Page 7

CHAPTER 7

Frankie

Something about Soren kept telling me I could rely on him. That he’d be a good partner who could protect me just as well as I could protect him.

There was nothing wrong with that at face value.

But I wasn’t a normal alpha.

I couldn’t afford to rely on other alphas the same way anyone else could.

Because I was weak.

If I trusted my instincts and allowed myself to rely on Soren, I could end up just as fucked as I had been all those years ago with him . I couldn’t allow that to happen. Not now. Not ever.

My father didn’t trust anyone else.

He named me his heir.

Francisco Lopez didn’t care if his pack was taken over by an alpha with red eyes or not, but he couldn’t leave it to anyone other than an alpha or they’d be eaten alive by the power-hungry assholes in our pack.

That meant I had to step up. I had to be the perfect alpha. I couldn’t show any signs of weakness.

There were people who’ve been waiting for Francisco Lopez to make a mistake – to take him down a peg or two by any means possible and if I showed them any sign of weakness, they wouldn’t just use it against me. They’d use it against my father too.

Glancing down at the coffee Soren made for me, I tried to gather my thoughts before he figured out that something so small and stupid had me spiraling.

I could tell by the smell alone he’d figured out how I drank my coffee – sweet and creamy with an added shot of espresso. How he’d picked up on it so quickly was beyond me unless his nose was just as good as Lucy’s.

It might actually be better.

Sipping at the coffee, I nodded my thanks, hoping that would be enough and he’d give me some space.

He pushed his glasses up his nose and then took the empty mug from my desk. “You should drink some more water if you can.”

Wow, the audacity of this guy was unparalleled.

I went to glare at him but he was already walking out of the office with my empty mug.

The coffee was perfect and a tiny whiff of his scent lingered around me.

My hands shook so badly I spilled a little coffee as I put it down, making me laugh and the sound was borderline hysterical.

Then I dropped my head in my hands and tried not to freak the fuck out.

A single alpha shouldn’t be riling me up this much.

I’ve spent the last fifteen years holding my own against every alpha in the city other than my father until I met Cassius Valentine and Liam Valor.

Those two were a league above the rest – even other legacy alphas. I just couldn’t compete with them in terms of power and strength, but they’d never made me feel like this .

Like I wanted to give in for just a moment and let someone else take care of things while I rested.

Only one other person has ever made me feel like this and I’d done everything I could to drive him away just to make sure I would never give in to that feeling.

What were the odds the young recruit who perfectly suited my work style was also an alpha who wasn’t at all interested in power? One who could make me feel safe and grounded?

The chances were fucking nonexistent and I couldn’t help but feel like I was losing my mind. The universe had to be conspiring against me or something. That was the only explanation.

“Ms. James?”

“Mr. Hart.” I straightened and eyed the massive alpha standing in my doorway.

He cleared his throat and dropped his gaze but I saw the red in his eye flash. “Per the schedule, it’s time for our daily workout.”

Actually, that was perfect. Working out always turns my brain off.

“Let’s go then.” I stood and left the steaming cup of coffee on my desk without once looking back.

I wanted to sit here and drink it while I worked on narrowing down the suspects for my father, but Soren was just way too fucking distracting.

Why I’d thought he wouldn’t be, I don’t know, but now I knew and I had to snap myself out of this funk before it dragged me down any farther.

He followed me through the maze of offices to the stairwell, easily keeping up as I jogged down the stairs, never more than two paces behind me.

Normally, I had to drag Lucy to the gym kicking and screaming but Soren wanted to go.

It was weird that I wasn’t bickering with her the whole way down, but it was also kind of nice.

Lucy hated getting sweaty, not that I could blame her, but it always turned her into a cranky bitch. I preferred to use our private gym back at the apartment because of that. Then we could both be cranky without everyone at the office knowing just how much I actually hated working out.

Not that I would ever stop, but sometimes I just wanted to complain without getting the side-eye from everyone and their mom.

Soren slid around me, placing his hand to the scanner before I could and it gave a happy beep, proving he’s already done all the annoying onboarding shit. I wanted to praise him for it, but I pressed my lips together instead, reminding myself I needed to get him as far away from me as possible so praising him was the last thing I should do.

He couldn’t think I wanted him around or he’d never leave.

I stepped through the door into the gym.

The entire first level of the basement was our state-of-the-art gym complete with a pool, a few hot tubs, and a sauna.

“Lockers for alphas are this way,” I told him, pointing at the sign so he could take note of it. “One side for women, one for men. Betas and omegas are on that side.”

He nodded once and followed me into the locker room, smoothly splitting away to the men’s side. I watched him disappear around the corner and wondered if I was making the right decision.

Could I actually work with someone like Soren Hart without getting sloppy?

Was there a possibility I was overreacting?

The fact that I wasn’t sure terrified me, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t do it.

I could try? I mean…he wasn’t Leo. I highly doubted I would react to Soren the same way I had him .

Right?

That was super unlikely and the chances of it happening twice were slim to none if the doctor was right but it was impossible to be sure.

I headed to my locker and spun the combination lock until it clicked.

Opening the cupboard, I grabbed my workout clothes and decided to try it out.

If I could distance myself from the rookie and act like his senior with no regard to our designations, I was pretty sure I could do this without fucking up.

All I had to do was ignore everything about him.

No big deal, right?

With that settled, I quickly changed into my gym clothes and headed for one of the treadmills.

Soren quietly fell into step beside me and did everything the exact same way I did it, even setting his treadmill to the same incline and speed.

At this point, I wasn’t surprised.

I had no idea what he was trying to prove, but everything Soren did was perfect while being as unobtrusive as possible.

It was obvious that he wanted to excel at his position.

Honestly, how could I blame him when I was the exact same way?

I powered through my twenty minutes of cardio without breaking a sweat and my muscles were nice and warm when I headed for the weights with Soren hot on my heels, all while making sure he wasn’t in my way.

We worked out in silence for over an hour before I finally took a break to wipe down and drink some water.

I sat on the bench, rubbing the sweat off my chest as I watched Soren continue to do his pull ups. He had to be at over two hundred by now. It was fucking impressive, especially when he would stop in between every ten to do some crazy calisthenics shit I thought only my father did.

Yeah, I worked on my core too, but not like that. I probably should, but I didn’t have the time to add another form of exercise to my regimen.

Gymnastics and parkour were enough for now since it was the most efficient and applicable.

I focused mostly on speed and strength since I had to work out a lot more than the average alpha. I’d gotten lucky with my speed, but if I didn’t keep up my conditioning I’d lose my edge.

Yeah, a lot of the physical strength was inherent, but thanks to my wonky pheromones I easily lost my hard-earned strength if I didn’t keep up a rigorous schedule.

To be completely honest, it was fucking exhausting, but this was the life I’ve chosen.

I couldn’t get lazy or it wouldn’t just put my life in danger, but all those I was sworn to protect when I agreed to be the next Lopez alpha.

Finally, Soren dropped to the floor before reaching for his towel. He instantly turned to look for me and there was a tiny reaction around his eyes that told me he was surprised I was openly looking at him.

He was worth looking at though. The man was fucking gorgeous even if he was annoying.

I took a sip of my water as I considered him. “How do you feel about sparring?”

His entire demeanor shifted and I raised an eyebrow, wondering why that question made him uncomfortable.

Did he really think I’d break?

“You should also know what I’m capable of,” I reminded him. “A partnership goes both ways.”

Soren looked away, rubbing the back of his neck.

Why did he seem so nervous? It didn’t make any sense.

“The commander gave me your file,” Soren admitted quietly. “I already know that you’re very capable.”

How fucking sneaky. I’d have to leave beetles in my aunt’s drawer again for trying so damn hard to make this work.

“Is there a reason you don’t want to spar with me?” I took another sip of water, curious if he’d tell me or if he’d try to weasel his way out of answering a direct question.

Soren cleared his throat and opened his mouth to answer but a commotion from across the gym snagged my attention, my head whipping to the side to see a group of senior detectives with their rookies on the mats.

There was nothing inherently sinister about what they were doing but my hackles rose anyways.

I got up and crossed the gym at a leisurely pace as I watched the proceedings with narrowed eyes.

Setting off their instincts before I knew what was actually going on could make things worse, so I leaned against one of the cement columns wrapped in padding to watch and listen.

“Who wants to go first?” Taylor asked, his smile just a little too sharp.

No one answered and Harris pushed at Taylor, laughing together as the rookies exchanged looks.

This looked and felt like it was about to be some ridiculous hazing ritual.

“Let’s draw straws,” Harris suggested. “That should be fair.”

I studied the four senior detectives and made note of who they were before getting a good look at their rookies.

None of the new recruits looked comfortable with this.

Out of those four, two were betas, one was an alpha and the other was an omega if I remembered correctly, whereas the four senior detectives were all alphas.

“Allen can go first,” Taylor stated. “Who’d like to go up against him?”

No one answered and I pushed off the column, deciding to intervene.

This was definitely a hazing ritual and too many people were going to get hurt if I let it happen.