Page 10 of Excess

Hans, one of the Board members who’d held a grudge against me for a decade now because I hadn’t mated his son, cleared his throat. “Inika, we understand that this is a big commitment for you. However, we have been putting off decisions around succession planning for years now, and frankly, we can’t do it any longer. We will be finalising it by the end of the financial year, come what may.”

I could only take a mate during my annual heat, so I heard the deadline in Hans’s edict, despite him leaving it unsaid.

Emerge from your nest after your next heat—in a month—mated to a suitably posh alpha who can have all the grown-up thoughts that your soft, little omega brain can’t handle, or get out of the way.

“This isn’t a decision we have taken lightly, Inika,” Papa said hurriedly, giving me another shaky smile. “We know how hard you’ve worked for Om-Guard all these years. And regardless of what happens, you will always be my daughter, and you will always be taken care of—”

“Thank you, Papa.” My ego could only take so much of a beating.

The awkward silence at the table was deafening, and my instincts were clawing at my insides, demanding that I soothe and appease, and do everything in my power to make the alphas feel better.

I had to get out of here before I absolutely debased myself and gave them even more reasons to write me off as an unstable omega.

“Was there anything else you wanted to discuss with me?” I asked through gritted teeth.

If my smile was forced, it was nothing on Papa’s. He looked almost pained. He hated having hard conversations. In his mind, life should never be anything other than comfortable and filled with joy.

“That’s the only thing on the agenda for you,” Brian replied tightly, his beta nervous system probably as overwhelmed as mine by the heightened alpha energy in the room.

“Wonderful. I won’t hold you up then.”

Just standing up took effort. My legs trembled under the oppressive weight of dissatisfaction in the room. If I’d let my instincts rule me, I’d have crawled under the table and curled up in the fetal position, desperately wishing for the comfort of my nest.

However, I was no fledgling omega. I’d made it this far in life with my dignity intact, and I wasn’t going to ruin it now.

I pushed myself to make eye contact and managed a mostly serene smile as Brian escorted me out of the room, not exhaling until I was in the lift alone, slumped against the railing that dug uncomfortably into my ribs.

I’d done everything I could. I’d graduated with a first. I’d got my MBA. I’d invested my inheritance from my grandparents wisely, impressing Papa with my good business acumen. I’d worked in the Om-Guard product planning department for years, and shocked every manager I’d ever had with my work ethic and the valuable contributions I’d made to the team.

If I’d been an alpha, it would have been enough. More than enough. Spoiled little trust fund babies I’d known my whole life inherited their family businesses all the time, and they’d worked half as hard and had a quarter of the common sense that I had.

It was, to put it bluntly, a fucking joke.

Pull yourself together, Inika. You weren’t even sure that you wanted Om-Guard.

I was self-aware enough that sulking about not inheriting a giant corporation made me feel slightly ill—it wasn’t as though I deserved Om-Guard. And it had always been something planned for me rather than something I’d chosen for myself.

But if I was an alpha, it would have been mine, no questions asked.

Chapter 4

BLAKE

“Hey.” I banged on Leo’s door first thing in the morning, not bothering to be gentle about it. “I’m coming in.”

He groaned, yanking the blanket over his head and rolling towards the wall as I opened the door.

“It stinks in here,” I muttered, picking over the piles of laundry on the floor to pull open the curtains and throw open the window. Once upon a time, when I’d lived here alone, this room had been my office space. Leo had thoroughly ruined it with his stench now, and I mostly worked from the dining table when I remembered to do invoicing. “Come to work with me today.”

“Fuck off,” Leo mumbled, his voice muffled by his pillow.

“What’s your excuse this time? You won the fight. You can work with a few bruises.”

“Don’t be a dick. You know it’s more than a few bruises. I’m not getting out of bed.”

The scaffolding had gone up, and the Dara project required minimal demolition, at least. When Inika—Ms Dara, I reminded myself—had the building team through to open up a covered-up staircase, they’d left the space nice and tidy. The only thing that had to come out was the false ceiling—complete with eighties-era plasterwork—that was hiding the cavity above where the arches would have once been.

I wasn’t opposed to manual labour—far from it—but this was a task that Leo could easily help me with. Instead, he was laid up in bed, in the house that I paid for, while Dad and I had got Freya ready for school.

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