to be a supporting force for Red as he takes a single step forward. “This isn’t an easy decision. Hunter is family. Makes the offense all the more destructive.”
“He’s put us in a tight spot,” Bear agrees as he leans back in his chair, crossing his huge fucking arms. Bear is an East Asian man, similar to Red, both of Japanese descent.
Inky black hair and covered in tattoos. I wonder if Red tried to be his opposite with his almost white hair.
Bear is the biggest guy in every room, never having lost a fight since he works out every day and specializes in combat.
He went off to the military after getting Prez’s mom justice, wanting to be the fighter the club might need.
He teaches all of us basic combat and gun training.
“Exactly,” Red says. He turns to face me. “Do we know where the money is going? He’s not keeping it for himself.”
Prez nods behind Red, and I force down the smile my lips want to desperately show.
“Not yet. We know almost his entire check plus what he’s stolen is going somewhere. The account is under a Lucy Melrose, a thirty-five-year-old woman who doesn’t have a life outside this payment from Hunt.”
“Keep digging on that until we’re ready to confront Hunter,” Red says.
My dad leans forward. “Why aren’t we confronting him now?”
Prez steps in. “We need all the facts. To be a thousand percent sure, before we do this. We need a course of action decided by then too. Organized and decisive. This is the first time something like this has happened, and while it may not be the last, folks need to know the consequences for stealing from us.”
“No matter how high up you are,” Queen adds and Prez grunts in agreement.
“So what are we doing now?” Bear asks. The office is considerably small and stuffy with five grown men all over six feet tall, plus Queen, and the looming issue of being betrayed.
Prez slowly crosses to take his seat, opening up his laptop in a clear dismissal before responding, “We wait.”