Chapter Four
Felix
I insisted our guest or our new sleuth brother sit while we did most of the work.
When Cannon and I met, he had zero clues about how to cook anything.
Not even scrambled eggs. Thank goodness he was a quick learner.
My job could be demanding. Regular accounting was a breeze.
Tedious but a breeze. But sometimes I was contracted to do forensic accounting jobs.
Under the table. For cash. Those kept me up until all hours and into the mornings. They paid the bills.
The last thing I wanted to do was cook for Mr. Grumpy Alpha Pants.
Tyrone would be good for us. He balanced us out. The air was less thick now that he was here.
And if I did say so myself, the chili and cornbread were going to taste better.
“Smells good,” Tyrone said from where he sat at the bar. We had a dining room table. We picked it up off the side of the road and refinished it. It was the first thing we did together without arguing. Even so, we never sat at it to eat.
“Thanks. It’s ready.”
We filled our own bowls of piping-hot venison chili and sat around the island.
Everyone dug in, and a quiet fell over the cabin. That meant the food was good.
“So we’re doing this,” Cannon said after we’d all finished one bowl. He went after a second, but Tyrone and I didn’t. Instead, our new sleuth mate took a second piece of cornbread and slathered it with butter and honey.
Tyrone and I both nodded. I thought the agreement was solid, but Cannon sometimes needed to reiterate things. He took a while to process.
“And you’ll be the alpha?” Cannon pressed.
“Why would you think that?” Tyrone asked. The scent of the honey made me reach for the cornbread and mimic Tyrone’s makeshift dessert.
“Because you came here and you had the dream.”
Cannon nodded at my assessment. It made sense to me.
Before Tyrone, we were just two pissed-off bears making do.
Now, in less than a few hours, we were a sleuth.
We still had a lot to think about. Logistics.
Rules. Roles. We were meant to be together as friends and sleuth mates for life, and that meant we had to learn to get along. So far, so good.
“No.” Tyrone polished off his cornbread. “In the dream, you were the alpha, Cannon. You have been before.”
Cannon’s pupils widened. His shoulders slumped. “Yes. It didn’t go so well.”
“Doesn’t change the fact that you were meant to be the alpha here. I don’t make the rules. I only see the visions.”
We all nodded. It was fine by me if Cannon was the alpha. And we were all in this together. Cannon had never gotten into specifics about his old pack or sleuth, but from what I gathered, he never wanted to go back there. Either that, or he wasn’t allowed back there.
“There’s another dream I had and it concerns the both of you.”
“What else?” I asked. Today had taken us by surprise, but hearing there was more, well, didn’t shock me. We were planning and creating a future based on dreams and visions and vibes from our bears, so anything was fair game.
“I had a vision of our omega.”
Cannon looked shaken. His eyes widened, and he gripped the edge of the table. “You’ve seen our female? Are you sure it’s her? You mentioned earlier about Sylvie, was it? What if it’s just someone else you need to help?”
“It’s not. It’s her. My bear already knows her. Recognizes her as his mate. And in the dream… I know this sounds unimaginable, but she’s not just our omega. She’s our scent match.”
“You scented her. In a dream…” I whispered it, mostly to myself. A pause fell over us. “What did she smell like?”
Tyrone chuckled. “You know she will smell different to each of us, right?”
“Just tell me.”
This new sleuth member nodded. He understood why I needed to know. Scent was everything, not only because we were shifters but because our omega would smell like home to us. Before we knew her name or who she was…anything else about her…we would scent that she belonged to us.
Or in this case, Tyrone would dream about her first.
“You’re not going to believe me, but to me, she smelled like comfort. Cinnamon. Cloves. Cardamom. All the things I love.”
“Where do we find her?” Cannon leaned back in his chair.
Tyrone cringed. He hadn’t told us everything, and my bear had a feeling we weren’t going to like what he was about to say.
“In my dream, she was on auction. An omega auction. We were all there, but I didn’t see the result.
That’s why I had to find you so we could establish this sleuth.
Because this is important, but saving our omega from being sold to a pack who will likely abuse her is the most important thing about me coming here. We have to save our future mate.”
Cannon stood up, clearly upset by this news as we all were. He began to pace up and down the kitchen. “Where? How? We have savings but we’re not rich. We spent a lot purchasing this place. We can get some more. I can sell my…”
I put my hand up. “First things first. Do you know where she is Tyrone? Where the auction will be?”
Tyrone nodded. “I do. And yeah, we’re gonna need everything we have to get her out of there.”