"I think," he said, crossing his ankles. "That you have an extraordinary amount of control. And I think that I could sit here naked, at the full moon, in heat, and you'd still manage to press on with Roll Over."
"You have a much higher opinion of me than I do," I told him.
"I always have," he said.
I caught a whiff of him as he slid off the desk. There was something odd about him, a flavor that didn't fit his usual profile. It bit like cold iron between my teeth.
"Where else have you been?" I asked.
Parker frowned at me. "I came here from the house. I've only been to the grocery store to get eggs, other than that. Why?"
"Because you smell like... something," I finished, lamely. "I don't know."
"They were working on the air conditioning," Parker said.
"It must be that," I said, my attention straying to my work.
Parker placed a hand over the letter in front of me. "I wasn't done yet. If you hired a few omegas, they could be an asset. Let them off when their heat cycle demands it. Then you skip all the problems of alphas not being able to control themselves."
"Like you're one to talk," I quipped.
His fingers tightened on my desk, crinkling the paper. I took his hand and patted it.
"It was a joke, love. I'm only teasing."
"We aren't our ovaries," Parker said. "You could use us to represent a friendlier face overall."
I kissed each finger, watching his face. By the time I got to his pinkie, he'd started to blush. The metallic scent had all but vanished from him and I put it from my mind.
"Stop that," he said.
He pulled his hand away and turned on his heel, calling over his shoulder. "Think about what I said."
Then he opened the door and was gone. He didn't bother to close it, and I didn't care. I settled back in my chair to devour the brownies. When you were the billionaire CEO of a company intent on domination, you could have your dessert first if you damned well pleased.
I wanted Parker at work with me, but I wondered if it would be bad for the company image. The media could play it in so many different versions. Some would cheer me on for encouraging omegas to make something more of themselves. Others would suggest that I was running something a little more than a brothel. They would encourage lawmakers to look into where money was going, who was receiving it, and maybe even try to force us to install security cameras in the hallways.
Yet others would see Roll Over as bowing before the omega rights movement, and I couldn't allow that.
I munched my brownie and thought it over. Parker didn't know it yet, but he'd be starting online classes in the next week. I'd enrolled him as he had wanted in one of the few schools that allowed further education for omegas. Less than work, I didn't like that precedence. Everyone had a right to educate themselves no matter what their pack alignment. Roll Over could open a new branch in the future, something to teach omegas who had been taken to an omega preserve before they'd finished their schooling.
Every time Parker brought it up, I felt like my opinions were changing. Was it from being so close to my omega, listening to how he'd experienced the normalcy of our life? Suffering was different when it was someone you cared about.
I stacked the Tupperware and put it back into the lunch box. This was an omega's worth. A clean home, happy pups, dinner on the table when you walked in--it was all expected.
Parker put his heart into my lunch. Where did I put mine?
"I saw your hot little piece of ass prancing around the lobby. You keep letting him out of your sight like that and I might be tempted to snap him up," came Jenard's voice.
I looked up at the door and sighed. "You would never. You want me in the pack too much to risk it on something stupid like that."
"You're no fun at all to tease when you're all grumpy," Jenard said. "You have anything left to share? Lando is a failure in the kitchen and all the rest of my omegas are too pregnant to make me anything worth having."
I tossed him the top tupperware with the remaining brownie. He caught it with a grin and a nod of thanks.
"How do you do it?" I asked.
"Do what?" Jenard returned through a mouthful of chocolate.
"Keep your omegas at a heel. Keep them happy in that spot. Parker..." I paused.
If I brought this to Jenard's attention, he could assert his authority in whatever way he felt was necessary.
"Parker what?" Jenard frowned.
"He just doesn't seem happy being an omega," I said.
"Graham," Jenard started. He came to sit in front of me and finished the sweet off. He licked his fingers. "Our role in life isn't to make the omegas happy. It's to keep them safe. If you have a rebellious one, why not use him as an example of what Roll Over can do? The therapeutic nature of the program hasn't been tested as much as it could. You could be a sympathetic example. Imagine it."
"I'm not running Parker into the ground because he 'belongs' at my feet," I scowled.
"That's because it's Parker. Like I said before you two got hitched, I should have stepped in ages ago to make sure he was never a potential mate for you. If you hardly knew your omega, you wouldn't have all these silly notions in your head. An omega's happiness. Pfah. Who cares?" Jenard snapped.
I took my Tupperware container away from him and tucked it in the safety of my little gray lunch bag.
"You're right," I said. "If you'll excuse me, I need to get this paperwork finished before I head home tonight. Looks like it'll take hours."
"You keep your head on straight," Jenard said, slapping the desk. "You remember how pecking orders work, Graham. Don't let an omega pull you under. Got it?"
"Got it," I intoned.
Jenard left and I stared at the slightly crumpled paper in front of me.
I snorted.
"Samantha?"
"Yessir," answered my secretary.
"Do I have everything I need for the media event?"
"Not yet, but I'm working on it. There's still the question of catering, of barring that omega reporter, and I meant to ask you about your husband's attendance."
I left my desk, and my lunch bag, to peer down at her. Samantha blinked up at me and shrank in her seat. I didn't think I'd ever come to her.
"Go on," I said, sitting down across from her. "I'm listening."
Samantha stared at me for a solid minute before she spoke. "I'm just not used to this, sir."
"It's all right. Just pretend I'm in my office, or that you've come to me as you usually do," I told her.
"I... suppose," Samantha said.
We spent the rest of the afternoon working through my personal scheduling. It was a mess the likes of which I'd never seen, but Samantha managed to work it out with an ease that I'd have never managed. Every so often she shot me a look of uncertainty, as if I was going to leap forward and throw her on the ground, start screaming in her face.
How many alphas would have done just that when she had a pile of work in front of her? Or when she hadn't managed to get it finished before they'd expected it? Together, we got through it just fine. All that was left was to talk Parker into supporting me at the media event. He wouldn't like standing up with Roll Over, but if we were going to turn over a new leaf, maybe my omega would find it in his heart to help me.
As I closed up my office for the evening, I heard a familiar rhythmic chanting outside. Briefcase in hand, my fingers tightened until my knuckles popped. I knew who they were, what they wanted. Rise was an annoyance long before Parker had come into my life. They'd spent most of the time we'd been building the office protesting it, going so far as egging our construction workers.
That was when I'd decided to stop them. A beta male had been attacked one morning by Rise protestors. While Rise had issued a public apology, paid for the beta's medical bills, and surrendered the perpetrator to the authorities, I still saw them as an organization in which the emotional sorts could end up in bad situations. The beta had lost an eye and several of his t
eeth. Who deserved that for working an honest job for an honest company?
I walked to my window and peered down on them. The Rise protestors stood in a line, shivering in the freezing rain as it soaked them to the bone. From their build and the strength of their voices, I assumed all of them were alphas. Yet they stood on my sidewalk, protesting my company. Where were their omegas? Probably at home, making them a warm dinner to come back to. They'd rally, maybe even return the next day and start more trouble. For what?
The lunchbox was suddenly far more heavy in my hand than it had been a moment ago.
My brows knit.
I left the window and walked out of my office. For the first time, I let the Rise protestors stand out front and yell their message to the passing crowds of people.
I went through the back exit and drove home.
10
Parker
Every day I made it a point to visit Graham at Roll Over. The presence of an omega in the workplace was something he'd warm up to if I showed him that it made no difference. Especially when it was his omega making the rounds, every day, all over the building.
Scott had driven me to the building on the first day I'd left Talewah, but I had no idea that my brother worked for Roll Over until I saw him at a desk. My heart stopped dead in my chest and I stared as if I'd never seen him before in my life. It was common for omegas to lose contact with their families. Though it wasn't as bad as it had been in olden days when male omegas were culled frequently. I was dim on the history, to say the least, but there sat my brother.
I practically ran over to him.
"What?" Scott asked, not bothering to look up from his typing.
"You drove me here, you wouldn't answer anything--I had no idea that you worked here!" I said, too excited to sit still.
Scott looked up. "This place employs a billion pack members and you're really that surprised I'm here?"
I deflated at his tone. "I didn't realize you were so anti-omega."
"Roll Over isn't anti-omega. If anything, it's probably one of the most progressive organizations out there."
But when he said it, there was a grimace on his face. He jerked his head toward the exit and I frowned. Recognizing my expression, he rolled his eyes and scribbled a note on a piece of paper that he thrust at me.
'Meet me in the parking lot in ten minutes, the same car as before.'
I tucked the paper in my pocket, gathered up my coat and hurried out the exit. Were there recording devices in Roll Over? Something to spy on the staff and make sure they held the line, so to speak?
His old Honda had been the same green pile of garbage as far back as I could remember. Our parents had been so proud of their alpha son, they'd bought him something reliable. The joke had been on them. Scott's car had stalled a hundred times the first week he had it.
"You can't come up to me like that when we're at Roll Over," Scott said from behind me.
I sat down on the hood of his car and ignored the anemic metal pop it gave. "Why not?"
"Because your husband's got spies everywhere on that floor. He's probably got them everywhere, but I know of at least six that can hear your mouth from where you were sitting. I can't lose this position, Parker."
The words were angry, but his tone was something else. Desperate? This wasn't like the brother I remembered at all.
"You spent half your life getting stoned behind the gym. I get dragged off for a while and now you're all responsible?" I asked.
"It's amazing what watching your little brother get pulled into a bus will do to you," Scott growled. "You didn't see the horror in your eyes, the tears on your cheeks. You didn't get told by your parents that they'd break your hands if you started sending letters. I tried to break you out twice and almost ended up in jail both times. Don't you act like you have a clue what I've been doing since they disappeared you to Talewah, Parker. Because you don't."
That left my jaw hanging. I'd had another ally on the outside, one I never knew of. I had incorrectly, cruelly, assumed that my brother didn't care if I lived or died within those walls.
"I'm sorry," I finally managed. "I don't know. They don't tell us anything, and if we asked too many questions it meant hell to pay. ...You tried to save me?"
"Repeatedly. And when I failed, I joined up with the only group I knew trying to do a damn thing for omegas like you."
My eyes widened. "Holy shit, you're a mole!"
"Don't say it so loud!"
"You're a fucking mole!"
His hand clamped over my mouth. I squeaked another three or four times in disbelief. Scott's voice was rough against my ear.
"Rise is one of the best things to happen to this shit country. They're going to save omegas like you from alphas like Graham. When it's all said and done, they're going to see him in prison where he belongs."
I blinked and yanked my head away. "Wait a minute. I don't want Graham in jail. I went into this whole thing of ours willingly. He's not my captor. He's my husband. My mate."
"That's a relief," Scott said, drawing away. "So many of them aren't."
"I know."
"It's not right."
"I know."
Scott gave a derisive laugh. "If there's anything I'm sure you know, it's that."
"So what can I do to help them? Rise? Graham said it was fine if I spoke to them-"
"He wants in, Parker. The last thing you need to do is get involved," Scott said. "Especially while you're pregnant."
The last word echoed in my ears. My sight narrowed down to the tiniest pinprick of light as my heart raced.
"I'm not."
"You are."
"How the fuck do you know?" I snapped.
"Probably the same way I smell any other pregnant omega. Graham hasn't realized it yet?" Scott asked.
"Graham... wouldn't know how to recognize it," I breathed.
Scott sighed. He plucked his cell phone out of his pocket and stepped away from me, dialing as he went. I really had to get one of those fancy things. They let you play on the internet and everything these days.
"Boss? I found your omega outside. He's fainted," Scott said as he motioned at the ground. "Probably needs a doctor, sir."
I snorted and slid off his car, but I found myself falling gracefully to the asphalt a moment later.
My mate came tearing out of the building before my heart could beat twice. Given that his office was on the top floor, he'd cleared how many staircases at a run? What if he'd tripped?
Graham grabbed me in those arms, screamed at Scott to call an ambulance and raced inside with me. I wrapped my arms around his neck and leaned up to nuzzle my poor, scattered man.
"I'll be alright. I just had a little bit of a spell. It happens when you're pregnant," I whispered.
He didn't hear me until after he'd cleared someone's desk and laid me down on it, frantic beyond all reason. I sat up and snapped my fingers at him. "Graham!"
"Don't sit up! You could fall and hurt yourself. God, what was I thinking putting you up here?!" he gasped and reached for me again.
I scooted away. "Graham. What did I just say?"
It was as if I could hear him smack a stop button on the reel to reel in his head, rewind it, and listen all over again. When he got to that very important part, his eyes lit up. He grabbed my hands and slapped himself down into the chair in front of me.
"You're what?"
"Scott thinks I'm pregnant," I said.
"Ohmygod."
"We do still have to confirm it," I reminded him.
"OhmygodyoumightbeWHAT?!"
Half the office lifted off its foundation on the last word and I laughed. He was so excited that he might pop. This was the Graham I knew, the Graham I loved. I pressed my forehead against his and kissed him, slow and sweet. He returned the gesture with as much excitement as I could bear.
Without another sound, he scooped me up and hauled me off to his office. There was a smattering of applause following us as we left. If my brother could smell i
t, surely the other alphas could, too. They'd tease Graham about not noticing it, but he'd take it in good fun. He called a doctor to the building for some sort of blood test. Apparently, the greater part of society had figured out a way to determine the ranking and gender of a child just through blood work from a parent.
It sounded like a load of rubbish to me, but I wasn't going to rain on Graham's parade. While the doctor worked, Graham held me in his lap and stroked my belly.
"We'll go shopping, find the sweetest little bear for you, my pup," Graham sing-songed at my stomach.
"You should probably make arrangements at an omega preserve, too," said the doctor, another male alpha.
Graham froze.
"Two omegas, twin boys from the test results. The spots are hard enough to find these days and are only getting rarer as time goes on," the doctor nodded at me. "You need vitamins and a few other supplements to make that labor easy on you, boy. You're a lucky omega to have come this far without noticing any symptoms of morning sickness or other discomforts. He'll breed well in the future, too."
The last was meant for Graham, but it sent something slimy slithering through my stomach. I looked down at Graham, who seemed to be debating exactly what to say.
"I'll bill your front desk. Congratulations, both of you."
And then the doctor was gone.
"Omegas," Graham whispered.
"It's a thirty-three percent chance, Graham," I told him.
"Both of them. Omegas. We have to get on this today, then," Graham said. "I won't send them to Talewah if you don't want it. We can afford far nicer for our boys--"
"You'd let them do that to your sons?" I asked.
My tone was as warm as North Dakota in mid-December.
"Love, I can't change the law. Omegas go to secure centers. You know that," Graham answered.
"You can't do something? Anything? Roll Over is popular and there's just nothing that you can do? They aren't even born yet and we're trying to figure out how to imprison them when they're in high school," I said, trembling.
I couldn't imagine my sons in safe zones for who knew how long. What if they didn't find love? I'd never see my grandchildren, my great-grandchildren. I'd never know their names, their genders. And my boys--what if I had other children along the way? They'd never be part of our family once they went into heat the first time.
Furbitten Falls Alpha's: A Wolf Shifter Mpreg Romance Bundle Page 42