Chapter 98
Chapter Ninety-Eight
Jay
Packing up the car while Harper messes around with the radio in the passenger seat, I can’t stop thinking about our new mate. We haven’t even met her yet, and we’re preparing to move into a suite at the academy to be with her. It’s crazy-fast, but that’s exactly my kind of crazy.
I didn’t waste a minute when I met Harper, and I don’t want to waste a second now.
The trunk closes softly when I push down. I move to the driver’s door and get into the car.
Harper’s found a classical music station, and he sits back as I close my door.
“This is it!” he exclaims. “We finally get to meet her.”
“And she’s already been claimed by our Alphas,” I add, as I belt up and check the mirrors.
“Who knew I’d end up moving into an Omega Academy,” Harper muses, looking out the window as I reverse out of our spot. “Already met my Alphas, and now this. Huh.”
“It’s pretty wild,” I admit.
Harper hums along to the instrumental on the radio while I get us out of the parking lot and into the steady stream of city traffic. Bringing the car might have been a bad idea, but considering the alternative now, I’m glad we didn’t choose a public travel option.
Having to carry all of our stuff while chasing an overly-excitable Omega through crowds of people on my own would have been the bad definition of insanity.
“Damn,” Harper mutters. “I forgot about the traffic.”
“It’s not going to take that long to get there,” I remind him. “We’re close enough that you’ll be able to see the gates soon.”
He groans lightly under his breath anyway, but he doesn’t make another complaint.
I know Omegas don’t do well with waiting around when they’re excited about something.
“You want some chocolate?” I ask.
“You have chocolate?” he asks, suddenly sounding offended. “You were holding out on me?”
I let out a laugh. “There’s an emergency bar in the glove.”
I won’t tell him about the box in the trunk that I keep so I can refill whenever one of us uses the emergency bar. Now that he knows about it being in the glove, though, I’m sure that box will be emptied out soon enough.
He yanks it open and grabs the chocolate.
“I can’t believe there was chocolate in the car, and I didn’t know about it.”
“Well, now you know.”
He rips it open and devours a few squares before sighing and sitting back in the seat, a little more relaxed than he was a few seconds before.
“I assume you approve.”
“What’s not to like? It’s milk chocolate. It’s all good.”
He really doesn’t have a preference. As long as it’s milk chocolate, he’ll eat it as if he’s been starving in the desert for the last week.
“You want a piece?” he asks, as he breaks off another.
“Nah, I’m good, thanks.”
“Well, thanks for the treat,” he murmurs, before he slips it into his mouth.
Between the music and the chocolate, Harper’s kept busy for the slow-crawl journey to our new place of residence. Fifteen minutes pass before he utters a single word.
“Wow!” he exclaims, sitting up straighter in his seat.
I smile at him before I take a good look for myself at those impressive golden gates.
The building is largely hidden by the surrounding forest, but it’s clear from the entry point that what lies beyond is for rich people. At least, that’s who the academy was originally built for.
Elites with a lot of excess cash to burn sent their Omega daughters here to live, and their Alpha sons were allowed access to the place for events, in order to meet someone their parents would approve of.
That was the old fucked up system.
Apparently, it’s different now, with a Beta female in charge of the school.
It was about time someone started to shake up the status quo.
I’m not surprised that person’s a Beta.
“How much longer?” Harper asks, an excitable edge back in his tone.
“Probably ten minutes until we get around to the gates,” I estimate. “But remember we probably won’t meet her until later. Shayne said she’s working.”
“Shayne also said we’re going to work there,” Harper reminds me. “Maybe we’ll get to work with her.”
“You won’t be working. You’ll be shadowing one of us.”
“Then it’ll be like when you come with me to the symphony hall, only in reverse. Same difference.”
I have to smile. He’s been taking the changes so well.
He’s not upset that we’ve left our nest behind for this.
“I guess so,” I agree. “Except you won’t be beating anyone up if they try to kidnap us. That’s my job, always, and don’t forget it.”
“I wouldn’t have to beat them up,” he tells me. “I could just trigger my perfume, and any kidnapper would fall at my feet, ready to do whatever I wanted.”
“Save your perfume for me, and your Alphas.”
“And Robin?” he asks.
“Yeah, of course. No triggering your perfume as a weapon. It’s not needed. One of us will always be around to protect you.”
“Sometimes, I think I have three Alphas.”
“Only sometimes?”
He snorts. “Well, there are occasional moments when you’re more submissive …”
“And those moments are for pack eyes and ears only.”
I can hear the gravel he’s raising in my voice as his voice gets more teasing.
It takes most of my willpower to keep from releasing a growl.
The last couple of days have been a special kind of torture, with our Alphas’ gone from the hotel and Harper in a mostly solemn mood. He hasn’t tried to tease me into a sexy situation like he’s doing now since we’ve been out here.
“No more chocolate for you,” I tell him, taking the remains in the wrapper off his lap, scrunching it up, and stuffing those last couple of pieces into my pocket. “You need to be on your best behavior in here. We don’t want Robin to think we’re perverts.”
He laughs. “We don’t? Isn’t that misrepresentation?”
“You know what I mean. Just because our Alphas have claimed her, doesn’t mean she’s ready to accept us before we’ve even met her.”
“I’m pretty sure that’s exactly what it means, but okay. We can pretend to be innocent and saintly if that’s what you want.” He shrugs when I glance at him.
He’s not wrong.
Robin has already made it clear she’s a part of our pack, and I figured that was a good thing, like Harper’s assuming now, too.
But what if it’s not?
There are packs out there who don’t share everything.
Packs with complicated dynamics.
Alphas who claim all their mates, and Betas who only get to be with some of those mates, for a multitude of reasons. I’ve seen it before. I can’t pretend I haven’t.
Falcon and Shayne aren’t the kind of Alphas who would want a splintered pack, but we don’t really know anything about Robin.
What if she’s only into Alphas?
“What?” Harper asks, as if I just spoke.
Right. Yeah. He can feel what I’m feeling.
It’s funny how hard it is to get used to that.
I clear my throat. “Everything’s happening a little fast, that’s all. We haven’t even seen a picture of Robin. All we know is she had a crappy start in life, and Falcon rescued her from that creepy asshole’s house.”
“True,” Harper murmurs.
He doesn’t dig any deeper, so I guess he’s satisfied with that explanation.
I’m not, and I know I won’t be happy until we’ve met her, and we know for sure what we’re going to mean to each other.
Getting closer to the academy, I can’t help thinking the day is going to feel a lot longer than it actually is. It’s barely ten a.m. and I’m going to have to find another way to occupy my thoughts if I don’t want Harper thinking something’s wrong with me the whole time.
I let him make the call to Shayne when we arrive at those golden gates.
He barely gets the words out when they start to open for us.
His grin shows exactly how he’s feeling.
I try to let his enthusiasm sink in.
To let it replace my influx of pessimism.
Driving onto academy grounds, I find my smile as Harper talks excitedly about everything he’s seeing out the windows.
Whatever this is going to be, it’s in fate’s hands now.