Chapter Six
Poe
The Pleasant thrift store left much to be desired until they began a network within the counties around us.
Before that, the contents of the secondhand store were things the people of this town found in their attics or no longer used.
But the town was so small that eventually, the store, across the street from the library, was mostly vacant. Nothing to sell.
That happened. He stopped me in the middle of the street and went on about when he was young and spry—with an audience.
I’d switched to buying gently used clothing online to avoid that happening again until the new exchange policy.
“Poe! I’ve been waiting for you to come in. I have special things for you.”
The bell above the door rang when Janis called out from the back. She was a raccoon shifter and thought everything was treasure. She was right. Mostly.
“What did you find?” I asked.
She came out, hair wild and curly and frizzy. Her robe-like coat, though it was the middle of the summer, was handmade. Eclectic. That was what the people called her.
“This box of records. I spotted Johnny Cash in there.”
I zipped across the store instantly. Vaughn and Holt played music digitally. They relied on streaming services for TV shows and movies.
I was an analog man through and through. Old media and physical copies were my thing.
This box of records was like a dream come true, though it wasn’t the reason I was here. I’d just visited the week before. I was here because it was in direct view of the diner.
Where Katie was.
Though Holt and I agreed that wasn’t her name.
After an hour of looking through Janis’ other treasures, I finally walked back to the car without seeing a glimpse of the omega.
But I had made up my mind about something. Holt and I needed to tell Vaughn. We were a pack, and this felt like keeping something from him.
When I walked through the door, I beelined for him. We were all alphas, but he was our leader. “We need to talk.”
“What? Did you see her? Did something happen?” Holt glanced at the vinyl records and shot me a look.
“No. Nothing happened, but we need to tell Vaughn. It isn’t fair to keep this information to ourselves. He needs the opportunity to see her as well. And don’t look at my records that way. You know me. This is my thing.”
Holt hung his head. “I’ve been thinking about it too. It’s not right. Let’s tell Vaughn.”
“Let’s tell Vaughn what?” Our pack brother walked in with a basket full of summer bounty from our garden: zucchini, yellow squash, and cucumbers. He went back for a crate bursting with deep-red tomatoes.
“There’s a chance we found our omega.” Holt said it so matter-of-factly, I nearly choked on air.
Vaughn didn’t seem shocked or surprised. “Oh. Well, that explains the other day.”
“What the fuck?” Holt pulled up a barstool and sat down. “Everyone in this house needs to tell each other what’s going on. Spill it, Vaughn.”
“The other day, I went on a run. My wolf took me into town, following a scent I couldn’t place. We waited in an alley between the diner and the general store for some sign of who it belonged to, but had no luck. Wait, did you two see her?”
I confessed, “We did. Yesterday. At the diner.”
Vaughn stopped all movement. “Tell me about her.”
“Her name is Katie,” Holt said. “But Poe and I have a feeling that that’s not her real name. She’s curvy and beautiful. Works hard. Is polite and kind to others. Red hair. Fucking sexy red hair.”
“At the diner?” Vaughn paled. I knew my pack brother. He didn’t spend any time around people unless he had to. They hadn’t been kind to him.
“Yeah. Maybe the three of us could go there and see her together. Scent her and decide as a pack whether we want to pursue her. It has to be all or none of us.”
Vaughn went quiet, considering everything. Goddess, I hoped he took a chance. I hadn’t revealed everything to Holt, but I was sure that Katie was our mate. Our omega. The one we had waited all our lives for. The reason we formed a pack.
We let our pack brother stew while he put up away the vegetables and organized the space.
Tomorrow, he would begin canning produce for winter as he always did.
Vaughn caught hell from some of his biological brothers about being an alpha and a person who kept our home and gardened.
They called him a beta in joking, but there was no joke in their rousing.
They were demeaning him, even though my life and Holt’s life and our home would be a fucking wreck without him.
Their meanness and the betrayal of others had caused him to become a near recluse.
“Just the diner for dinner or something, right? Then we come home,” he confirmed.
Holt nodded. “Yes. Just dinner.”
Vaughn blew out a breath. “Okay. I’m in. Let’s see if this Katie is our omega.”
We talked about her all throughout the making of dinner. Vaughn wanted to know everything and we told him.
Once he saw her, we would have to talk about what to do next.