3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

INIKA

" T hat was brutal," Stasia whined, flopping forwards in the foyer of the Pilates studio post-workout to rub her thighs. "George is going to have to give me the longest massage tonight."

The three of us mumbled some vaguely supportive words of agreement, even though we all knew Stasia paid a professional for massages. It was probably judgemental of me to even think it, but George and Stasia didn't look like a couple who touched each other outside of heats. Frankly, none of my friends had touch-feely matings, but they were basically all but arranged, so I supposed that was to be expected.

Honestly, I didn't think Stasia could stand George most of the time, but they were mated now and what was done was done.

"Are you going to do a class tomorrow?" Brigitte asked while Stasia and Ivy went to the bar to collect our kale and turmeric smoothies. "Miranda is in Guernsey for the week—some work thing. I figure I may as well do one each day. I haven't got anything else going on."

"I can't tomorrow. My presence has been requested at an Om-Guard board meeting."

Brigitte raised an eyebrow at me. "I thought you were some kind of…" She flicked her hand dismissively. "You know, employee or something. Since when do you attend board meetings?"

"This will be the first," I admitted.

Brigitte was the most stoic of all of us—and it sometimes came across as aloof—but she was also the fiercest friend. "Well, that's good, isn't it? Your father finally recognises that you deserve a seat at the leadership table based entirely on your own merits instead of waiting for you to take a mate."

I gave her a strained smile. "I'm not quite so optimistic. The board likely just wants an opportunity to tell me for themselves that I need to hurry up and pick a man. They probably know that Papa is too gentle to push the issue."

I wouldn't be at all surprised if my cousin, Avi, was in attendance too, being the next alpha of kin of my generation. No one had ever outright stated that he was the backup option, but they didn't need to.

I'd insisted on going in at the ground floor and working my way up through Om-Guard, wanting to learn the ropes and add genuine value to the business. Avi had been appointed Marketing Director without a shred of experience in either marketing or directing. I pitied the team of betas who worked underneath him, tirelessly ignoring all of his stupid ideas while still making it seem like they were following his orders.

"There you ladies are," Spencer said, bowing with a flourish as he entered the studio before politely kissing Ivy on the cheek. "Ivy, I thought I'd lost you. We need to get on the road, darling."

She gave him a tight-lipped smile before handing me my smoothie, a look of far more genuine affection on her face. Spencer had always been a bit of a playboy, and Ivy was an assortment of insecurities hidden beneath the most beautiful exterior I'd ever seen. Ten years into their mating, and they seemed just as distant with each other now as they had been when they'd first emerged from her nest.

"How was class?" Spencer asked, surveying the group.

"Agony," Stasia replied dramatically, half paying attention to us, half focused on her phone. "Where are you two off to?"

"The lodge for the week," he replied, referring to his parents' hunting lodge in Somerset. "We're getting all the cousins together while they're off school, that sort of thing."

"Oh, are the boys in the car?" I asked, perking up. Their three sons were rambunctious—but delightful—little monsters, and we rarely got to see them.

"Oh no. The nanny has already taken them down," Ivy replied with a light laugh. "Frankly, I wouldn't survive a car ride with all three."

"How are you finding this nanny?" Stasia asked, setting Ivy off on a long tangent about her struggle to find anyone she liked, while Brigitte and I—both child-free—sipped our smoothies in silence.

"Inika!" Spencer said suddenly, slapping his thigh and making me startle. "I meant to tell you, Hugo is moving back from Copenhagen. His company has transferred him back to the London office. Should be here by the end of the month, if I recall correctly. You remember Hugo, right? He's an old school friend of mine."

I shook my head, having only the vaguest recollections of Spencer's boarding school friends from when he and Ivy first met.

"He's an Operations Director for some multinational—I forget the details, but it sounds very impressive, no? Excellent family too. Titled. His father is the Marquess of Hastings, and Hugo is the heir apparent."

"I see."

It was a good thing I'd practically bathed in Om-Guard after my workout. The others wouldn't smell the stress pheromones coming off me, at least.

Why did I even react this way? On paper, Hugo sounded like exactly the kind of alpha I should be entertaining. Of course, I hadn't liked any of those alphas in the past, but there was always the possibility that this one was both a decent human being, interesting enough to hold a conversation, and capable of fucking me properly.

None of them had been in the past, but maybe.

A brief image of Blake Alwis, the grumpy alpha plasterer, popped into my head unbidden, and I swallowed, my mouth suddenly dry. I'd had to shower, masturbate, then shower again after he'd left.

He had an abysmal personality, but I'd bet my entire fortune that Blake Alwis could fuck .

He was gorgeous too. Deep brown skin. Short black hair. Thick beard. Broad shoulders that looked like they'd make an excellent seat. He really ticked all of the boxes.

It was incredibly inappropriate for me to think of him that way, of course. But they were just harmless thoughts, right? He never had to know.

"Hugo was messing around with some Danish beta for years," Spencer continued, rudely yanking my wandering thoughts back into the present. "It's been a real source of stress for his family that he didn't have an omega. A proper mate, you know? Anyway, that's all done now. You two would get along swimmingly, don't you think, Ivy?"

Ivy nodded enthusiastically, giving me a wide-eyed look. Sometimes I wondered if she really wanted me to find an alpha to fall in love with or if it was more of a misery-loves-company situation. "Oh yes. Hugo is lovely. Your parents would adore him."

"A ringing endorsement," Brigitte murmured, though I knew deep down she'd also like to see me mated off, though I suspected for different reasons than the others. For someone who was so open-minded in other areas, Brigitte had a deep dislike for the very concept of Prendre and agencies like it, and hated that I used them for my heats. Until she'd been mated, she suffered through them alone, seeing it as a trial that all unmated omegas had to go through.

Unfortunately for her, I'd never found much glory in needless suffering.

"Why don't you set up something where they can meet?" Stasia suggested excitedly. "Oh, we haven't been for tapas in forever . Doesn't that sound wonderful, Inika? A titled, single alpha—at our age!"

I hummed in agreement without much enthusiasm. There was no use pointing out that I'd likely met him before, and there had clearly been no sparks then. For all their supportive words about how I shouldn't settle, I knew my friends all felt that at thirty-four the pickings were slim and I should just take what I could get.

If finding someone was all I cared about, I could have been mated a thousand times over by now. Alphas were not a scarcity. Alphas were in abundance.

I wanted love.

I wanted to fall in love with someone that I actually enjoyed spending time with. I wanted them to fuck me like they hated me, then hold me like they adored me.

Was that really too much to ask?

"Tapas sounds great. Let's make it happen when we're back from the lodge," Spencer said with a self-satisfied grin. I wondered if Hugo knew he was being set up—the poor bloke was probably still pining after the Danish beta, and his friends were already trying to pair him off on this side of the Channel. "We should probably get going, Ivy."

We all headed for the front doors and said our goodbyes, and I promised to meet Brigitte for a class later in the week as Lúcás pulled up to the curb to collect me.

"Where to today, Miss?" Lúcás asked, grinning at me cheerfully in the rearview mirror.

"I have a skin appointment at étincelle."

"étincelle it is," he called back, butchering the pronunciation slightly as he put the car in drive.

I slumped back in the leather seat, looking out the window at the grey, dreary day outside. Objectively, I had a wonderful life. A better life than so many people had. Most people, even. And yet, I couldn't help feeling like the walls were always a hairsbreadth away from closing in on me.

It was incredibly frustrating. Because if I couldn't be happy with everything that I had, then perhaps happiness just wasn't on the cards for me at all.

"They're ready for you now, Ms Dara," Brian said, poking his head around the door.

I stood up, smoothing down my business-appropriate navy slacks and heading into the boardroom. I'd arrived when I'd been told to arrive, and the meeting had been well and truly in progress by then. Whatever I was here for, it was merely as a featured guest.

"Welcome, welcome," Papa said, gesturing for me to take a seat at the round table between him and Samira. "Thank you for joining us, Inika."

"Thank you for having me," I murmured back, struggling to keep my spine straight with so much oppressive alpha energy in the room.

"Have you had a good day, my darling girl?" Papa asked, giving me an encouraging smile. I did my best to relax, discreetly taking a few calming breaths while I sat down and fussed a little in my seat.

He was reacting to my nervous energy, his alpha instincts telling him to soothe an omega under his protection. As if I wasn't struggling enough to look like a professional.

"Fine. Thank you, Papa."

"I'm sure you know why you're here?" Olivier, one of the other board members, asked from across the table.

I suspected that I did, but I wasn't about to make their lives easier by telling them that.

"I'm afraid not."

"Ah." Olivier shifted uncomfortably in his seat. "We'd, uh, like you to be part of the succession planning discussion."

"Oh?" I folded my hands in my lap and made a show of waiting patiently for them to continue, at which everyone appeared to get uncomfortable and fall silent again.

It was outrageous that alphas were credited with being the bravest of the three designations. In battle, perhaps. But when faced with the possibility of even a vaguely uncomfortable conversation, there wasn't a shred of courage to be found.

"Inika," Samira began gently. Condescendingly. "I'm sure we don't need to point out to you that no International-100 company is led by an unmated omega. It's never been done before. It's a big responsibility, and omegas already have so many responsibilities. Other strengths. Impressive strengths! Things that alphas can't do."

The fact that they all made such a show of loudly agreeing annoyed me even more than their cowardly silence.

"Unless I had a mate to help me," I supplied flatly.

The alphas all seemed to relax at the realisation that they wouldn't have to bring it up first.

"Well, yes. Exactly," Samira agreed, nodding her head enthusiastically.

I looked at Papa, trying to get an idea of just how far he would push this idea, but he was diligently looking everywhere except at me. I didn't like to think ill of the man who had done so much for me, but I couldn't help finding his actions in that moment to be a little spineless.

Would it really have been so difficult to offer me a little reassurance? To let the board know he had no intention of pushing me beyond my comfort levels, as he'd always promised me in private?

Perhaps he didn't feel that way in public.

"So, is any random alpha I pick off the street better suited to lead Om-Guard than me? Or is there a shortlist you'd like me to choose from?" I asked mildly, revelling in their discomfited looks. As if anyone here had the right to be more uncomfortable than me, and I wasn't making a production out of it.

"Of course not." Papa laughed nervously. "We would never expect you to make such a big decision like who you bond yourself to based on managerial skills." There was another uncomfortable smattering of laughter. "It's more that when you choose a mate, we will need to meet with him and talk to him… Figure out what his involvement—and therefore your involvement—will look like. Everything can be learned, of course."

"Absolutely," Samira agreed. "Temperament is a key consideration. And a general… suitability. For this lifestyle. It's not everyone, you know."

They weren't giving me a shortlist of names, but they may as well have. It was clear that they wanted a particular sort of alpha.

They'd take Hugo in a heartbeat, though none of us had even met the guy yet. Based on Spencer's words, he perfectly fit the mould.

Hans, one of the Board members who'd held a grudge against me for a decade now because I hadn't mated his son, cleared his throat. "Inika, we understand that this is a big commitment for you. However, we have been putting off decisions around succession planning for years now, and frankly, we can't do it any longer. We will be finalising it by the end of the financial year, come what may."

I could only take a mate during my annual heat, so I heard the deadline in Hans's edict, despite him leaving it unsaid.

Emerge from your nest after your next heat—in a month—mated to a suitably posh alpha who can have all the grown-up thoughts that your soft, little omega brain can't handle, or get out of the way .

"This isn't a decision we have taken lightly, Inika," Papa said hurriedly, giving me another shaky smile. "We know how hard you've worked for Om-Guard all these years. And regardless of what happens, you will always be my daughter, and you will always be taken care of—"

"Thank you, Papa." My ego could only take so much of a beating.

The awkward silence at the table was deafening, and my instincts were clawing at my insides, demanding that I soothe and appease, and do everything in my power to make the alphas feel better.

I had to get out of here before I absolutely debased myself and gave them even more reasons to write me off as an unstable omega.

"Was there anything else you wanted to discuss with me?" I asked through gritted teeth.

If my smile was forced, it was nothing on Papa's. He looked almost pained. He hated having hard conversations. In his mind, life should never be anything other than comfortable and filled with joy.

"That's the only thing on the agenda for you," Brian replied tightly, his beta nervous system probably as overwhelmed as mine by the heightened alpha energy in the room.

"Wonderful. I won't hold you up then."

Just standing up took effort. My legs trembled under the oppressive weight of dissatisfaction in the room. If I'd let my instincts rule me, I'd have crawled under the table and curled up in the fetal position, desperately wishing for the comfort of my nest.

However, I was no fledgling omega. I'd made it this far in life with my dignity intact, and I wasn't going to ruin it now.

I pushed myself to make eye contact and managed a mostly serene smile as Brian escorted me out of the room, not exhaling until I was in the lift alone, slumped against the railing that dug uncomfortably into my ribs.

I'd done everything I could. I'd graduated with a first. I'd got my MBA. I'd invested my inheritance from my grandparents wisely, impressing Papa with my good business acumen. I'd worked in the Om-Guard product planning department for years, and shocked every manager I'd ever had with my work ethic and the valuable contributions I'd made to the team.

If I'd been an alpha, it would have been enough. More than enough. Spoiled little trust fund babies I'd known my whole life inherited their family businesses all the time, and they'd worked half as hard and had a quarter of the common sense that I had.

It was, to put it bluntly, a fucking joke.

Pull yourself together, Inika. You weren't even sure that you wanted Om-Guard.

I was self-aware enough that sulking about not inheriting a giant corporation made me feel slightly ill—it wasn't as though I deserved Om-Guard. And it had always been something planned for me rather than something I'd chosen for myself.

But if I was an alpha, it would have been mine, no questions asked.