5: Hall of Alphas & Betas

                It felt weird, helping to move Nathan’s things into Dmitri’s old apartment suite, across the hall from Sophia’s. We’d remodeled and moved into the suite of rooms that were once occupied by the twins’ parents, and now this suite was sitting empty and unused. It made sense to have all four of us close together, but it still felt weird.

                Sophie was urging Nathan to remodel the rooms, but he’d just grumbled about how it was fine the way it was. He did not object to my insistence that he at least refurnish the rooms, and let us get rid of all of Dmitri’s old furniture. Almost every first for us had happened in those rooms, with that furniture. Even though we’d agreed to start fresh when we moved, as not all of his first memories were of me, I couldn’t completely let go of it all.

                Most of the enforcers were helping us all to move furniture in and out of rooms, including my 6 newly trained female warriors. Sophie, with her OCD level organization skills, was working with their mates to help pack up Nathan’s old room. In just a couple of hours he’d be completely moved up here.

                Technically this would’ve been something of a promotion, except he already held the highest title he could without challenging either Dmitri or I for Alpha. He was living in a sad little dorm-like room, much the same as the other single enforcers downstairs. Sophie was going to drive him crazy with her redecorating ideas. She’d already nagged him into leaving his old full size bed and had two guys moving a king size bed out of a guest room, up for him to sleep on.

                Dmitri wrapped his arms around me from behind as I stood in the empty bedroom. “Reminiscing Princess?” he purred in my ear. I leaned into him, letting his lips play with my neck. There were so many memories, not all of them were good. We never even came in here anymore, and it was a waste to leave it empty.

                Sophie was right; the room was too large for there to be a simple full size bed that looked like it came from Ikea in it. “I was just wondering if he’d change out some of the black finishes,” everything in the three rooms had been some shade of black or dark wood. I grinned, “You know Sophie is going to drive him stark raving mad, right?” His chest shook as he chuckled behind me. “I’m serious and who do you think he’ll take it out on? Me, in training, that’s who.”

                “Yeah, it’ll have nothing to do with how you brutally attacked him a few hours ago,” Dmitri chided me.

                “He had it coming, even if he doesn’t remember why.” I smirked.

                “Who had what coming?” Nathan grumbled, carrying in a few boxes labeled ‘books’ and setting them down. I wasn’t sure if he should’ve been carrying anything too heavy while his shoulder and ribs healed, but I didn’t say so.

                “You,” I grinned at him, “had that fight coming ever since you smacked my face the day I met you.”

                He rubbed his chin thoughtfully, “I’d forgotten about that. I’m not sure you can hold it against me though, you had just tried to bite a chunk out of my Alpha’s hand.”

                I ignored the nip Dmitri placed on my shoulder, “I didn’t hear any complaints out of him about it.”

                Nathan just shrugged, “So now we’re even?”

                “You did slice up one of my favorite tee shirts to ribbon too,” I chewed on my lip for a moment as if mulling it over, “But you did also just agree to let Sophie help you redecorate, sooooo I think that’ll about cover it.” Both men shared a strained laugh, even glancing through the doors to make sure she hadn’t walking into the rooms.

                Once everything was moved around for the night, Sophie immediately started making plans. Nathan shot me a pleading look, ‘Have a little mercy will you? Help me rein her in just a little? Come’on, I’m a wounded man.’

                I shook my head with a smirk, ‘Not on your life! It’s just furniture for 3 rooms, I had a whole suite rebuilt, with construction and decorating. Suck it up man!’ He just held up his hands in surrender looking exhausted.

                I did feel a little bad for the guy, “Hey Soph,” she stopped listing changes they should make and looked at me, “Maybe give the poor guy a break just for tonight? It’s been a long day and he hasn’t even healed completely.”

                She pouted a little, something that mostly only worked on Dmitri, “Of course, Alpha.” I’d hurt her feelings, it was the only time she would call me Alpha when we weren’t in a formal setting.

                “You know, you could probably redo your rooms too.” I offered, “Especially since you don’t have to hide yourself away in them anymore. Or add some color if you like, you don’t have to keep everything stark white.”

                “Really?” her eyes lit up as she looked at me then Dmitri.

                He just shrugged, “If you really want to.”

                She squealed loudly, opening a new file on the tablet in her hands to start jotting down ideas for her own rooms. Nathan gave me an appreciative smile. It eased the last of the guilt I felt about trying to rip his arm off earlier.

                The four of us settled into the now empty room that had been Dmitri’s private office, after collecting a few extra throw pillows from our and Sophie’s rooms. Sitting on the floor between Dmitri’s legs as he leaned on the wall, I sighed. Nathan sat cross legged a few feet from us; Sophie was lying on her stomach, still working on her tablet.

                We still needed to close out the day. “How much can we get done tomorrow if we separate everything between the four of us?” I sounded tired.

                “You mean if we split it all 3 ways,” Dmitri corrected me.

                “We can’t lose a whole day again,” I sighed, “I can take care of anything that can be handled from the house alone. If you insist on being joined at the hip we won’t be able to accomplish as much. You know I’m right. Sophie, how much can be handled from our personal office?”

                She scrolled through our schedules for a minute counting, “She’s right Dimi. If we divide it all between the four of us we can make up for today and get ahead on some things, freeing you both up when he comes back.” She refused to call my uncle by name or titles, making me smile a little.

                “See,” I leaned into him, letting his arms curl back around me, “It’ll be just like old times. You can lock me up in your room and give me a babysitter and everything.” I teased, bringing up how our relationship had started by me practically being held prisoner and under constant guard.

                “Fine,” Dmitri huffed quietly, “I want Blake and Samuel to join your guards out in the hall the whole time.”

                Nathan nodded at him, already sending out the orders by link.

                He brought his lips close to my ear again, whispering quietly, “What are we up to now, Princess? Was it 6 or 7?” The promise of punishment sent a shiver up my spine. “Sophie will take care of all the departing Alphas and their Lunas that haven’t left yet. Nate and I will take the rest. That covers it all?”

                Sophie nodded, “I’ll finalize the schedules before breakfast tomorrow.”

                “Good, let’s all get some sleep then,” he climbed up off the floor and pulling me up with him.

                “You good to keep our session tomorrow,” I looked down at Nathan. His bruises had turned a sickly yellow, almost completely healed already.

                “Yeah, I think I got just the plan to kick your training up a notch,” he smiled up at us, “Don’t wear each other out too much before then.” I hated that I still blushed when someone implied we had sex every chance we got.

                Dmitri and I walked Sophie across the hall to her own rooms, giving her a quick hug good night, before finding our way back to our own bedroom. All four of us living in the same wing of the main pack house, it was fitting. After all, we were the only four people in the world that would ever know that Dmitri and I were not true mates.

                Sophie wasn’t completely convinced that we weren’t true mates. We shared dreams with each other while we slept; something even couples with the strongest of bonds did only rarely. It was usually a phenomenon that occurred when a couple was physically far away from each other for prolonged periods of time. For us it was every night, even while we were next to each other.