APEX - Season 2

Ch. 23: No More Discretion

Rhys

After going over the schedule for my brother's public speaking events with my father and Liam, I couldn't stomach returning to the rooftop. The thought of drinking champagne and having to feign happiness made me want to puke. Instead, I found solace in my office. The lingering smell of honey and cherry blossoms steadied my nerves. There was a time not too long ago that I was mad as hell to have to share this space with Crown's pushy, know-it-all Luna, but now, I wished we could go back to those early days. I wanted a do-over—one where we would have let our attraction to each other lead us to an understanding of our connection instead of letting fear and ignorance cloud us. I denied for so long what Calla meant to me, and now, when we were both willing to admit it, it was too late.

Almost too late, I told myself. I had promised Calla we'd find a solution and if there was one thing I wasn't going to fail at, it was keeping that promise.

I waited for Calla, figuring that if she was able to break away from her party, she'd come here, if only to retrieve the phone that she'd left on her desk. When the door opened, I sat up, ready to spring over to her and wrap her in my arms, but instead of Calla, it was the last person I wanted to see.

"Aamon? What are you doing down here?"

"I was going to ask you the same thing." He sauntered over to Calla's desk and propped himself on it as though he owned it. "I was hoping you'd do a toast but when I looked for you, you were gone."

"Dad asked me to come down and work on some stuff. Sorry, I should have told you I was leaving." I wasn't sorry. In fact, if I never had to speak to him again, I wouldn't shed any tears.

"That's all right. Leave it to the old man to make you work, even on a day like today."

"Yep. An Alpha's work never ends. So, on that note, I should probably get back to it." I opened my laptop and clicked on a few keys to make it seem like I was doing something.

"No, I can't let you get away with that, bro. Put the computer away and let's get out of here."

"What do you mean? You're the guest of the hour. Shouldn't you still be upstairs with Calla mingling with people?"

"I already mingled. There's not that many people to talk to and frankly, most of them are boring. As for Calla..." His upper lip curled. "She won't even leave the penthouse. Is that like, part of Crown tradition too?"

"To stay in penthouses?"

"No, I mean, to keep separated from their betrothed mate. I mean, if it's not, it's weird behavior, right? First, she wouldn't let me claim her, and now she won't even be seen with me. I just figured, it's part of their tradition. Keeping the male and female separate to build up the suspense or anticipation or something."

Leave it to Aamon to assume the issue was tradition rather than his own personality. "I'm not an expert at Crown customs."

"Me neither. Do I have to learn them all now that I'm going to be her mate?"

"It might be nice of you to at least do some research. It would show that you care." I hated so much having those words come out of my mouth. It made me seem like the supportive older brother when I was anything but. Yet, telling him he was about to steal my true mate would likely end in bloodshed, which would eventually get out to the public, which would not help our case.

"It might show she cared if she learned some of our Apex customs too, don't you think?"

"What do you think she's been doing while working with us these past few months?"

"Um, mainly telling us we're wrong about everything? All I'm saying is that she'll have to get used to how things are in Apex. How we Apex men do things."