Page 37 of The Alpha: Part Two
Our omegas aren’t putting up with it, though.
“Talia,” Desie smiles. “How are you feeling? I brought a belly kit. I don’t mean to over-step, and you didn’t ask, but I’ll feel better if I check on you and your little one before we start talking. Last night was stressful for everyone.”
The tall alpha standing behind her nods. “Yes, please; and thank you, Desir’ee. We’ve heard so much about you. How are you feeling today? You’ve been through such an ordeal.”
I’m trying not to gawk. He looks way too much like Corso Zaphir for my comfort. I vaguely remember his profile in the dim light of the van last night. I mean, Seth mentioned a Corso, but why would anybody assume he meant Corso fucking Zaphir? Surely, Seth would have said something about having an association withtheCorso Zaphir. That’s something someone would mention. Right?
Apparently not, because Desie doesn’t skip a beat. “I’m alright, Alpha Zaphir. Thank you for asking. I appreciate everything your pack has done to help us.”
“Corso, please,” he amends. “We are glad to help.” The stone-faced alpha standing in front of the couch by the window pulls a tight face, but he doesn’t disagree, so maybe not overly glad.
“If you’ll sit down, I’ll get started,” Desie tells Talia, motioning toward the other couch in the room.
Talia sits, with Corso and another smaller male hovering at the side of the couch. The other male isn’t fragile at all, but he is smaller in size than even a beta. If he smelled different, I’d assume he’s an omega. I haven’t really been around any male omegas, but they’re supposed to be smallish. He doesn’t smell like an omega, though. And he sure as hell doesn’t feel like one. He doesn’t give off beta energy either, though; and he’s obviously not an alpha. One look at Michael lets me know he has just as many questions as I do.
Seth catches the eye of the other unnecessarily huge alpha in the room and flicks a look at the bag of candy in Michael’s hand, wiggling his eyebrows. The alpha sticks his tongue into his cheek to keep from smiling as he makes his way over to shake hands. “This is Alex,” Seth tells us. “Ben,” he nods at me, “and Michael,” he tips his chin toward Michael.
“You’re going to get me in trouble, Pratchett,” Alex says under his breath, then much louder, “I’m the fun one. Nice to meet you.”
“Hey!” a dark haired alpha with tattoos crawling up his arms calls. “I’m more fun than you are.” He doesn’t look like he’d be much fun. He looks like he’d be an asshole.
“Trent wishes he was the fun one,” Alex smirks. He takes the bag from Seth and hands it off to the other fun guy, whose eyes round when he looks inside.
He quickly twists the bag closed and glances back at Talia before he glares at Seth. “You’re going to get us in trouble.”
“Just go hide it in Devon’s room. We can give them a piece at a time,” Alex glances at Talia, too, “when she’s not looking.”
Trent slinks away to hide the bag of candy with a raised brow at Seth. That was an entire covert operation centered around an apparently legitimately illegal substance.
“Talia doesn’t like them to have junk,” Seth whispers. “But all that healthy food stuff isn’t good for them. We have to sneak around to get them the good stuff.”
I nod like I agree with their ridiculousness, but I can’t imagine that little omega being mad about a few pieces of candy.
After Desie gives Talia the all-clear, everyone gathers into the living room for a round of very awkward, and occasionally tense, introductions. I immediately like the one called Nathan. Devon puts out fuck-you energy worse than Michael does, and I get the feeling that they’re all absolute fools for their omega. As they should be. And there’s plenty of them to keep her happy; my god, between the eight of them she’s probably spoiled beyond belief. Again, as she should be. I can only hope that Desie will finally let us spoil her that bad.
“Where should we start?” Nathan asks.
“Where’s Flores really? How secure is he? And what the fuck with Lopez? In that order, please,” Michael pulls Desie toward a chair, ignoring her exasperated huff.
“Really? I told you about Lopez,” she sighs, but she sits in the chair.
Michael cocks a brow at her and she rolls her eyes.
Trent snorts. “Good to see it’s not just ours. Flores is secured in a holding unit on the docks. We have the only pass code for the door, Nathan made sure of it. Lopez appears to have switched sides, but we don’t trust him. Not yet. He’s got a lot on his plate right now with trying to fix what’s left of his pack. He says he wants to work with us to dismantle the bullshit y’all have going on over here, which is just fine as long as he does it. We’ll watch how he does and see where it goes. He’s at their penthouse figuring shit out, but he says he’s available for anything he can help us with. Oh, and he says to keepMiss Romeroand any other omegas we care for out of sight for the foreseeable future. He thinks things might get a little wild before he can fully take over the reins of that Flores fuck’s operation.”
Michael nods but doesn’t say anything and takes up position behind Desie’s chair. I perch on the arm of the chair and let my cheeks puff out as I blow out a breath. “Well, I guess that’s as good as that’s going to get. Let’s just rip the duck tape off, shall we? Might as well kill the elephant first thing. We need a good, thorough walk-through of the missing shit from Seth’s file. He started to tell us, but we had other things that needed to be done first and we get the feeling that it would be better coming from all of you since you’re his people. So,” I give Seth a pointed look, “spill.”
Seth drags his hand down his face, seeming to wipe the color away with the motion, and takes a breath to do just that, but Talia holds up her hand. “Wait,” she says. “I’ll start it. Seth can add as he needs. You can’t start this story from Seth’s entrance.”
“No, that’s not true.” Seth interrupts. “It started on my end before you ever got there.”
Talia presses her lips together and closes her eyes for a moment before she responds. “Fine, we’ll take turns. But I’m starting.”
“Okay,” Seth says, and sits on the floor beside Desie’s feet.
“Okay,” Talia shakes her head. “Desie already knows all of this. I told her at the hospital.”
“You know about everything?” Michael leans over the chair to look down at Desie.
