Page 12

CAMDEN

I liked Julian, I really did. But I couldn’t help but feel disappointed that he was the only one who’d wanted to stick around with me.

My dad had warned me that creating a pack with your high school friends was a recipe for disaster, but I hadn’t imagined that the only thing that could keep us together was an omega. As soon as she’d left, they all split.

Yet it was her leaving that hurt the worst. Why didn’t she want me to go to San Francisco with her? I could kind of understand her going to Chicago with Elias, especially since Archer would be joining them down there, too. Elias wanting to show Marlowe his home, where he lived—that made sense.

But Marlowe only wanted to show her home, where she’d lived, to him. Not me. Not the rest of us. Just Elias.

I would have loved going to Frisco with her. And after she got attacked by that fucking bloodsucker, I knew my instincts to keep her with me had been right.

She didn’t want me there, though. Had talked me out of going. Twice.

Or was this all Elias’s doing? He’d never really said outright he’d be moving back up here once Marlowe was bonded with us. Maybe this whole time he’d been working her, trying to get her to hate Maiingan Hollow so she’d settle down with him in Chicago, instead.

And now he had her wrapped around his finger, acting like we were just side characters in his relationship with her.

My phone chimed and I looked down at another picture she’d sent, this one was of her eating ice cream in front of some sea lions.

Fuck, she looked so pretty.

I knew she was purposefully not sending any pics of her with Elias, but he was present in every photo anyway because he was the one taking them. And what Marlowe didn’t likely realize was that the ones he’d taken of the two of them were all over his social media accounts, framing this as some romantic getaway. Shots of just their hands entwined, coffee with hearts in the foam, him kissing her on the cheek…

Well, two could play at this game. As soon as she came back, I was taking her somewhere special. Just us.

Maybe Julian could come.

We’d go somewhere warm, so she could wear cute little sundresses, short shorts, and bikinis. Florida or Mexico, maybe.

My phone chimed again.

Marlowe: I miss you, baby.

I glanced towards Julian’s phone where it lay next to him on the couch. His didn’t light up.

She was making sure to write to each of us individually, sending us different pictures and messages. This wasn’t some group text to keep us placated.

Me: I miss you, too.

I looked up at the knock on my open door. “You have a meeting in ten,”

Patricia said.

I tapped the screen on my phone to check the time. “Got it, thanks.”

Instead of leaving she took another step inside, closing the door behind her. “Did you scare James’s daughter away?”

She huffed at the confused expression on my face and continued. “You brought that poor girl in here and then she couldn’t seem to get away from you fast enough.”

“Trish,”

I sat back in my chair. “Marlowe’s in my pack. We’re bonded. I appreciate your concern, but she’s fine.”

My secretary still didn’t look convinced. “Well, is she going to come in again soon? The girls and I wanted to take her out for lunch, but she hasn’t been back since last Wednesday.”

My chest constricted at the gesture. Poor Marlowe had been concerned she wouldn’t fit in and find friends, and here was Patricia, worried about her and wanting to make sure she felt included and welcomed. Sure, Patricia was twice her age, but she was a great person to talk to. “She’s out of town right now, she needed to wrap some things up at her old place. But she’ll be here for the holiday party. And I think she’d really like getting lunch with you all.”

Patricia turned to leave but stopped. “I worked closely with James for years,”

she said. “You have no idea how many times I went into his office and found him staring off into space, or trying to hide pictures of his kids. Whatever reason he had for leaving them… just take care of her, okay?”

I grinned, and before I could even make a joke she stopped me. “Not like that, get your mind out of the gutter. You’re worse than your father.”

“Oof,”

I cringed. “Yeah, I do not want to think those things about my dad.”

She waved her hand dismissively and I gathered my things to follow her out and to the director’s meeting.

I did a double-take when I saw Hailey, one of our accountants, waddling down the hallway.

“Hey, what are you still doing here?”

I walked up and placed my hand on her belly. “You look like you’re due with Camden Jr. any minute now.”

She giggled. “Very funny. No, I still have another few months. I just look this big because I’m having twins.”

“Twins…”

I repeated, rubbing her stomach. My mind drifted to thoughts of Marlowe’s brother. The pack had scattered so quickly that we hadn’t had a chance to really talk about him yet. He was strong, and his use of magic was… unprecedented.

But what he had told Marlowe seemed crazy. What was that shit about other realms and being descended from fairies or something? I would just write him off as a nut job if I hadn’t witnessed him burn a dozen vampyrs from the inside out with a flick of his wrist.

I snapped out of my thoughts when I felt a little kick against my hand. “Well, take care of Camden One and Camden Two for me. Don’t go pushing yourself too hard, got it?”

She gave me a mocking salute before walking away slowly. “Aye aye, alpha.”

I stopped by the kitchen to refill my travel mug with coffee and headed to the small conference room.

With the fiscal year coming to a close soon, today’s meeting was mostly just the CFO going over the final budget reports.

“…so looking ahead, our key focus should be on maintaining equipment and employee retention, as well as streamlining our project workflows. But I anticipate another strong year, and you can expect my official report by the end of the week. Any questions?”

I yawned, ready to get this wrapped up, when one of the directors cleared his throat. “Great presentation, Isaac, but, uh… are we gonna talk about the elephant in the room?”

The directors were silent. I had absolutely no idea what Eric was talking about, and looked around the table to realize everyone was staring at me. “Wait, what?”

“Sorry Cam,”

Eric started. “But James left his half of the company to his daughter. An omega.”

I bit back my growl at his inflection on Marlowe’s designation. “I understand she’s bonded to you now, so what’s happening with that half? She’s just giving it to you, right?”

“Smart move,”

Isaac chimed in. “Get her bonded and take back control of James’s shares.”

The pencil in my hand snapped in half. “Do you really think I bonded her just for her inheritance?”

Mark elbowed me in the arm and winked. “Well, not only that.”

The round of laughter echoed in the room, but all I felt was rage. Were these guys always like this, and I had just never noticed? I mean, I wasn’t exactly a paragon of gentlemanliness, but…

This is an alpha-run business! There is no way some beta female can walk in and…

I cringed as I recalled the first words Marlowe’d ever heard coming out of my mouth. I had thought the same thing as these assholes, that running this company was no job for a female. I was just like Eric, Mark and the rest of them right now.

But that didn’t mean I couldn’t change.

I cleared my throat, trying to get their attention back. “Marlowe’s pretty smart. I think if she wanted a position here, we could…”

“You mean a position besides bent over your desk?”

someone chimed in, miming slapping an ass in front of him.

When laughter erupted again, I finally lost it, standing up and pounding my fists on the table. “Enough!” I barked.

Everyone submitted for a moment, and then Isaac spoke again. “Cam, you’re knotting that sweet omega pussy now, no need to be so uptight about it.”

The next thing I remembered was the rest of the directors pulling me off the CFO, his face beaten to a bloody pulp.

“Cam! Calm down! You’re going to kill him!”

I snarled, trying to get myself free from the four males holding me back. “That’s the fucking point!”

I tapped my leg furiously, inspecting the cuts, bruises, and splotches of blood on my knuckles while waiting for Jordan, our HR director, to finish typing. “Okay, and you say Isaac then made a crude comment about your… pack mate?”

she asked.

Moon, it felt like being in the principal’s office in high school all over again. “About Marlowe Linden, yes. James’s daughter. Owner of half this company. My bonded pack mate and omega. Would you like me to continue?”

She took off her glasses and sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. “You know, sometimes I think I should quit and get a job at a nice, normal, human company, where I’m not writing incident reports about alphas beating each other up once a week.”

“Jordan,”

I sighed. “How would you feel if someone told Wade he was lucky to be ‘getting your pussy?’ Are you saying you would blame him if he freaked out? You wouldn’t want him defending your honor?”

Jordan flattened her lips, giving me a pointed look. “I’m glad you’ve finally discovered that females don’t like being objectified, but it’s hard to take you seriously when I’ve sat across from countless betas crying their eyes out in here because you’ve dumped them. Or yelled at them. Or dumped them, then yelled at them. You helped create this environment, you know.”

I looked at the clock. Marlowe was on her way to Chicago now.

Elias had until Friday to bring her back for the holiday party.

Taking a deep breath, I closed my eyes and went to my happy place—my house, pre-vamp attack. In my basement, watching TV on my couch with my head on Marlowe’s lap, her fingernails running through my short hair.

Pure bliss.

“Yes, I have a lot of crow to eat,”

I said. “I get that. And yeah, it probably feels pretty disingenuous for me to finally give a crap about how females are treated here now that I’m bonded to one. But Marlowe grew up human, and she worked in women’s advocacy. I’ve learned a lot about my mistakes, and how alphas should try to tone down the instinct to fight first and ask questions later.”

Jordan looked at me like I was the stupidest person she’d ever met, and I crossed my arms in a huff. “And yes, obviously it makes me a hypocrite to be saying that when I just sent the CFO to the hospital. If she were here, she’d be on your side.”

Her fingernails drummed across the desk slowly. “Well as reassuring as that is, thankfully for you it looks like Isaac’s willing to sweep this all under the rug with the right incentive.”

Fucking snake. “Yeah, yeah, the company will pay his medical bills and he’ll receive a very generous solstice bonus this year. Is that everything then?”

She put her glasses back on and leaned forward in her chair, tilting her head slightly. “If you don’t want the directors’ meetings to be full of sexist alpha males, then you need to start including some betas and females. And…”

she held up her hand to stop me from interrupting as I opened my mouth. “I don’t mean Marlowe. I have no doubt she’s a smart, capable shifter, but it’s just going to look like nepotism—at least until she’s put in some time here and proven herself. In the meantime, if you’re actually interested, I can put together a short list of candidates that have been recommended for promotion and have received glowing reviews from their supervisors.”

I ran my tongue along the bottom of my teeth in thought. As much as I’d like Marlowe to work with me, there was so much of our future we hadn’t really gotten the chance to discuss yet. Did she even want a job here? I alone could easily foot the bill if she wanted to stay at home, so between the five of us—well, six, including her inheritance—she’d never have to work another day in her life, if that was her choice.

But regardless, Jordan’s reasoning was sound and fair. And the last thing I wanted was to create more animosity towards Marlowe by handing her a job she hadn’t earned or wasn’t qualified for, even if she’d be amazing at it. “Okay, let’s do that. We can start once we return to the office next month. Can I go now?”

Jordan awkwardly gestured towards the door. “Yeah, you’re the boss.”

I nodded and walked back to my office, ignoring the pinprick on the back of my neck from the feeling of people watching me.

Isaac had probably been wheeled out on a stretcher down this hall, so of course, everyone likely knew what had happened.

Patricia was already waiting by my door. “Is it true? Did you beat the crap out of Isaac?”

She had worked at the company longer than I had. As a kid, I’d come in sometimes with my dad after school, after my mom passed, and Patricia would let me sit at her desk and color or do my homework. She was the one who had taken me to the kitchen and found me treats, and had let me make copies and shred documents when that had seemed like the most fun thing to do in the world.

So her disappointment always hit the hardest when I’d fucked up. I swallowed and looked down at the floor. “Yes, I did. He said something vile about Marlowe I don’t wish to repeat.”

I braced myself for one of her trademarked “I’m not mad, I’m disappointed”

sighs but instead Patricia patted me on the cheek. “Good boy. James and your father would be proud.”