by Layla Heart
He flashes me a grin, though there’s also a sadness in his eyes. “Yeah, partially. Our Alphas’ companies are known to be a little... ‘conservative’.”
“Sexist, you mean?”
He nods. “Yeah, definitely. So, Zack had the great idea to ‘give the middle finger’ to his dad over pressuring him to ‘take on a good mate’ to ‘show off to the company partners’. What better mate than me, the guy who’s going to inherit his own family business? Of course, his Alpha meant an Omega, not another Alpha.”
“And you?” Because this is all about Zack, not about himself. “Why did you go along with it?”
Smirking, he steals another strawberry. “Partially because he promised to behave himself around you if I did. Partially because I got really tired of being shoved potential mate folders in my face all the time. Seemed like a way to make them stop for a while.”
I stare at him, not sure if I should believe him or not. Sure, I believe the part where Zack promised to ‘behave himself’ if Spence went along with it, seems like a bribe he’d take on, but I’m not so sure about the rest of it. Silently, I finish everything on my plate and just look at Spence for a while, running his words over in my head. They acted like they were together to get their parents off their back, because they were being pressured to take on a mate.
Sure, it’s not the same, Omegas get that pressure as soon as they turn sixteen and if they’ve not mated an Alpha by the time they graduate college, people start ‘wondering’ if something is wrong with them. But that doesn’t mean that Alphas don’t get similar pressure at some point in their lives too, especially those from prominent families and who are bound to inherit some massive company.
Which brings me to... “My parents... Has anything happened since last night?” I don’t really want to know the answer, but at the same time, I don’t feel safe if I don’t.
He shakes his head. “No. Nothing more than what we already knew. Just the same articles running over and over. Not much else. Anything specific you’re waiting for?”
I stand up, also shaking my head, but my heart is heavy. “No, nothing.”
I’m just waiting to hear how my parents will officially point to Zack, Spence, Max and Liam as my ‘kidnappers’ and they’ll get the police involved and everything like that. I’m just waiting for the rest of the problems to unfold, for the real bad things to start.
Can I do it? Can I keep standing up to my parents if they start threatening Zack, Spence, Max and Liam? Will I be able to stand up to my parents when they start to ruin everything the guys have built? Threaten their jobs? Threaten their families? Threaten their future? Will I be able to let my parents ruin their lives?
Then I spot an email from Audrey in my inbox, with a very interesting title. ‘Where are you and why are your parents standing in the middle of the cafe?’ Glad to know she’s still taking her job seriously, emailing me while she’s supposed to be working.
I’m not sure what to expect when I open the email. On the one hand, Audrey has a tendency to exaggerate. On the other hand, my parents can be absolutely horrible. But if Audrey has no idea what has happened to me in the last weekend, it means that the drama hasn’t reached the human world yet, and that makes me a little less nervous. Though that quickly fades when I open the email and read it...
Fuck. Oh, fuck no.
32
Zack
I disconnect another call with a client while Max and Liam are looking at me with amused looks. “What?”
“Nothing.” Max laughs as he looks around the store, grabbing a shirt, before he discards it. “Interesting to see you change into some... I don’t know... Some really professional guy, when you get a call.”
“’Really professional guy’,” I mock him. “Fancy words. Very fancy. It’s called ‘doing my job’.” Then I put my phone away. “Not everyone can just take time off because they want to.”
This has been the third call today. Some clients were a little confused and worried, but once I promised them that I’d take care of things and that this would not influence anything with their contracts at the company, they calmed down. Luckily, it seems that the whole mess hasn’t had too much of an effect on the business... Because that would have made things a lot worse with my dad and all.
I’m pretty sure we’re almost done with the shopping by now, and I really want to get back to the house. To be honest, I suspect that this town is a lot busier during the summer months, but there are still quite a few people out and about. I can scent humans and shifters, all mixed together and it’s making me nervous. I just want to get back, back to Cyra.
We all went to bed pretty soon after Cyra did last night, we all needed the sleep, and I definitely feel loads better today after a good number of hours of sleep. But it has also made me more nervous. We still don’t know what we’re going to do or where to go from here.
Even if we can deny everything Cyra’s parents are saying on TV or in articles, what’s the use? Who is going to listen when her parents started speaking first? Even disproving their lies, nobody would pay attention to it. Nobody would remember that they were all lies, they would just remember her parents’ tears, how upset they were. That’s how this all works, this is the interesting part, the drama, but once this is over, all the attention will be gone and nobody will remember the end results.
My phone rings again. I almost ignore it, so done with calls for the day, but then I spot the name on the screen and I quickly pick up. “Yeah?”
The ‘fixer’ on the other end keeps his voice low. “You wanted to know if her parents visited her work or her apartment?”
“Yes.” I nod, my heart beating fast and anger already rising in me.
“I just spotted them at the apartment, but they didn’t go inside, just waited outside. Then they went to her workplace, the cafe, talking to the waitress there. She apparently didn’t give the right answers the first time, so when the girl brought the drinks they’d ordered, they made a huge scene. The girl is upset.”
Fury floods me and I bang my hand into a nearby wall, needing to let this energy go. Audrey doesn’t deserve to get crap. She’s sweet and apparently a pretty decent friend to Cyra. She definitely does not deserve Cyra’s parents all over her.
“Anything else?” I force the words out. I wish I could just rid the world of Cyra’s parents and people like that, but that doesn’t seem like the smartest idea if I want to stay at Cyra’s side...
“That was all.”
“Thanks. Send me the pics of her parents and let me know when they go to the apartment again.” I disconnect the call before he can say more.
I was right to station someone at Cyra’s place. I knew her parents would try to find her there, that they would disprove their own damn lies soon enough. Of course they would show up at her apartment, because they knew where she was all along. Though, they could probably explain it away by insisting they got the location from a detective or whatever.
But every little bit will help. And that’s all we’re going for right now. Small steps, hopefully making a big difference in the end.
Because my heart broke when Cyra said that she just wanted to live her own life, make her own choices. I understand that need, that wish, and if it’s hard enough for me to fight for it, I can’t imagine how hard she’s been fighting all her life. She’s so strong, so, so strong, for still being willing and able to fight, and I know I have to step up. I have to step up and become the Alpha she deserves.
When I step into the house, I find a very angry Cyra on the couch, her old laptop in her lap as she’s furiously typing, her face like thunder. Yikes.
I glance at Spence, who is working from the table and he looks pretty angry himself.
Cyra jumps up when she sees me, moving her arms angrily. “My parents are fucking dead when I get my hands on them. How dare they. How dare they say those things to Audrey?” She stalks over to me, still upset. “I need to go back to the city.”
“Whoa! Wait a moment.
” Max appears behind me, his hands full of bags. “Let’s not do things like that in a hurry, without thinking it through.”
Cyra turns on him and I’m glad she’s not looking at me with that murderous look. “They fucking threatened to get Audrey fired for not telling them where I was. They went over the line, far over.”
“I know.” Max steps past her, putting his bags on the floor next to the couch. “I’m not excusing what they did. We’ll do something about it. But you’re not going back. End of discussion.” He’s fucking brave. But I guess he’s getting used to her anger by now... For probably being the most grounded of all of us, he somehow manages to get the most of her anger over him.
She opens her mouth, probably ready to chew him out, when Liam walks into the house.
“He’s right.” Liam also puts his bags down. “None of us are going back to the city any time soon. And we’re staying out of any big cities. This was our last trip to the store. It’s no longer safe for us out there.”
Cyra spins to Liam, but must have seen something on his face that makes her stop, her body slumping and Max quickly catches her, lowering her to the floor. “They didn’t... Did they? Did they send the cops?” She looks so lost.
I quickly shake my head. “Not yet, as far as we know. But there’s been a huge push from outside sources to get your parents to put out a reward to ‘get you back’ quicker, and also to pin some crap on us to ‘make us’ ‘hand you over’ quicker. I don’t think it’s going to take long for them to find a way to get the police after us.”
“Fuck.” There’s little energy behind the word and she just shakes her head. “I’m sorry for having such messed up parents.”
I kneel in front of her, touching her cheek softly. “We’ve all got our crap to carry. We’ll fix this. We’ll make this right.”
“How?” She takes my hand, hers shaking. “And how many lives are they going to have to ruin? How many lives will they ruin before you ‘fix it’? They won’t stop, they’ll never stop.”
I tip her head up so I can look her in her eyes, her tears breaking my heart. “We won’t stop either. We’re never going to stop fighting for you.”
Spence kneels next to me, taking her other hand. “Don’t worry about Audrey and the cafe. Nothing bad is going to happen to them. I’ll make sure of that.”
“How?” She looks hopeful, but also still scared.
He gives her a smile and a wink. “I know the owner. Or, more like, I was the one who did the negotiations when they needed a place. They’re renting it from my family’s company. I’ll make sure they’re safe. Don’t worry about them.”
“Thank you.” Her breath shudders. “Please, do. They’re great. They don’t deserve this shit.”
“And neither do you.” He leans over, kissing her on her forehead. “I’ll go make the call.” He walks away, taking his phone and looking through it.
I feel like they’re all helping her out and I’m just flailing here, not able to help her much at all. I slowly stand up, pulling Cyra up with me. “Come on. Let’s go check out some new houses.”
“What?” She levels a look at me. “Why would we? We’re not buying anything. You’re not buying anything.”
I try to give her an encouraging smile. “I’m not buying anything.” Yet. “But we do need another place to stay. The people in the town have seen us and I have no idea how likely any of them are to get tempted by the money, or just your parents’ sob story.”
I pull her with me to the table, to one of the laptops there. “We’ll get someone to pick us up food and such for a new place, but it would be a good idea if we went somewhere a little more... remote.” Even though this place is pretty remote. But we really need something even more remote.
Cyra is right. Her parents are going to try anything to get her back now. The whole media circus is only feeding into their ridiculous ego and their idea that they can get away with this.
We need to stay low, even lower than this. We need to disappear off the face of the earth for a while. And this time it’s a good idea if Cyra at least gets to choose the place we stay at, it’s the least we can do for her.
33
Spence
The new place we’re going to be staying at is... interesting. Apparently, Cyra chose this from a list that Zack provided. I have no idea where he got the list, but I’m happily surprised by the location and how it looks on the outside.
We’re now as far away from our home town as we can be while still being in the country. The house rising up in front of us is more a combination of a hotel and a castle, it’s massive. Definitely unique. It’s in the middle of the mountains, surrounded by forests, no living human or shifter in sight.
Max is driving the minivan that was waiting for us when we landed at the local airport. Since he was the only one of us who managed to sleep on the plane here and seemed the least tired at the time.
Cyra is asleep on my shoulder. She fell asleep almost an hour into this three-hour drive. Middle of nowhere really feels like the middle of nowhere, since the ‘airport’ was little more than a simple strip for the small plane to land. Could we be further away from anything civilisation-like? Sure, but this is far enough for now. I hope.
It wasn’t easy to get everything sorted on such short notice, but if you’ve got enough money, throwing it around tends to make things run a lot smoother. The fridge will be stocked, the house all ready for us to move into. We should be able to stay here for at least a week without much difficulty. If we want to stay another week, we might need to do something about getting more food delivered.
Max parks the car in front of the building, cutting the engine, and Cyra wakes up, eyes bleary. “We there?”
I smile, nodding. She looks so cute. “We’re here.” I get out and help her out of the car.
She stares up, her eyes widening in surprise. “Wow. That’s... That’s big.”
Zack leans close to her. “Thanks, you should see me when I really get into it.” He smirks and then manages to avoid me smacking him over the head, but only barely.
“Monster.” I glare his way.
“You called?” He winks and grabs a bag with brand new clothes before making his way to the door. “Let’s get inside. I could use some quiet for a while, not sitting in a loud machine. Also, should be warmer in there.”
I grab a couple of bags out of the back of the minivan and follow him, not really sure what to expect. But the inside is even more extravagant than the outside, if that’s even possible. “Nice.” I nod. “This was a good choice.” I could definitely live here for a week, or a month, or even for years. I could get used to staying here for a long time. And with all the space outside, I can even shift and nobody would notice it. Sometimes, when everything gets bad, I just need to be in my griffin form, let it all out, and the last couple of days definitely made me feel like I needed that. But being at the coast, it felt too open, it felt too exposed, so I didn’t dare to do it.
I follow the hallway down and end up in a huge kitchen, where I promptly put one of the bags down, the one with some of the food we still had left over, and snacks from the trip. Six hours of travel, after the days we’ve just had... I’m going to need a couple of days to feel more like myself again...
“Wow.” Cyra stands in the doorway to the kitchen, looking around, her eyes big and then she smiles at me. “This is pretty.”
“Yeah. It definitely is.” I go over to her, wrapping my arm around her waist, her summery and smoky Omega scent starting to come out this late in the day and it’s setting all my senses on edge, pulling something from me that’s getting harder to ignore. Mine. My griffin is very clear about that. She’s mine. “You chose well.”
She laughs a little and I pull her out of the way of Liam, who’s carrying a cooler with stuff for the freezer into the kitchen.
Hmmm, she feels good in my arms, very good. I could hold her the rest of my life, and I’d never get tired of it. Just like this, for the rest of our lives.
I tug on Cyra’s arm. “I think I know something better. What if we get you a room? That way these guys can do whatever they have to do to stroke their cocks... I mean, their egos.”
I quickly pull her along, both of us laughing, as Liam and Zack call after us in protest. In the hallway, we almost bump into Max, who just looks amused, slowly shaking his head as he smiles. “Don’t ask.” I smirk and he grins, looking us over.
“I won’t ask, just... can I join in?” His eyes are on Cyra first and then on me, heat building in me under his gaze. Fucking hell. After the chat we had yesterday... It’s even harder to ignore him.
“Join...” Cyra squeaks and she stops, looking at us. “What?”
“I’m just getting her a room.” I try not to sound too excited about the idea, because... why just get her a room if I don’t use it as a chance to sneak off with her for some alone time?
“Riiiiight.” Max dumps his bag near the stairs, taking Cyra’s other hand. “I think I know the perfect room for this.”
Now he’s the one pulling us along and I find a strange comfort in it, that he’d be the one so easily and openly show that he’s definitely okay with sharing, whatever his idea of sharing is going to be. Though... I did see the look in his eyes when he saw the hickey on Cyra. Sharing Cyra might not really be the thing on his mind...
Maybe it’s a control thing. I don’t really care. The longer I try to figure this out, all my cock cares about is that I’ll be in a room with Cyra and Max, at the same time, and that’s enough encouragement to get me hard...
Max walks straight to the end of the upstairs hallway and opens the room on the right. “This should have a great view.”
“View?” I blink as Cyra and I walk past him into the room, but I see what he means. The room is spacious, with a big bed in the middle of the room. But one wall is totally made up of glass, looking out over a beautiful little balcony and beyond over the forests that surround the house, over the ‘garden’ along the side, though I don’t think this deserves that name, it’s too big.