9. Caleb
9
Caleb
It’s strange and uncomfortable to listen to Vera, Mathew and Riley having sex in the nest and not to join them. It goes against every instinct I have as an Alpha to stay away from my Omegas when they’re in heat.
But with how Riley reacted when Jorge went inside earlier, I don’t think it’s a good idea to disturb them until Riley has marked Vera and Mathew. Hopefully, she’ll become less territorial once they’re bonded, or things could become very complicated in the future, especially when Vera and Mathew go into heat again.
I’m sure of my ability to protect myself, probably even against Riley, but I don’t want to put Vera or Mathew in any potential danger. I don’t want to turn their nest into a bloodbath or make them feel unsafe in the place where they’re supposed to feel the safest.
So, I stay out here, waiting for everything to calm down.
Jorge is sitting against the door to the nest, his head on his knees, his pheromones a confused cloud around him. He’s only moved from that spot once since Riley sent him out of the nest and that was to let Mathew into it.
He looks like a lost puppy. He’s finally in a pack with Mathew and Riley, two people he’s known belong with him for years, and Riley sent him away at such an important moment. He must feel even worse than I do.
The nest has been quiet for a while and the pheromones seeping under the door have lessened. “Jorge?” I stand up, going over to him. “Do you want to go inside?”
He doesn’t look up, simply moving out of the way as he shakes his head. Okay…
I carefully open the door, the pheromones and scent of spunk and slick roll over me, making me even harder than I already was. I swallow hard, pushing my cock down. Damn.
While I want to jump into the nest and join my Omegas, my pack, I have no idea how Riley will react to that, so I slowly pull the curtain around the nest aside, finding Mathew and Riley wrapped around Vera. It’s a sight to behold, the small Omega between her two much taller mates.
Vera looks up at me, grinning as she pointedly looks at my tented boxer briefs. “Enjoying the view?”
Riley wraps her arm over the two Omegas, letting out a low warning growl, but she doesn’t hide them away like Jorge told me she did before. That’s a promising start.
“How could I not?” I sit down at the side of the nest, behind Mathew, so Riley can easily keep an eye on me.
Vera and Mathew’s pheromones are already dropping fast. This was definitely a secondary heat from meeting Riley, if it only lasted until she’d marked them.
“Mine.” Riley growls, but she doesn’t move. I hope her territorial need eases once she’s gotten used to being part of the pack. I can deal with a bit of growling, but more than that will become a problem.
“Yes, we’re yours.” Vera kisses her and Riley nearly melts against our sweet Omega, a low satisfied rumble in her chest.
So far, so good.
Mathew seems to be barely awake, which makes sense, the guy was already exhausted from the broken night we’ve had and he’s finally relaxed enough to go to sleep.
I run my hand over his back and he lightly pushes into my touch. I keep my attention on him, but also make sure to stay aware of Riley the whole time. She’s letting me near them, but that doesn’t mean she can’t decide to kick me out at any time.
Riley pushes closer, running her fingers over Mathew’s face before resting it over his side, possessive and protective. But now Vera and Mathew’s pheromones are stabilising and she’s marked them, she seems to have calmed down too.
The door to the nest opens and Jorge comes inside. His movements careful and his pheromones are still conflicted, but he’s joining us.
“Mine.” Riley sits up, her eyes trained on Jorge. Then she furiously grabs around the blankets and my heart aches as I watch Jorge take a few steps back, ready to leave the nest if she tells him to. But Riley simply covers herself up before reaching out to him. “Will you join us?”
“Of course.” Jorge slowly climbs into the nest and Riley scoots back, making his face fall all over again, until she points to the now empty area between herself and Vera. The smile he shoots Riley is full of delight, making her smile back at him.
He takes Riley’s spot at Vera’s side and wraps his arm over Vera and Mathew, meeting my eyes. He still looks unsure, but it’s clear that Riley giving him her spot does him good.
“Riley, would you like some clean clothes?” I slowly stand up, and she nods.
“I would appreciate that, yes. Thanks.” She leans on her elbow as she looks at Jorge, Vera and Mathew, like a very proud brand new Alpha pack member.
She’s very dangerous, but she’s also very soft in other ways, ways that don’t always make sense right now. I’m sure that things will clear up once we get to know each other better.
And I’m very curious what we’ll all learn about her. She seems to be a very interesting person.
I sit on the bedroom balcony, enjoying the warm early summer breeze. It’s the end of the afternoon, and the daily noises from the rest of the house make for a great background track as I check through the list of names that Erika sent me.
These are the five names that both our organisations don’t recognise. Which means they’re probably fake, but even if that was the case, there should be some trail to follow. These names should be connected to at least some people we do have information on, as nobody seemed to be surprised when they used them during their introductions.
And none of the names our organisations identified belonged to the bastard who recognised Mathew. Which means that he’s one of the people on this list. Fuck.
I put my phone aside and close my eyes. Every time I think of what the bastard said, what he called Mathew, fury builds in my chest and it’s hard not to want to kill him all over again.
I shouldn’t have killed him so quickly. If I’d kept him alive I could have had my fun with him, I could have tried to get information out of him and then killed him very slowly after. I’m sure Vera would have liked to try out some new interrogation techniques and maybe Mathew or Riley could have taught us a few new ones. We could have turned it into a pack bonding experience and used it to find out what the Hearts are up to at the same time.
But keeping him alive wasn’t an option in the moment. My immediate instinct was to eliminate the threat as quickly as possible, which I did.
It’s only after it was all over, that I realised we should have kept him alive...
“What did the beautiful sky do to get you this upset?” Mathew puts two bottles of water on the table next to me and sits down in the chair on the other side. He’s freshly showered, wearing his luxurious robe, which falls open as he stretches out in the chair, giving me a great view of his body.
“It’s not the sky that’s the problem, it’s me.” I sigh, picking up one of the bottles and taking a sip.
“Okay, what did you do?” He turns to me, curiosity in his eyes.
“I should have kept the bastard who recognised you alive. He would have been a good source of information.” I lean my head back again. “If I hadn’t acted so rashly, we could have had a lot more information right now.”
“If you hadn’t killed him, he would have died in the fight anyway. Someone would have taken him out.” Mathew stands up, going over to the railing and leans on it, his robe billowing around him. “We don’t keep people alive in these situations, unless we plan for it ahead of time.” He turns to me, grinning. “I’m pretty sure that that’s standard procedure for Vera and you too.”
“True.” I get up, wrapping an arm around him as I lean against the railing next to him. “Still. We have no idea who the guy was and neither does Erika. If I’d kept him alive, we would at least have his name. If he knows you from before , he could have information about how the Hearts work right now. He could have been our way in, or at least an informant.”
“Or he could have snuck out during the fight and tattled on us, putting us in more danger.” Mathew looks up at me, frowning. “We only leave assholes alive if we plan for how to deal with them before everything kicks off. Otherwise, they die. We don’t leave witnesses behind, especially not if they’re from one of the Suits.”
“Right.”
Mathew’s voice softens as he leans against me. “We’ll find out who he is. We’ve got a list of names now and we know he’s somehow connected to the Hearts. And we have an idea of when he might have been in contact with me before.” Then he grins. “We still have all the information from the bastard whose organisation I took over. He had plenty of connections with the Hearts. Looking through some of that might help us. We have his face, and know some of his buddies’ faces, we just have to connect their faces to their names. And we’ve got a list of options for those too.”
“Sounds like you’ve done this before.” I kiss the side of his head, nuzzling his soft hair.
“This isn’t our first time doing this, but it’s been a while. People got the ‘do not go near me’ message pretty quickly when I took out some bastards who thought that using my past against me would be easy.” He lets out a humourless laugh. “And the higher-ups in the Hearts also didn’t appreciate them spreading any rumours about me. Losing one of their ‘Kings’ was bad enough, they didn’t need anyone else getting ideas that they could escape. The Hearts are generally happy to let me be, as long as I keep my mouth shut and don’t actively bring them trouble.”
“I’m very glad you got out. Or we might never have met you.” I pull him against me. “And that would have been a shame. I like having you at my side and my life would have been a lot less interesting without you.”
Even if this isn’t a quiet and easy life, I don’t care. It’s my life.