Page 17 of The Alpha: Part One
Chapter nine
Benny
"I know what we said, but what if it could be him?"
Michael snorts, draining the last of his bottle. "He's not from here."
"So? Desie liked him. And he made sure we ate."
He did, too. And we couldn't come up with a reason not to follow him to the ramen place after we shut Desie up in Mateo's car. We didn't really even want to. I didn't, anyway. It felt right to go have a meal with him after he stood with us for Desie. Stood in front of us, rather. His East Coast council weight was a nice thing to throw around with Lopez, even if me and Michael will have to pay for it later.
"Desie did like him. She purred for him."
He'll let that bother him for the rest of his life if he puts his mind to it. "She purred for him because she's a perfect omega. Don't sit there and pout about that. What if he's the one? He lost his pack. We lost Rafe. We need a third. Desie likes him. He doesn't like Lopez. And he's got weight to throw around. Just think about it for a minute."
Michael peels another little strip from the label on his bottle. I watch his jaw ticking as he thinks. He grinds his teeth in his sleep, too. Desie can't stand it. "He gave her the better part of his food, and he did pay the bill for our food. But we've only known him for a few hours. I can't set myself up like that. I don't want to put that on him, either. He's only here on council business. We can't just swoop him up and keep him here."
"Why not? What if he needs us as bad as we need him, Michael?" My hope and optimism have gotten my ass kicked plenty of times in the past, but this doesn't feel like one of those situations. "You know it felt, I don't know,rightwalking and sitting with him. Like it did when we were young with Rafe."
His nostrils flare and his lip curls slightly. "He's not Rafe. And he’s missing body parts. People don’t lose fingers and eyes in innocent accidents.”
“Well,” I say, leaning back against the couch, “if he runs with COT units, he’s lucky that’s all he’s missing. We’ve heard about COTs before, maybe Seth is part of all that. If he is, it wouldn’t do anything but help. Having a COT to back you up wouldn’t be so bad, and he’d really be able to keep Desie safe. Think about it.”
I don't know what else either of us would have said because Michael's phone rings. It's Lopez.
"Enjoy your evening, boys?"
Michael and I look at each other, eyes hardening. Michael takes a breath and answers. "We're still on for the mid-week rounds."
"Of course, you are," Lopez says smoothly. "You have debts to pay. Not even the East Coast council can change that. I didn't appreciate the interruption with the omega, though. Flores wasn't happy."
If my optimism occasionally gets my ass kicked, Michael's temper tries to get us killed on more frequent occasions. But Desie has never been used as a pressure point for us before now and I’m feeling my temper rise right with his. Michael snarls, audibly growling into the phone. "Desir'ee Romero isn't part of our debt."
"No, she's part of something else entirely," Lopez taunts. "Flores has been shopping around for the perfect omega and he thinks he's found it in her."
"Fuck you and fuck him. Leave Desie alone."
Lopez laughs. "Control yourself, Michael. Remember who you're talking to. We didn't know you had a claim on the omega, but we certainly do now, don't we?"
"Leave her alone," Michael grits through his teeth.
"You don't even have a registered pack. The councilman from the East Coast isn't here permanently, and we aren't stupid enough to think you're stupid enough to try to run off to another territory while you still owe us. By all accounts, we have more rights to pursue Miss Romero than you do. And we will pursue her."
"She's our omega, Lopez. She's always been ours. We would have already been registered with her as our omega if Rafe hadn't been killed. Leave her alone," I argue. My temper might not be as quick as Michael's, but it's just as hot. If he keeps threatening us with Desie, a debt won't be enough to stop us from creating a much larger problem than the ones we already face. We're almost paid up anyway. The money we still owe isn’t worth the risk to her. Shit, if it comes down to it, we can sell the house or our car. I don’t care. Sell it all, pay them off, and get the fuck out of here.
Lopez laughs again. I don't hear anyone else in the background, so this must be a conversation he wants to keep private. Secret. Sometimes, I wonder if these private, secret conversations could ever amount to leverage against him, but we've always had too much debt hanging over us to wonder about it for too long. "Surely you're not dictating what a fully-formed, legitimately registered, strong pack with lots of connections should do in regards to an unclaimed omega? And Rafe, well," he sighs, and I can imagine him looking at his fingernails like a stereotypical bad guy in a movie, "Rafe would have made a completely different life for you boys, wouldn't he? That was very unfortunate. He was my nephew. Had he made it into adulthood, I would have a different sort of relationship with you. And now Miss Romero. Don't be late to the rounds. And don't come tired." Then the call drops, leaving Michael and I seething and nearly frozen with fear.
"They can't have Desie, Michael. We can't let that happen."
Michael's eyes close, his hands forming tight fists over and over again. "We won't. She'll have to stay home for the next mixer. Lopez is always at the fights, but Flores never is. We can't leave her to deal with him without us, especially after what happened tonight."
"We could call Seth, see if he'd be there. He gave us his number."
He thinks on that, still working his fists, then says, "I don't know. I don't want to lean on him unless we have to. He's giving us room to find a third, not be the third."
"He could be."
Michael doesn't have anything to say to that.
