"What do you think you're doing, boy?"
Mircea looked up from his copy of the contract he was trying to get old Brixton to sign. "Trying to take your money?"
Senator Brixton was not amused. "I'm talking about your friend," he deadpanned. "What are you trying to pull, bringing him along?"
Mircea rubbed his face to hide his eyeroll. "You've figured it out already, Senator," he replied. "I am not interested in getting back together with Caroline."
"Even if my investment in your company depends on it?"
Mircea's eyes flashed. "Especially if your investment depends on it. If I wanted to marry your daughter, I'd do it without buying her."
The scowl on the older Alpha's face deepened. "I don't appreciate what you're implying."
"Feeling's mutual, Senator. So why don't we act like big boys and leave both Carol and Evinori out of this?"
Brixton glared for a second before remembering what Mircea's returning stare would feel like and looking away. When had he signed up for a whole weekend of being annoyed by the younger generation on his own yacht? Even his own daughter wasn't on his side! She'd never minded his efforts to set her up with Mircea before, and it wasn't like Mircea hadn't been going along with it. The only explanation he could give for the sudden change of heart was that they were drunk on the scent of that omega.
"Look," Mircea sighed, sensing Brixton's rising hostility. "Just because it was Evinori I brought with me, it doesn't mean I want to marry him. He'd been really upset recently because of some family drama, so I thought I could bring him along to take his mind off of things. That's all. He has nothing to do with my professional life."
"That's what I want you to realize, boy!" Brixton exclaimed, banging his hand on the table. "He has far more to do with your work sphere than you realize." Seeing Mircea startled and rather lost, the old man remembered all the times in the past that the young Alpha, then only a teenager, had come to him with the same expression on his face. Brixton's coldness melted away and he shifted closer to Mircea with a kind smile. "Just hear me out. I care about you. I've watched you grow up since you were five. I'm the one who guided you through starting Lemaile against your dad's wishes. Why, I was Lemaile's biggest investor! I have watched you build it from the ground up, I've watched you take it to new heights even as you took on the management of other Quartz companies, and I've watched you die inside as your brother burned it to the ground. My point is, I have the best interests of both you and Lemaile at heart. Understand?"
Mircea nodded. "And that is why I say Evinori is dangerous," Brixton continued. "Times have changed. Lemaile is no longer a little startup. You no longer have the security of being a child with a pet project. And until you take over from your father, you won't have the security of being the one who calls the shots either. You're just the heir. Your power comes from the support of other powerful men heavily invested in the empire you will run one day. As much as I'd like to say otherwise, I'm no longer one of the bigger fish. You get what I'm trying to say? I could accept Evinori, I could trust your business acumen and invest in Lemaile again. But these other men won't be that understanding, Mircea. It won't matter to them that you two are just friends or that Evinori is a good man. All they will care about is that you have a male omega around you, and they'll turn against you. You and Lemaile will both be ruined."
The childlike, innocent confusion on Mircea's face had by then transformed into a grudging frown. "But...Evinori's good for me," He argued. "You know, Lemaile would've gone under if it weren't for him. It kept sinking even after I came back in charge. That was when Evinori came along and helped me realize what I needed to do. Without him, I wouldn't have realized that I'd changed - I'd grown used to having finished, running machines handed to me on a platter. To maintaining instead of creating. I'd been doing only the bare minimum because I felt it was a massive, unfair pain to fix my brother's mess. At a time when I had given up completely, he told me to fight as if I'd gone back to the beginning." Closing his eyes, Mircea leaned back in his chair and released a fond sigh. "And even if he hadn't done all that...he's incredible. When I'm with him, every word and action isn't a means to an end. I'm happy in a way I've never been before. Doesn't that matter?"
"Oh, my dear boy." Mr. Brixton squeezed Mircea's shoulder sympathetically. "Your happiness matters to the ones that care about you. And QuartzCorp's board of directors doesn't care."
"Then help me sway them." Straightening up in a flash, Mircea fixed Mr. Brixton with a different stare this time - an intense, burning excitement mixed with a passionate plea. "I'm asking you to give me a chance because I know you care. Help me show them I can only get better at what I do, irrespective of who I have by my side."
It took everything Ezra had within him to not flinch as his mother hurled her prize teapot at the door of his father's study with an inhuman screech. Her teacup was next, followed by two paperweights and a folder. The folder obviously produced a very anticlimactic, soft thump as it fell to the floor, angering Gia further and prompting her to release a screech of fury.
"He rejected another call, huh," Ezra remarked weakly.
"What does that nasty little ingrate think he is!" Gia shouted, stomping up and down the room in anger. "He's been getting a little too mouthy lately. This is all your fault!"
The Carter patriarch looked up from his computer, completely unfazed by the shaking finger pointed at him. "Is that so," he drawled.
"None of this would be happening if you'd let me get rid of him when he was a baby. Now that dog's become too big to put a leash on and too conspicuous to put down!"
Ezra couldn't help but grimace at his mother's choice of words. It was hard for him to believe that this woman, ordinarily a kind, gentle soul and a doting mother, could utter such words about her own child. It had a lot to do with her being excommunicated from her family when it had come to light that she was pregnant with an omega boy. They'd accused her of sleeping around with the worst of red light district scum, and when the paternity test had proved those accusations false, they'd turned on her husband's family instead and accused his bloodline of being 'tainted.' In the end, the drama had resulted in the couple being isolated by both their families, and even rising to stand neck-to-neck with the Quartzes, their mortal enemies, had not helped.
"Old-fashioned pricks," Ezra mumbled. "Evinori wasn't responsible for any of it."
"The boy has a point, though," said Harold Carter, still unperturbed by his wife's anger. "Sundae is not his dog. Walking him is Lily's job."
"That's beside the point," Gia growled. "Don't you see? He's been acting out too much lately, and now he's gone off God knows where with God knows whom! We need to reign him in before he does something stupid, like tell someone the truth!"
"Evinori hates being a Carter at least as much as you hate him being one, mum," Ezra hesitantly argued. "I doubt he'd want to announce the fact. Besides, what harm could his declaring it even do? Anyone who cares to investigate will find exactly what we want them to."
"And who cares, Gia," Harold complained, finally showing something other than complacence at Gia's histrionics. "The boy could shout the truth from the rooftops and nobody would believe him: he doesn't even look like us."
Gia's expression turned even sourer at that last part. Ezra rolled his eyes in exasperation and mild disgust. Alphas were vain by nature, and the relatively unremarkable features that characterized the Carter family had always rubbed Gia the wrong way. So when the person she hated more than anyone or anything else began to dwarf, with effortless and unparallelled beauty, her peacockish attempts to be the belle of the proverbial ball, her massive inferiority complex had worsened and she had entered into futile competition with her own son. And woe betide anyone who dared to point Evinori's superior looks out.
"I should turn the dogs on him," she muttered. "After everything I've done for-"
"Now, mum," Ezra warned. This recent tendency of his mother's to go way too far with her malice towards Evinori was the reason he'd been telling Evinori to keep his insolence in check. "I've told you before, and I'll tell you again: you're not going to be able to dragoon him into obedience by lording your so-called generosity over him."
Gia scowled at her son and looked at her husband for support, but didn't receive any. "Fine," she relented, albeit with an angry stamp of her foot, and resumed her pacing. Ezra was just starting to relax, thinking that his mother's tantrum had passed, when she paused and grabbed his arm with a disconcerting glint in her eye. "You're right," she said with a smile of realization.
"About what?" Ezra asked, uneasily.
"That little ingrate has no value for what I've done for him. So it doesn't work as leverage, see?" Gia whirled around to face her husband with an evil grin on her face, ignoring Ezra's frustrated, dissenting groan. "What matters the most to him - what he doesn't even realize he has only because we allow it - is his freedom. And that is exactly what I'm going to use to show that insect his place."
Evinori stuck a little closer to Mircea as usual as they alighted from the yacht and made their way to the parking lot, and Mircea was mightly pleased about it.
"No, no, leave it," he said as the omega cursed at his hair being blown around by the brisk breeze coming off the sea and attempted to tame it in a bun. "It looks nice!"
Evinori let Mircea comb through his hair with his fingers, humming softly in pleasure and even closing his eyes in enjoyment. "What, are you going to remove the tangles this'll cause, then?"
"Gladly. But let me warn you that the last time I handled long hair was when I got my hands on my sister's doll, and that haircare session ended with me telling my sister that the doll had suddenly contracted alopecia." He chuckled nostalgically. "She was furious. It was a vintage doll, too."
"Then it's a good thing I'm a full-grown, live man capable of shoulder-throwing you if you're not careful." Leaving Mircea to mull over whether his words had been a joke or a threat, he drifted off to say his goodbyes to the Brixtons.
Carol seemed sad to lose Evi's company. Taking full advantage of her diminutive stature and doe eyes, she managed to get Evi to reluctantly exchange numbers with her before tackling him into a tight hug, nearly knocking the unsuspecting omega over. Mircea couldn't help but laugh at Evi's stunned expression as he tottered towards the equally stunned senator upon being released.
"You're scary," Mircea said as Carol bounced over to talk to him. "I had to struggle for weeks just to get his name, and here you are becoming best friends with him in two days."
Carol shrugged. "It's not that hard," she responded. "He's lonely. Anyone can see that."
"He is?"
"Obviously. He's been getting more and more distraught since we started our journey back. Also, he keeps looking at you longingly when you're not looking. He clearly doesn't want to leave."
"Really? He looks at me like he wants me?" Mircea asked, unable to hide the excitement in his tone.
"Whoa there, cool your jets. You can't get all gung-ho and pursue him just like that." To make sure Mircea was listening, Caroline planted herself right in front of him and grabbed him by the collar. "First things first: are you sure you want to do this?" she asked, seriously.
"Huh?"
"Evi isn't like anyone else you've asked out, Mircea. This is a male omega we're talking about. If you get together with him, it will be the controversy of the decade. Worst of all, there will be backlash from...our people. Severe backlash. I'm talking actual malice. You get it? He can't be just your next fling. Because if something bad happens, it will hit him a lot harder than it will hit you. So you need to be sure you want to stay by his side long-term and protect him when things get tough instead of bailing like you usually do. And if you're going to go through all that trouble, you need to make sure he's worth it. Find out everything you can about him before you make a move."
Mircea fixed Carol with a deadpan stare. "You think I haven't thought of that?" he retorted. "Why does everyone think I'm drunk on love or something?"
"Because you look it!"
"Well, I'm not. There's a reason I haven't looked into him myself." Mircea stopped talking as Evinori walked up to him, beaming.
"He said he's looking forward to getting to know me," the latter reported. "Can you believe it?"
"Almost can't." In spite of his previous argument, Mircea couldn't resist smiling fondly at Evi. "Should we celebrate with dinner? I'll give you a ride home after." The alpha's smile widened at Evi's delighted 'yes!'. "Why don't you wait in the car?" continued the former. "I'll just be a minute."
Evi shot him and Carol a curious look, but didn't argue. "There's a reason I haven't looked into him myself yet," Mirccea told Carol as soon as Evi was out of earshot. "Evinori works for the Carters. He won't tell me anything, but I suspect they're hurting him somehow. If they catch wind of my investigation, God knows what they'll do to him just for piquing a Quartz's interest."
"In that case, isn't it better to just leave him alone?"
The look on Mircea's face was answer enough to that question. "I'm going to get one of my contacts to look into him on my behalf," he said. "She's freakishly good. Even if the Carters find out about her snooping - and that's a big if - they won't be able to trace it back to me."
"Oh. Her." Carol shuddered at the memory. "That shady woman who always seems to know what you're thinking. You know what, send her to me instead. I'll commission her." She shot a thoughtful look in the direction Evi had disappeared. "Best to add an additional layer of protection. On the off chance that your scary lady's tracks are discovered, they'll lead to me and I can play the jealous ex angle."
"I'm touched that you'd do that for me, Carol, but it's okay. The Carters can't hurt me."
"It's not the Carters I'm afraid of, Mircea. It's your father." Caroline shot Mircea a warning glare, annoyed at his failure to realize the greatest threat of all. "In case you've forgotten, he murdered the last omega who got too close to your family."
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