Page 10 of Pack Apollo

Roz's lips thin with only slightly veiled annoyance as Jake answers, "That as long as more than one of us has met them then we bring them around for the rest of the pack to meet. I just assumed with all of the drama from the last omega that it'd be a while before we invited one back in."

Risking having anger thrown my way, I remind them, "It's been two years."

"We didn't agree to start searching for another omega, though," Roz counters.

"I wasn't searching for her," I admit.

"She's one of his students," Palmer blurts, making mewant to smack him.

Jake’s jaw drops and Roz closes his eyes and shakes his head. Cordell silently sips his coffee, not taking sides either way yet. Not that there should be sides.

Redeeming himself a small amount, Palmer adds, "Besides, she's not looking for a pack. Said that she just wants to be friends and focus on school."

There's a tiny change in Roz's expression, and I know that he's more on board than he was before. Even if it's inches or centimeters, I'll take it. He's going to be the hardest to win over. Not that I'm putting my eggs in baskets yet and thinking she might be the one, but I don't want him to scare her off before we get the chance to find out, either. Cordell is a wild card and normally does his own thing, but he always thinks before he acts or speaks. And always with facts.

Palmer then offers one small fact that seems to have an immediate effect on Jake. "She's coming over to watch Troma movies."

At his bewildered expression, Palmer laughs and walks over and claps him on the shoulder. "We finally found someone as weird as you are, buddy."

"What time will she be here?" Roz asks as we all start making our plates.

"I'm going to pick her up at noon," Palmer answers. "She has busy Saturday nights, so she told me she normally sleeps in for a good while on Sundays."

"And what is it that she does that gives her busy Saturday nights?" Roz asks.

One by one, we all take our seats around the table made for six with our plates of breakfast.

Palmer shoves a bite of pancake and eggs in his mouth before he replies, "She works over at The Rooster three nights a week. That's how I met her. She requested an Uber a coupleweeks ago. Kind of been her personal chauffeur ever since."

Cordell looks disappointingly at Palmer, making him add, "She still pays me and everything. I just gave her my number so she could call me instead of going through the app."

"By working at The Rooster, do you mean that she bartends or dances?" Roz asks, not missing a single detail.

"Both," Palmer tells him easily, not realizing he could possibly be digging her a hole with Roz.

It stirs an anger that I never let come to the surface. "You can stop with the judgement, Roz. I don't see you giving Jake a hard time for basically the same job."

Jake cocks his head at me. "You ever see me taking my clothes off and dancing on my bar for money? I'm not a stripper."

"Neither is she," Palmer snaps, finally catching on. "I've been in there plenty, and I've never seen any of the girls taking their clothes off. She does it because the money is good and she sends almost all of it back home to her sick mom. I knew you guys were going to give some push back with this, but that's no reason to demean someone. Especially when you don't know their circumstances."

He jerks upright to leave and Roz tells him to sit back down. When he doesn't, Roz barks at him, "Sit. Down."

The alpha tone makes the hair on my arms stand on end, and I know Cordell feels it, too. Palmer's ass drops back into his chair as Jake's head drops. Very rarely does Roz ever use his alpha bark, let alone on us. Unfortunately, Palmer knows how to push his buttons.

"You spring this on us with mere hours to mentally prepare for it," Roz tells him, glancing my way. "We're going to have questions, and some of us may not be happy about it. Our pack is doing just fine without an omega, or have you two forgotten, not just Shelly, but the two before her? We don'texactly have the best track record. Have you also forgotten the discussions we've had about not needing an omega? Especially right now."

Cordell is nodding with him, letting me know where he stands.

"I apologize," I tell the table. "I haven't forgotten any of that, and we definitely should've been more open instead of springing it on you at the last minute. My reasoning is simple in that I wanted everyone to formulate their own opinions of her before the inquisition. Sometimes when you spend so much time in a jaded box, it's hard to step outside of it and see the good."

Roz sighs deeply and rubs the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger. "That's fair. Next time just give us a little warning. I can promise that I'll be on my best behavior today."

"I told you she isn't looking for a pack, anyway," Palmer states, his eyes still locked on the table in front of him, looking like a sad puppy. "I think she doesn't have a lot of friends and is lonely. And she seems really cool. Just thought..."

He trails off and Cordell at his side reaches out to put a hand on his shoulder. "We know what you were thinking, and you're a good man for it. Thank you for looking out for everyone."

Appearing less dejected, he nods and lifts his gaze to mine before giving a short nod. "I'm going to go take a shower and get ready. Thank you for breakfast."

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