Chapter 15: 15. Don't Touch Sweetness

Tony scowled, "No, thank you. The last girl you had a look at came back to me damaged, and I had to kill her to take her out of her misery because she cost me more than I was making out of her. Diamond is making you money. I don't let anyone handle the assets, you know that, Boss."

"And yet, she sleeps in your bed, wears your clothes, and reeks of you from every single pore. If I was human I'd buy the 'don't care' bullshit. She's not the flavor of the week."

"If you don't mind boss, I have money to make and a club's revenue to resuscitate. With the raids, I have a bit more to cover than usual. I'm not going to be cut slack just because you paid a house visit, Mr. Maltsev."

"Oh why so formal, Tony?" He grinned. "Call me Alex, Diamond." Mr. Maltsev addressed Gaby. "I'm looking forward to meeting you in person. I'm sure you can explain what kinky arrangement you've got going on over here, seeing as that Tony isn't so obliging."

"I'm here for a job, Boss. As long as the personal shit makes you money, it's not up for discussion. You told me that yourself." Tony mused. "As you know, I have excellent taste that I use to protect business interests and make you more money. That's what you hired me for and that's why I am here."

"Make sure you take care of Wilder and his crew. They've lost us enough already. You're going to have to give me an additional 20% this week to cover the losses. Don't let me down."

"Of course, Mr. Maltsev. Now, if you'll excuse us, we have a club to run." Tony pointed at the door.

Alexandr Maltsev nodded. He knew that he had put Tony in a hard spot. He also knew that Tony had his suite rigged so that if your biometrics didn't pass, it would be physically unpleasant.

Tony was his most independent capo but also his most productive. He could be so much more but he insisted on being an underboss running clubs and making the legitimate businesses lucrative. With the current investigations that had already saved his ass more than twice.

Alexandr knew that Tony knew that. They both knew that if Tony decided to screw Alexandr over he had way more to lose than Tony. He wanted the girl and he had no legitimate reason to prise her from Tony especially if she was part of Tony's money-making machine.

The last time Alexandr had messed with Tony's hostess to get more leverage out of Tony he'd suffered losses that in the end, only Tony could fix. He thought it was funny that Tony had the one thing Wilder wanted and kept taunting Wilder with it. Wilder kept up the chase but failed to get the girl and that made Alexandr happy.

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A heavy base of a riddim reverberated in the basement club. It was a typical youth gathering at Bluemoon Pack. Everyone looked good. The boys looked hot and the girls looked sexy.

It seemed as if the Goddess had particularly blessed the pack with lithe bodies, muscles in proportion with little to no effort for most pack members and their vanity was not hidden. Growing up Jerome had hated having to introduce himself because he didn't fit the mold his older siblings did. Girls wanted to be his friend to get to his brothers and boys wanted to be his friend to get to his sisters.

It wasn't until he was about 14 that girls started noticing that he was attractive. He hadn't been expecting it at all. He was appalled at their attempts to touch him all the time. Eventually, he had just ended up making the air around himself uncomfortable for anyone who got too close.

PDW had stepped back repulsed after giving him a bro hug, the first time he had encountered the frigid air. That's how he knew it was working. Of course, his best friend had mentioned it.

"Don't ever get close to me with that coldness again man. I'm not some chick trying to grab your goods. I practically changed your diapers and I'm not jealous." Pieter snapped angrily.

"Sorry DW. I'll drop it when you come close but you need to help me keep them off. I mean, I'm just doing this High School thing because Ma thinks I missed out on my childhood. I think it's stupid."

"Hey, at least you now know what I mean when I talk about High School sucking balls."

Jerome shrugged, "I find it's a lot of fun, I mean, the homework is easy, I get to do sports because I'm not too young, and I don't have to worry about being picked on by kids twice my age."

Pieter sighed, "Yeah, that was some messed up shit, right there. But you handled your own very well back then."

Jerome grinned. "Aw, was my big badass Beta worried that those bullies would whoop my ass for real?"

Pieter looked across the desk at his life best friend. "I sure as fuck was worried 'Ro. Those spoiled brats don't play fair. I'd have killed them for hurting you."

Jerome smiled, "I knew you loved me!" He jumped up and down pumping his fist in the air. "Ha! Suck that Dre!"

His older brother Dre had once told Jerome that he'd take Pieter as his Beta since they had a strong bond. Jerome had gotten very upset.

The Alpha-Beta bond was almost like a mate bond. Every Alpha was connected to their Beta. And separating the two was generally frowned upon.

"Whatever man, you're like the annoying kid brother I never had and you know we ain't got no choice but to love family. Don't make me beat you into silence. Help me with my homework, I don't want to do this all night. Come on boy genius, help your best brother out." Pieter scowled.

Jerome calmed down. He knew Pieter hated displays of affection so he did a little dance to the music playing in the basement then sat across from Pieter. It was their after-school ritual.

Pieter did his homework at home and Jerome did his homework in homeroom or his free period. After school or practice whichever was the last activity of the day they did Pieter's homework, although Pieter was quite smart he liked making Jerome sit on standby just in case he needed him. It wasn't often but when Pieter didn't get things he knew Jerome would not make him feel stupid.

"You want to join the party after we're done?" Pieter asked randomly. He knew Jerome would say no but he asked anyway.

Jerome shrugged, "Sure, why not? Then I can say I went to parties when I was in high school. No one needs to know they were daytime parties set up by my older siblings to help the pack youths blow off steam so we could do patrols and keep up appearances with the humans. No one would believe me anyway."

Pieter laughed. "I'm just hoping my mate will be there. We're in junior year and I'm not trying to find her when I'm twenty-five."

"DW you're 16, you have nothing to worry about. Besides, next year we're seniors and we can focus on getting our pack training done before you turn 21 so that when you are ready to mate I can give you a month to memorize her curves and get over the call of True Nature." Jerome calmly told his friend.

Pieter groaned and hit his head against the desk. They had both seen how crazy Jerome's brothers had gotten when they met their wives. They had worked out that they would both be a little crazier due to their enhanced abilities and so would need a little longer to work out the adjustment to mated life.

While it was rare for an Alpha and Beta pair to be equally matched Jerome and Pieter knew they were. They were each other's keeper, literally. All of Pieter's shortcomings were balanced by Jerome's strengths and all of Jerome's weaknesses were covered by Pieter's strengths. When they trained together, in earnest there was an almost chemistry.

They didn't train together often, especially not in public because things got intense, quite quickly and most people could not stand the ferocity of their training routine whether they were watching or participating. Pieter was a very strong Beta, to the point where he was virtually immune to Junior Alphas. This in itself was rare.

The kind of rare that made him and his Alpha targets for power-hungry individuals. Growing up, they quickly learned to mask their power and only emit enough to let people know they were high-ranked wolves and possibly first or second tier. Most people mistook them for top Tier Deltas which they did not mind at all.

"Hurry up DW, I wanna party," Jerome whined as he threw himself on his bed as he waited for his best friend to wrap up his homework. He was kidding of course but it was fun to say.

His best friend mumbled something about annoying younger siblings and slowly moved his pen across the page. He knew the answers but it was more fun to annoy the heck out of Jerome. He could almost hear the nerve on Jerome's jaw tick. He quickly stifled a guffaw.

Then one of his favorite tracks started playing in the basement and he raced through the last paragraph of his assignment. He hastened to put his pen down and pack his backpack for the next day and skipped out the door with Jerome at his heels. They parkoured down to the basement with practiced ease.