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“Maybe it’s time for me to go on a date with someone else,” she suggested.
I winced. “I don’t know, Delta,” I muttered. “That’s playing games. It’s better to be honest.”
“I’d rather play games than be made a fool of,” she replied before taking a bite of her sandwich.
I didn’t agree, but I couldn’t really fault her. It was hard being vulnerable. No one wanted to look or feel stupid by putting themselves out there. It was hard when you really liked someone, but they were on a different level than you were.
I ought to know.
I’ve felt plenty of stupid before.
Chapter 3
Ross~
It was only Tuesday, but it’s felt like a hell of a week. Between no sleep all weekend long, the wedding, Banks and his bullshit, my heavy classes on Monday, and the fucking text staring back at me, it’s been a long few days.
AG:Meeting tonight @ 9
This wasn’t how all this was supposed to happen. We were supposed to have been initiated, then sent on our way. We weren’t supposed to be meeting so much or dealing with The Order beyond the initiation. While The Order owned us, it was never supposed to be to this extent.
The Order of the Cronus was an organization that had come about eons ago. Picture every secret society that you’ve ever seen in a movie or have read about in a book, and that’s basically what The Order was. It was an organization made up of some of the most powerful men in the country. Their power and influence impacted a lot of what made up the nation and its relations with other countries. We’re talking financiers, politicians, media moguls, etc. The organization only initiated the best of the best, and mistakes and poor choices were not tolerated.
I’d been fifteen when my father had pulled me aside and had explained the organization to me. A lot of the memberships into The Order of the Cronus were hereditary, and being the firstborn son, it had been a given that I’d be initiated into the organization when the time came.
The organization also didn’t operate the way other clubs or societies did. Upon initiation, you were obligated to grant one favor to your fellow initiates, and that was non-negotiable. However, the favor came with an expiration date, and that was when you reached the age of thirty. At that time, you were freed from your obligation to the organization. However, you were still ‘in’ the organization, no matter what the contracts stated. You were never really free from what helped you accomplish your goals.
The organization was strong and has stood the test of time because its sole purpose was to maintain its power, and the only way it could do that was to make sure all its members were powerful. They helped you get to where you needed to be in order to benefit the betterment of The Order and favors like that were never forgotten.
The initiating classes were also random, depending on who they were recruiting. We were chosen young, but we weren’t initiated until our senior year of college. Upon graduating from college scandal-fee, we’d become official members of The Order. However, in all the research that I’ve done, I’ve never heard of someone not meeting the requirements to becoming a full-fledged member. However, that could have a lot to do with the stipulations that came with our senior year initiation.
Each initiate had to pick a supporter. Supporters were supposed to make sure that none of the initiates went off the rails during their last year of school. Our supporters were supposed to make sure we didn’t get arrested, get trapped by an unplanned pregnancy, fail any of our classes, get hooked on drugs, etc. Basically, they were glorified babysitters.
In exchange for babysitting us, upon their graduation from college, The Order helped them with the career of their dreams. Say one of the supporters wanted to go into advertising, well, The Order would get them a job at one of the top marketing companies in the country. The lure of a dream job was usually incentive enough for the support to take their job seriously.
However, we couldn’t pick our supporters until we were freshman in college. No choosing one before that. I wasn’t sure the reason behind that rule, but there was a lot of shit I didn’t understand about The Order. While I knew everything that I needed to know, I didn’t understand a lot of it. Probably because a lot of it seemed archaic.
For instance, the members could only be male, and the supporters could only be female. The founding members of this little cult believed in the saying that behind every successful man was a good woman, and while I didn’t disagree with that, it still felt a bit sexist. Maybe it was because I had a gay brother and viewed relationships differently because of it, but it still felt a bit chauvinistic to me.
Then there was the fact that hypocrisy was real and blatant in the organization. While the men in the organization cheated on their wives often, they held their Hera marriage contracts in the highest regard. If you and your supporter signed a Hera contract, that shit was sacred to The Order, and there was no divorce, no matter what. A Hera wife practically became a member herself, and The Order didn’t fuck around with that.
However, my initiating class had been the first to ever enact a Hera contract. Before Stone Lexington, every member had all signed Circe contracts, and Stone Lexington marrying Rylee Madden had thrown The Order into uncomfortable and unfamiliar waters. It was the reason our initiating panel had stayed in Serenity Springs. Stone has been defying The Order’s traditions from the beginning, and they had no idea what he would be doing next. However, that’s what The Order had signed up for when they had recruited Stone Lexington. The guy was as powerful as they came, and he was a volatile sonofabitch.
That being said, my initiating class had been one of the most powerful to have ever been assembled. We’d only had five members this year, and they were me, Stone Lexington, Saxton Voss, Fox Harrington, and August Remington. While every man in my class had more money, power, influence, and drive than most, August Remington wasn’t as honorable as the rest of us.
August Remington was a goddamn pain in the ass.
Then there were our selected supporters. Fox had chosen Alexis Wyatt, August had chosen Laney Spinner, Saxton had chosen Kincaid Black, I had chosen Jennifer Polk, and though last minute, Stone had chosen Rylee Madden. Though every girl had been vetted closely, Kincaid Black was the only wildcard. If she’d been born a male, she would have been in our initiating class as a member, not a supporter. That girl was more vicious than me, Stone, Saxton, Fox, and August combined.
I had chosen Jennifer Polk because she was unassuming. She had a simple life and came from a simple family, and I had chosen her because I knew she’d stay out of my way. While I had no intentions of running amok, I also didn’t need some girl underfoot. I didn’t need a babysitter. I had no plans on derailing from the plans I had for my future. I had chosen her because she fit in with my plans for my senior year of college.
Plus, I felt no attraction to her, whatsoever. Though Jennifer was beautiful, she was a-dime-a-dozen beautiful. She had blonde hair, blue eyes, an hourglass figure, and did that whole contouring thing that girls have been doing lately. In all actually, apart from some childhood photos that had come with the background check I’d done on her, I had no idea what Jennifer really looked like these days. Sure, her makeup looked flawless, but she just wore so damn much of it that I had no idea what her fresh face looked like.
However, she was bound to me. For the next eight years, she was obligated to owe me a favor, should I ever need it. While my favor could be called in by Saxton, Stone, Fox, or August, Jennifer’s favor belonged to me only. That’s how the relationship between sponsor and supporter worked. If I didn’t need a favor from Jennifer before she turned thirty, then she’d be free from me forever.
During our initiation, the men had received our symbols of membership along with our identifiers. I had a tattoo of The Order’s symbol tattooed on the back of my left arm, and on the back of my right arm, I had a tattoo of Cerberus, the three-headed monster that guarded the Underworld. Saxton had been dubbed Basilisk, Fox had been dubbed Sphinx, Stone had been dubbed Typhon, and August had been dubbed Hydra. We all shared the same organization symbol, but our tattoos were that of our membership identifiers.
There had also been the contract presentations. I had presented Jennifer with a diamond pendant, Saxton had presented Kincaid with a sapphire and diamond necklace, Fox had presented Alexis with a diamond bracelet, August had presented Laney with an emerald and diamond broach, and Stone had presented Rylee with a three-carat diamond engagement ring, which had surprised everyone. No one had known that he had planned on marrying Rylee until he had announced his intentions with a Hera contract. It had been quite a night.
