Chapter Twenty-One
“I’m coming with you,” Jamie declared as he watched me throwing clothes and books and random crap into a suitcase.
“What?” I paused to glare at him, while my inner alpha beat his wings and stamped his hooves, anxious about any second wasted on not returning home.
My omegas were hurting. The look of utter devastation on Dexter’s face had mirrored my own feelings, knowing that Sage was…
Jesus, he was locked in a cell somewhere, his shifter side forcibly repressed by a spell that turned my stomach, and he was pregnant.
I didn’t even know how that was possible.
I mean, sure, I knew how it was possible, but I’d never knotted him.
I hadn’t had the pleasure of giving in to my alpha urge to breed him.
The only time I could even recall finishing inside him was during Dexter’s heat, but that had happened before I had popped my first knot when I’d been with Dexter…
and ugh! The Magic had some explaining to do!
“I am coming with you,” the Irish menace repeated calmly, bringing my thoughts back to the moment.
“Why? So you can make sure I follow through on my promise? Because —and you might not have heard— I have other things to worry about right now.”
Like my pregnant mate.
Oh, look, we were back on the subject again.
“No,” Jamie replied slowly. “Sergio, I want to help.” He bit his lip, a flush of guilt marring his otherwise pretty features. “I feel somewhat responsible for what’s happened. If you hadn’t told them that you were staying to help us over here…”
I liked to consider myself a rational man. Cool under pressure. The kind of person who didn’t point fingers or lay blame on people who didn’t deserve it.
That all flew out the window as I grasped on to what Jamie was saying.
“You’re right,” I bit out, turning back to my hurried packing, “it is partially your fault.”
There. At least I said ‘partially’. I wasn’t irrational enough to say it was all his fault.
“So, allow me to help make it right, then.”
I didn’t have the time or interest to argue with him.
“Fine,” I snapped. “But I am taking the next commercial flight to America that I can get.” I wanted to just spread my wings and fly myself there, but it was over eight-thousand miles in a direct line, and I didn’t have that kind of stamina or energy.
I did not want to risk plummeting into the ocean mid-journey.
Not when my men needed me. I zipped my suitcase up with a flourish and set it on the ground, raising the handle.
“If you’re coming with me, you’re coming right now. ”
Almost a full twenty-four hours after Brandt had burst in on our meeting, I found myself rushing inside Beckett and Oliver’s house.
Ollie didn’t waste time on pleasantries when he opened the door to me and Jamie, and I appreciated him all the more for it.
Especially as he led the way to the Alpha’s meeting room, explaining, “Everyone’s been here since dawn.
I don’t think Dex even slept. He, uh, he wasn’t doing too well yesterday. ”
My stomach sank and I nodded. While I was concerned about Sage and our unborn child, I was also worried about Dexter. He took so much on board and was so hard on himself, I could only imagine what was going through his mind. “My poor omega,” I said, not really intending to let the words slip out.
The Alpha’s mate gave me a commiserating smile. “It’s going to be okay,” he told me as I reached for the door handle.
We entered the room in the middle of what sounded like a debate, but all sound cut off as Dexter shot out of his chair with a wordless cry and launched himself at me.
I barely got a look at his drawn features and the dark circles under his eyes before his face was tucked into the crook of my neck and his trembling frame was pressed so closely against mine, it was almost as if he was attempting to merge our bodies into one.
“I’m so sorry, dear-heart,” I spoke quietly into his ear, heedless of our audience. “I should have been here. I should never have left without you. Either of you.”
“It’s not your fault,” Dexter’s reply was muffled against my skin, but I understood them anyway. “It’s mine. I shouldn’t have let him storm off. I should have—”
“No,” I interrupted him. “He’s a grown man, too. And he was upset. You both were. I should have been here.”
“You can play the blame game later,” Eric cut in, interrupting the soft, circling argument. “For now, we have some ideas we want to run by you on how to get Sage back home quickly and safely.”
“And legally,” Beck added with a tired sigh. “We don’t want to incite another species-ending war with humans if we can help it.”
The Magic agreed, but for the first time in my life, I wanted to ignore it.