Page 16 of Where There's Smoke
One day at a time.
Chapter 8
Fitz
“What are you doing?” Samson asked as he stood in the doorway to our bunk room, watching me furiously type away on my laptop.
“Just researching some potential property investments. You know my parents have been pestering me to take the family business more seriously.”
Saying my family was rich was an understatement. We had enough money that my grandchildren would never have to work, but we chose to work because, otherwise, life could be exceedingly boring. When my cousin, Blaze, had decided to try his hand at firefighting, I had been so insanely proud of him that I had decided to give it a shot myself.
Turned out, I really liked it. It kept me grounded in a way no other job could. I’d found my pack mates, who were incredibly normal people. Usually, people from generational wealth tended to make packs with other people from the same background, and they were all stuck up their own asses. Elliot and Samson kept me grounded, something I was eternally grateful for. I couldn’t deal with having pack mates like the upper-crust assholes, who could be the absolute worst most of the time.
Still, working with my family’s money and keeping them off my back was a reality I needed to accept time and again.
Samson’s eyes narrowed. “And what are you investing in?”
My smirk grew. “Well, there's a nice little plot of land nearby, with a building that could easily be converted into an animal shelter…”
“You’re thinking for Melody? You're just going tobuyher another shelter?” he asked, crossing his arms as his eyebrows reached up to his hairline. “You’ve known her for one day, and you’re buying her property? Do you need an intervention? Also, I'm pretty sure she already owns the land that her old rescue is on.”
“Shelters run off donations. This is merely agenerousdonation,” I reasoned. “You know, my family is very fond of charitable endeavors. The way I see it, this could make the little omega happy,andit could also make my family happy. It's a win all around. Also, let's face it, the rescue used to be in a very sketchy part of town. Wouldn't you much rather she be here near the fire station, where it's safer?”
Samson snorted, eyeing me with a knowing smirk. “You want to make Melody happy; this has nothing to do with your family. That’s just a bonus.”
“Yeah, maybe you're right,” I admitted, shrugging as I continued to fill out boxes on my screen. “But I can't stand the idea of her finding the cheapest property she can and sleeping in it again.”
That thought made me shudder, and going by the look Samson was sporting, he was right there with me. It probably wasn’t rational, but we were alphas, and everything in our nature told us to protect and care for omegas.
Melody was convinced she was a beta, but we weren’t.
A slow smile spread across my pack mate’s face. “Do you think for one minute that Elliot is going toallowher to sleep somewhere unsafe? You saw the way he was looking at her.”
I had. He’d been angry, but that was Elliot's default setting, so it was nothing new. However, the concern and protectiveness were different from his usual demeanor. It also begged the question—since Elliot had noticed this particular detail, too, how did anyone think that Melody was a beta?
“Why do you think she doesn't believe she's an omega? I'm not going crazy, am I? There's no way she's a beta, smelling like that.”
I wasn't the most knowledgeable about alphas and omegas, but I understood the basics. My mother was an omega, but she had presented very young and had known from her preteens that she would be an omega, and her family had adjusted her courting accordingly.
“I bet the lack of smell for her is what's causing the problem. I did some research, and apparently, high stress can cause an omega to present late.”
“Well, a fire is pretty fucking stressful.”
Samson snorted. “You wouldn't think so, considering she ran into the blaze to rescue the animals. And it’s more like prolonged stress, like through her life.”
I smiled, remembering how she’d sat on the back of the fire truck, ready to jump into action again for those animals.
“She's fearless, all right. We need that in our lives. Don't you think a woman who would run into fire to protect animals would also stand up to Elliot when she needed to? I mean, hell, she called him out on basically kidnapping her in front of the entire station.”
The corners of Samson’s mouth turned down as he nodded. “Shit, you may be right there.”
“I hardly slept this morning knowing that she was in the firehouse. That scent is like crack to me. I've never smelled anything so good in my life, and every instinct I have is screaming to do something about it.”
“You remember we have a date next week?” Samson said.
I paused. Crap. I had totally forgotten about that.
“I’ll take that as a no.” He smirked, shaking his head.
