Chapter 2
Spencer
Tuesdays were so easy, they were almost boring, which was not something I excelled at… I wasn’t one to embrace being idle; it gnawed at me, making me restless.
“You want a coffee?” Percy asked as we walked into the building. “The guy working the cart makes surprisingly excellent drinks.”
“I’m good, thanks,” I replied, a step or two behind him. Even though I was keeping up a conversation with him, I was scrutinizing everything around us, every student. What were they doing? What were they preoccupied with? Were any of them plotting?
With a deep inhale, I searched for familiar scents.
An alpha’s nose was a damn exceptional tool, and I knew how to use mine.
Scent gave away a lot about a person, especially omegas.
It was why, whenever I was working, I wore an industrial strength descenter.
That way, no one was privy to what my emotions were. I needed to be a blank slate.
My pack and I had protected witnesses on the run from the mafia, whistleblowers, and those in perilous situations, and concealing your scent was critical to avoid detection and recognition.
“You sure?” Percy asked, looking back at me. He wore that laid-back grin of his, unbothered by the world around him, his blue eyes bright and cheery, a stark contrast to my vigilant demeanor.
“I’m sure we’re late enough as it is. If you want a caffeine fix, I’ll grab some while you’re in class.” I laughed, knowing full well that would royally piss off the professor.
I was a highly trained protective agent, yet my life had been reduced to babysitting a hockey player while he went to class.
He was a good kid, at least. All his pack mates were, too.
I thought of him as a kid, even though he was only a few years younger than me. More than a decade of security work had hardened me, making me feel a lot older than my twenty-seven years.
Percy chuckled. “McCreevy will have my hide, especially after I’ve missed the last two weeks of his classes. Nah, I’ll wait until after. Coffee is required, though. The lack of sleep is real, and I want to get some pastries for Mable.”
“Babies and sleep don’t mix.” I chuckled.
The arrival of their daughter a little over a week ago had thrown the pack into complete chaos, but they were blissfully happy.
Percy had taken two weeks off once Mable’s due date drew near, but he could only miss so much.
His omega was being doted on by her other mates, who had six weeks’ paternity leave scheduled.
Percy nodded as we entered the room. “I may as well get a head start on the raging caffeine addiction I am no doubt going to develop.”
When we entered the room, we separated, as had become habit.
I took my seat at the back, where I could easily observe all the students coming and going, a priority if I wanted to have a handle on the entire space.
My seat also allowed me to see most of what was going on outside the double-door entrance.
Good vantage point. Check.
It had been almost a year since the NHL team—the California Chargers—had contacted the security agency I ran.
One of their players had been receiving some concerning fan mail, and we’d been contracted to provide additional protection, which was how I ended up working with Pack Garnett.
They wanted security that would hold up to their name—trusted and reliable—and we were both, as well as being expensive.
As I was personally overseeing operations, it had turned into something akin to a well-funded break, thanks to the pack’s low-maintenance nature.
Pack Garnett consisted of four alphas, all of whom were part of the California Chargers.
They were good kids and not particularly difficult to watch, so I didn’t hate the job.
In fact, over time, I’d become quite attached to them.
They were only a few years younger than us, but given our vastly different lives, there were moments when I felt decades older than them.
When I started working with them, I did extensive online research and learned that Saint Garnett had some pretty obsessive fans—he was the primary reason we were hired.
His boyish good looks and playboy attitude attracted a lot of attention.
Usually from women, though there was also the occasional basement dweller.
What the pack had failed to tell me was that they had been communicating for several years with a pen pal. This revelation raised substantial alarms that could jeopardize their safety.
When I discovered this information, I was furious because it pointed to a potential high-risk security breach.
During the onboarding process with Pack Garnett, we specifically asked about any existing risks.
They had hidden their pen-pal relationship, and I took their assurance that there were no risks at face value.
I hadn’t carried out a detailed review of their online activities, assuming it was unnecessary.
Hindsight truly was twenty-twenty. Then I met Mable—the girl they had been talking to—the guys were all madly obsessed and quickly settled into family life as if they were born for it.
Each member of the pack doted on their omega.
In a few short weeks, she had become the center of their world, even if their meeting had been somewhat unorthodox.
Saint had met a random omega in heat in the university hockey rink showers and gave in to the alpha within him. Later learning that the omega in question was in fact his pen pal, and neither of the pair had any idea.
When he finally explained that to me, I was so close to screaming at him and wringing his neck for being so incredibly stupid.
It was a miracle that the boy had survived so long.
At the time, the kid had been so driven by the alpha within him—notably, his cock—he’d forgotten entirely that he needed a security detail in the first place.
I was not so absent-minded.
Thankfully, it had all ended well, and Mable was living in the penthouse with the guys.
In fact, I was guarding her more than them nowadays.
As alphas, their innate instinct was to defend their omega, so it made sense that the members of Pack Garnett pushed for my team to protect their omega over them, although the pack weren’t the ones footing the costs.
In fact, a few weeks after we started watching over her, we approached the Chargers and explained it would be in their best interest to keep her safe, because psycho, over-enthusiastic fans might target her, and the boys were always by her side regardless.
It felt like a stretch, but I wanted to ease the guys’ concerns. Mable had never experienced any issues with their fans; in fact, she kept to herself. However, you could never be too careful.
Which is why I ended up spending a lot of time in college lectures between her classes and Percy’s.
Percy was the only pack member who did anything outside of hockey.
Initially, I was keeping an eye on both him and Mable, but as she was on maternity leave, I was only following him to class.
He was getting a degree, requiring one-to-one surveillance while on campus.
On several occasions, he had tried to convince us that he could go on his own.
Sometimes I relented and let him because there were next to no risk factors when it came to Percy, but other times, I wanted to keep a closer eye on things.
I took my seat in the back of the classroom—all the professors knew Percy had security and were used to it by now, a fact I was consistently grateful for.
I seriously disliked having to explain the situation repeatedly.
Still, one of the professors had tried to kick up a fuss when Chase, one of my pack members, was on Percy’s detail, but a strongly worded letter to the dean and a visit to the office had put an end it.
Now, my days with Percy were usually… well, boring. Which was why, right now, I was allowing my eyes to wander the classroom, idly inspecting the students as they readied themselves for the lecture.
My stare landed on a small omega—she stuck out somewhat, as she was the only omega in the advanced statistics class. In fact, she was one of the few women in general, and her desk was set up in perfect order.
She was in her usual seat, right in the middle of the classroom, trying her best to blend in, her seated position giving her a sense of invisibility.
In her hands was a bottle of water she was drinking from.
Tilting her head back, she finished the entire drink, with a few measured gulps, crushing it in her hand before tossing the empty container into her bag.
Alone today?
A month or two prior, I had noticed someone in a dark hoodie following her into class. At the time, I’d assumed it was a boyfriend or a friend. Nothing concerning.
Only, it kept happening—far too often for my liking.
Initially, I’d convinced myself that my interest was due to its potential relevance to Percy.
I believed I was merely being diligent in my duties.
However, as the weeks passed and I continued to observe, I began to notice something unsettling—it had little to do with my responsibilities or Percy.
That realization had been as troubling then as it was now.
The omega was not under my care, so I found myself questioning the motives behind my relentless inquiry.
What compelled me to dig deeper into a matter that was not mine to unravel?
Yet I couldn’t look away.
During the classes, my eyes would trail over to her almost unwillingly. I was unable to stop watching the way she frowned at her textbooks when she was confused, or the little smile whenever she did well. Something about her exuded a quiet peace, and I was intrigued. I wanted to know more.
Eventually, after a week or two, I had given in to the urge to follow her—with Percy’s permission, of course.
I couldn’t shake the feeling that something wasn’t right. I trusted my instincts—they rarely led me astray—and this time, they urged me to delve deeper into my intuition.
After several weeks of sporadic observation, I decided to step up my surveillance.
The hooded man, shadowy and enigmatic, was still suspiciously around, just a few steps behind her.
He wasn’t always there; it was hit-or-miss whether he was following her on any given day.
His presence caused an unsettling weight to sit in the pit of my stomach, screaming at me that something was wrong.
Years of training had taught me to trust that feeling.
Even if it wasn’t part of my job, I needed to know what was happening. I wasn’t a monster—if I could do something to protect the omega, I would.
One day, I had attempted to follow the hooded figure, but I lost him in a particularly crowded part of campus, which had enraged me. Years of training in surveillance and her follower managed to lose me so quickly?
With Percy not attending class for the last two weeks, my mind had wandered to the small omega—was she okay? I would be lying if I said I wasn’t relieved when I walked into the classroom after Percy to find her in her usual spot, seemingly unharmed.
After pulling out my phone, I hid it under the desk to avoid the professor’s annoyed stare as he tried to run his class. Even though he knew I was security, he still glowered at me if I dared to take out my phone, as if it might be contagious, and the other students would start doing the same.
While it was beneficial to have him treat me as a student so I blended in and could effectively do my job, it was fairly irritating. Still, the only way to reach everyone on the team right now was via text.
Spencer:
I have a job. Who’s free for surveillance tonight?
Bear:
I am. Mable plans to stay at home.
Chase:
Surveillance? PLEASE. I love our current job, but it’s so dull.
Bear:
You’re bored? You’re supposed to be a sniper with ultimate patience, aren’t you?
Chase:
I am.
Spencer:
Bear, you do it. I want you to follow a student from one of Percy’s classes.
Bear:
The omega you’ve been following?
Spencer:
Yes. She’s definitely being stalked. I just want one of us to keep a closer eye on her.
I watched the dots appear on my phone screen, a sure sign that the guys were typing. Although as quickly as they appeared, they vanished, leaving a moment of anticipation hanging in the air—until a message finally pinged from Chase.
Chase:
Umm, did I miss something? Were we actually hired to protect her? Don’t get me wrong, I’m down to protect her, but I didn’t expect you to want to, Spencer.
Grumbling to myself, I schooled my expression, as always. My pack thought I was a total hard-ass, which I had to be at times. Leading a pack through dangerous situations needed that.
Spencer:
I can’t seem to shake this feeling. It’s throwing me off. I think it’s best we get to the bottom of this.
A few seconds passed, and then Bear replied.
Bear:
Right. Can do.
Chase then shot off another message.
Chase:
What info do you have on her? I can dig up more.
Spencer:
Name is Flora Hewitt. Omega. In Percy’s advanced statistics class.
What I didn’t include was any of the additional information I had gathered over the past few weeks—details that lingered in my mind, no matter how hard I tried to forget them.
Flora loved strawberries, chewed on her pen when she was deep in thought, and often misplaced her belongings.
Right now, she was scowling at a gray notebook instead of her usual strawberry-adorned one, and I could guess that she had managed to lose the other.
Chase:
Background check coming up.
Spencer:
Look, I realize this isn’t an official job. If you don’t feel like helping…
Bear:
We’re a pack, Spence. We’ve got it.
I bit back a smile. Count on Bear to keep things simple. I had my reservations about pulling the guys in, but I couldn't shake the nagging unease that had been growing over the last few weeks about Flora. Something wasn’t adding up, and this didn’t feel like just some guy with a harmless crush.
So, one way or another, I was going to get to the bottom of it. Because for whatever reason Flora’s safety was important to me.