18. Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Seventeen

Shadow

I don’t need to look back to know Ezra’s got his eyes on me. He’s making sure I’m going where I said I would go, instead of catching sight of something more exciting and taking off on a random side quest adventure. He should know nothing is a bigger thrill than spending time around a new mate, whether or not I have permission to say the “m” word around her.

Opening the door to her office, I find Pete sitting on one of her sofas, talking to someone on his cell phone, while she pretends to be interested in something on the screen of her computer.

I caught her staring at Pete!

She’s quick to hide it, but obviously she’s feeling some kind of way about him.

I don’t blame her. Pete is fucking hot.

I never thought I’d have a Beta for a mate, but he’s got a solid streak of Alpha in him, he’s literally my hero, and he’s seriously, unwaveringly loyal.

Lana’s a Beta, too, but she’s also the head of this academy and she’s changing all the rules to make it safer for Omegas so she’s as badass as it gets.

I close the door behind me and move toward her, since Pete is occupied with his call.

She looks up at me. “Hey, Shadow. What can I do for you? Or are you here to see Pete?”

“Hey,” I murmur, wondering if she actually got hotter since I left and came back, or if that’s just how it feels the longer a mate goes unclaimed. “Uh, so, Ezra’s gone back to work. He sent me down here to make sure you two workaholics take a break and actually eat something. So, what are we having, and where do we get it from?”

I perch on the file cabinet next to her desk.

It feels slightly less stable than it looks, but I think my skinny ass is safe.

“We?” Lana asks, raising her eyebrows at me.

“Well, I’m not going to just sit here and watch you two stuff your faces on your own.”

“You guys do realize that I actually have a job to do, right?”

“Oh,” I murmur.

I try not to get all deflated. I know it’s not that she’s complaining about our company, it’s just that we’re a distraction while she’s insanely busy. It would be the same if we tried to follow Ezra around for the afternoon. We’d drive him mad just by being present.

“Sorry, but I have kind of a lot to deal with,” she says with a weary sigh.

“Well, lunch is non-negotiable.” I straighten up, hear another light creak and I move away from the filing cabinet. I dust off my pants and fold my arms in front of my chest. “I have orders from an Alpha to make sure you guys eat, so that’s happening no matter what. After that, we’ll make sure we’re not in your way. Cross my heart and hope to die.”

She chews on her bottom lip before she submits. “Fine. I’ll put an order in with the kitchen staff. Just let me know what you want.”

“So, this is like room service?” I ask, liking the idea of it. “Is there a menu?”

That makes her smile. “No. No menu. They can make anything you like, or they can go out and get anything you’d like from a restaurant outside. They’re probably prepping a list of orders around about now, so I’d make it fast if you want something from a restaurant.”

My thoughts race at all the choices I have.

Between the food situation and the luxury accommodation, this place is an Omega’s dreamhouse.

I’m starting to get why they come here, for real.

“A double Texas cheeseburger from that rodeo restaurant, and a vanilla shake from the Shaky Shake Shack.”

My perfect combo, and two favorites I’ve never had together.

This is going to be fun.

“What about Pete?” she asks, writing down my order on a notepad.

“Oh, he’ll have the same, with added fries and pickles from the rodeo place.”

“That keeps it easy,” she says as she picks up her phone.

I listen as she places the order, adding a chicken salad sandwich and a bottle of water for herself before she thanks the kitchen and hangs up the phone.

“It could take an hour, but it shouldn’t be any longer than that.”

“That’s a pretty awesome service.”

“Yeah, I guess. We’ll be taking away the outside restaurant services and producing a fixed menu soon to cut costs, but I had to give the Omegas some notice since that’s a big change, so we’ve got the old system until the end of the month.”

“I bet the fixed menu will still be awesome.”

“It’ll be a lot less fancy, but the perks of this place were driven by rich donors. The designer wardrobes they were given each season is another cost I’ve cut. That one was immediate, but they still have the clothes they were given in the past so it’s not like they literally have nothing to wear.”

“Wow. I can see why Omegas would find this place intoxicating.”

“Some of them don’t seem pleased about the changes, but I’m giving them time to consider what they want to do. Most of them have parents who wanted them to marry the richest Alpha they could find, which is why they were placed here. Now, they need to decide what they want to do with their lives.”

“That must really suck. I mean, if they’ve been told one thing their whole lives then they’re going to feel like failures that they haven’t achieved what was expected of them. I know I felt like a failure when I found out my parents were mad that I wasn’t an Alpha like my brothers.”

“That’s awful, I’m so sorry,” she murmurs.

“It’s in the past. I have a pack now, and I know my parents are assholes.”

“Some of the Omegas here don’t,” she says, as if she’s just realizing it.

“For sure they don’t. They think they’re doing what Omegas are supposed to do.”

“God, why didn’t I think of that?” she whispers.

“I don’t know, but you seem pretty busy.”

“It’s just … I need to make a speech in a few days time to the whole academy to clarify all the changes I’ve been making and what they mean for everyone. I’ve been pushing the changes through quickly so the donors wouldn’t have time to react, and I made sure I have our legal stance cleared first, but I have a lot to explain to the hundred Omegas we have here, and it’s just hit me that they’re not going to understand what I’m doing.”

She looks vaguely horrified as she turns her gaze back to her computer screen.

“They’ve spent their whole lives thinking they’re supposed to meet an Alpha and get mated, and it’s going to look like I’m taking that away from them. I don’t know how to explain things so they know that’s not true.”

I completely get why she’s worried.

It’s definitely a thing with a certain type of Omega.

“Those girls might as well have been brainwashed. I don’t know how you reverse that shit, but if anyone can …”

Her eyes widen in horror. “Oh my God!”

“What? I was joking. Kind of.”

My stomach starts to churn as her panic swirls through me.

Something about what I just said hit a nerve, apparently.

“They might have actually been brainwashed. Warren Corvina was messing with a lot of Omegas, and I can’t be sure he wasn’t using the academy as a testing ground, or something … I need to make a call.”

She pushes her chair back and takes her cell phone out of her pocket.

Looking up, she glances at me, and then Pete, with a pointed look that can’t be mistaken.

She needs privacy for the call she’s suddenly anxious to make.

“Uh, I can drag Pete into the hallway for a few?”

She nods. “Thank you.”

“No problem.” I stumble around the filing cabinet and head over to the sofa, where Pete’s sitting, cell phone still glued to his ear.

He frowns at me when I tap his shoulder, but I nod at him and reach over to tug on his arm.

He gets up and lets me lead him to the door before he stops, clearly less than keen on leaving the office.

Covering his mouthpiece, he asks, “What?”

“Lana needs to make a call. A private call.”

He looks back at her, prompting me to do the same.

She’s gotten up from her desk, and she’s leaning against the door of the storage closet, phone in hand. She waves it at us, and Pete nods at her after a beat, only allowing me to drag him out into the hallway after he gives her a few seconds of his intense stare.

Once the door is closed, he stays right in front of it, a warning to anyone who might think about coming anywhere near us. I give the receptionist a friendly wave across the hall, and I sit down on the bench opposite, to wait for our future mate to finish with her call.

I kind of hope she finishes hers before Pete finishes his.

I really don’t want him to ask why she suddenly kicked us out of her office.

Who would have known brainwashing was an actual thing at this academy?