Lost and Pound (Love Sync Mates: Season Two)

Chapter Four

Nico

So, there I was, jaw gaping, head tilted, tongue flopping between the filthy bars of the cage after the worst hamburger in existence as my death-row meal—in front of an alpha.

A hot alpha.

Fuck.

It was a rock-and-a-hard-place type scenario. On the one hand, I was going to die. On the other? The new alpha could send me back to my home pack, may auction me off, sell me, or just lock me up as his plaything.

Which is worse? The thought gave me pause until I processed the alpha’s scent and just the slightest hint of his beta’s. I couldn’t detect the scent of fear, which was strange. Most betas feared their alphas. I stared up at him, taking in dark hair, not black but a brown with hints of auburn highlights. The way his face morphed into a kind but pitiable moue spoke volumes to his character.

“You got a pack to go back to?” The alpha leaned down, brow furrowed as he whispered.

I shook my head.

“Are you in trouble? I’ll find out if you lie.” He stared me down.

Again, I shook my head. I didn’t think so, at least. Who owned my contract had died, presumably. I was free to go as I’d never officially joined my new pack, I thought.

He nodded sagely and reached a hand in through the bars where I approached him, tilting my head into his warm palm. An involuntary shiver took me, exhaustion weighing me down, like I’d not slept once in the weeks I’d been there.

“You’re coming home.” His whisper cut the power to my body, the high-strung energy I had keeping me going left me like snapped rubber bands, sending my weight into his touch.

I barely noticed when he left with a clipboard, my mind a blur when the gate unlocked, letting me walk my way to the car on that humiliating leash. The rage-filled look in his beta’s eye gave me pause, tail tucking.

“Nobody deserves to be on a leash,” the beta said. “Least not an omega.”

My luck seemed to be changing as the alpha hoisted me into a rig truck idling in the parking lot. He made a space for me between the two front seats, letting me lay on his jacket in a ball. “Wait here. Heat’s on and we’ll go get that off you.”

When the door closed, I closed my eyes, sinking in the sensation of the idling engine and blowing heat, creating its own kind of silence drowning out the rough noises of whatever they were unloading and distant barking dogs.

I probably should have stayed awake, been prepared, readied myself to flee. Should have, but didn’t. I relaxed instead, letting everything go. I could escape when I was less tired.

I recalled a warm hand resting on me, whispered apologies, and a rumbling road beneath. The events, as chaotic as they’d been, flowed seamlessly from one blink to the next, where I sat in the same truck, surrounded by many smells, staring at a fresh, warm bag of some mom-and-pop burger-chain food. The beta was nowhere to be seen, but my stomach growled hard, distracting me.

“Chow down while I’m in the store and when I get back, if you’re still here, you can come home with me, and we’ll figure things out. I’d ask you not shift in the truck, okay?” He grinned and offered me a slow stroke to my head that I accepted with an involuntary groan.

“Now hold still. Alphas think their sigmas are the only ones with a touch of the blessing.” He snorted, and I froze. A sigma wolf was no different from a beta, really, but they had alpha power that had been warped, gifted with wild magic, magic like what kept my collar on.

He reached that hand toward my neck, fingers circling the raw skin there, the chain clinking as his thumb rolled over one link of the collar’s segments after another. “A mating collar. Ew.”

I pinned my ears and gave my head the gentlest of shakes.

“Nobody that truly loves someone puts one of these on an omega.” His broad face morphed into something hard as he met my gaze, eyes so very dark they reflected the pale blue of my own. “Lucky that I know an alpha has the greatest magic of all. Love.”

His warm hands traced the metal, and the collar fell, hitting the seat and sliding onto the floor. My mouth gaped open as I stared up at him.

“Cheezy, right? I didn’t think you were from a pack that’d teach you. Alphas can do sigma magic, just a bit. Takes a happy pack and a big ol’ heart. Now, wait here or don’t. You’re free. If I happen to bring back some pants or something for you, would a medium work?”

I shook my head and dipped my nose down.

“Small?”

I nodded.

“Shoes? Size eight, up or down from there?”

Interesting game… I nodded up.

“Nine?”

Another nod up.

“Ten?”

I shook my head.

“Nine and a half?” He smiled hopefully, and I nodded in the affirmative.

“Okay. I got to pick up a few things. Get some rest.” He patted my head and slipped out of the truck, keys hanging in the ignition. The warm air blasted over me, a pleasant change from the kennel.

Had I wanted, I could have shifted, taken the truck, left, nudged the door open, pawed the window down. I could have.

I didn’t. Sleep was my first and only priority. Well, that and the delicious burger-filled bag.

It wasn’t too long later that a gust of cold air and the rustle of paper bags woke me with a start. I blinked over at the alpha when I realized I didn’t even get his name, not that I could give him mine, either.

“I got a few things for you to wear. Want to hop into the sleeper cab in back and change?” He held up a bag before tossing it into the back and pulled the curtain closed. I slipped into the back while he loaded a few more bags and a creaking plastic container with a full sheet cake he slid under the curtain. “Leave the cake be. If you want, you can come join us later and have some.”

I shook out my coat and stared at the paper bag, rooting into it before pulling out a hooded sweatshirt and a pair of thick track pants. A pack of underwear sat on the bottom with a six-pack of socks and glorious baby wipes.

It’d been weeks since I shifted, weeks since I’d stretched limbs that hadn’t moved, and I dreaded the tingles I’d get in my legs. Not since I was a pup did I think I’d gone more than a day or two without shifting, and I groaned in my wolf form.

“I know, buddy. It’ll shake out.” The alpha in the front seat waited on me, keeping the truck still.

It would shake out, and I focused on my human form, fearful of the shock that would—had—come from the collar. Once I conquered the fear, it came easy, my body stretching, limbs lengthening—hair receding. Seriously, that was the worst part of the transformation. The sensation of a million hairs sucking back into my body… Every time, it made me shudder.

Bones cracked, skin stretched, tail shrinking into my ass—seriously? Ow!

By the time my shift finished, I stumbled onto my feet, stuck in a stretched position, ligaments aching. My back, arched and sore, tingled madly and I choked, gasping for air in foreign lungs until I settled. Even still, I gave myself a moment longer before I made a stiff-knuckled grasp for the wipes.

As a wolf, I didn’t precisely have body odor, but the lingering odor of dog hung about me all the same, thick in my hair, but other areas definitely needed a once-over. “Oh, my goddesses…you’re a lifesaver.”

As I scrubbed at my body, one wipe at a time, a delightful chuckle muffled through the curtain. “So, what’s your name? I can’t keep calling you—” Papers rustled. He paused for a moment. “Donner.”

“Nico.” I grimaced. It had been the holidays when I’d been nabbed, and all the dogs taken in got cutesy Christmas-themed names. I was one of eight reindeer…the last one on death row. “Yours?”

“Shilo.” The name fit, as soft and smooth as his voice, as his temperament had been. So far, at least.

I wrestled into the clothes after vigorously rubbing a few wipes over my head. It didn’t do much to clean my hair. It hung a little longer, a few weeks past needing a cut, but it did put enough of that artificial scent in it to ease the stink of wet dog and pound.

“If you’re comfortable enough, you can use the shower when we get home.” Shilo did something up front that made the truck jostle, and I climbed forward, parting the curtain while being careful of his other bags and the cake. “Hey!”

He turned in his seat and gave me a wide grin, his squared jaw shifting as sweet dimples creased the corners of his mouth.

His fit form shifted in the comfortable seat, legs filling out a perfectly worn pair of jeans in a way that drew my eyes right to where they shouldn’t be. “Nico?”

I glanced up, meeting his gaze with those deep, deep eyes. They’d seemed nearly black before, a reflective pool, but in the light filtering in, they were brown, striking in their own sort of understated way. Thick lashes swept in a blink. I swallowed hard as I stared. “Yeah?”

“Sit down. Hook your seat belt and tell me what’s going on.” He gestured toward the seat, and I obeyed, fastening myself in as I settled and the truck went into gear.

I fidgeted in my seat and glanced over. “I was arranged to the Silvermoon alpha’s son. I think we wrecked on the way home and…”

“Goddesses…I heard of that.” He wiped a hand down his face as the truck lurched forward, heading out of some big-box store’s parking lot.

“I don’t know what happened, but I woke up with someone’s hand frozen to my leash, in the snow, and—yeah. I had plans to run away before we could seal the deal .” I pursed my lips and Shilo filled me in.

“Guessing you got drugged. Driver was, at any rate. So, you got picked up and sent to the shelter… Nobody reported an omega dead or missing.” He sank in his seat and sighed, shaking his head in disappointment.

“I am from the Wolfson’s pack, but I was released to the Silvermoons and never got inducted. So, I’m a lone wolf.” I sighed in disbelief. So many omegas would kill for the opportunity to be in my position, packless and debtless. Sure, the Silvermoons could claim me, but they’d be forced to admit their illegal behavior.

“Wolfson, eh? Phew, big pack. You’re one of Godfrey’s sons.”

I shrugged and nodded. My father had too many kids to keep reasonable track of. We were tools to him, the omegas. The daughters, too. His betas were powerful tools and the few alphas he threw—they were problematic.

“Well, you’re welcome to stay in my pack. I assume we’ll need to look into getting your effects?” He glanced over and put his attention back to the road.

“What is your pack?” I glanced around at my surroundings. When I’d been handed over, we’d been on neutral territory, hours from my pack and theirs.

“Pine Warren. We’re small, about a hundred of us.” He turned onto another road and made his way out of the more crowded area of the city.

“Haven’t heard of you, but I’m not familiar with all the packs. I know the major ones.” I shrank in my seat. “I—can’t really afford to join a pack. I’d have to mate to join one.”

“Nah, I don’t charge people to join.” He turned onto a small road, the paving on it cracked and worn. “So, feel free to hang around awhile and get your stuff together. I know there’s tons of packs looking for omegas to join, or your father may want to know you’re fine.”

“He got his payoff, so he won’t care. If he did, he’d have let me keep my phone when I left.” I huffed and leaned back in the seat.

“Well, can’t argue that. So, your departure from the pack was registered? And you’ve not been registered to another?” He didn’t seem to be alarmed at all.

I nodded. I’d filled out the paperwork to leave, but to join, I had to be on packland and accepted by the alpha and interviewed by a representative of the council. Effectively, I was dismissed from my pack. “Yeah.”

“Awesome. Well, you’re welcome to crash at my place until we get you a job and things straightened out. We’ve apartments we can lease out to members once you’re part of the trust.”

“And it’s not an issue I’m alone, an omega?” I sank in the chair as we headed down a stretch of empty road.

“Not to me, it isn’t. I can’t promise every male is going to be a gentleman to you, but if someone crosses a line, tell me and I’ll kick some ass, okay?” He gave me a grin that held a note of his wolf in it, and I found myself rather curious as to what his beast looked like.

As interested as I was in what he looked like under the clothes in his fur… Without the fur raised questions, too.

“That sounds amazing.” I tore my gaze away. I couldn’t go about thirsting over the first alpha I met…but he did rescue me, so bonus points there.