Page 14 of Laurels and Liquor

Lydia hums thoughtfully, and I can almost see the wheels turning in her head. I want to see if she’ll work it out on her own, but the longer the silence stretches out, the more doubt creeps in.

“What do you think you’re going to do with it? Restore it and sell it?” she asks conversationally.

Mateo, Lex, and I share a look, and I sit forward a little, twisting my fingers together between my knees as I rest my elbows on my thighs. Lydia’s eyes go wide, surprised but not fearful.

“That’s actually the thing, Lydi-bug. We want you to decide what we do with it,” I say as gently as I can.

She pauses for a minute, and I see the exact moment the realization dawns on her. Each of us in the pack has had something of a pet project. Lex had Bright Hills, and Mateo drooled over The Valencia for the longest time before they finally acquired it. For all of Lex’s illegal chicanery in the bidding process, Rhett took point on the Wickland House restoration, and designed every miniscule detail of the house around us. For me, it was my restaurants. With Lydia a member of this family in all the ways that count, even if we’re still waiting for the formalities to be completed, it’s only right for Lydia to have something like this.

“Y’all, that’s—I mean, insane doesn’t even begin to cover it,” she says, exhaling in disbelief.

“Well, since you won’t let us buy you a new car…” Mateo says, trailing off.

Lydia elbows him in the ribs, but we all laugh at the half-joke. We’ve been trying to tell Lydia that we want to do things for her, spoil her completely rotten, and make sure she never wants for anything for the rest of her life. Hopefully now that we’ve bought her a whole-ass building, she’ll bend a little on the less extravagant things.

There’s another long moment of silence as Lydia processes, and we give her the space. Though Lex continues to fidget, her fingers of her left hand dancing across my back as she subconsciously plays the bass line of whatever classical song is filling her mind. I put a hand on her knee, squeezing slightly in silent reassurance. Lydia’s face isn’t exactly unreadable, but the emotions that flicker across it move too fast for me to fully process. Shock, awe, joy, sadness, longing, back to shock, more joy, and then finally settling on determined resolve. She looks up at Mateo with her brow and lips set in a serious expression, and then she looks to me before finally coming to rest on Lex.

“I want to get my implant removed,” she declares.

A pin hitting the floor would have sounded like an explosion in the silence that follows her words. Her implant. She wants it removed. Does that mean…

“I’d need to start supplements as well, and I’d obviously want to talk to a doctor to see if it’s even possible, but I think we could make it happen,” Lydia goes on.

“Make… make what happen, baby?” Mateo stutters, still in the complete disbelief phase.

“My heat. I’ve only got a few weeks before I’m supposed to go into heat again, but if y’all are serious enough to buy a theater for me, then—”

“No, Lydia, that’s not why—” Lex cuts herself off after nearly shouting over Lydia, clearing her throat. “You don’t have to do that—get your implant removed, I mean—just because we bought The Garden.”

Lydia shakes her head. “It’s not about the theater. Today at Caleb and Sylvie’s, I talked to her about it, and she gave me some advice. I wasn’t going to bring it up like this, but…”

She trails off, and everyone waits for her to continue. I’m hardly breathing in anticipation of what she might say next. This can’t be real. She fiddles with the edge of the blanket, not looking at us, and my skin prickles with electric excitement. And when Lydia looks up at us, her emerald eyes are firm, resolve pulling her mouth into a line.

“In my head, and in my heart, I know that you—this pack—are it for me. I’ve known it for a long time. I want to be your pack mate, and… more. I want the bonds. I want everything. What I was going to say was that if y’all’re out here, buying buildings to show me how serious you are about your feelings for me, then the best way I can show you how serious I am about joining this pack is to get my implant out, get on supplements, and do whatever I can to be ready by the time I go into heat again. And then we can bond, all of us.”

Lydia’s voice cracks from the passion and emotion she pushes through her words, and my heart aches from it. Mateo is there, wiping away her tears and kissing her hair, but I’m frozen. The implications of her words are hitting me in waves, and that last bit nearly stops my heart. I look at her, and she nods, reading my expression, and I’m glad for it. I don’t know if I could ever ask it of her, but my Lydi-bug knows me well enough that I don’t have to.

After three years, I’d genuinely lost hope of ever bonding with Rhett or Lex. The shit Seth put us through left deep wounds, ones we only managed to heal with Lydia’s help. I could never imagine a life without my alphas, but to ask an omega to share her bond mates with a beta like me would go against her very nature. But my Lydia, my perfect omega, will do this for me.

“As long as this is what you truly want, then that’s what we’ll do. Make your appointments, and we’ll do our parts to make sure we’re ready and available, too,” Lex says, drawing our attention.

The darkness in her eyes falls like an ice cube into my gut. Right. We all have work to do over the next few weeks. But if the smoldering ember I see in the depths of her hazel eyes is anything to go by, I don’t think anything is going to stop Alexandra St. Clair anymore.

Chapter eight

Alexandra

Istareoutoverthe Everton skyline as I wait, my fingers tapping on my thighs in patterns I recognize as Chopin after a moment of consideration. It’s almost sunset, but there’s one last thing I have to do before I can go home for the night. I’ve already sent Erica home, and the building is growing quieter with each employee who exits and drives away.

My day has been a series of phone calls from hell. I’d spoken with Officer Lee Nyueng of the Everton Police Department and the ADA about Seth’s case. They’ve got alerts out on all his accounts and credit cards, but Seth has hidden himself remarkably well. My only explanation for this level of stealth is preparation. He must have known we were coming and may have even run long before the warrant was issued.

The sole reason I know he’s not dead is the fact that money is still being withdrawn from the account I pay his stipend from. He never goes to a physical location to make the withdrawals, using apps instead to keep the currency digital, which makes using the money trail to pinpoint his location impossible. I’d considered every angle, and finally settled on a plan, one crazy enough that it just might work.

So I’d had to make my second hellish phone call to the one demon I’d promised myself I’d never make a deal with again: my father. I’m still recovering from the pounding headache that came on during that two-hour nightmare conversation. But at least it wasn’t for nothing. Leopold had agreed to lend his assistance, if I was willing to pay his price. I shouldn’t have been surprised. Leopold can’t do anything out of the kindness of his heart on account of not having one.

A month ago, I would have gone ahead and agreed. I would have handled this and been done with it, and already moved on to solve the next problem. But not anymore. I have to do better for my pack, and it starts with including them when the situation calls for it. So when my office door opens and Mateo strides inside, I brace myself for a hard talk.

“For being a new build, this place is fucking creepy after hours,” he starts with a chuckle.

---