Page 28 of His Gift
CHAPTER NINE
Shawn
Ihad so much to think about for the next few days that I thought my head might explode with the weight of it. Never in a million years would I have suspected that a single twenty-four-hour time period could completely change everything for me. But between discovering new things about myself by playing with Enzo, finding out about Walt being pregnant, and learning everything about Enzo, full stop, I didn’t think my life could ever be the same.
“I have that list of job recruiters in Norwalk that you asked for, Mr. Wythe,” Trudy, my admin, said as she stepped into my office halfway through the day on Thursday. “There are actually a lot of reputable agencies to choose from.”
I blinked my way out of the near stupor I’d thought myself into as I’d sat there for the last fifteen minutes, staring out over the skyline of Barrington through my corner office windows, out toward the mountains and Norwalk beyond them, where Enzowas. “Hmm? Oh, yes, thank you,” I managed to say without looking like too much of a fool. At least, I hoped.
“Rough night?” Trudy asked with a kind smile as she put the file on my desk. “You look like you didn’t get a lot of sleep.”
“I did have trouble sleeping,” I admitted, reaching for the file with as much of a smile as I could manage.
In fact, I’d been having trouble sleeping all week. I didn’t seem to be able to rest without Enzo in my arms. That felt strange, though. We hadn’t actually slept together when we’d slept together. Walt had interrupted before the two of us could take a nap, all wrapped up together the way a real alpha and omega pair should be.
“Well, if it makes you feel any better,” Trudy went on like the mother hen she was, even though she was just a beta, “Mr. Walt Wythe canceled the meeting the two of you were supposed to have over lunch, so maybe you could pop home for a little bit to take a nap?”
I tensed hard at her statement. “Walt canceled our meeting?”
“He didn’t call you directly?” Trudy asked in return.
Instead of answering, I scooted forward and reached for my phone. “Excuse me,” I said as politely as I could with anxiety and frustration swirling up in me.
“Of course,” Trudy whispered before backing away from my desk then leaving the office. She shut the door carefully behind her.
I swiped up my phone and immediately dialed Walt. He didn’t answer the first time, so I did what he had a tendency to do to me and called him right back.
It wasn’t until my fourth time calling that he answered with an exasperated, “What?”
“Why did you cancel our lunch meeting?” I asked with just as much abruptness.
Walt didn’t reply. I could feel his sullen guilt through the silence.
“I know about the baby, so it’s not like you have to hide that from me anymore,” I said.
“Oh, so you’re going to use my baby against me now?” Walt snapped.
That was it. I’d had it. “Stop being such a wounded animal,” I said, throwing myself back in my big office chair and pinching the bridge of my nose.
“A what?” Walt asked defensively.
“A wounded animal. You’re hurt, but you’re scared, so you’re lashing out at the people, the person who is trying to help you,” I said.
“I’m not?—”
“Walt, stop!”
I’d never really gone full alpha on my brother before. I’d never been sure I had a full alpha in me. Enzo had definitely brought that out, and you know, it didn’t feel so bad after all to puff myself up and put my foot down. Walt was my brother, and as an immediate family member who shared DNA with me, he was incapable of reacting with lust and submission, like pretty much every other omega I wasn’t related to would by instinct, but he was definitely affected.
“I’m not trying to be a wounded animal,” he said, his voice quiet and sad. “I just know you’re going to tell Dad and Papa, and they’ll be so disappointed in me. I’m disappointed in myself.”
My skin went prickly and I couldn’t sit still. That. That was exactly the sort of red flag I should be able to do something about. I needed to make it so that my brother was okay, but I didn’t have the first clue how to do that. Enzo would know. Enzo had been great with Walt when they’d met. But Enzo wasn’t here now. Enzo hadn’t called me all week.
That was a whole other problem that had me pacing the halls of my condo at night instead of sleeping restfully.
“How did it happen?” I asked, sounding way too tired for an alpha who had so many people to take care of. “The baby. How did it happen?”
“My heat came early,” Walt said, sounding miserable. “I wasn’t ready for it. It was that week I was down at our house in the islands.”
