12. Morning After #2
I punched his arm. “Aside from worrying that my mate will formally reject me at any moment?” I paused, “Well, moon help me. The sex was great. I’ve nothing to compare it to.
” I could feel my face get hot. My brothers had no boundaries, and I loved them very much.
I’d heard some of the shit that they said to each other after all.
“But I never expected it to be like that. We just couldn’t get enough of each other. And knotting? Wow!”
“That good, huh?” Chase looked smug and since he and Axel had hatched the plan, I allowed it. I didn’t dwell on the knot because I knew he and Axel couldn’t do that. Another thing that set me apart from my brothers.
Not for the first time I wished that they had been alphas.
They would have shared pack leadership with no issues and the pack would have thrived from it.
Years of struggling under my uninterested uncle and then Deke could have been avoided.
There had been a few cases of alpha twins in history leading their packs.
Often they were described as a Luna blessing.
Twins in general were rare to shifters. Unheard of in male omegas.
“So,” I said, changing the subject, “what’s been happening with the pack?”
“No news on Rincoln and we are still checking through who he’s interacted with.
The problem, as Axel pointed out, is that anyone we ask that is siding with him is just going to lie about not seeing him, so unless I’m there, we can’t weed them out.
There are plenty of the enforcers who know what I can do too, so they can answer in a way that throws off that sense.
Like the fae, not lying, but misdirecting things. ”
I nodded my understanding. “Yeah, that is a problem. I dunno what to do about it. Kade has to be made safe from Rincoln, mate business aside. I wouldn’t feel right letting him get caught up with him again. He fled for a reason.”
“Did you talk about it at all?”
My face flushed as I recalled the previous couple of days. “Um...”
Chase glanced at me and busted out laughing at whatever he saw on my face. “Eyes on the road!” I yelled as the car swerved into the other lane briefly.
“Fuck! Sorry, but your face!” He chuckled a bit more before calming. “I shouldn’t have expected serious conversations. You were there to help an omega through his heat and found your fated. That’s crazy odds. No wonder you were so hung up on the guy when you first met him. How didn’t he know?”
“His illness has affected his senses. He’s basically human just now. Maybe a touch stronger, but he couldn’t smell me or my wolf. Obviously his scent was wrong since he smelt like a beta, so that’s how I didn’t know.”
“Yeah, that’d do it. Fuck, he’s having a shit time of it, isn’t he?”
I looked out of the window at the house that I shared with my closest pack-mates. “Yeah, he really is.”
The day wore on and my patience wore out. I held my phone constantly, wanting to hear Kade’s voice or just have his attention for the time it would take to text me.
I soon realized that this was going to be so much harder on me until we could wake Kade’s wolf up, because it was going to be a team effort. Then my wolf would convince his wolf that we were the best thing for them. We’d never harm him and always put him first.
Paperwork done, I wandered to my favorite place on pack lands—the omega houses. I wanted to surround myself with people who appreciated me, who knew I was a good person, while the sting of rejection was fresh.
My wolf chuffed to remind me that we hadn’t been rejected. He hated my more dramatic tendencies. My wolf really was the best part of me. I couldn’t imagine being without him. The thought I sent him had him brushing along me in my mind, affection filling his thoughts. We were a great team.
Pups ran about, both in human and alter forms. Babies were born in their alters but shifted into human form not long after as they took their first breath in the world. Shifting was as natural to us as breathing and omegas gave birth in their alter forms.
“Alpha Blake?” came one shy voice as I approached the small community center I’d built so that the omegas could embrace more communal living and eat together daily.
“Hello little one.” It shamed me I didn’t know all of their names immediately. Each one was a treasure. I looked into forest green eyes. The little girl had long blonde hair to her waist and was about six. I scanned my memory for her name. “What do you need, Emily?”
“There was a man we don’t know here yesterday. You said to tell you if we saw something that worried us.”
I picked the little one up. Her wolf was reaching out for reassurance. “That’s right. I did. Did anyone else see him?”
“Some of the other little ones. I was helping clean up the babies at the picnic. I smelled him.”
“What did he do?”
“He was speaking to a big man. Pack. He has pictures up his arms. Then he went away.”
Alarm rushed through me that a strange person was near the omega housing right in the middle of the compound.
There was no reason that someone unknown would be there.
Unless... Rincoln was looking for an omega.
Maybe he thought Ryder, (or Kade, I still needed to ask,) was at the omega houses with the other omegas.
It was weird that I hadn’t had a report on my desk about it.
Emily leaned into me, pushing her face against my neck, and I rubbed her back. “You did such a good job. I’m proud of you.”
One of the omega females came out of a nearby house. “Oh, there you are Emily, your mom wants you. Hello Alpha.”
I set Emily down so she could go to her mom. My mind whirred at what Emily had told me. “Are you okay Alpha?”
“Thank you, Cadence, I’m fine. Emily said she’d seen a strange man. Did any of the adults see him?”
“No Alpha, but there was an unknown scent. Emily is such a good girl. We knew she wouldn’t make it up, but we worried it was an enforcer that she hadn’t seen before. So we followed the scent until it left the compound.”
“Thank you. Did any of you report this?”
“I didn’t, but one of the others did. I can’t remember who they spoke to.”
“Do you know who the stranger spoke to?”
“No, there were too many scents. The stranger only stuck out because it was foreign.”
This stranger now had two accomplices covering his tracks, and both were enforcers.
We need to talk. ASAP. My office. I sent to both of my brothers. I didn’t want to rely on our family link. A mis-thought could have someone listening in. We would have to wait until we were in the warded privacy of my office.
Axel was waiting inside my office when I arrived, Chase following closely behind me. I closed the door firmly and made sure that the ward was active.
“What’s wrong?” Axel asked, concern lining his features. So similar to my own it was like looking in a mirror.
“Rincoln Hayes was likely at the omega houses. Probably looking for his son.”
“Did you ever check that Kade was Ryder?” Chase piped up. He lounged in his chair, leg thrown over the arm, completely unconcerned.
“No.”
“Nah, little brother here was too busy tending to his mate.” Axel threw his arm around my shoulders and led me to our seats. “Besides, it doesn’t matter who he’s looking for. The man is shady. There’s no excuse for an unmated alpha to be around the omegas unescorted.”
Chase nodded. “True. There are no records, I assume?”
“This is the problem. We have at least two enforcers hiding Rincoln’s whereabouts. We can’t trust their loyalty now. In fact, you are the only people I trust for sure.”
“What about Deke?” Axel asked, looking between me and Chase.
“As our cousin and former pack leader, I’d assume he wants what’s best for us, but I don’t know what Rincoln is offering these enforcers to turn their back on us.
He has access to some money and his pack was substantial before it was disbanded and his mating nullified.
Deke could have been turned, but I want to trust him.
He’s family, from Mom’s side, so that automatically means I cut him more slack than I should.
” I put my head in my hands. “What should we do?”
“We get him here and ask him directly, then clue him in when he passes.” Chase said matter-of-factly. “I’ll test him and we can make him take an oath.”
“Chase is right. We need to check Deke’s loyalty. We need to know he’s with us. He’s pretty in with the other enforcers. He might be able to sniff out the ones we need to watch.”
“Good point. That’s what we’ll do.”