Page 49 of Chosen Beta

Lana

The trip from the basement back to my office is made in tension-drenched silence. My regular day was turned upside down by some unscrewed light bulbs and a single security camera, and now it seems that one of the men I’ve been trusting with the lives of everyone inside this building might be up to something.

It’s either that, or the hot new men I’ve just met are the ones messing with me.

Instinctively, I refuse to let that idea sink in.

I don’t know what makes it so hard to believe.

All I know about them is that they’re Dr. Clarke’s mates.

I may not know him very well, but what I do know tells me he’s a good man.

I doubt he could be mated to someone with a vastly different kind of moral compass.

Pete might have done time in prison, but that doesn’t mean he’s the same person he was when he did whatever he did to end up there.

Taking my seat behind my desk, I watch as Pete paces slowly around the room.

His gaze takes in everything from the file cabinets behind the visitor sofas and the accolades that have been on the wall since Geraldine was in charge.

He stops at the door to my left side, the one across from where I’m sitting.

“Where does this lead to?” he asks.

“Nowhere. It’s a storage closet.”

He cracks the door open and peers inside before closing it again.

Ignoring my overflowing inbox, I look up the paperwork we need to get his pack’s security team on the academy’s books, realizing he’s leaning against the closet door, staring at me when I finally find it and hit print. My desk printer makes some crunchy, angry noises as I stare back, trying to remember what I’m doing. Once the sheet of paper is ejected onto the desk, my recall comes back. I pick it up.

“I … um … You’ll need to fill this out, and I’ll need to file it in our system.”

“And then you can give me that list?” he asks.

“There’s probably an ethical argument against letting you have that information, but since there’s a genuine threat, I don’t think I can afford not to give you it.”

He moves forward and takes the form out of my hands.

“You seemed to have good reason to think someone might target you. I’m going to need the full details.”

Of course.

I sink back in my seat.

“It’s notme, exactly. It’s what I’m doing. The changes I’m making.”

“Got a pen?” he asks, putting the form down on the half-sized filing cabinet next to my desk.

I lean forward, grabbing one from my pen holder and passing it to him.

He takes it and nods. “Thanks.”

It’s not until he starts filling it out that he stops for a second and looks at me.

“Go on. What changes are you making?”

“Oh. Uh, well, it’s kind of a big job, but, basically, I’m changing the system here so we no longer need to answer to rich donors. Which means they no longer have any say in who we let into the academy or what kind of events we run to help the Omegas find their mates.”

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