Chapter 4
Evan
If there’s one thing I can’t stand, it’s ass kissing. If there’s one thing I love, it’s making fun of Sebastian before he gets his ass kissed. It’s hard to fight between such conflicting emotions. The pull to make fun of Seb wins.
“You realize they’ll be sucking up to you guys too, right?” Seb has one dark eyebrow raised, pointedly looking at me. That’s unfair. Nico is laughing too.
“Yeah, but not the way they do to you,” Jason points out dryly, adjusting his watch.
“Exactly. Want me to shine your arse for you, give them a clean surface?” I toss Jace his car keys but face Seb as I ask the question, doing my best to stop wheezing.
“If you don’t shut up, I’m going to make you shine my shoe so I can shove my foot up your ass.” If I didn’t know Seb, it’d be scary. I do know him, so it just makes me crack up harder.
“Let’s just get this over with,” Nico’s biting his lip to suppress his smile, trying to hurry us out the door.
“You guys don’t get it,” Seb’s still complaining while we pile into the car. “They will not leave me alone.”
“Maybe they have a crush on you,” I offer, making him shoot me a dirty look from beside me. Nico’s taken the passenger seat since he’s the tallest, and Jace is driving.
“Crush on my money, probably.” He rolls his eyes, but I can tell it’s not directed at me for once. I didn’t know there were people that could get on his nerves more than I do. “I ran into them once and they’ve been harassing my team since.”
I make fun of him a lot, but I feel for Seb.
He gets that type of thing a lot, since his parents created Coates Industries.
They caught the internet becoming widespread at the perfect time and built an empire.
Now Seb has to deal with everyone trying to ride their coattails or get his help to take their own slice of the pie.
“Don’t worry, man. We’ll be in and out.” We nod at each other.
“Thanks for coming, guys. Just have to give them one dinner and shut them up.” He mimes strangling himself. “I wouldn’t even care, but some of the board thought we should hear them out.”
I give him shit, but Sebastian’s not only my best friend, he’s also a reliable pack lead.
There’s no way we would have sent him to deal with these guys alone.
I’ve always thought the whole culture of bringing around entire packs for business decisions was weird, though.
It’s some sort of tradition I couldn’t really care less about.
“What do they have again, an app? Is it any good?” Nico’s voice comes from the front as he scrolls through his phone, trying to pick a song.
“Yeah, some marketing app. Viewer or something. It’s fine, nothing special,” Seb shrugs. “A bit outdated looking, to be honest.”
If their entrance is anything to go by, the app isn’t the only thing outdated. We drove unnecessarily. Their place is so close, we could have walked. Jace sure loves his car though.
It’s close to our apartment, and the elevator opened directly into their foyer like it does with ours, but that’s where the similarities end. I don’t exactly have an eye for interior decoration, but this place is garish. Seb’s mom Meredith would’ve had a stroke seeing it.
Their chandelier is overkill for such a small room.
The table in the corner is white, accented with gold.
The frames on the artwork are dark and similarly accented in gold.
It reminds me of when I got an allowance for the first time as a kid and bought the most expensive things I found, just because I could.
Jace meets my eyes, face unimpressed. “Charming.”
I would laugh, but our hosts arrive. Three alphas, with one leading the way.
“Welcome, welcome.” The one in front walks straight past me and Jace, hand outstretched to Seb. “Pleased to have you here, Mr. Coates.”
Our pack lead takes the alpha’s hand in his, shaking it quickly. The other man winces. Seb tends not to realize how hard his grip is. Or maybe he does, considering the annoyance that flickered across his scent when he saw the man.
“Please, just Sebastian is fine.” Seb’s face holds an expression of polite interest. He holds an arm out towards the rest of us. “This is my pack. Nico,” the tall man raises up a hand good naturedly, “Jason,” Jace nods in acknowledgment, “and Evan Coates.”
The alpha follows his gaze towards each of us, looking us up and down.
“Pleasure to meet you all.” His smile doesn’t match his pale eyes.
“Ian Hale, founder and CEO of Viewer. This is Liam and Cole Hale.” The two alphas behind him smile politely at us.
“Head of marketing and technical director, respectively.”
I want to ask if they call HR when the pack gets into an argument, but that would be rude. I’m polite, cordial even as the members of their pack stride forward, shaking our hands. Two of their grips are tight, as if they’re trying to squeeze the life out of my hands.
I return the strength of the hold, trying not to laugh. Judging by the white streaks in Ian’s dark hair, he should be too old for these types of dick measuring contests.
The third one has a pinched face and looks a bit like a chihuahua.
He smells faintly of apples and it makes me want to gag.
It reminds me of one of Nico’s health kicks, where he thought apple chips would be a good snack.
No one ate them and they sat in the pantry until they expired and made the entire kitchen smell horrid.
That one doesn’t try to measure sizes by squeezing my hand, at least. I shake his tightly anyways, expecting the same nonsense from him as the other two pack members before. Oops. Sorry, buddy. Except not really. He retracts his hand, wincing.
“Shall we?” The first one asks. Ian, I think. I’m not great with names.
“After you,” Nico says. He’s smiling, but I can tell he’s just as unimpressed as Jace was earlier.
“Perfect. Our mate will take your coats. Ariana?” He calls through the open door.
What a gentleman. First he introduces everyone by their titles in the company, then he doesn’t include their omega as part of the pack. He only calls her when he needs her to do something.
She appears instantly when he does so. She’s about what you would expect from the omega of these types of alphas. Pretty, predictably. Significantly younger, predictably. And her scent-
“Chamomile.”
All the heads in the room turn toward me. I didn’t realize I’d spoken aloud.
“I’m sorry?” Ian rests a hand on the small of the omega’s back possessively.
“We saw each other in the park earlier,” I clarify. When she was crying and alone. I already suspected I wouldn’t like these guys, but that solidifies it for me.
“Did you?” The second one raises an eyebrow, but the question is directed at the omega, Ariana, not me.
“Oh, that’s right!” Recognition dawns in her eyes. She smiles, not at me, but at the alpha holding her. “They had the most adorable puppy.”
I can feel Sebastian wincing this time. Adorable is definitely one way to put it. It’s not the word I would personally use. Not for Clementine, at least.
“Yes, thank you again. My mom would have killed me if we lost her favorite child.” I snort at Seb’s words, because they’re true. “Miss Ariana here did us quite the favor earlier. We’d lost control of my mother’s dog and she grabbed the leash for us.”
The other alphas seem to relax. I’m not sure why they’d stiffened. I said we saw her in the park, not on the corner of the street selling drugs.
“They had the biggest umbrella I’d ever seen,” her voice is soft now, no longer shaky like it was earlier. My amusement from Seb dies instantly at her remark. Nico coughs, but it sounds suspiciously like a laugh. Is my umbrella really that big?
I’m the only one interested in that topic, apparently. They usher us into their dining room, leaving Ariana behind to hang our coats. I offer to help her, but Ian insists we all follow.
The dining room’s about what I expect. It’s modern, filled by a large dining table set with spotless china. Everything’s spotless, not just the plates. It feels cold, almost unlived in. It’s more like one of the fake display rooms in a furniture store than it is a home.
We settle into our seats. Ian takes the head of the table with an air of familiar ease.
The other two sit on either side of him like guard dogs.
Sebastian sits across from him, with Nico and Jace to his sides.
I scooch in next to Nico and Apple, leaving a seat for Ariana between Jace and the other alpha. Louis? Leo? Something like that.
Whatever his name is, Ariana doesn’t sit next to him. She appears holding the first course and quietly serves us, starting with Ian first. When she makes her way around the table towards me, her scent is muted. It’s not sad the way it was earlier, but it’s shrunken in on itself.
“Thank you,” I say. Our eyes meet, and hers are almost blank. She doesn’t respond, but smiles pleasantly. Once everyone has been served, instead of taking a seat, she disappears back into the kitchen.
I watch the empty doorway for a moment. Is she not eating with us?
“So,” Ian begins, leaning back in his chair confidently. “Sebastian. I’ve been following your family’s company for years. The acquisition of Tetra last quarter was brilliant.”
Seb inclines his head. “Thank you. It was a team effort.”
“I’m sure.” Ian’s smile reminds me of a shark searching for blood in the water. “But the vision had to come from somewhere. Your parents built an empire. You’re maintaining it admirably.”
The conversation turns to business, food sitting untouched. Ian leans forward, name dropping companies and people he’s worked with. The other two chime in from time to time, adding marketing insight that sounds rehearsed, or technical advice from a backend standpoint.