Page 126 of Promised to the Alpha Prince

Why?

What was the point of this? I asked if the Banninos had done anything while they were in our system to attack us. Had they taken sensitive information or sold our stocks or anything of that nature?

The IT guys said no. They said nothing had been touched, nothing had been stolen, and there had been no downloads from our system.

“Just to fuck with us,” they said. “You know, for the lulz.”

Psychological warfare, then? They were annoyed with me, so they threw a tantrum?

Didn’t seem right to me. Something else was going on.

I told the office to get me on a plane so I could come in and fix this problem. I told them to get me the phone numbers for everyone in the Bannino family so that I could talk to them (because I couldn’t access my contacts on my phone).

Then I spent an hour trying to get someone, anyone, from the Bannino family on the phone.

Their secretaries told me they were busy, and my direct calls to their cell phones all went directly to voicemail.

I called the office back. Did I have a plane? They said that was off the table because I’d somehow been placed on a banned list and if I presented my passport anywhere, it would be confiscated.

“Rent me a car,” I said.

They did.

I went to get it, and then realized I could not drive back to the office, because the office was located in Castille, and I was currently in Valhn, and I could not cross a country border with my passport.

I took the car to buy a burner phone, which I could use to stay in touch with the office. But I didn’t have any numbers for Aurelie or any of the princes. I figured I was better to go back there, to that castle. I was stressed out, and maybe I needed to blow off some steam, get my knot wet, fight with Dmitri, fuck Dmitri…

I didn’t even know at that point.

I could have called to tell them I was on my way, but that would mean asking the office to dig up those numbers for me, something that wouldn’t have been easy with all our systems down.

So, I just drove.

I drove back to my omega and my alpha and it felt good to be leaving all the mess of everything else behind. It felt good not to think about stocks or crime families or hacks or any of it.

It felt like freedom.

23

dmitri

AFTER I WALKED out, I expected someone to follow me.

No one did.

Not even Aurelie.

I mean, admittedly, I did say that I needed to be alone for a little bit, which would tend to discourage anyone from coming after me, but I still thought that someone would find me.

So, maybe I was a jackass, and maybe they all hated me.

It was kind of funny that I’d never considered it before. They obeyed me. They were aroused by me. But maybe, when it came down to it, I didn’t give them a choice. They had to be with me, even her. Maybe none of it was real.

I stewed over that for a while, feeling real sorry for myself.

And then I decided that I could sit here and whine internally, like a big alpha baby, or I could take some responsibility and fix things. Okay, they didn’t have a choice? Fine. I was their pack leader, and they were stuck with me, so I might as well be the best pack leader I could be.

I went to look for Nikolai, because I figured that he had the highest need at this point. He was hurting the most.

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