Page 14

Chapter 14

Ethan

None of us are happy about this fucking situation.

I thought Garrett would rip that Beta male’s throat out at one point. Not that I would’ve stopped him. I would’ve been too busy getting Ava out of the house.

Even now, we’re all restless. I can’t stop pacing. Garrett’s over by the window again, and Dante looks thunderous. Caleb’s quiet, on the sofa, but I know that he’s just trying to do it for our sakes so that at least one of us isn’t about ready to claw the walls down.

Our living room feels too damn small. My skin itches. I want Ava back now .

“You know what we need to do,” I say firmly. The others all look at me in confusion, so I add, “We have to court her. Put in a bid for her.”

“What?” Garrett growls. “Are you fucking serious?”

“Do I sound like I’m joking?”

“You think we should court her.” Dante speaks slowly.

“I know that you all felt it too. That pull toward her.”

“Ethan, I know you want a family…”

“This isn’t about that. I mean, of course it is. Of course I want an Omega and a family.” The things I didn’t get as a child. “But I’m not doing this because of any Omega. You know me.”

“I know that when an Omega’s in heat…”

“No, don’t you try to dismiss it as just sex pheromones or whatever you’re going to say. Who scored best on the tests, huh? You or me? I know what I’m talking about, I know when it’s just pheromones and perfuming, and this isn’t it.”

“You rescued her from the club,” Dante points out. “You feel an obligation toward her. I get it. You’re protective. But that doesn’t mean she’s the one for us.”

“You heard her,” Garrett adds. “She was pretty damn clear about not wanting to be in a pack or to have any Alpha in her life again.”

“Can you blame her, after the last one?” Caleb says quietly. “She’s been hurt. I know that we all have in our own way. But she’s in the system now. Someone’s going to take her, if not us.”

The idea of another Alpha having Ava makes me want to rip something to pieces. Preferably that other Alpha. “None of you like that idea. I can see it in your faces.”

“It’s just sex,” Dante protests.

“Oh? So you’ve fucked her then?”

“No, I haven’t fucked her.”

“So it’s not just sex.”

“But what if it is? ”

“We’re not going to know that until we try!” I point out, jabbing at the ground. “Dante, you can’t give up on something before it’s even started. If you felt something, then why don’t we pursue it? That’s the whole point of courting! If it doesn’t work, we report it, and some other Alpha gets a shot.”

“I want to try it,” Caleb says. “I know what I felt. What I feel. I know all of us feel it too.”

“Nobody wants to see an Omega get hurt,” I add. “But you can’t tell me that what happened back there just now was just normal Alpha instincts. I was ready to run with her. And Garrett, I know you were ready to kill for her.”

Dante groans and sinks into a chair. “We have a big launch coming up. Is now really the time to be courting an Omega?”

“Life’s never going to wait around for when we have free time in our schedules,” I point out. “Ava’s public presentation will be happening soon.”

Dante says nothing, just stares down at his hands. I think he’s wavering, though, which just leaves Garrett.

I look over at Garrett, who’s refusing to meet my gaze. “Come on, man.”

“Don’t you come on me,” Garrett mutters. “You know why this could spell doom for all of us.”

“We won’t let her distract us from our work. Our job is to protect our Omega. To provide for her, to care for her. We can’t do that with a failing company, now can we?”

“This isn’t just about that.”

There are a lot of things I could say, but I don’t. I don’t want to be hurtful, no matter how annoyed I am. I can’t say what I would do in Garrett’s situation.

On the one hand, he’s kind of got what I always wanted. On the other hand, I’m not a guy known for following rules.

But on the other, other hand, would I really be able to go against my parents, if they were still alive? If I still got to have them instead of losing them when I did?

I don’t know.

I look back at Dante. “I think we’ll regret it forever if we don’t at least give it a shot. What can we possibly lose?”

“And,” Caleb adds, “what could we possibly gain?”

“You talk about how it could not work out. But what if it does?” I gesture at the house around us. “We didn’t earn this, any of it, by playing it safe. We took risks, and it paid off. Don’t you think she’s worth the risk?”

“You can’t tell me it didn’t rip your heart in half to see her go earlier,” Caleb adds, still quiet. “I know it ripped mine. I didn’t want her to go.”

I nod in agreement. “We were willing to put it all on the line for her earlier. What’s changed since then, really? Nothing. This will just be doing it in a different way.”

“A way that won’t end with us in jail,” Caleb mutters.

Dante looks back and forth from me to Caleb and back again, then groans and sinks back into the couch. “All right. All right. We’ll put a bid on her. Even though she’s probably going to break my damn heart.”

I grin in triumph, then look over at Garrett. “It’s three to one, Garrett. What do you say?”

Garrett looks over at me. I hold my breath, and wait for his answer. Hoping that he’ll choose to say yes.

Please, please say yes.