Page 86 of Their Knotty Pack
"Yeah…but they did show up at dinner with my pack last night."
"One of your alphas is a detective, right? Detective Song?"
My brow furrows, but I nod. "That's right." I don't recall ever talking to him about my pack…
"Good. I'll have the security footage pulled and sent over to him in case he needs it for your restraining order."
My mouth drops open. "How…how do you know all that?" Hunter only said last night that he was going to put in for one.
"A magician never reveals his secrets." He grins.
"Noah?" I ask, raising a brow.
"Yeah, Noah." Brenna smirks. "Song called in a favor with Titus De Lucca, which involves looking into Pack Hansen to see why they're so obsessed with getting you back when they obviously didn't care before. The nature of the…kinds of connections they're looking into had Titus calling me."
Huh. I wonder why Hunter didn't say anything to me about it.
I also wonder what kind of connections he's talking about.
"Alright, kids, I gotta go train some soldiers, but let me know if you need someone to walk you to your cars once the day is over." Brennan leaves, heading down the back hall. Christy looks shaken by the whole confrontation. I'll have to bake her a pie or something to apologize.
People do that, right? Bake pies if it's like…a really big apology? Does the flavor matter? What kind of pie says "I'm sorry you almost got caught in the crossfire of an altercation between me and my raging ex-pack of assholes"?
Maybe boysenberry.
"Bethany?" Christy calls in a curt voice. "Mrs. Lopez would like to see you in her office."
"Itdoesn't matter if you invited them or not, Bethany," Mrs. Lopez, a severe omega in her fifties, says shortly. "They disrupted our environment, nearly assaulted an employee and made a bad impression on a client."
"We're filing a restraining order—"
"I'm afraid that's not enough." Mrs. Lopez snaps. "First, your performance tanked after your break-up, which frankly, I understood. But then right when you were getting better, you nearly had sex with another omega in the scent-matching room—yes" she gives me a pointed look—"those rooms have cameras. Which means I also heard everything you told Ms. Stephanie in your appointment earlier, which frankly, is the last straw. Her being there to witness your altercation with Pack Hansen was just confirmation that I'm doing the right thing."
"Do you expect me to lie?" I ask, standing up from my chair. "You want me to say that we guarantee a happy ending when I'm living proof that we don't?
"That's the problem, isn't it?" Mrs. Lopez asks, taking off her glasses and cleaning them with a cloth. "You're the poster child for why this process isn't always one hundred percent successful. But we can't advertise with that, Bethany. The government will pull our funding. So…" she sighs, her eyes shining with the smallest bit of regret as my heart drops into my stomach. "So…I'm going to have to let you go."
Chapter 35
Bethany
Numb.
That's all I feel as I walk to my car holding a small box of my personal items, Lanie holding onto my arm while Brennan trails behind us to make sure Pack Hansen isn't lurking anywhere.
My heated discussion with Mrs. Lopez plays over and over again in my mind.
"I've had perfect performance evaluations and stellar customer reviews for the last six years! You can't just fire me!" I probably sound borderline hysterical, but what does she expect? This is the only job I've had for my adult life, and it's suddenly being snatched away from me.
"Read your contract again, Ms. Thomas," Mrs. Lopez says coldly. "If at any point in time we feel like an employee is not representing our values or is hurting the company, we can terminate at will."
"Yourvalues?" I let out a bitter laugh. "Which values am I not representing? The one where you want omegas to be pushed into making uninformed decisions?"
"You're only making this harder on yourself, Bethany. Are you going to leave the premises quietly, or do I need to call security?"
Without a word, I stand and leave her office.
Lanie had found me ten minutes later, staring at the small box with all my work-life stored inside. It's not like we have actual desks, considering our jobs consisted of walking omegas back and forth from our scent-sampling room. But in the break room we each have our own little lockers, and sitting on top of the unit is my small little succulent, Allie the aloe. Sniffing, I finally dropped her into the box, and Lanie had stared at me in shock.
