Page 102 of Rut Bar

I shake my head. “Good to know, but that’s not what I meant. I was asking what you’re going to do for your courting gift.”

“Oh.” He frowns. “I’m not sure yet, but it’ll come to me.”

“I assume since we spent the heat at Jamie’s that his house will be the home base for the pack.”

“Yeah, probably,” Anthony answers. “Vee and I both have tiny apartments.”

“And my house is big enough but it’s pretty far from Rut.” It’s also not beach front property. I’m not sure how Jamie afforded it. How much does exotic dancing pay? Clearly I picked the wrong profession.

I think about all the things we need to accomplish and make a mental to-do list. “At some point we’ll need to take her to Nested and get her a proper nest that’s big enough for everyone.”

Anthony nods. “I’ve already got an aesthetic board going.”

“There’s something else we need to talk about,” I say, licking my lips and hoping I word this correctly. I’ve just been invited in and while I don’t want to rock the boat, I can’t stand by and say nothing either.

“Yeah?”

“I know you’ve both known her longer and you know her better than me, but dial it back a bit with Veronica.”

His grip on the steering wheel tightens, and for a moment I wonder if he’s gonna pull over and kick me out of the car. But things can’t stay as they are—with Anthony goading Vee at every turn. Getting a reaction out of her. He’s young. Probably still in his twenties, which means he’s not thinking long-term. Not really. He’ll learn, but we don’t need the drama till he gets there.

Before he gets defensive, I throw him a bone, “I know you care about her. It’s clear that you’ve been taking care of her a long time. And you’ve done a great job.” As good of a job as she let him, anyway. “You make sure she eats. You protected the bar. Your coworkers like you, and it seems like you do a great job managing the bar.”

“Thanks.” His voice is tense, but his blanched knuckles regain their color.

“And this isn’t me trying to take her away from you or cause problems. That’s not what pack does. But it seems to me like you enjoy pushing her buttons to get a reaction out of her, and I’m telling you now that she’s not going to think it’s amusing forever. Eventually, at some point, it comes across as asshole behavior.”

At a red light, he glances at me. His expression is unreadable, his face carefully blank. Knowing who his family is, it’d be easy to get intimidated. To back off and see how it plays out. But I can’t do that—not if I’m going to be this pack’s alpha. It’s my job to protect them, and that includes from themselves.

“You think I don’t know what I’m doing?” Anthony asks softly. Dangerously.

I return his stare. I refuse to back down. This is too important. “I realize it got you this far. So maybe you’re thinking it needs to keep escalating, to get more and more from her, but that’s the way to play this. That’s not how healthy long-term relationships work. She needs to trust you.”

The light turns green, and the cars behind us honk as he sits there. Slowly, he puts his attention back on the road and resumes driving. “You think she doesn’t trust me?”

“I think she has a lot to lose if she’s wrong. If she makes a bad decision. You have an apartment and some furniture. Clothes. A car. She’s got a business and a charity. People who rely on her for their living.”

I turn in my seat to face him. “Do you know how many people she employs? Fifty-seven. If she makes a mistake and Rut fails, that’s a lot of people filing for unemployment. Not to mention what it’d do for the charity. She has everything to lose. We need to be taking her burdens off her, not adding to her stress.”

He’s silent as we merge onto the highway and slip into thicker traffic. “I did what I had to do to get her attention. It’s not like I can sit there and let some magical scent make her look at me. I had to work for it. It’s not easy being a boring beta in a world designed for a sense I don’t have.”

I want to say I understand it, but I don’t. I can’t. He’s right. This is why most betas end up together in monogamous pairings. Being an alpha or an omega certainly isn’t easy, but I can see why he felt like he had to try so hard to not be invisible.

I clasp him on the shoulder and squeeze before letting him go. “Okay. But you’ve already got her attention. So now you can focus on making her happy instead. We all can. Playtime is whatever, I’m not trying to kink shame someone, but Veronica’s a serious person. She’s gonna want to get her work done first and keep work and play separate.”

“You’re right. I know.” He sighs, then cranks his window down. “Mind if I smoke?”

“No.” I roll mine down too as he fishes his cigarettes and lighter from his pocket and lights up. He blows the smoke and flicks the ash out the window. I think he enjoys the routine of smoking more than the cigarette itself.

We spend the rest of the drive to my home in silence, but it’s comfortable.

ChapterTwenty-Eight

BRENDAN

I wakeup the next day to my shrill alarm clock going off and a voicemail from my manager asking me to come into the office today. There’s also a text from Anthony with a photo that shows Veronica and Jamie cuddling while they sleep.

Both sides of my life tug at me like I’m the handkerchief tied to the rope in a game of tug of war.

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