The Meeting

Alpha Kade’s POV

“Marcus! What the hell were you thinking?!” I roar. My dumbass Beta just informed me of what he spent his afternoon doing, including breaking up a little tussle with that damn Omega from last night.

“Alpha, she needs help. You didn’t see what the Beta heir was doing to her while the Alpha heir stood back and watched. I get it...you don’t help people, not since her. You refuse to take a chance on anyone, I get it, I really fucking do. But for fucks sake, you can’t expect everyone around you to be fucking heartless too! Lei—”

“Watch yourself, Beta!” I growl as he starts to mention her name again. “Don’t bring her up again!”

His face softens slightly before he continues. “Kade, I just want to help her. She has no one here—nothing. You didn’t see the suffering she was in and you didn’t see the look in her eye when I tried to help her. All I want to do is help her. Get her out of here. I don’t care what the hell we do with her once we get her out, but no one should have to live through the hell this pack is putting her through.”

“I can’t do anything to help her, Marcus. That’s the end of it,” I bark out, gritting my teeth at his persistent behavior.

I turn on my heel and storm out of the room, not giving him the chance to start arguing with me again. I can’t help her.

I won’t help her.

And it has nothing to do with her.

‘Keep telling yourself that,’ Ghost remarks. ‘I know you feel something when you look at her. Just admit it.’

‘There’s nothing there. Nothing familiar about her, Ghost. She just caught me off guard yesterday, that’s it.’

I push my wolf to the back of my mind and pull out my phone, checking the time. I pick up my pace, so I can get to this meeting with Alpha Jackson. We decided we are going to meet before the ball starts. A door opens behind me and Garrett, my Gamma, falls into step beside me.

I glance over at him, taking in his tux, and laugh at the sour expression on his face. “You clean up nice, Gamma.”

“Same for you, Alpha,” he grunts.

“Why did you volunteer to come if you don’t want to be here?” I ask him. If you saw the way he has behaved since we came to this pack, you would think I forced him at gun point to come to this thing, but in reality, it was different. He asked me if he could attend. He said something about it being time to find his mate and put himself out there.

Out of the warriors in my pack, Garrett is the one who hates leaving the pack the most since the passing of his old man. His dad’s death really destroyed some part of him and since he hasn’t been the same. So, I was shocked when he offered to come to this thing with us.

Thankfully, my dad and Marcus’ dad are still alive, so I left them in charge of the pack while we came here.

“You know my reason. It’s time for me to find a mate. Dad would have wanted me to find her, and mom has been relentless about it, so here we are. It doesn’t mean I have to be happy about it.” He pauses, taking a deep breath, before changing the topic. “Are you ready for the meeting with Jackson?”

I scoff and roll my eyes. “Not a chance in hell. I hate the man with a fucking passion.” I pause and switch to the mind-link, not wanting anyone else to overhear the conversation.

‘Alpha Jackson and his pack will pay for the havoc they wrecked on my family. Jackson knows who I am, but I don’t think he has quite made the connection as to who my parents are. Not many people make that connection because we changed the pack’s name after it happened when I took over.’

Garrett laughs. ‘Jackson is in for a hell of a surprise then. So, you’re going to give him the treaty agreement that he has been fighting you for?’

‘Of course. The treaty doesn’t really benefit us, but after thinking about it, I decided to go through with it. I am going to go through with my ultimate goal. The treaty makes it easier for us to get into the pack.’

‘Does your dad know you are doing this?’

I turn away from him and continue walking down the hallway. I don’t respond until we are outside of the Alpha’s office.

‘No, he doesn’t. Dad is adamant to just let bygones be bygones, but I can’t let what he did to my family go. He destroyed us. He destroyed everything my parents worked for, including them. I will get revenge for my family.’

I raise my hand, knocking loudly on the door. I don’t give Jackson a chance to answer before I am making my way into the room.

“What the fuck?!” Jackson exclaims as we walk in. I turn my head in disgust as he has one of the Omega’s bents over his desk. “Can’t you see I am busy?”

“I don’t give a fuck what you are busy doing. We have a meeting. If you are too busy to keep to our agreed meeting time, then maybe I should just take myself and my warriors and leave. You clearly don’t need this treaty like you claimed.”

Jackson growls and mumbles something under his breath. He pulls out of the Omega and smacks her ass, telling her to grab her stuff and get out of his face. Garrett and I move out of the doorway to give her the ability to leave the room.

Once the door shuts behind the Omega, Garrett and I move further into the room and take a seat in front of his desk.

Jackson raises an eyebrow at me in question. “Where’s your Beta? I figured you would bring him to the meeting instead of the Gamma.”

“What I do with my people is none of your concern. If I want my Gamma in the meeting, he will attend. If I decide I just want to have one of my regular warriors, then I will. You don’t dictate who joins a meeting from my pack.”

I can feel Garrett’s eyes on me as I finish speaking. I turn my head slightly and stare into his eyes. He doesn’t say anything, just raises his eyebrow at me in question. I barely shake my head and turn my attention back to Jackson.

“Let’s get this over with. My Gamma is looking forward to attending the ball.”

“Very well,” Jackson murmurs. “I didn’t mean to insult you. I was just merely curious.”

“You know what they say,” I remark. “Curiosity kills the cat.” My voice drops an octave, and I can see the sweat beading on Jackson’s forehead.

The meeting passes quickly. Jackson agreed to all my terms with no argument. Little does he know; he is soon going to regret his decision to make a treaty with my pack.

We make our way to the ballroom and her scent hits me before she does. I see her standing outside the ballroom, greeting guests with a fake smile plastered to her face. I don’t know anything about this girl, and I can already tell her smile is absolutely fake—there is nothing genuine about it.

“Good evening, Alpha,” she murmurs quietly, her eyes not meeting mine as they stare at my feet. I can hear the trepidation in her voice.

“Little Omega,” I say quietly, “I expect for you to look at me when you are addressing me, not my shoes.”

I keep my voice soft and quiet, not intending to upset her; however, my words have the opposite effect. Her head lifts, her eyes pinging between Garrett and me. Her eyes widen with fear and her voice wavers as she apologizes.

“Y-y-yes, Alpha, I-I-I am sorry. W-w-won’t happen a-a-again.”

“Good.”

Garrett and I start to walk away, and we get halfway through the room, looking for Marcus when Garrett stops, his hand reaching out to grab my arm and stop me.

“Did something seem familiar about the Omega?” he asks.

“Yeah, it feels like I should know her, but I don’t recognize her one bit. It’s a feeling that’s there, but I can’t seem to place. Don’t tell Marcus I scared her. He will shit his pants if he finds out. The boy has a weird obsession with protecting her. He already calls me heartless as it is.”

Garrett laughs. “Well, Alpha, you do a pretty good job of being heartless on a daily. Nothing new for us to deal with your crazy fucking mood swings.”

I just roll my eyes instead of responding to him.

My eyes scan the room and look for Marcus. I see a few of our warriors, one of them looking like they have found their mate.

I finally see Marcus on the other side of the room. I point him out to Garrett and we both make our way across the room.

We spend half the night mingling with the other guests in this pack before I move around to mingle with some of the other Alphas.

I move to find Marcus. I move around the people until I spot him chatting to one of the other Betas.

“Marcus,” I say as I approach, giving a nod to the other Beta he’s talking to. “I am heading back to the room to turn in. You are in charge. Make sure the warriors don’t get themselves into any trouble. And make sure Garrett, especially, doesn’t get into any unnecessary trouble. You know how that man is around other women.”

“Aye, Aye Alpha. I will be back later.”

I leave Marcus and start heading to exit the ballroom. I hear a crash and ignore it as I leave. I decide to stop at the restroom before leaving to go back.

I leave the building and start making my way to the guests’ quarters when I hear crying coming from the wooded area next to my stop.

‘We should check it out,’ Ghost says as I start to walk away and ignore it. ‘Someone might need some help.’

‘Fine. Just don’t start going soft on me like Marcus.’

I make a beeline for the woods, changing my direction. The crying becomes faint, almost like it is moving further and further away from me.

I see a flash of movement and I tilt my head in curiosity.

“Stop!” I yell, pushing out my aura just a little. I see the figure freeze as I get closer to her.

My eyes widen as I grab the girl’s arm and turns her to face me, gasping at the sight before me. It’s the Omega Marcus has had a new obsession with…the same Omega taking up residence in my head…the one I haven’t been able to place as to why she is so familiar.

“Alpha, please let me go,” she whimpers. “This is my only chance.”

“Who did this to you?” I ask her angrily. My hands shake as I touch her swollen face.

“It’s no big deal, just please let me go.”

Goddammit. I don’t want to feel sympathy for her, but looking at her, it’s all I feel. Her face is swollen and bruised. She looks like she’s having a hard time breathing.

“Come with me,” I pull her towards me, and she puts the brakes on, digging her heels in the soft soil beneath her.

“No, I said let me go.”

“No,” I roar, angry at her for not following my directions—something I am not used to people doing. I don’t want to go with you. I push the full weight of my aura on her and I watch as her legs buckle. I pick her up by the weight, tossing her over my shoulder. She struggles against me, hitting and kicking me in the back.

“Fuck you, you goddamn oversize mutt!” she screams. “I want down! I didn’t give you permission to touch me, asshole!”

‘She’s feisty,’ Ghost comments, pushing himself forward so he’s at the forefront with me. ‘What are we doing with her?’

‘Nothing,’ I growl in answer. ‘She seems to be trying to leave. I am going to take her to her Alpha. Let him know he has an Omega runaway and then we are going back to our room.’

The entire way back to the ballroom, the Omega continues hitting me, begging for me to let her go.

Once I enter the ballroom, I mind-link Garrett and tell him to bring Jackson to me. I want to get this over with.

In a matter of minutes, Jackson appears with Garrett on his heels. The Omega locks up and freezes against me the moment she lays her eyes on both of them.

“What the hell is the meaning of this? Alpha Kade why are you man-handling my Omega? No one gave you permission to touch members of my pack, Alpha,” he growls, his aura falling from him.

His weak aura does nothing to affect me, which I notice irritates him. I unceremoniously drop her on the ground.

“There, no longer ‘manhandling your Omega.’ I came to bring her back, since it seems you were about to be an Omega short as she tried to run away from your pack.” I pause taking a deep breath, calming myself. “She looks like someone roughed her up. Maybe you should look into your pack and figure out who’s the one really fucking with your Omega. Maybe that’s something you should consider.”

I shrug my shoulders and turn to walk away, not before I glance down at the Omega I dropped on the ground. Her hands are shaking as she stares up at me, defiance and anger clear into her eyes.

If looks could kill, I would be a dead man right now.