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CHAPTER 3

Frankie

The Genesis Armed Detective Agency was a place where one could hire a private detective to do just about anything since we made sure all the detectives working in the field were licensed and fully capable of taking care of themselves and their partners.

They all had a concealed carry license and trained daily in our state-of-the-art gym to keep up their strength and stamina.

We didn’t hire anyone who had zero self-defense skills unless they showed ridiculous promise in other areas. We were willing to spend the time and resources to train someone how to use a gun and hand-to-hand if they had other skills we needed.

Yes, we did have detectives who never ventured out from behind their desks and their support was invaluable to us in many cases. Lucy and I wouldn’t have been able to solve the case that made us famous without them, but that wasn’t the majority of our force.

To the rest of the world, Genesis Armed Detective Agency was independently owned. I’d created it under the name Francesca James, not Lopez. No one knew that I owned it and the building it was housed in.

Now that I was the heir to the Lopez pack though, there was a lot more public scrutiny than before and things were starting to come out of the woodwork.

It wasn’t just because of me either, but the huge controversy that happened when the most eligible bachelor in the city had chosen an unknown omega as his bonded – even going so far as to leave the legacy of his own pack to make a new one for her.

Lucy was a bit of a celebrity now thanks to that.

All the attention from her new bond was part of the reason she was taking an extended leave of absence and I couldn’t blame her.

Everyone wanted to know what she was doing these days.

I missed her like crazy, but this was for the best. She deserved this happiness even if it meant that nothing would ever be the same. I was under no illusion that things would go back to the way they were before her bond ceremony.

Yeah, we were partners and always would be, but she had her own alphas now. Famous ones. Which meant the whole city was watching us. She hated that shit so I wouldn’t be surprised if her honeymoon turned out to be longer than just a few weeks.

I also wouldn’t be surprised if she decided to stick to desk work when she came back until things died down.

My little sister was more than capable of taking care of herself, even as an omega. She was a vicious thing with teeth and claws as sharp as any alphas, but she hated being the center of attention and she’d do just about anything to avoid it, even being confined to a desk.

I knocked on the commander’s door, not waiting for her to answer before heading in.

My aunt’s corner office was huge, as it should be for the CEO and commander of Genesis. She didn’t have the name Lopez either anymore, but that didn’t change the reality of our situation.

We both answered to my father.

I’d offered her this position for a multitude of reasons, but the biggest one was she was a very calm and trustworthy beta. Her loyalties lay with my father and me even if she was no longer an official member of the pack.

Lauren Michaels didn’t give a fuck about the rest of the alphas in our family and her vicious streak was almost as impressive as my father’s.

She gave me a glimpse of it now as she glared at me over her glasses. “You’re late. Again.”

“Sorry, commander. Pop asked me to stop by before coming in.”

Her eyes narrowed, but she didn’t ask me for any details. “The new recruits are here.”

I plopped down in one of the chairs facing her desk and draped my arms over the sides as I tried to focus on this instead of the smell of blood and roses still lingering in my nose. “How many did you take on this summer?”

“Twenty-five, and you’re being assigned one of them.”

I groaned. “Auntie Lauren, do I have to?”

“Don’t ‘Auntie Lauren’ me and yes. He’s perfect for you.” She took off her glasses and handed me a folder full of papers I pretended not to see. “He has extensive cyber security experience from his time with the military. They had him working in the field so he’s fully trained and already licensed.”

I glared at her, not liking where this was going. “I already have a partner who’s fully trained and very, very skilled when it comes to anything computer related.”

“Yes, but we don’t know exactly when she’ll be back and you’re a senior detective with great experience. Anyone would be lucky to have you as their senior.” My aunt waved the folder around impatiently. “Just look it over already.”

I stood and snatched the documents from her before leaning my hip against her desk. “You and my father have to be plotting together because there’s no way you both hand me annoying bullshit so early in the morning.”

They didn’t just think alike, they looked alike too. My aunt had the black hair and that whole office siren thing going on. They looked like twins when they stood next to each other in their sleek business wear.

The only difference was she had blue eyes instead of red.

My aunt was one of only two betas born into my father’s generation. The rest were all alphas which was actually insane when you thought about it. Most legacy packs only had a handful of alphas between all the cousins and of those, maybe one or two inherited the red eyes.

There were seven Lopez alphas including my father and four of them had inherited the red eyes. He had nine siblings in total which was way too many in my opinion, but that was just the way things were back then. Pack wars were far more common and not all alphas survived into adulthood.

But, thanks to all those aunts and uncles I had eighty-three cousins. Eighty-three . That was an absurd number.

Out of all those cousins, there were forty-eight alphas, twenty-six betas, and nine omegas. Despite the numbers, there were only six alphas who’d inherited the red eyes and strength of a true legacy alpha.

Six cousins, three uncles, and one aunt who all thought they deserved the position of pack alpha.

Now two of them were dead.

I opened the folder and flipped through the resumes before stopping at the one I assumed she was planning to assign to me.

The new recruit looked nothing like I’d expected even though I couldn’t say exactly what I thought he would look like, but it certainly wasn’t this.

An alpha who looked like one of those quiet, soft-spoken nerds except his height and weight meant he was about the same size as Lucy’s legacy alphas. His black hair fell into his face, covering one of his eyes, and the other was a strange shade of brown I don’t think I’ve ever seen before.

His resume listed all the computer shit he was familiar with as well as the weapons and languages he was proficient in. The man was definitely an asset, but I still couldn’t decide how I felt about it.

If she’d planned to have him train under anyone else, I wouldn’t care, but my aunt wanted me to train him.

Soren Hart looked like he could be a problem and I couldn’t say why exactly without sounding insane. Maybe it was the look in his eyes.

“He’s too skilled to pass up,” my aunt stated, clearly picking up on my thoughts. “The way you and Lucy work together is unique, but I think he can fill the void while she’s gone.”

I knew she was right, but I refused to admit it. If I did, that would be acknowledging the possibility that Lucy might never come back. And even if she did, the way we worked together would never be the same.

What was I going to do then?

How was I going to handle this change?

I tossed the folder onto the commander’s desk and forced myself to shrug with a disinterested look on my face. “Where are they now?”

“Orientation. Once that’s done, their assignments will be announced.” She glanced down at her fancy watch and smirked. “They should be wrapping up right about now actually.”

My aunt daintily placed her glasses back on and then gracefully pushed back from the desk. She slipped her hands into the pockets of her slacks and headed for the door, confident that I would follow despite the fact that she was the one on my payroll.

Not that we advertised that fact.

I sighed and took the tie off my wrist to pull my hair up into a ponytail.

She reminded me too much of my father, but honestly, that’s what made her such a good commander.

If she thought this Soren Hart would be a good match for me, then there was an extremely high probability that he was, but taking on such a young rookie was the last thing I wanted to do.

Because the second I did, I’d have to admit that things were never going back to they were before and doing that right now might just push me over the edge.

If I lost control, then I would end up failing.

Again.

I could not disappoint my father. I had to be perfect.

There was no other option.