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I laugh and lean up to kiss him. I make the rounds, kissing Dominic and Xavier in turn, feeling much better about everything when we go to rejoin the party.
Chapter 39
Dominic
Business trips are pretty standard when it comes to businesses like ours, but this is the first one I’ve been on with the other Alphas in my pack. A high profile company several states away insisted on us coming to them personally to discuss business, and the contract for their work would cost enough that it’s definitely worth our while.
We get a tour of their building and speak with their tech team. Tristan and Xavier take notes on the needs they seem to have, and I work on filling in the blanks of where we can help them. It’s strange that it’s become so easy to do this as a team.
All three of us have our strengths, and it used to be that those strengths just resulted in us butting heads constantly. We didn’t want to get out of each other’s way for long enough to get anything done.
Somehow, in the last couple of months, there’s been a shift. It’s easier for me to hear Xavier and Tristan out about things, and I don’t feel like they’re trying to step on my toes or make me look weak.
On the second day of the trip, we meet in the lobby of the hotel to go over our notes before heading over to the client’s office again.
“I think this is the first time I’ve been on this side of the problem with a client,” Tristan mutters, typing something on his laptop.
“What do you mean?” Xavier asks.
“Usually, my job is to convince clients to give these sorts of solutions a try. They’ve been dragging their feet about it for whatever reason, or they don’t believe it’s safe, or they have only just heard about it. But these people…” He turns his screen to face us, showing off the sprawling list of things they want.
Xavier snorts. “They’ve completely bought it. Maybe too much.”
Tristan nods. “We’ll have to scale this back. We can’t fully automate on this level, not with their security concerns.” He glances at Xavier, like he’s checking to make sure he’s right about that.
“Agreed,” Xavier says. “It would be risky to have someone running it, and there’s no real way to vet that kind of thing anyway. We’ll have to talk them down.”
“You’re advocating for talking a client down off something they want?” I ask, smirking. “What happened to the customer is always right?”
“I’m pretty sure I never said that,” he fires back with a grin. “It’s about finding the middle ground, Dom. And I see you’re not suggesting we just throw them out a window or something.”
I roll my eyes. “You’re exaggerating.”
“Barely.”
It’s so different from the way things used to be. The words we throw at each other now are teasing, and we’re all in good spirits. Even Tristan has a little smile on his face while he works to pare down the list of demands from the client.
There’s none of the anger, none of the antagonism that was always there before, and I don’t think any of us noticed it changing.
Apparently forming a pack actually worked.
The fucking board will be thrilled.
“All right, how about this?” Tristan asks. “We can handle their big asks easily enough, and everything else we’ll rank based on priority.”
“Make it look like we’re giving them more than we’re not,” Xavier says, nodding along. “Smart.”
“Technically that’s exactly what we’re doing, but it’ll help if they don’t see as much of what we’re taking away.”
“Ruthless,” I quip at him. “Didn’t know you had it in you.”
“I’m not Xavier,” he replies. “I don’t need everyone to like me.”
“Wow. I don’t know why I’m catching strays here,” Xavier laughs, holding his hands up. “Someone has to be the charming one when I’m traveling with you two grumps.”
“Of course,” Tristan says. “That’s why the woman at the front desk last night was tripping over herself to give you an upgrade to your room.”
“That’s just because she recognized my name. Or my credit card.”