“I’m sorry,” he mumbled. “I’ll be more careful next time.”
Right. Fat chance of that. The omega was always distracted and rarely paid attention to his surroundings. But Lucan couldn’t blame him for promising. If Maz gazed at him like that, he’d promise him the world as well.
Maz got up and helped Sando to his feet. “My work here is done. I look forward to seeing you two again,” he said, then walked out.
Lucan and Sando sighed at the same time, staring at the door Maz had disappeared through. “He’s nice,” Sando said, his voice dreamy.
Nice. Not the word Lucan would’ve picked, but it worked. “Yeah, he is.”
5
By nature, Sando was not impatient. Not only was it a character trait his father didn’t tolerate, but it also worked adversely in his job. Researching the gene in all its glory and complexity required dedication…and patience. Rushing it or getting frustrated with a lack of results only blocked his creativity and induced tunnel vision, so he’d learned to push through setbacks and keep going.
That being said, he’d been chomping at the bit to move his office out of the main house and into the clinic. Sleeping in the main house was fine, and he appreciated the company for mealtimes, but the constant distraction while he was trying to work drove him crazy. Mostly, the endless rounds of sex. Grayson kept busy with his two boys—Sando had adopted everybody’s habit of calling them boys, though they were only a few years younger than him—and the pack alpha and his men were even worse.
He’d never been that interested in sex in the first place and now even less. Others had called the frequent sightings of public sex live porn shows and seemed to enjoy them, but Sando didn’t see the attraction. Sex was a mere biological function, like scratching an itch dictated by your genetic makeup. Why would that be enjoyable to watch? He’d seen animals copulate, and he hadn’t found that terribly exciting.
Not that he had any clue of what he was talking about. He never even had his first heat. If he hadn’t been certain he didn’t have the gene, he would’ve worried about it because he was twenty-five, and that was six years past the average for a first heat. He’d asked his father about it, but he’d waved off Sando’s concerns, stating that the hormones, pheromones, and proteins in the materials he examined so often had probably caused the delay of his heat. That hadn’t sounded entirely plausible to Sando, but he hadn’t cared enough to pursue real answers.
Now, he was interested even less. He was convinced those men all loved each other, but he didn’t understand why they had to constantly express their feelings in such a basal, physical way. Not that he’d said that out loud to anyone. He was well aware of his precarious position here in the pack. Lidon had been granted alpha guardianship over Sando since his father had officially been presumed dead. While Sando had gotten lucky with an honorable man like the pack alpha, it still left him vulnerable.
Lidon could not only kick him out at any time but also marry Sando off if he were so inclined. Sando didn’t think him the type for that, but he was still an alpha, and his father had raised him to be suspicious of those. He’d always said that as an omega, alphas were his biggest enemy. Not so much because they’d want to harm him physically, but because they had the power to overrule him, render him powerless, effectively speechless. No matter how smart he was, how much he knew, and how good he was at his job, if Lidon so wished, he could take it all away from Sando.
Sando was happy to get out of the main house during the day so he could avoid all those sexcapades, which would only tempt him to say something he’d come to regret. Plus, his room in the clinic was three times as big as his bedroom, didn’t have a bed in it, and had a brand-new desk, tailored to his height. He breathed in deeply as he stepped in through the front doors, barely avoiding tripping over the mat he was supposed to wipe his feet on.
“Sando, that you?” Lucan called out from the back of the clinic.
“Yeah. Where are you?” Sando shouted back.
Rather than answering, Lucan walked in from one of the patient rooms into the reception area. “Right here.”
“Did my furniture come in?” Sando couldn’t keep the excitement out of his voice.
“Yup, and Ori and Servas put it already in your room. If you want it in a different spot, all we need to do is ask them, and they can move it for us.” Lucan chuckled when Sando bounced on the balls of his feet. “Come on, let me show you.”
As soon as he stepped into his office, Sando let out a squeal of excitement. “This is perfect! Oh my gosh, look at how big it is!”
“Do you like the color of the walls?”
“Yes! It’s my favorite color, the perfect mix between blue and gray. Very soothing.”
“You told me once that was your favorite.”
“I did? I can’t remember.”
“We were talking about the trip you took with your dad to the beach, remember? You had expected the water to be more aqua, but it was this mesmerizing mix of blue and gray that kept you staring at it for hours because it was so soothing.”
Sando dragged his finger along the smooth walls. “I can’t believe you remember that. It was such a casual thing to say.”
“I remember everything,” Lucan said softly.
Sando furrowed his brows as he turned around and faced Lucan. What did the beta mean by that? Lucan looked away, his cheeks slightly red as he said, “I mean, I have an excellent memory. Tell me something once, and I’ll remember it.”
Ah, that made more sense. “Well, thank you for remembering this. I love it.”
He stepped in for a hug, something that was relatively new to their friendship. Lucan had started hugging him a week or two ago, and Sando had been flabbergasted the first time. But Lucan had explained it was a normal social habit between friends, and since then, Sando had seen that statement validated in how others in the pack hugged friends and family members. He’d adopted it as a new social skill, and he loved the way Lucan pulled him close and held him. He always wished it would last just a bit longer, but Lucan usually let go before Sando had had enough.
“You’re welcome,” Lucan said. “We’ve put all your boxes with files and your other papers in the hallway. Want to start unpacking them and putting them in the file cabinets?”
Sando bit his lip. “I can do it myself. I’m sure you have more important things to do than help me with everything.”
“I don’t mind, honestly. Besides, I’d like to prevent you from dropping one of the boxes and getting the files I so neatly organized for you all messed up.”
Sando sighed. “Good point and definitely not outside the realm of possibilities. In fact, statistically speaking, the probability of that happening is alarmingly high.”
Lucan grinned. “Tell me something I don’t know. I know jack shit about statistics and probabilities, but I called that one nevertheless.”
Two hours later, they’d unpacked all the boxes, and his office looked neat as a pin, all clean and everything in its place. “You do realize it’s not gonna stay this neat and organized very long, right?” Sando asked sheepishly.