Page 70 of The Omega Lesson

But Lexi couldn’t be more different if she tried. Instead of standing like a distant statue in his embrace, I watch as she runs her fingers through his hair. They trail across his shoulders and upper back, her hands soothing him with her touch. I can scent her from across the room, and her vanilla perfume is like a balm I’d bottle if I could. “It’ll be okay,” she whispers, and his shoulders start to relax as he breathes her in. “I’ll never let anyone hurt you again, Mattie.”

My entire body throbs at that. But the envy – and ever-present guilt – is less potent than the gratitude I feel for her. Still, this is a private moment, and I don’t want to take that from either of them. “You need us to leave?”

“No.” She gives me a small smile. “I think you should all listen in.”

With one hand still rubbing soothing circles on my brother’s back, she takes out her phone and presses a key. She has it on speaker, and as soon as the dial tone rings, Mattie gets to his feet and stands behind her. His face is calm, but I can see the strain in his eyes as she says, “Hi Maureen. It’s Lexi Novak.”

She pauses while the woman – who I assume is the same Maureen who’s been Miller’s secretary for decades – comes over the speakerphone. “Miss Novak! Where are you? Mr. Drummond has been in the office, saying you disrupted one of his sessions, screaming like a banshee and making all sorts of accusations…”

I grit my teeth, ready to growl some allegations of my own, but Lexi is at her no-nonsense best. “Maureen, I’m not interested in anything Mr. Drummond has to say. I’m just calling to ask you to book me an emergency meeting with Mr. Miller.”

Maureen sucks in an annoyed breath. “The headmaster is a very busy man…”

“I need to see him immediately.”

“Well, I can’t just pluck extra time out of the air, Miss Novak,” she huffs, angrily shuffling papers on the other end. “Mr. Miller has an off-campus appointment right now, and then is booked up the rest of the day. But given the things Mr. Drummond has been saying…”

Lexi’s face hardens as she wraps Mattie’s arm around her waist. “He’ll want to see me, Maureen. I suggest you book me in as soon as possible.”

“Oh, do you? Well, I have to say, you younger teachers are a lot of work. You’re supposed to be making things easier for the school, not harder.”

“I apologise for disrupting your day, Maureen, but I don’t need the lecture. And frankly, it’s up to the headmaster if I should have a job at Prendiville, not you.”

The woman sniffs and then says in a grudging tone. “Three o’clock, then. And it will only be half an hour, so I suggest you come prepared.”

Lexi’s gaze hardens. “Oh, I know exactly what I want to say.”

She ends the call before the other woman can reply and drops her phone on the couch. Mattie instantly turns her towards him, settling her in his arms. I wait a moment for them to soak up the comfort they both clearly need, then clear my throat. “So, we have an hour. What do you need from us?”

Lexi looks at me in surprise, then gnaws on her lip. “Idoknow what I want to say, but it might help if someone was there with me.”

“Done,” I say, before anyone else can jump in. “I’ll come with you, and Noah and Mattie can catch Jack up and talk to our lawyers.”

“Lawyers?”

“Just being prepared,” I tell her, and when she gives me a cautious look, I stride over to her, adding my protective shield to her soothing balm. “I’ll follow your lead in there today, Lexi, but if they try to harm our pack again, I’m going to do a lot more than disrupt their day.”

Lexi

Ben’s threat – or vow, if you look at it from another angle - is still ringing in my ears as we walk into the administration building an hour later. Noah suggested we take the chopper and buzz the bell tower on the way, but thankfully, Ben really was happy to follow my lead. He waited while I changed my suit and gave myself a talking to in my bedroom mirror, then held my hand all the way back to campus. Yes, I’m mad enough to drop an entire helicopter on the school right now, but that’s not the message I’m here to deliver.

“The guys are waiting at your place,” Ben says as he pockets his phone. “And my legal team is on standby.”

I nod, because now I’m standing outside the headmaster’s office, my heart is beating in my throat. It doesn’t help that Maureen is watching me from her desk with a smug look in her eye. Some of the venom went out of her smile when she recognised Ben, but maybe she thinks I called him here as Mattie’s guardian. I don’t know how much Drummond shared with the headmaster, but I’m sure they’ve got a whole speech ready for him. And no doubt they’ll dismiss my claims as those of an inexperienced, emotional woman who doesn’t deserve to be working with the alpha elite in the first place.

“You can go in now,” Maureen says, “but you only have half an hour.”

I ignore her petty reminder and stride over to the door. Ben’s iron presence at my back does a lot to steady my nerves, but I stop abruptly as I step into the room. There are three other men waiting for us, all seated in a row behind the headmaster’s desk. Drummond, I instantly recognise, despite the fact he’s now wearing a navy suit, but the other two are strangers. I probably saw them in passing at The Old Boys’ Dinner, but then, one middle-aged alpha with a superiority complex is pretty much like another.

But they’re still a show of force as they stare at me in silence. It explains Maureen’s smug attitude, since they’re no doubt here to make me run off with my tail between my legs. And for all her complaints about the headmaster being a very busy man, he managed to call in his reinforcements pretty quickly.

“Miss Novak. I have to say, I’m very disappointed you’ve dragged Mr. Cliff into this today.”

I square my shoulders and walk over to the only chair on this side of the table. “As I’m sure you know, this concerns his brother, Matthew.”

“Yes, but it’s not your job to speak to parents or guardians about school matters outside your purview,” the headmaster goes on, reproach radiating from every inch of him.

“But isn’t that exactly what you tell us to expect from your staff?” Ben asks from behind me. He’s moved further into the room and is standing somewhere at my back. “That they will do everything necessary to keep us informed?”

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