Page 68 of Their Knotty Pack
Her eyes dart to my hand as she bites her lip. "What's that?"
"I need you to give me their names."
"They…they're lawyers, like you. Pack Hansen. Chris, Tucker, Grayson, and Preston."
Well, shit. I know them.
No wonder she clammed up the moment I came downstairs.
"What's that look?" she asks, brows furrowing as she sits up and tilts her body towards me.
"I…" I run my hand over my face. "I'm…acquainted. We went to law school together, and before that, we were a part of the same frat. But they're the ones who have been giving me the most trouble since I left my old pack and started Omegas First. I hadn't spoken to them since graduation, and then they started flooding my inbox and voicemails."
"Oh…wow." She swallows, and suddenly I don't like the way she's looking at me.
"Please don't do that," I plead. "I'm not like them. I can take responsibility for being complicit in all the regular douche-bag, entitled prick behavior, but I've gotten away from that. I've…reformed myself. Become a better person."
"You're a…" a small smirk tilts at her lips, "a reformed frat boy?"
The thread of tension in me loosens, and I chuckle. "I guess you could say that."
"Why are they givingyoutrouble?" She frowns.
"I'm not really sure." I sigh, running a hand through my hair. "I suppose it could be argued that I'm taking their clientele by offering free services, but I wouldn't think that omegas make up a high enough percentage of their client base to make that much of a difference."
Bethany's brows furrow. "Huh. I feel like the majority of their clients were omegas. Every couple of nights at least one of them would take me to dinner with them to show an omega they were trustworthy lawyers to have."
My eyes widen. That frequently? That…doesn't seem right. Then she looks down, her voice quiet. "I…I'd heard them talking. About how they increased the fees for omegas because of 'hazard pay' for their employees or something. They would sound so convincing, but now I'm wondering…"
"It's a disgusting but common practice," I admit, "firms charging omegas more money in the name of making work easier for the alphas. They claim the omegas are too tempting. The reality is they have no self control." I sigh, running a hand through my hair again. "It's why I started my firm. After I turned my old pack in to the police for harassing and assaulting Cady, I realized that if shehadn't found her scent matches, she would have been facing all her legal costs and fees alone. That didn't sit right with me. Luckily, I didn't spend all the money my parents granted me in my trust fund when I turned twenty-one, and that took care of the startup costs." I don't say how pissed off my parents were about the whole thing. "Hannah actually donated most of her winnings from her court case to my business, and I was able to bring on four new lawyers. They're a little younger and more inexperienced than I'd like, but that just means they haven't been corrupted yet"
"That's amazing," she says on a whisper, her eyes wide. Then, she shakes her head and clears her throat. "I just want you to know, and it doesn't hold much weight because my job isn't anywhere near a lawyer's, but I'm proud of you. You went against everything you were ever taught to believe and you did the right thing."
Her words, the fact she just said she wasproudof me, makes my chest fill with warmth. "Oh, beautiful, you have it all wrong." Leaning forward, I place a palm on her cheek. "Your opinion means everything to me. In fact, I'd argue that it's the only one that matters. Yours and Miles'. Because just in case I haven't made my intentions perfectly clear, I'm all in. With both of you."
Her scent fills the air and she lets out the sweetest little "Oh," before I lean forward and capture her lips with mine.
Bethany's plush, pillow-soft lips part for me sweetly, letting me taste and tease her with my tongue. She leans further into me, her scent getting even sweeter—
The doorbell rings.
She pulls away from me with a gasp, all flushed cheeks and wild eyes. "The pizza!"
"You ordered pizza?"
"I told the rest of the guys they could fend for themselves for dinner." She gives me a little smile before starting to walk to the door.
"Um," my hand closes around her arm. "I'll grab it." I don't need the pizza guy witnessing my omega looking so…sexily rumpled.
She smooths a hand over her clothes before arching a brow at the tent in my basketball shorts. "A whole pack of twelve could camp under that. Unless a one-hundred percent straight male is delivering that pizza, I don't want anyone to see…you."
A smile pulls at my lips. Turns out, I like a possessive omega. "Mine is easily fixable." I close my eyes, and mutter to myself, "Grandmas. Dentures. Kieran's socks."
Bethany giggles as I open my eyes and shoot her a wink. "See? All better." She lets me get the pizza, and then we settle on the couch for a night in, a cheesy rom-com playing on the TV while we snuggle together, her leaning against my side while I have one arm wrapped around her. Damien, Kieran, and Miles come down to invite us to play video games with them upstairs, but we decline, happy with what we're doing now.
Just the feeling of her in my arms, our positioning so casual, so…domestic, well, something in my heart seems to click into place.
It's perfectly innocent…until it's not.
