Chapter 12
CHAPTER
TWELVE
AUGUST
Abel walks through the door carrying the biggest smile on his face, but it quickly drops as he reads the room. I’m sitting on Kev’s lap after just hanging up with Ryan. “What’s wrong?” Abel moves quickly, on his knees in front of me in seconds, holding my hands between both of us.
Kev answers him, and I just lie back on his chest, trying not to stress about these fucking people we’ve been chasing for what feels like a decade. “Ryan and his team have a lead.”
“That’s good news, right?’
Kev shakes his head slowly. “It led them back to the building that’s closest to Heat Wave.”
I take a deep breath, closing my eyes, trying not to let my mind drift to a bad place. But it does…
What if these people are trying to swoop in and traffic omegas from Heat Wave? What if they’ve been scoping the place out this whole time? What if they have people on the inside already and we have no fucking clue.
What if.
What if.
What if.
Safety is my number one priority here. Knowing that the same people who trafficked me are within a couple of miles is not screaming safety to me.
And everyone knows, an unsafe omega is not a happy omega.
All we ask for is comfort, safety, and maybe a knot or two.
Who can blame us?
Abel places his hand on Kev’s thigh and questions, “What’s the plan, Baby?”
Kev’s my planner, the one that makes sure everything goes the way it needs to—type A to a fault sometimes. The worry and hesitation in his voice is nothing like I’ve heard from him before. “I don’t know.”
I should be on edge. It should worry me that Kev doesn’t have the answers when it comes to this whole situation.
But it doesn’t. The comfort I feel when I’m between my two Alphas is unmatched, and I can only hope other omegas get to experience this feeling too.
Kev wraps his arms around me tight, and before I know it, I’m drifting off to sleep in the warmth of my loving Alpha.
“I think he might be in pre-heat…” Abel murmurs to Kev, like I can’t hear him.
Well, to their knowledge, since I’m napping on the couch.
But right as their voices hit my ears, my eyes peel open.
It’s well into the evening from the living room’s double window—the sun is already set behind the woods lining our house.
Maybe I am in pre-heat…
I haven’t been this exhausted in a while, and now that I think about it, I have been nesting a whole lot more. Maybe that’s why I jumped down Axel’s throat earlier, too.
Shit… Am I nesting in all of Heat Wave?
Probably.
Those poor fucking contractors and decorators are going to be praying to gods they don’t believe in to get this project done with how I’m feeling in this moment. Everyone’s pissing me off, plus none of them are doing anything to my liking.
I blurt out, “If I go into heat before Heat Wave opens, it’s going to be everyone’s problem.”
Yeah… pre-heat is here, but that’s a problem for another day.
Kev soothes everything over like he always does by saying, “Little Omega, I made you some soup. Would you like me to bring it to you?” Kev, being Kev, swoops in and manages every one of my over-the-top emotions.
“Yes, please.” Before I even get the full sentence out, he’s rounding the deep teal-colored couch that I picked out not too long ago, placing a tray in front of me with the creamiest potato soup, crackers, and my favorite creme soda.
As the warm soup coats my tongue, I let my thoughts go where they always seem to drift off to.
Heat Wave.
Growing up, there was always a deep feeling in me that I was an outsider looking in when it came to the other kids in my classes who would designate.
Most of them already knew because they had been tested at some point in their childhood.
Making them and their parents well prepared when their first heat was about to show.
The Alphas were insufferable majority of the time, and we betas kept to ourselves.
I grew up assuming I was a beta, and I would only watch from the sidelines. But the thing that finally made me start planning Heat Wave was my best friend, Ryker. We were friends throughout childhood, until he was sold off at sixteen like a piece of furniture at Grandma’s estate sale.
Just for it to happen to me seven years later…
I want a safe place for omegas to come into their bodies, explore different packs freely and without the risk of the countless bad things that could go wrong, and more importantly, if they never want to be a kept omega, they won’t ever have to be.
We’ll have a team of in-house, fully vetted Alphas, ready to take on any job with a smile on their face and a knot ready to dull their cramps.
I know there’s still going to be issues dealing with people from all walks of life, but my hope is that Heat Wave will be the first thing omegas want to experience when they stumble across our building.