Chapter 18
Ace
“She didn’t turn?” Blitz said, annoyingly repeating what I’d just told him. “And, you guys, went, you know, all the way?”
“No, I put my pin on her sweater and asked her to go steady with me,” I roared in return, frustrated that I was even having this conversation right now.
“Of course we fucked! We fucked like animals all night long. She should have turned. There’s no reason for her not to smell like a mated ware. My mate!”
Blitz was momentarily quiet. “I think we need to talk to someone about this. We don’t have much experience with sleeper omegas. Maybe there’s something she needs to help her transition properly. Some kind of push we don’t know about.”
My brother was right. I was taking out my frustration on him, even though I was pissed at the situation. “Who should we talk to about this? We need total discretion. I can’t have it getting out who Cat is or else she could be in more danger than she already is.”
My VP sighed and scrubbed a large hand down his tired face. “I hate to say it, Ace, but you know that the witch community does the most research on all matters supernatural. Hell, they know more about wares sometimes than we do. If anyone has the 411 about sleeper omegas, I bet they do.”
Blitz pulled out his phone and started scrolling through his contacts.
“Fucking Christ! You really think we need to talk to a witch about this?” I disliked involving another species in ware business. It felt wrong and I hated giving them power over us like this.
“Can you think of a better idea?” My VP calmly replied.
I couldn’t and we both knew it. “Who are you contacting?” I mulishly groused instead.
“Mad Dog,” Blitz returned, not looking up from his screen.
I frowned. “Last time I checked, he doesn’t moonlight as a witch, Brother.”
Giving me a hard stare, Blitz slowly explained, “Mad Dog isn’t a witch, but he spends more time with one than any other ware I know.
And she’s the most trustworthy witch I can think of.
Plus, she can keep her fucking mouth shut with the best of them.
Remember that situation in Dalton County last year?
I haven’t heard a peep about that incident and Kierston saw the whole thing go down.
She’s as dependable, trustworthy, and loyal as any ware I know. ”
Fuck! How could I have forgotten about Kierston? I guess because I was so muddled with hormones and rage, I wasn’t thinking straight anymore.
“Kierston’s awfully young,” I noted, doubt edging into my voice. “You think she knows about stuff like this? That she can help us?”
“Only one way to find out,” Blitz fired back, texting Mad Dog to get his ass out of bed and downstairs pronto.
An hour later, Mad Dog, Blitz and I were riding over to Chubs. The bar wasn’t open this early in the day, but Kierston was already there, prepping for the upcoming evening.
Mad Dog didn’t bother to knock. He simply keyed the lock and pushed the door open like he owned the place.
When Blitz raised a questioning brow at him, the ware shrugged. “I sometimes help out around here and it’s just easier that I have a key.”
“Makes sense,” Blitz said, though the smile on his lips said it really didn’t.
“Fuck you, asshole,” Mad Dog snapped, calling out Kierston’s name as we strolled inside.
Kierston was behind the bar stacking glasses. The petite brunette waved us over when she saw us. “Just what I need. Some muscle to help me with my afternoon delivery.”
Mad Dog wordlessly circled the bar and ordered, “Go sit down. I’ll do the rest of this while you help Ace,” and immediately began cleaning and stocking the remaining glassware.
If I didn’t personally know how much a woman could change your fucking world, I wouldn’t have believed what I was seeing.
Mad Dog, one of the toughest men I’d ever known, acted like a bona fide fucking gentleman around Kierston.
If I wasn’t already aware of how bad he had it for the little witch, I’d have been damn sure after witnessing this obvious display of consideration.
Kierston didn’t argue. She handed Mad Dog her rag and came out from behind the bar, pointing us to a scarred but clean table near the window. “Have a seat,” she offered, before taking one herself.
Blitz and I scraped back chairs as the pretty witch waited patiently for us to get comfortable.
“What’s so important you guys couldn’t ask me about it over the phone?” She asked, hands folded on the tabletop like we were at a business meeting.
There was no delicate way to put this, I just needed to just come straight out with it. “Do you remember the girl I was talking to the other night? The one you helped to her car when Kane and his boys showed up?”
Kierston searched her memory and nodded. “The pretty blond who looked more innocent than a Disney princess? Yeah, what about her?”
“She’s a ware. A sleeper omega, actually. And she’s going to be my mate.” How was that for straight forward?
“Wow, I had no idea,” Kierston slowly spoke, eyebrows raised. “So, what’s that got to do with me?”
Resting my weight onto the table, I explained how Cat didn’t know any of this. That I was operating off her scent, what it did to me, my instincts, and Kane’s comments that first night. That we’d hooked up, and it hadn’t triggered her change, and I wanted to know why.
“You want to know if I know how to trigger her change? Is that right?” Kierston summarized when I’d finished.
“That’s about the gist of it, yeah,” I agreed, feeling foolish, but hopeful she could shed some light on this otherwise dark situation.
Mad Dog, finished stocking the bar, brought over drinks and distributed them around the table. Of course, he knew what both Blitz and I wanted. But I noticed he’d gotten seltzer water with a slice of lemon and lime for Kierston. Oh yeah, he was pussy whipped for sure.
“I don’t know much about latent wares,” Kierston confessed, after taking a contemplative sip of her drink, “let alone sleeper wares. “But I know that they’re like snowflakes. No two are alike. They each respond to something different when being triggered. I think it has to do with their combined human and ware genes. They don’t follow the same pathway, as let’s say, a typical shifter coming of age does. ”
“Can you tell us anything on the topic?” Blitz pressed, after seeing the disappointment register on my face.
“Well, I know you said that you two were…,” she thought about how best to put it, “together. But somehow Cat doesn’t realize you’re a ware? Is that correct?”
“Yeah, so what?” I returned, not sure what she was getting at.
Kierston’s green eyes rounded, and her cheeks got a touch of pink in them. “Well, um, she didn’t think anything was strange about the…deed?”
Mad Dog was the first to catch on. Made sense, seeing as though he’d probably been thinking along the same lines when it came to Kierston. “Your knot, man. If Cat doesn’t know you’re a ware, what the hell did she think you were doing when you knotted her?”
I stilled, surprised I hadn’t considered that maybe my mate wouldn’t change until I gave her my knot. It made perfect sense now that we were discussing it out loud. Wares didn’t go around just knotting everyone they fucked. They usually saved it for someone special, like their mate.
“I haven’t knotted her yet,” I explained to Kiersten.
“As you probably know, wares are much bigger than human men. I was working up to it,” I was trying to be tactful.
Not because it embarrassed me, but because I didn’t want to disrespect Cat.
“I figured when she was ready, she’d turn, and I wouldn’t have to explain what I was doing. ”
Kierston’s face went from pink to red at my statement. “Um, no, I didn’t know that about wares,” she muttered, taking a sip from her glass and sending a surreptitious glance in Mad Dog’s direction.
I guess Mad Dog was playing the long game when it came to the pretty witch.
He’d better hurry up. With Kierston’s good looks and connection in the supernatural community, she wouldn’t go lonely for long.
I suspected the only reason she’d been single until now was because the bartender was waiting for a certain ware to fess up about his feelings for her.
That wasn’t my problem, though. I had enough on my plate with Cat right now.
I had nothing to spare to worry about my Road Master’s love life.
“So, I just need to knot her then?” I repeated, furious at myself for not coming to that conclusion myself. “Is that it?”
“Hold on,” Kierston said, running behind the bar and retrieving her purse.
When she returned to the table, she had her cell phone in hand.
“I’m going to call Maggie. She’s a witch friend.
She knows everything there is to know about ware mating.
If there’s anyone who can tell us about triggering sleeper omegas, it’s her. ”
Mad Dog frowned. “How do you know that?”
Kierston paused and glanced nervously around the room. “I didn’t ask her or anything. It’s just her specialty,” she nervously explained. “All witches have them when they come of age. Maggie’s an expert on supernatural procreation and cross species cohabitation.”
Mad Dog looked both disgusted and intrigued at her admission. “The fuck? That’s a thing?”
Kierston kept her gaze lowered on her drink when she said, “It’s a very narrow and rare branch of witch study, but yes, it’s a thing. Maggie’s one of only three practitioners in the world that I know of who focus primarily on it.”
“You asked her about this topic before?” Blitz questioned with a bit of smirk on his handsome face. Mad Dog seemed especially interested in her response.
“No,” Kierston hastily denied. “She told me, I mean, everyone, about it at book club a few weeks ago. Maggie talks a lot once you get a glass of chardonnay or two in her.”
Mad Dog sat up a little straighter in his chair then. “Do I know this Maggie, per chance?”