Chapter 35
Chapter Thirty-Five
Shayne
As nice as it is to catch up with my kid brother, all I can think about the whole time I’m in Lana’s office is what’s going on between Falcon and our newest true mate. The more I think about it, the more certain I am that he didn’t recognize what she meant to him when they met.
She was in a dangerous situation then, and he was only there to save her.
I doubt whatever he felt in that moment was as clearcut as it should have been.
The circumstances would have blinded his usual razor-sharp instincts.
Besides, if he’d known, I don’t think he could have walked away from her at all.
If I’m right, and he didn’t know, then that’s why he’s been in such a dark mood.
He’s been kept apart from a true mate when he didn’t need to be.
No wonder he’s been going crazy.
“Isn’t that cool?” Shadow asks, grinning slightly.
The video he just showed me on his phone is ending.
I barely paid it any attention, but from the title, I can tell it’s about this academy and the Frank Palmer story. Shadow is obsessed with true crime, so it only makes sense that he’d be extra obsessed with the crime that happened right where he now lives.
“Uh, it’s …” I start, trying to think of the right word.
“It’s just another crazy conspiracy theory,” Owen mutters, his voice low. “He told you his mate is one of Palmer’s sons, Shadow. You should put your phone away before they get back.”
“It was kind of wild,” I admit, thankful that Owen gave me a clue about the video’s content.
“It’s not as wild as you’d think,” Shadow says, as he slips his phone back into his pocket.
“I mean Goldcrest is way higher security than a random apartment in the city which would be Palmer’s usual target.
He came here for a reason. And … Owen’s right.
I shouldn’t be talking about this when Lana and Falcon get back, and if I don’t shut up now, I’ll just keep talking about it. ”
He pantomimes zipping his lips.
I can’t help but smile.
My little brother hasn’t changed too much at all.
“It’s been good to see you, Shadow. We can talk about it next time.”
“Next time, call first,” Owen suggests.
“Noted,” I agree, nodding.
“We already have each other’s numbers,” Shadow adds.
Owen lets out a soft sigh. “Good.”
It feels weird to be standing around waiting for Falcon.
Part of me wishes I’d asked to come, but things already felt tense enough.
I didn’t want to add to that.
It’s probably better if Falcon realizes the redhead is our mate on his own anyway.
I would have been a distraction if I’d gone with him.
Still, waiting here while he gets to talk with her kind of sucks.
There’s no way he’s not feeling his connection to her right now.
I was barely in her presence for a few seconds, and I felt it.
Stumbling, quite literally, across a new fated mate was a real shock to my system.
It changes everything for him, and for our pack.
I don’t know how he’ll handle it, but as lead Alpha he’s going to have to make some hard decisions. I don’t envy him for that, but I do feel a little anxious while I wait to find out what his choices are going to be.
Shadow gives me a wry smile. “They probably won’t be too much longer.”
He was always extra observant, which seems to be a thing with Omegas.
They can tell how someone’s feeling as if they’re feeling it for themselves.
Usually, they restrict that empathic behaviour to the people they’re closest to.
We haven’t been in the same room in years, but it’s just as if I last saw him yesterday.
“She’s completely healed,” Owen speaks up from where he’s still leaning against the wall. “So, it won’t take long to see she’s doing fine.”
“Oh!” Shadow exclaims. “Ezra was one of Robin’s doctors.”
He looks over at Ezra. “Hey, Easy, come tell my brother about Robin.”
I glance over at the Alpha in the white coat. Ezra sat down behind the desk when Lana left, and he’s still there now, typing something up on the computer. Ezra, or “Easy” as my brother called him, looks over the top of the computer’s screen as he stops typing.
He glances at me before he frowns at Shadow.
“You know I can’t do that. She was a patient. He’s not her family.”
Shadow looks at me and bites his lip.
I know that expression he’s wearing.
He wants to tell, but I shake my head slowly.
“It’s fine. I’m sure Falcon will find out how she is while he’s talking to her.”
I already made the decision to keep the news about Robin being our true mate to myself, at least until I could get the chance to speak to Falcon about it, so I’m not going to let it slip just because my little brother feels like talking.
If I was alone with him, I know he’d already be asking me questions.
That would be a whole different situation.
He lets out a soft sigh, shoulders slumping slightly.
“So, what’s it like living here in the city?” I ask, keen to change the subject.
Shadow perks up a bit at the question. “I’m guessing that means you stuck to your plan of moving to a small town?”
“Yeah, it took us a while to drive out here. We’re close to Silver City back home, and we don’t visit the city too often. This is my first time back in Cressidan City, actually.”
“Small towns get kind of boring,” Shadow admits. “We lived in one of those for a while. The house was nice with a yard and everything, don’t get me wrong, but I wouldn’t go back.”
“Even if it meant you could go shopping more than once a month?”
Owen laughs. “Is that what he told you?”
Shadow shrugs, looking shifty as he runs a hand through his hair.
“It’s not true?” I ask, trying to remember what Pete said.
“Not even close,” Owen tells me. “We take him out whenever he wants, which, believe me, is way more often than any of the rest of us would prefer. The once-a-month thing is his big spree where he can go in as many stores as he wants and buy whatever he wants. The problem is Shadow would live in a mall if he got the chance, and we have too much work to do here to spend every waking moment outside of the academy.”
I can’t help but laugh. “He used to go everywhere with our mom. She was a real shopaholic. I guess she passed that along.”
Shadow’s lips twitch. “Yeah, but she would never buy what I wanted so I used to steal stuff.”
“You’re kidding.” It doesn’t feel like he is, but if he used to … “Wait. You had that drawer full of designer black shirts, and you only wore them when our parents weren’t home. Those were stolen?”
He shrugs. “Can you imagine if that bitch saw me now? She’d die of embarrassment. I don’t look like her preppy little pet Omega anymore. I’m never wearing tan slacks and powder-blue sweaters again, that’s for sure.”
“I think she would have died of embarrassment if you’d gotten caught shoplifting.”
“Why do you think I only did it when I was with her?” he smirks.
“You must have been pretty good at it.”
“Nah,” he says. “I think she was just buying so fucking much that no one really cared if her kid was walking around taking shit at the same time. I swear, one time a shop assistant actually winked at me when he caught me stuffing a shirt down my pants.”
Owen snorts. “I had no idea you were such a delinquent.”
“It was a different time.”
“It really was,” I agree.
Our parents tried to raise us to be like them, and we rebelled against that in our own ways.
I would listen to whatever lesson they were teaching, like our brothers, but, unlike our brothers, I never let one word of those lessons sink in. I came to my own conclusions, rejecting their ideas without saying anything.
It surprised them when Shadow left home.
They weren’t pleased, but it didn’t take them too long to start acting like our Omega brother never existed in the first place. They never looked for him. They knew they’d have to drag him home kicking and screaming if they found him.
It would be embarrassing. My mother would never live it down.
She didn’t worry about him, and neither did our father.
It should have shocked me. But in truth, deep down, I knew they didn’t care.
Suddenly, I didn’t know what I was waiting for. If I left, all they’d do was disown me.
I’d stop belonging to a family I felt no connection to, and I’d be free to start my own life.
That’s when I knew I would leave.
And I did it the same way I’d ignored their instructions for years.
I made them think I was listening to what they wanted, before making my own choice in private, and quietly taking the opportunity to walk away.
That’s the night I was supposed to come to Goldcrest.
To start the process of finding a suitable Omega to marry.
I didn’t tell them I wasn’t going to do that, I just walked out of the house that night and never looked back, knowing they wouldn’t care once they realized I wasn’t coming back.
If neither of us wanted to do what they expected, they wouldn’t miss us one little bit.
“How did we come from them?” Shadow asks, shaking his head.
“That’s a good question. Let me know if you ever figure it out.”
“Sure,” he says, with a grin. “I’ll call you with my theories.”
“Uh oh,” Owen murmurs. “You’re in for it now. If he’s up after midnight, he’s thinking about conspiracies.”
“I’m in for some late-night calls then, I guess.”
“Oh, undoubtedly.” Shadow nods.
Falcon might not like that, but then again, I think he’ll have better things to occupy his thoughts now that he’s met Robin. He might even be in a good mood for the first time in weeks.
The sound of the door opening behind me makes me jump.
I spin on my heel, turning quickly and earning a compliment from Shadow, probably because it was kind of a smooth move.
“Nice one,” he murmurs.
Pete steps into the room first, standing by the wall and holding the door open for Lana, who moves past him and comes toward me with a smile on her lips.
She doesn’t seem upset. Falcon must have behaved himself.
She moves past me, heading back toward her desk.
Falcon stops in the doorway, not bothering to come into the room.
He looks as irritable as he was before he got the chance to see Robin.
What the hell?
That doesn’t make sense.