Chapter 11
Ididn’t know what I was walking into, but I needed to see Madison.
The narrow path I had been walking with her was suddenly wide open.
No more Tyler.
And a possible scent match? I’d scrubbed down my skin until it hurt to ensure there wasn’t an ounce of neutralizing wash obscuring my scent. I had no idea what hers was, but hopefully she had thought that far ahead as well.
Every second in traffic was agony.
I leapt out of the vehicle when I arrived at the address she’d given me and quickly found the buzzer for the apartment. They let me in, and then I had to wait for the elevator. More agony.
The door eventually opened to two alphas.
The blond of the pair grinned at me. “You must be Leo.”
“Uh, yeah. And you are?”
“Nathan. This is Alve.” He pointed to the Asian alpha next to him in a tidy suit, a stark contrast to the T-shirt and slouched jeans Nathan wore.
“The other scent matches?”
“That’s us,” Nathan replied with a nod. “Come on up. Everything is chaos, but we’re figuring it out.”
A sense of a surreality swept over me as I stepped onto the elevator with them and rode it up to the top floor.
“How is she?”
Nathan shrugged. “Overwhelmed as fuck. She’s been in the nest with Jude since she called you.”
A hint of fruity sweetness hung in the air and had me searching for the source. When the elevator door opened again, I was hit with a fresh wave of it, drawn toward the door like a magnet was pulling me.
Madison opened it when I was halfway there and a veritable tsunami of sugared raspberry and buttery pastry crashed into me. My whole body tightened. She was in my arms before I could worry about scaring her.
I wanted to be drenched in her raspberry scent, and from the way her arms locked behind my neck when her toes left the floor, it seemed she was pretty cool with that idea too.
“I guess that means the scent match is confirmed?” Nathan said behind me, his voice a bucket of ice water reminding me that we had an actual reality to deal with right now.
I set Madison down and she stumbled away from me until she met the chest of what I assumed to be yet another potential packmate. I vaguely recognized him. “You’re Jude?”
“That’s me.” He nodded and looped a protective arm around Madison’s waist.
“Jax’s brother, right? I think you’ve been by the arena a few times.”
“Yep. We’ve seen each other from a distance, but never officially met.”
“What happens now?” I asked after forcing my tongue to cooperate in creating words.
How was this all supposed to work? Usually a pack had already formed when they found their omega, or the omega slowly built their pack over time. Having a whole batch of scent matches who didn’t know each other dropped on the same day was chaos incarnate.
“I don’t know,” Madison said quietly.
Jude tapped her stomach gently with his thumb. “Do you want to tell them what you told me, or wait?”
She burrowed deeper into his embrace. What I wouldn’t give to be him right now.
Madison’s gaze struck each of us in turn.
“I’ve always wanted a pack, but I gave up hope on it out of respect for Tyler.
I don’t know how any of this works, and I have no expectations for anyone, but you should all know at least that much.
Jude is one of my oldest friends, and if I’m going to give a pack a chance, he can’t be excluded. ”
“Should we all take some time to get to know each other then?” I suggested. My instincts screamed at me to take this opportunity, and even if fate made a mistake, it was better to find out as soon as possible. “No one is allergic to cats, right?”
Madison paled. “How am I supposed to get my babies out of the house?”
“I broke into a car for you,” said Nathan. “I’m willing to break into a house, too.”
“You what?” I squawked.
“He was holding all her shit hostage. If I thought he’d have given it to me, I would’ve asked instead, but I think we’re all familiar with the type of man Tyler is.”
I couldn’t fault that logic.
“But breaking into a house carries a much steeper punishment if you get caught,” I pointed out.
Madison’s shiny eyes instantly undid me. “Tyler doesn’t like my cats. I don’t think he’ll take care of them if I’m not there.”
“Can we guarantee he’ll be out of the house?” I didn’t relish the idea of breaking and entering, but I also hated the idea of Poppy and Pepper being subjected to Tyler. Did it still count as breaking and entering if the address matched Madison’s driver’s license?
She turned to Alve. “He’s the one fighting the OHI for land.”
Alve looked surprised for a second before determination settled on his features. “Another reason to dislike him. I’ll call him and ask for a meeting downtown.”
He didn’t waste a moment, pulling out his phone, calling the company I assumed Tyler worked for, and asking to be transferred to him. We waited awkwardly while Alve talked to him and set up a dinner meeting to discuss potential concessions if the OHI withdrew their claim.
When he hung up, Madison left Jude’s embrace and paused directly in front of Alve, setting his cheeks on fire until they were a bright pink. “You’re not really going to give him any concessions, are you? The Omega Housing Initiative is too important.”
“I wasn’t even planning on going,” he confessed. “If you think you’ll need more time, I can, at least I could give everyone a heads up for when he leaves.”
Madison slammed against his chest and wrapped her arms behind his back. “Thank you.”
He moved so hesitantly with her, taking a full breath before he laid his hands on her shoulders. Apparently whatever anxiety he carried around was enough to override alpha instinct.
“So, we’re breaking into a house?” I asked, swallowing down my nervousness. I’d never gotten into trouble in my life, and I wasn’t eager to break that trend, but something had to be done.
“If he hasn’t changed the codes yet, then it’s not really breaking in,” Madison clarified, stepping away from Alve and wrapping her arms around herself again.
Ah, fuck it.
In for a penny, in for a pound.
I summoned up all my fortitude. I’d faced down swords and ornery horses. I could handle a rescue mission. “All right, let’s do this and hope we don’t get arrested.”
“I won’t think less of anyone if you sit this out,” Madison said. “Poppy and Pepper are my responsibility.”
“I’m fully going to take the opportunity to fuck with Tyler a bit,” Nathan announced. “Take the batteries out of his remotes, steal one of every sock pair, maybe piss on his bed a little.”
Madison let out a hysterical laugh. “Isn’t there DNA in pee, though?”
Nathan shrugged. “Probably, but if I did it under the mattress, the odds of him actually finding out before it ruins it completely are pretty low.”
I didn’t know Nathan at all, but I was certainly getting a crash course on his personality.
He was one of those people who either pissed you off or made you laugh, and lucky for him, he seemed to be the latter with Madison.
I supposed it was beneficial that we had someone that chaotic in our midst. I certainly wouldn’t have thought of a break in to get her cats back.
“Let’s roll out,” Nathan said, clapping his hands together and rubbing them like he couldn’t wait. “We can all fit in one car and park in my sister’s garage.”
“What does your sister have to do with this?” I asked.
“She lives down the street,” Nathan explained. “I doubt she’s going to be very impressed with me, but she’ll definitely want me to avoid prison time.”
“I have an SUV to haul around horse stuff,” I offered. “I haven’t had time to clean it, but it’s empty right now.”
“Perfect.” Nathan pulled out his phone and while we made our way downstairs, he called his sister. “Aves, can you make sure there’s a free spot in the garage and leave the door open for us?”
“Are you getting into trouble again?”
“Trouble? Me? Never.”
“Is this for a Madison mission?”
“You bet your ass it is.”
The woman on the other side of the call let out a deep sigh. “I’ll have Luke move his car. Is it just you committing shenanigans or should I expect more people for dinner?”
“There’s five of us, but we can feed ourselves for now. No need to extra impose on you.”
“Five?”
“You wanted me to make friends. This is the ultimate bonding experience.”
More logic I couldn’t fault. What connected people more quickly than committing a crime together?
They said their goodbyes and we parted from Alve, who went on his way to meet up with Tyler and get him out of the house. I opened the passenger door for Madison, Nathan and Jude piling into the backseat.
“Can someone give me directions?” I didn’t even know what neighborhood she was in. Part of me was intensely curious about where she lived, even if it wasn’t where she’d be going forward.
Madison plugged her address into my phone, each turn announced across the speakers. She fidgeted and I reached for her on instinct. Madison locked both her hands around mine, giving me a grateful half smile. “Sorry. I get twitchy when I’m nervous.”
“Totally fair to be nervous,” I assured her. “But that house is still your home, even if Tyler kicked you out. He can’t change the locks with all your things inside.”
“But what if he did?”
Nathan beamed. “Then I’ll break a few windows and we’ll have to move really fucking fast. Should we have a plan? What are we taking besides cats?”
“Cats are priority,” said Madison, swiveling her head to look at Nathan and Jude. “I wouldn’t mind grabbing some of my personal things, but only after we get Poppy and Pepper out.”
“Roger dodger,” Nathan said with a nod. “Jude, how’s your cardio?”
“Um, good? Why?”
“You can be the runner with the cats. I’ll have Ava leave her door unlocked and you can basically sprint straight inside with them while we grab more stuff.”
“Sure, I can do that.”
“Leo,” Nathan asked, “What skills are you rocking?”
“Man, I don’t know. What skills do we need in a situation like this?”
Nathan twisted, rummaging around the contents of the cargo section. “A valid question. We can probably use these duffel bags, get a shit ton of Madison’s things in them. You do the horse thing, right?”
I let out a sharp laugh. “That’s one way of describing it, but yes.”
“Okay, I’m going to designate you as the second runner. Jude is on cats, you’re on stuff, I’ll be in charge of less essential things and making sure Madison gets the fuck out of there.”
“Why are you so good at this? It’s a little unnerving.” Was I about to pack up with a secret supervillain?
“I have that effect on people. My brain goes a million miles a second once it gets onto something, and right now, that something is getting Madison what she needs, however that happens to look.”
“What do you do for work?” I had no idea what sort of job would make his particular personality useful.
“Architecture.”
“I guess that makes sense. You have to look at things from a lot of angles.”
“Exactly. Now pull into this garage up here. Let’s go rescue some cats.”
What had I gotten myself into?