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1
ANDRO
The ticking of the second hand on the clock seemed to get louder as I stared at it. In just a few minutes, I’d be meeting with my father to get the ultimatum that had been building for years.
He was going to remind me, for the hundredth time, that my days of freedom and bachelorhood needed to end. My father wanted to pass the baton to me, make me the leader of the family because his health was declining and he wanted to retire.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t as simple as just a handshake and an official announcement.
In order to claim my birthright to what was essentially the throne in our family, I had to be married.
And there was no way I was ready to do that. I didn’t need a wife or an omega tied to my side in order to run the family business. It was an antiquated idea that would be the first thing to go once I took over. Until then, I supposed I had to play the game.
According to my family, twenty-nine was about ten years too late for me to be thinking about marriage. But I felt like I hadanother ten or twenty years in me before I would even consider settling down. At least, that was how I wanted it to be.
There was a knock on the door, and then Louie, my younger brother, opened it up and peeked inside. “You almost ready?”
I sighed and turned to face the window. “No. I don’t know why he keeps doing this. We’ve had this conversation before, and it isn’t like I’ve changed my mind.”
Louie laughed and let himself in. “Sucks to be you, Brother. He hasn’t changed his mind either. But you knew this was coming. You’ve had plenty of time to have your fun, and being married doesn’t mean you have to stop everything. Just means you have to be a little bit more discreet. Or not. These days, does anyone even care?”
I shook my head and forced myself to release my jaw. My teeth were grinding together, causing a headache to form. “Then what’s the point? If I don’t actually love somebody, marrying them just for appearances is stupid. It’s a waste of time, and it’s another person to worry about protecting.”
“Stupid or not, Dad is old school. He’s not gonna budge on this. If you don’t pick somebody, he’s gonna pick someone for you. Trust me when I say you don’t want him to do that.”
I turned around and looked at my brother. We were the same height; all the men in my family were over six feet. All my father’s sons were alphas, save for one omega. “The hell he is. If he wants to play like that, then I’ll pick someone he hates. I’ll find someone who he doesn’t deem suitable.”
Louie laughed. “Yeah, only you would marry somebody you hate just to piss off Dad.”
I shrugged. “He’s pissing me off. What does he expect?”
Louie looked at his watch and nodded toward the door. “He expected to see your ass in there ten minutes ago. Let’s go. I’m not willing to suffer his wrath just because you’re being an idiot.”
I didn’t try to come up with any more excuses. This needed to happen, and we needed to find a resolution one way or another. Keeping Vern Ferrini waiting wasn’t something to be taken lightly. More than one person had been killed or maimed for that very offense.
When Louie walked out of my room, I was right behind him, ready to face whatever was coming for me.
My father was in his office, holding court with the other uncles. They weren’t all my blood uncles, but they were all leaders of the family my father had been heading up for decades. Our business dealings were less than legal. They made us a ton of money and even more enemies.
For some misguided reason, they all wanted me to take over, but I had to be married first.
Granted, I’d been training for this position my whole life, and as one of the strongest fighters and one of the few with a business degree, it made sense for me to step in sooner rather than later. I had already begun taking over some of the business dealings that my father used to handle. He was stepping back more and more, but when push came to shove, his word was law until the day he said mine was.
And I was on board with that.
If only they didn’t have the stupid marriage clause in place, everything would be perfect.
Louie and I stood on either side of Orsino, our middle brother. Once we were all together, my father finally stopped chatting with everyone else and looked directly at me.
“Allesandro, Louie.” He clasped his hands on his desk and looked at each of us. “Thank you for joining us. Better late than never, right?”
I learned as a young boy not to respond to those kinds of rhetorical questions. He was humiliating us without being direct. That was his style, so we all just stayed silent until he actually wanted us to speak.
“Son, your time is up.” He was looking right at me, and I could feel my brothers leaning away so there was no question who was in the hot seat. It was me. It was always me.
Still, I stayed quiet. I kept my shoulders relaxed and my stare level. I wasn’t going to flinch under his gaze.
“We’ll plan for your wedding by the end of next month. If you don’t have a name for me now, I’ll provide one to you.”
