Omega In The Office - Aria Grace Page 0,1

wish I’d have done differently was tell you sooner. I shouldn’t have just dropped this on your head when you came home. So, for that, I’m sorry. But that’s the end of it.”

He just shakes his head, unable to speak.

“Now, I’ve got to finish getting ready or I’m going to be late.” I turn away and check my reflection one last time. “You need to stop worrying about stuff that you’ve got no control over. If you really want me to quit my job, then you’ve got to put that fancy new degree of yours to work.” I give him a sidelong wink.

“That’s actually what I originally wanted to talk to you about.” Lucius perks up a little, though the internal conflict is still heavy on his face. “I just...I forgot you were still working, and my brain went into defensive mode. I know you’re capable of making your own choices, but I’m not used to the idea of sharing you with anyone else.”

My heart thuds to a stop.

I know what he means. It’s always been just us. Lucius had plenty of chances to ditch me when we were still in foster care. It would’ve been easy for a young alpha with good genes to find a family willing to take him in. There’d been a few families who were willing to take both of us, but it was clear they were mostly interested in Lucius. I was just the skinny, awkward, freckle-faced accessory that came along with him.

Lucius never stood for that.

We ran away from more foster homes than I can count. Eventually, people stopped looking for us. We sustained ourselves on odd jobs and dumpster diving. Drifting from place to place was normal until we finally found an apartment we could afford. Our lives had been on an upward trajectory until, at age nineteen, Lucius decided he could solve all of our problems if he could get a business degree.

Not that I didn’t agree with him. An education would make him infinitely more employable. He was attractive, young, and ambitious, so it wouldn’t be hard for him to land a position within a good company. He’d be on the fast track to the top in no time. I had no doubts about it.

But I’ve always been a little bit more of a realist than my brother. College is expensive and financial aid only goes so far. I knew that for Lucius’s plan to succeed, he was going to need help from the outside.

All our lives, everything we’ve done has been for each other. For our combined future. When Lucius talks about how he doesn’t want to share me, that isn’t exactly out of the ordinary. But, for some reason, it’s sending butterflies through my stomach. It takes a lot of work to push them down and maintain my poker face, but I manage.

“You’re not sharing me with anyone.” I force a dry laugh. “None of my clients get to see the real Leon. I’m not going to run away and marry any of them either. You don’t have to worry about that.”

He scoffs and faces away from me so I can’t see what he’s really thinking. The words that are probably written on his face as they always have been since we were little.

I start putting away my makeup and cleaning up the mess I’ve strewn across the bathroom counter. “But anyway, that’s enough of that.” I shut down any more conversation on the topic because I’m tired of having to defend myself. Even if Lucius means well, he’s getting on my nerves. “What’s this thing you wanted to talk about?”

“Right…” Lucius swallows hard and returns to the door frame once more. “Well, I’ve found a place. A job that we might be able to do together actually. It will take a lot of work, but I think we can handle it. After everything we’ve been through, it’ll be easy.”

Now it’s my turn to fold my arms and turn fully toward him. “And what is this ‘easy’ thing that you’re beating around the bush about?”

“Well...I’ve found an apartment complex that’s up for auction,” Lucius explains. “The starting price is an absolute steal, and there’s unlikely to be any competition for it. I’ve got a friend, the owner of the company I interned at last summer, and he’s willing to co-sign on a loan for me and act as a guarantor.”

There’s so much information to digest that I don’t know where to start. My watch beeps, signaling that I