Page 38 of Rejected by My Stepbrother Alpha (Billionaire Shifter Club #1)

T he Call

Asher

“Anya’s calling,” I said, looking down at my phone vibrating on the table.

Ivy, Damian, Mason, and even Adrian went silent. It was the day after the presentation, and we were having lunch in the empty hotel dining room.

I picked up my phone and locked eyes with Ivy. The hopeful look in her eyes made my stomach swoop.

This was it.

We were about to find out if we were chosen to develop our product for the Alpha king.

Something that would create jobs in the ColdCrest pack and in mine.

Helping our pack's economy wasn't the only reason we wanted to win.

There was also our kingdom's safety on the line.

If Silas Shepherd's company was chosen, he would use cheap materials to cut the cost, and that could hinder the Royal Guard while they were defending our kingdom.

Ivy reached across the table and took my hand. She squeezed it tightly and grinned. Ivy also reached for her brother's hand and held onto it. Damian and I nodded at each other. Even if it was only in a small way, the three of us were connected at that moment.

This was what the three of us—and our teams—had been working toward these past few weeks. It was finally here. Ultimately, the Alpha king project was the thing that had brought Ivy and me back together. It was the reason that I found out Adrian was my son.

With my heart in my throat and my gaze on my Mate, I answered the call and put my phone on speaker. You could hear a pin drop in the room. Even the dining room staff seemed to sense how important this moment was.

“Good afternoon, Anya,” I said when the call connected and I gripped Ivy's hand even tighter, needing something physical to hold onto.

“Hello, Asher,” Anya said in a brisk voice.

Shit.

My stomach turned. Why did her voice sound so hurried? Was she trying to finish this call so that she could inform Silas that he had won the account?

I shook my head and shoved those thoughts away. I knew that I was being pessimistic because winning this account was so important to me.

“I assume that Ivy and Damian are with you?” Anya asked in that same curt tone.

“We are,” Damian answered.

Ivy straightened her shoulders and leaned in closer to me. I got a whiff of her honeysuckle scent, which calmed my nerves. As long as she and our son were by my side, I could get through anything.

“Hello, Anya,” Ivy said.

“Good,” the Alpha king's representative said. “I'm sure you know why I'm calling.” She paused and took a breath. It sounded like she was walking down an echoing hallway. “I’m pleased to inform you that your product has been chosen to be developed for the Alpha king.”

A second of silence went by as everyone paused to absorb the news.

Ivy was the first to recover.

“Wow, thank you so much for the opportunity," she said. “You won't regret your decision.”

Then, Damian and I regained the power of speech and thanked her as well.

“I'm sorry, I have to run, I’m late for a meeting with the king,” Anya said. That was why she had sounded so hurried. “My assistant is going to email you all the details you need to know to start producing your product. I look forward to working with you more.”

When I hung up the phone, Adrian looked up at Ivy with those wide green eyes of his. “Wow, Mom. You really did kick their butts!”

All four of us couldn't help but laugh. At one point, Ivy was clutching onto me, and there were actual tears in her eyes.

When we got a hold of ourselves, Mason and Damian immediately started to talk about the next steps to take, but in my opinion, that could wait.

I only had eyes for my Mate sitting beside me.

Ivy and I turned toward each other at the same time.

I grabbed the back of her head and kissed her sweet lips, putting all of the passion and excitement flowing through me behind the kiss.

Ivy’s mouth was soft and warm, and it was the sweetest thing I'd ever tasted.

She returned my kiss with fervor. Her hands slid around my shoulders, pulling me closer to her, and her mouth molded into mine.

I could have stayed like this forever. But our embrace was interrupted by Mason and Damian clearing their throats.

Reluctantly, we moved away from each other, but I kept one of her soft hands in mine.

I wasn’t mad at Damian and Mason for breaking up our kiss.

Just the opposite, in fact. My Mate and I had forgotten ourselves for a second, and I was glad they stopped us before we got too carried away in front of our son.

Adrian was looking at us, his face shining with happiness as a wide grin bloomed across his face.

Anxiety made my stomach churn. Ivy and I hadn’t talked about where our relationship stood yet. I didn’t want to confuse our son when we didn’t know the exact nature of our relationship.

He looked at his uncle and then his grandpa. “Mom and Dad are in love!” he said with excitement. “We're going to be a family!”

Over the next week, our teams begin to develop the product the Royal Guard would use. Because there were many components to our product that needed to be developed separately and then assembled into one item, I was glad that we had Damian and Ivy’s resources that we could ship in as well.

The five of us continued to be on lockdown at the hotel. My investigative team also ran checks on every staff member of the hotel, and they came back clear.

When I wasn’t working on helping facilitate our product’s production or conducting pack business through video calls, I threw myself into finding Evelyn and the identity of who she was working with.

Despite enlisting the help of my investigative team, my staff, Ivy, Damian, and Mason, we couldn’t find any trace of her or who could be helping her sneak into my territory.

The young woman who worked the coffee cart and tried to poison us was questioned extensively by Beta Flynn, but she swore she was only hired online, and the person had wired her half the money.

She said that she was promised the other half of the money when the job was done.

Beta Flynn conducted a lie detector test on her, and he believed the results to be conclusive.

The young woman truly didn’t know the identity of the person who had hired her to drug us.

I knew that Evelyn and whoever she was working with couldn’t be too happy with us getting the Alpha king deal since they attempted to drug us before we gave our presentation.

This made me even more anxious about Ivy and Adrian’s safety.

I was afraid that Evelyn might do something drastic soon.

I kept a close eye on my Mate and our son at all times.

One night, when I was alone and working late in one of the conference rooms of the hotel, I stared out the large window down at the city I had lived in my whole life.

Could one of my pack members really be working with Evelyn to harm me and my family?

Even though it made me queasy just to think that, I knew that I couldn’t rule anything out.

I’d already launched an investigation on every single one of my pack members, but it was going to take a lot longer than looking into my staff had.

My pack was huge, one of the biggest in the kingdom.

With each passing day that we didn’t catch Evelyn, I could tell that the threat her conniving mother posed was taking a toll on Ivy.

I could see the physical signs of stress in my Mate.

Ivy’s body always seemed to be tense as if she was always prepared to protect Adrian at a moment's notice.

She was eating less, and if the purple bruises underneath her eyes were any indicator, she was barely sleeping at night.

I dealt with stress by focusing all my manic energy on my work, but after a week, I wasn’t any closer to finding Evelyn.

I hated feeling like I failed my Mate and our son.

I hated that with all my money and resources, I couldn’t eliminate the threat to my family.

All I wanted to do was protect Adrian and Ivy, and it was making me sick that I couldn’t.

How was I supposed to show Ivy that she could put her full trust in me when I couldn’t take care of the immediate threat against our family?

There was also the threat of the wolf who had attacked Ivy out there. I’d increased all of my security around my borders, but they still hadn’t captured any wolves. If someone was sneaking into my territory, I couldn’t figure out how they were getting in.

But this past week hasn't been all bad. Being locked in a hotel with my Mate and my newfound son was a blessing. Ivy and I tried not to let our increasing worry show in front of our son, and when we weren’t working, we took Adrian up to the pool or played cars with him.

After our passionate kiss in front of him, Ivy and I agreed that we wouldn’t even touch in front of him until we had the time to talk more about our relationship.

With everything going on, we didn’t have much time to spend alone.

Since we barely slept at night, the last time we made love was by the fireplace in her room.

Even though we spent a lot of our time together, I yearned for her every second of every day. I could feel our mating bond growing stronger, and our scars from her mating ceremony grew more pronounced.

Keeping my hands off of my Mate was difficult when we would go swimming, and I’d see her in a dripping wet swimsuit.

I couldn’t help but imagine her naked when I knew firsthand what that gorgeous body looked like.

When I managed to sleep, I pictured those beautiful, full breasts.

Her hard little nipples that were practically begging me to lick and suck them.

In my fantasies, I dreamed up every way I could pleasure that pretty pussy of hers.

Most of all, I dreamed of her stunning face, her shiny auburn hair, sparkling blue eyes, and her sweet lips.

Our mating bond grew even stronger when we emotionally connected. Every moment of laughter, bonding over our funny and kind son, or even just sharing a look, strengthened our bond.

A week after we got the good news about winning the Alpha king account, I was pacing down the hotel hallway, trying to think of something special I could do for Ivy when we couldn’t leave the hotel.

I wanted to do something special for her.

I wanted to show her that she could fully trust me with her heart.

Even though I loved spending time with our son, we could use some time by ourselves.

I passed by Damian’s door and decided to enlist his help with this task. He knew what kinds of things Ivy enjoyed doing.

I knocked on his door, and when he swung it open, his body tensed.

“Is everything all right?” he asked in a sharp voice. “Is Adrian okay?”

I held up my hands to calm him. “Everything is fine. I just need your help. I want to do something special for Ivy without having to leave the hotel.”

A sly smirk crossed Damian’s face, which immediately made me suspicious.

“What?” I asked.

At once, he schooled his expression, crossed his arms, and leaned against the door. Damian was now acting almost too casual.

“I might have a few ideas for you.”