Chapter 8
This could not be happening again. After the fiasco at the bank, Cade thought that Brogan would have learned his lesson, that he had new rules to live by. His life was not the same and if he kept up there would be repercussions that Cade couldn’t help him avoid if he wanted to.
After this latest stunt, Cade wasn’t sure if he wanted to. Had the bank manager wanted, he could have called the police, and Brogan could have been arrested and sent to an Omega Center work farm. Cade and Simon had earned credits in college by interning at one, so he knew that he didn’t want this for Brogan, but if he kept acting out then he would be punished.
Last night Cade had taken the folder and gone upstairs to study the new client’s needs and to unpack the few things he’d gathered from his apartment. He took his time because he wanted to give Brogan the time to cool off only to come back downstairs to find Brogan missing.
Again.
His first thought was to go looking for him, but he had no transportation. Simon and Danielle were going to get his car from the bank parking but until then he was stranded. Right now, his only choice was calling Brogan’s friends. The thought of having to do that made Cade angry. Brogan’s being missing was going to elicit a bunch of I told you so’s from the people who were happy that Brogan was now an Omega.
Why was he fighting this so hard? Because of Brogan’s reluctance to accept that he was now Omega, they have spent more time trying not to come to blows rather than getting to know one another and bonding. They really hadn't done anything other than snap at one another, so Cade had no idea who Brogan would call when he needed someone.
After the visit to the office earlier Cade was sure that Brogan wouldn’t contact his former business partners, but he knew that Brogan and Tate were closer than the others, so Cade called the number that the blonde had given him.
The call to Tate didn’t help, however Tate offered to help search, but Cade declined the offer knowing that it would only embarrass Brogan more to know that the other man was involved.
The only other person Cade could think of Brogan possibly contacting was the Beta he’d been living with. Brogan’s brain was still in Alpha mode, and he’d chosen the Beta, so it was possible that he thought that they could still work.
Cade knew that the girl was disgusted at the thought of Brogan being an Omega, but it was possible that she could feel enough sympathy for him to give him shelter from what she saw an archaic system and a domineering Alpha. He started to walk toward the little room off the kitchen that Brogan used as an office and search for her number, but he realized that wouldn’t make sense because he lived with her, not worked so there would be no reason to have her number written down.
He was scrambling for new ideas when he heard a knock on the door. Since he had the keys, Cade knew that it wasn’t Brogan at the door, perhaps Tate decided to ignore his request to let him handle finding Brogan. If so, then Cade would send him home but not before getting any additional information he could.
The greeting died on his lips when he was faced with three of the tallest people he’d ever seen in his life.
Even if they weren’t tall, Cade could tell that these people were Brogan’s relatives by the multi-colored eyes and the chocolate brown hair.
Pulling the door open Cade stepped aside and let the Fords in.
“Hey, sweetheart,” The man he assumed to be Brogan’s father greeted him. “We’re here to see the man that turned my son into his bitch.”
Cade grimaced at the assumption that he was an Omega. He’d dealt with this shit his entire life and had learned to deal with it, but that didn’t mean he had to like it. He especially didn’t like him referring to his son and his mate as a bitch.
Gritting his teeth, Cade closed the door before he turned to face the trio and corrected them, “Neither Brogan nor I am anyone’s bitch, but I am his Alpha and…”
He was interrupted by the sound of laughter from the group.
Shaking his head, the older Ford walked towards Cade and took hold of both his hands to look for the red Omega symbol and all traces of laughter was gone from the man’s face when he discovered that the back of Cade’s hands were bare.
“How? I don’t understand - my son has a foot and about fifty pounds on you. You had to trick him to get the better of him.” Mr. Ford accused.
He could spend all day arguing about how he was stronger that he looked but instead Cade marched over to Brogan’s brother who was taller and heavier that Brogan and kicked the back of his knees, pulled one arm behind his back and pinched the Vagus nerve as he had Brogan and ended up with the same result; a big tall Alpha’s Alpha on his knees and submitting to Cade.
Looking across the room at the older man, Cade growled, “If I wanted to, I could have both of your boys hanging off my knot, I didn’t have to cheat or trick Brogan to turn him. So now that we’ve got that settled, what the fuck do you want?”
Walking away from the downed Alpha, Cade ignored the gasp from Brogan’s sister as he stopped in front of the elder Ford. He chuckled at the thought that she was thinking that he was going to take their father down as well, but Cade held out his hand and introduced himself.
“I’m Cade Cooper, Brogan’s mate. How can I help you?”
Hesitantly, the older man held out his hand, “I’m Richard Ford, Brogan’s father and those two are his siblings. Jason is the one on his knees and Nicole is my daughter. Both are Alphas.”
Cade was not sure why he needed to clarify that his kids were both Alphas. He knew that the moment the three of them entered the house, but then any Alpha worth his salt would have known that.
“Now that we’re done with the introductions, why are you here? I’m in the middle of something and I don’t have time for a visit.” He told the group.
“I hope that something is getting my brother released from the Omega Center,” Nicole snapped.
The Omega Center. Fuck!
He was hoping that Brogan had crashed at a friends’ instead of ending up there. With him being a newly turned Omega, there was the strong possibility of him being assigned a caseworker who would follow him up to a year before being satisfied that Brogan was adapting well.
If they decided that he was not transitioning well then, he would be taken to the center until they felt that he was reprogrammed until they believed that Brogan was the Omega they believed, he should be.
“He’s been turned for less than a week and he is already on the Omega Center’s radar,” Jason sneered as he looked Cade up and down, “it seems that as an Alpha, you fall a little short.”
Ignoring the dig, Cade asked, “Is he okay? Have you talked to him?”
“Oh, now you’re worried,” Richard snorted, “if you cared as much as you pretend to then we wouldn’t be having this goddamned conversation right now! You need to learn how to control your Omega.”
“Brogan does not need to be controlled, what he needs is to learn his limits.” Looking at Jeff and Nicole, Cade asked, “Is that the way the two of you feel as well? That because Brogan lost his knot, he’s a different person; that his brain is useless, and he needs to be led around like a simpleton?”
“No!” They exclaimed in unison.
“Despite what our father thinks, we both love and respect Omegas and have one as a mate,” Jeff told him. “Brogan is the only one of us that dad got to believe that crap about Omegas being useless.”
That explained a lot.
Now Cade understood why Brogan disliked Omegas when most of the population revered them. From what Brogan’s business partners told him, he was fine until Benji presented and that’s when the prejudice was first noticed.
At first it was subtle, excluding Benji from gatherings to ignoring him, to flat out insulting him. When he and Liam announced they were going to be mated, he became cruel, introducing Betas to the Alpha in hopes of breaking up the pair. He even showed up drunk at their mating reception. Cade had a challenge in front of him, but he could do it but not
if this man continued to be in his life.
“I’ll bet if you had your way, you’d go old school and have Omegas collared and chipped.”
“Damned right I would. Their mother was collared, and she knew her place. She was weak and timid and just as I had her trained the way I wanted, she took the easy way out and killed herself. It wasn’t for nothing though, it didn’t work for those two, but Brogan was perfect until you came along.”
“Yeah, he learned alright, and now he’s jeopardizing his fucking freedom because of the bullshit you fed him.”
“Yeah, but he learned enough to know what a real Alpha is because when he found himself in trouble, he had the center call me and not the Napoleon who got the better of him.”
“Dad!” Jason gasped.
“It’s okay,” Cade smirked, “He may have called you, but I’m the who’s going to be able to get him released and it’s me he’ll be coming home with. Now are you going to take me to the center, or do I have to round up my own ride?”
The scowl on Richard’s face told Cade that the man resented Cade’s involvement, but thankfully his children didn’t feel the same and they were willing to mutiny against their father as they wanted their brother released.
When they reached the Omega Center, Cade couldn’t hold back a smile when the case worker on duty, Amanda Wheeler, showed the Fords to the waiting room while Cade went to the holding rooms to see Brogan.
“Brogan your Alpha is here so we can begin your release,” Amanda told him.
While the caseworker unlocked the door, Cade hung back to observe Brogan. The big man was wound up and pacing around the small space, but Cade didn’t expect anything less. His wolf was probably going crazy pinned up in such a small space. Once he was home Cade was going to have to find a place for them to run for Brogan to release the tension.
Brogan was fighting the transition and in his mind, he was still Alpha and to be contained in such a small space was torture.
When she unlocked the door, Brogan rushed past Amanda, “Dad, thank God…” Brogan exclaimed until he saw who was waiting for him.
“There will be times I’d like for you to call me daddy, but this is not one of them,” Cade snarked. “But we’ll discuss that later, however right now we need to focus on getting you home.”
“That’s right, but there are some things that we have to take care of first, so I need the two of you to follow me back to my office.”
Brogan was quiet on the walk back, but Cade could feel the anger coming off him in waves. When they passed the waiting room Brogan hesitated when he saw his family. Had Richard not been with them Cade would have let him visit with his brother and sister, but he didn’t want that bastard near Brogan.
Instead of walking forward, Brogan tried to walk towards them, but this time it was Amanda who played bad guy when she warned him, “Mr. Ford-Cooper if you do not contain yourself then I will personally escort you to the long-term holding cells.”
“Dad?” Brogan begged and for the first time sounding like an Omega. His Omega. His Omega begging for another Alpha and that triggered his possessive instinct. His canines were dropping, and nails were extending ready to fight any Alpha who tried to claim his Omega.
“Does his family have to be here?” Cade asked trying to keep the anger from his voice and his wolf at bay.
“No,” she shook her head, “the only reason they were called was because Brogan listed his father as his Alpha, but we’ll discuss that as well.”
“Good,” Cade said, “Brogan you go with Amanda, I need to talk to your family for a minute.”
He waited until Brogan and Amanda were behind her office door before speaking.
“Jason, Nicole, I know that the pair of you understand that Brogan is still Brogan, but he still has some adjusting to do. Because you understand, give me a few weeks and I’ll let you visit, but not you Richard. I don’t want you to ever have contact with him again and if you do then I promise you you’ll regret it.”
“If he calls me…”
“Then you hang up,” Cade interrupted. “Change your number if you have to but you’ve caused him enough damage and I don’t want you ever to make contact with him again.”
Richard looked as though he wanted to say something else, but he stopped.
He knew that the man’s pride was not going to let him give up and Cade made a note to have Amanda to add that to her notes so that if Richard tried to help Brogan escape, then he would be punished as well.
Cade watched as the Fords walked out of the center. He hoped that he never saw Richard Ford again, but he was Brogan’s father and he didn’t want to keep them apart. Before he joined his mate in the office with Amanda, he did make phone call to his parents.
He knew that his mother followed the Omega blogs and Brogan’s name would be listed in them tomorrow and that was not how he wanted his family to find out that he’d mated.
“Hey, dad,” He breathed out the greeting when his father answered the phone. “Are you busy right now?”
“Busy?” Robert Cooper snorted, “it’s well after midnight and you’re asking me if I’m busy. Busy sleeping, so make it quick son.”
“Imatedthisweekenddad,” Cade said in one breath hoping that he wouldn’t have to repeat his words.
“Whoa, slow down and say that again, son. Did you say that you’ve mated?” Robert asked in a shocked tone.
“Mated!” Give me the phone Robert,” Cade could hear his mother demand once she heard the M word.
“Dad put the phone on speaker, so I can talk to the both of you.” Once he was assured the phone was on speaker, Cade continued, “I was going to bring him home this weekend so that you could meet him, but…”
“But what son?” Robert asked, and Cade could hear the rustle of the sheets as his father sat up in bed because he could sense something was wrong and this was not all happy news.
Cade explained the last few days to his father and for a moment he didn’t sound like an Alpha but a scared pup begging his Alpha for help.
“I know that you didn’t want anything from us, but now that you’re mated - bonded even, you have a large trust from your grandparents that will help you. It will be deposited into to your account once you’ve filed the paperwork registering your mating.”
“Dad I didn’t want…” Cade began.
“I know,” Robert interrupted, “You wanted to make it on your own and that’s why I haven’t fought you much on not taking money from us, but you’re responsible for another life now and it’s not about your pride, it’s about doing the right thing.”
“Okay, I’ve already registered our bonding, so it’s already on record. Look dad, I’ve gotta go now, the caseworker is waiting for me, so I’ll call you guys later.”
Once the call ended, Cade joined Brogan and Amanda in her office. When he opened the door, he was surprised to see Brogan sitting in the chair looking so small. He could see that Brogan was trying to ignore Cade by staring out the window.
“Have a seat, Cade, “Amanda offered. “We have a lot of things to discuss. First of all, here are the keys to your car. Please make sure that he does not use them anymore.”
“Not his car,” Brogan snapped.
“Yes, it is,” she corrected him. “The car and anything else you owned are now his. Once you realize that the easier it will be for you. Your life has changed Brogan, there are things that you can’t do any more. When you thought that you were going with your dad you told me about the trip to the bank. Things like that go into your record Brogan. The next time you pull a stunt like this your stay here will be longer.”
“I don’t care,” Brogan mumbled. “Better than having to submit to him.”
“Brogan if you sit down and talk to me, you’d know that I don’t want you to submit to me. We can be partners Brogan, if you just let me in.”
“The only place you want me to let you in is my ass so don’t pretend otherwise,” Brogan countered. Turning to Amanda, “please let me go with
my father. If you call him, he’ll come back.”
“Brogan,” Amanda said quietly, “That’s not going to happen. Had you been turned but not claimed then you could have been made a ward of your fathers, but that’s not the case is it? I need you to try to make your mating work. By your own account since the day you mated you’ve done nothing but try to escape and that can’t continue. I need you to understand something; tonight, was just an overnight stay and it was comfortable for you, but if you run again it will be your third offense will earn you a longer stay and it will not be comfortable as tonight was.”
Instead of responding, Brogan just pursed his lips and turned back to the window. When he didn’t respond, she turned towards Cade.
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