Page 4 of Bought By The Mafia Alpha (Mated in the Mafia #4)

Chapter 4

Orsino

What the hell was I thinking? I had no idea what to do with this omega. And now he was mine. Permanently. I should have let Roland put him in one of the auctions. He would’ve brought a whole lot of money to the family, instead of me spending seventy grand to keep him for myself.

Really, I had no time or interest in a full-time omega. But he wasn’t the kind of omega who could just be thrown in a harem or sold off to some old dude who would use him until he was completely broken.

This kid seemed…good. Gentle. Completely naive, despite being raised by a man who spent a lot of time getting himself into trouble.

In other words, the exact opposite of me.

But here we were, driving to my family home where I had no idea what I would tell my brothers.

“Excuse me, but where are we going?” His voice was soft and meek, much calmer than it should have been.

I huffed out a sigh. Ethan probably took it as frustration that he had dared to ask me a question, but it was really annoyance at myself for being in this stupid situation to begin with. “To my home. Our home, I guess.”

“So…I’ll live with you all the time?”

My head slowly turned in his direction. “Yes, all the time. I just bought you. Or rather, you just sold yourself to me. Do you not understand what just happened?” He really didn’t seem to grasp the gravity of his new life. It made me wonder if maybe he was in shock.

“Yeah, I get it. I mean, I wasn’t totally sure if it was a 24/7 thing or just whenever you wanted to see me…” He shook his head and seemed to be psyching himself up for something. “Nevermind. I get it. So, I guess I'll need to quit my job, right?”

I laughed out loud at this kid. His fucking job? That’s what he was worried about? He really was clueless. “What’s your job?”

“I’m a vet tech at Centerville Animal Hospital.” He cleared his throat as if he was nervous. “I live in Centerville.”

“Yeah, I figured.” I thought about it for a minute and then relented. “Can you take a week off work? Tell them you’ve got a serious flu and don’t want to get anyone sick. Then we’ll figure things out from there.” What the hell was I even saying? He couldn’t keep a job. Our omegas never worked outside the house. The last few years had shown us just how dangerous it could be for our omegas out in the world. But just because I owned him didn’t fully make him my omega. Keeping him in a cage would break him just as much as selling him in an auction.

Besides, I didn’t even know the kid.

“So maybe I can keep it?” He pressed his palms together as if in prayer and looked at me with hope-filled eyes. “Because I really do love my job, and they need me.”

“Let’s see how things go. I wasn’t exactly expecting to bring somebody home tonight, so it’s gonna take a little bit of transition time for both of us, I think.”

“Yeah, I understand. And, there’s just one more thing.”

I tried not to sigh, but I’m sure he heard the breath that I pushed out of my chest. “What’s that?”

“All my clothes and stuff. Maybe I could swing by my apartment and pick up my things? I mean, if I’m not going back, I should probably empty the place out and tell my landlord. I only rent by the month anyway. It’s a small place, and I don’t have much.”

Now I had to laugh. This kid really had some interesting priorities. “So you’re really not concerned about your life or what I might be planning to do to you for tonight, tomorrow, and the rest of your life? You’re more concerned about your landlord being stuck with your shit and who will replace you in your job?”

He just shrugged. “I told you, I can tell you’re not a bad guy.” He smirked as he raised an eyebrow at me. “Even though you’re trying to act like one. But I promise not to faint again. That was just the stress of having to deal with my dad.”

What the fuck? This was genuinely not an act. I was usually considered the asshole amongst my family.

“So, no, I’m not really worried about myself. Just trying to be responsible about shutting down my old life.”

When he put it like that, it did seem somewhat admirable. “Yeah, okay. We can take you to pick up your shit sometime. Maybe tomorrow or the next day.”

After that, we mostly rode in silence while I tried to come up with a plan. So far, all I’d come up with was that I would quietly get Ethan into the house, put him in my suite, and maybe never tell anybody he was there.

It wasn’t a great plan, but it was the best I could come up with since I’d purchased the omega five minutes ago.

Andro and Louie probably wouldn’t question me too much. Their omegas, on the other hand… They would be all up in my business, trying to find out what they could about Ethan.

They’d probably even try to be his friend.

When we arrived, I instructed my driver to go around to the back of the house, so I had a better chance of getting in and out unnoticed. “Okay, let’s head inside.”

Ethan leaned over my lap to look out my window. “Wow, this is your house?”

“Yeah. My family's home.”

“Your whole family?” He pulled back and reclaimed the seat beside me. “How many people is that?”

I chuckled. “A lot.”

“What are they gonna think about me? Or is this a regular thing that happens around here?”

I could hear the vulnerability in his voice, but I didn’t have a great answer. Honestly, weird shit happened in my house all the time, and me buying some omega from the casino wasn’t the weirdest.

“They’ll meet you at some point, but not today. Let’s just get inside, and we’ll come up with a story.”

“Will they be mad at me or you? What will they think of me? What if they don’t approve of what you’ve done?” He was spiraling and again, it was for ridiculous reasons that he didn’t need to be worrying about.

“No, it’ll be fine. I just don’t want to deal with anybody’s shit today.”

“Okay.” He didn’t seem to buy it, but he stopped asking questions.

When we got out of the car, Ethan fell in step behind me, so I grabbed his hand and gave him a tug, pulling him inside the kitchen right behind me. His hand fit easily inside mine.

He was so small, like I could tuck him close to me and no one would even know he was there.

The kitchen was usually empty of family members, but for some unfortunate reason, Andro and Joey were just walking in as Ethan and I were passing through.

“Hey, Sino. Good timing. We’re heading out to dinner. All of us.” Andro looked at Ethan and then back at me. “Who’s your friend?”

Fuck. I didn’t know what to say, but I couldn’t exactly say nothing as I pulled Ethan closer to my side and slipped my hand behind his back. “Ethan. I met him at the casino.”

Joey was quick to reach for Ethan’s hand to shake it. “Hi. I’m Joey, Andro’s husband. I’m so happy to meet you. I can’t wait to get to know you better.” I could see the interest in Joey’s eyes already. He knew I never brought omegas back here.

I looked at my brother. “Thanks for the invite, but we can’t?—”

Andro raised an eyebrow. “You guys are coming. We’re leaving in three minutes. Be ready.”

“Yeah, okay.” As we walked away, I glanced down at Ethan.

He looked like he was about to burst into tears.

Slipping my arm up over his shoulders, I pulled him against my chest. “It’s fine. My brothers are cool. And you’ll like their omegas. Just… I don’t know what you wanna tell them. It’s fine to tell them the truth. But if you’d rather say we hooked up, I don’t care either way.”

“I don’t want to tell them the truth. Maybe just tell them…” His brows furrowed as he looked up at me. “That you actually like me. Not that I’m…your property.”

Wasn’t that a kick in the nuts? It wasn’t that I disliked the kid. I’d just paid a shitton of cash to keep him safe. “I do like you, Ethan. At least, I’m sure I will once I get to know you better. And I hope you like me too. But yeah, a story like that is easier than the truth sometimes.”