by L. C. Davis
"Huh. He likes you. That's a surprise," Mitchell mused. "He usually bites people he doesn't know."
Connor hesitated before grudgingly deciding to just hold the pup since he was capable of less destruction that way. "He's a poor judge of character, then. How long will it take you to come to a decision about Everett?"
"I already have. I don't like him."
"You said he made your list of qualified candidates," Connor protested.
"Just because he's got the experience doesn't mean he's a good fit for the Pack. Mountain Ridge wolves aren't anything like the packs where he's from. They'd eat him alive, and the point of this is to find someone with the spine to keep you in line," he said firmly. "Why are you so set on him?"
Connor shrugged. "He comes from good breeding and he's got money. He's also not a hopeless romantic like the others. You have no idea how annoying it is to be surrounded by a bunch of alphas squinting in hopes that they'll imprint on you."
Mitchell snorted. "You sure they weren't just afraid?"
Hassan gave him a look. "Let's just keep our options open. Give Everett a week and if he doesn't meet your standards, we'll move on."
Mitchell let out an agitated sigh. "Fine." He paused, tilting his head as he watched Connor curiously. "Look at that."
Connor looked down and realized Owen had fallen asleep in his arms. He almost looked peaceful. "I guess he ran out of energy for terrorizing," Connor said, passing the sleeping pup off to Hassan. He made a show of brushing off his clothes like they had been contaminated. "You're going to have your hands full with that one." He smirked. "He reminds me of myself when I was young."
"Please don't say that," Mitchell groaned. "Everett gets a week, if only because I'm curious what it is about him you think you can exploit, but when it doesn't pan out, we go with my first choice and I don't want to get any lip from you. Deal?"
Connor smirked. "You have my word, Alpha."
Chapter Nine
DUKE
"You can't go in there!"
"Watch me," Duke growled, brushing past one of the betas who guarded the top floor of Mountain Ridge's tallest high rise. It was where Mitchell worked and lived with his family, and barging in unannounced and uninvited was the furthest thing from a smart move, but Duke had had enough of the Alpha's evasions. He had been trying to get an audience with Mitchell ever since the morning after the gala when he had woke to realize that there was no putting the lid back on the Pandora's box he had opened by sleeping with Connor, but if Mitchell wanted to play hard to get, he was down.
"Slow up," the beta stationed at the door that led into the private hallway growled, holding out one hand with his hand on the weapon at his side. There were few silver bullets capable of enough destruction to take Duke's wolf out in one shot, and while he hadn't gone into the compound with the intent of fighting, everything and everyone was starting to look like an obstacle keeping him from his omega. It was exactly the reason he'd kept such tight control on his interactions with Connor up to that point, but there was no taming his wolf now and no forgetting the way the omega felt in his arms.
"I need an audience with Teak. Now."
The beta snorted. "Yeah, you and every other alpha in the region."
Duke clenched his jaw and reminded himself the beta was just doing his job. In lieu of throwing his muscle around, which surely wouldn't end well for the man in front of him and would land himself in the same cell his mate had so recently vacated, he took out his badge. The beta flinched, as if he thought Duke actually needed a weapon to take him out. "I'm here on TTF authority."
Man, his career was so over.
The beta frowned, reaching over to his comm. "Sir, there's a TTF agent here to see you."
"Commander," Duke growled.
"Commander."
A moment later, the Mountain Ridge Alpha appeared at the door looking as weary as he was pissed. "Duke?"
"Your voicemail's full," Duke said in a clipped tone.
"Never set it up," Mitchel grunted.
"I'm sorry, Sir. He won't leave," the beta said sheepishly.
"I'll take it from here, Tim. Duke, walk with me," he ordered, striding down the hall. Duke fell into lock step with him, only realizing he'd been canning the corridor for any sign of Connor when Mitchell said, "He's not here. Most of my top officers and their families live on the east side of the campus."
"Campus?" Duke echoed. "What happened to compound?"
"Angel thinks it sounds less intimidating," he sighed. "Why are you harassing my guards?"
"Like I said, you weren't answering my calls. What makes you think I'm looking for anyone?"
Mitchell gave him a blank look. "Connor smelled like you for days after you left and now I've got an alpha breaking down my doors. Not hard to do the math."
Duke clenched his jaw. "Is there anywhere we can talk in private?"
"I've been on the phone with New York all morning, so if we're gonna do this, we can talk and walk," he said, leading Duke out past the tightly placed row of buildings to a surprisingly serene pond surrounded by a walkway that was lined with trees.
"You making a Zen garden out here or something?"
Mitchell snorted. "I hate sand. This is all Angel, but it's not a bad place to clear your head. No one will disturb us."
"Aren't you going to ask me what happened with Connor?"
"I've got a nose and a brain. I know exactly what happened with Connor," he scoffed. "What I think you mean to ask is why haven't I ordered your head on a plate for coming onto my territory and fucking an omega within my care on the night dedicated to choosing his goddamn mate?"
"That'd be a better way of phrasing it, yeah."
Mitchell sighed. "Connor is a special case, that much is clear. He's on a tight leash in some regards, but we do things differently here when it comes to mates. You know all about the Breeding Program and why I allow omegas within my pack to choose their own mates?"
"Yeah, Mel gave me the rundown years ago." He paused. "What's in New York, anyway?"
Mitchell looked him over with a knowing glint in his eyes. "Are you asking as Lana's informant or as the alpha who imprinted on Connor?"
Duke's eyes widened. "You knew?"
"I've had a hunch for a while now."
"How long?"
"Since you first saw him in my prison," he scoffed. "Even a stubborn jackass like you can't hide that kind of response."
Duke gritted his teeth, letting the realization settle in. "Why didn't you say anything? And why the hell would you organize this bullshit about finding him a mate if you knew he already had one?"
"I wasn't sure. Like I said, it was just a hunch and I had no proof. That and it was clear you weren't eager to come forward anymore than I was to release him to your custody." He shrugged. "You can thank your boss, in a way. I know she's the one who's been feeding rumors to the Council about Connor's escape. She forced my hand, and now we both get to live with the consequences."
"It's that prick alpha from New York, isn't it? He's the one you're thinking of going with?"
"If by prick you mean Everett Hauser, then yes."
Duke shook his head. "Why? He's a trust fund kid whose daddy bought his job title. He doesn't know shit about running a unit in a pack like this. He's never served his own breakfast, never mind his country."
"No, but he has connections that could prove useful if Lana steps on any more nerves," Mitchell replied coolly. "That and Connor is the one who came up with the idea."
That little revelation hit like a Mack truck to the gut. "He what? When?"
"He told me he'd made his choice a few nights after the party. Of course, whether I honor it is another matter."
Duke frowned. "You can't."
"Oh, I can do whatever the hell I want to and there's jack all you can do about it," said Mitchell. "Not only did you not come forward to claim him for two whole years, but the fact that you came clean to me tells me your boss is the one you're really hiding it from." He clic
ked his tongue in disapproval. "The Tribunal's formerly most wanted and the head of the very task force that enforces its will. Now that would be a conflict of interest, if ever there was one."
Duke clenched his jaw, praying to the spirits for the first time since he could remember for the willpower not to lay out the Alpha in front of him then and there. His career was doomed anyway, and his ability to give a fuck was dwindling by the second, especially now that he was so close to Connor he could feel the omega's energy crackling like electricity over the surface of his skin. At least that would be a satisfying way to go out. "What do you want?"
"It's not what I want, it's what you want that matters," said Mitchell. "More to the point, it's you being man enough to decide what that is. Your career or your mate."
"You never should have let him out," Duke seethed.
"And yet he's out. What happens next is up to you. I'm generous like that," he sneered. "And I don't believe in outing people, no matter how little I happen to think of them. I do, however, have an alpha on a plane on his way here as we speak to claim the mate you were content to let me babysit for the rest of his days. The way I see it, you have two choices. Come clean, pursue Connor and let the Tribunal do with that what they will or prioritize your career and keep your trap shut while he's claimed by someone who actually has the balls. If there's one thing I can say for Everett, it's that."
A growl tore from Duke's throat, but the only thing holding him back was the knowledge that Mitchell was right. He had spent two years justifying his actions--or lack thereof--because of who Connor was, but for the first time, he was starting to realize he didn't like the person it had made him. Denying what he felt and wanted had become second nature and he'd been doing it for so long that he couldn't quite remember why. His work gave him a sense of purpose. It kept him from getting lost in the emptiness and escaping like so many of his fellow warriors had, but nothing he had achieved in his career had filled him with the peace and purpose he had known with his omega in his arms for just one night.
The choice wasn't as simple as Mitchell was making it seem. Most Alphas had a job, but Duke was the job. What the hell would he even have left to offer Connor if he wasn't a commander? A soldier? For the first time in his life, the mission ahead of him wasn't clear.
"You don't have to decide now," Mitchell said, coming to a stop at the edge of the water. "Everett will be here for a week. I told Connor and Hassan I'd come to my decision then. That'll give you time to think about yours."
"I'm not leaving him here with Everett."
"So stick around. I'm sure Lana wouldn't complain about having you keep an eye on Everett," he sneered. "She's never gotten along with his father, has she?"
Duke knew well it was more than just an afterthought. Aaron Hauser was not an Alpha who shied away from controversy, or from his aversion to the Tribunal's authority. "And Connor?"
Mitchell shrugged. "He's your mate. Tell him the truth or come up with a lie, it doesn't matter to me. If you want my advice, know for sure what it is you want first."
"Why?"
The lines around Mitchell's mouth worn from decades of frowning and seven years of smiling grew more pronounced as he looked out over the calm water. "I'd be lying if I said the only reason I was doing this was because I care for Mel. Over the last two years, I've gotten to know Connor better than he would probably like to admit."
Duke listened curiously as the Alpha's tone became somber. "It's not in an Alpha's nature to see omegas as a threat," Mitchell continued. "Imprisoning Connor, even knowing all the harm he's done, was one of the most difficult things I've ever had to do. You think I've been too soft on him, and maybe you're right, but if there is anyone who deserved a second chance less than he does, it's me."
"This is about the Program, isn't it?"
Mitchell gave a curt nod. "Connor wasn't one of the omegas who suffered under my watch, but his experience was close enough to Mel's that he might as well have been. He wasn't born the way he is, he was made that way by men like me. Alphas who were so focused on gaining power and keeping it that they let monsters run their ranks, devouring everything in sight. Connor became what he had to be to survive because the people who should have protected him failed him." Mitchell turned to face Duke, his cold eyes softened with something that made Duke feel even worse than anger would have. "Call it a guilty conscience trying to make amends, but I'm not going to let that happen again."
The Alpha's words were a knife twisting in Duke's gut and he couldn't shake them long after he'd settled in his temporary quarters within the Mountain Ridge barracks. Mitchell was a lot of things, but he wasn't a fool. If even he didn't think Connor was beyond redemption, Duke was beginning to realize his own heart was harder than he'd ever thought.
Chapter Ten
CONNOR
"No!" Connor sat up sharply, his nightshirt drenched in cold sweat as he struggled to breathe. The madam of the ruthouse that had won him in the first of the many auctions he'd been sold at after running away from the home he had once shared with Mel and his mother hadn't appeared in his dreams for years. In fact, it had been years since he could remember dreaming at all. He considered it a side effect of all his dabbling in mind control and didn't count it as a loss. Ever since he had taken his freedom from the grasp of the alpha who owned him along with dozens of others, his dreams had been far less pleasant than reality and he rarely found comfort in them.
Lora was a stern woman who seemed forever locked in her sixties. She hadn't seemed to age at all in the seven years Connor had spent in her care, punctuated by brief periods of escape that would always come to an end when Richard would inevitably find him and drag him back. Then again, it was hard to imagine that those sharp, austere features had ever been youthful. He could see her cold gray eyes staring down at him through the ice blue water as she held his head under, the typical punishment for biting an unusually rough client. It was then he had learned that he possessed a unique gift, or a curse from the perspective of the alphas who succumbed to the venom of his bite.
Whether it was a natural extension of his omega nature or simply a perversion of it, Connor had never cared enough to wonder. All he knew was that one day, it would buy him his freedom and he would never look back. Even as he came to accept that he was in the waking world, the dream held him as fast as those strong, wrinkled hands and he gasped for breath. The memory of ice cold water filling his lungs gripped his chest with a pain as real as any he had ever felt.
Something wasn't right. It might have been years since he'd last dreamed, but he couldn't remember them being so hard to break away from. None of the dreams he could remember had followed him so far into consciousness. The door opened and Mel was at his side in an instant, his arms wrapped around the other omega as he sent a wave of comforting energy through him.
"It's okay, it's okay," he soothed, stroking Connor's hair as he held him close. The energy was uncurling the pain clenched around his lungs, Mel's touch grounding him, making it easier to remember where he was and what was real. As real as it had seemed, Lora was in the past where she belonged if she was still living at all, and Richard was a ghost of a nightmare. Connor had made sure of that himself.
On some level, Connor recognized that it was Mel's comforting that had given him the clarity he needed to break free of the dream's hold, but that didn't stop the embarrassment from setting in. He pulled away, wiping the moisture from his face. Something really was broken. He had suspected as much the night of the party when Duke had found him in that building, but now he knew. "I'm fine."
Mel was watching him with wide eyes full of concern. Toval and Hassan both appeared at the door, clearly roused from sleep. "Hey, we heard a scream," the beta murmured, looking them both over. "Everything alright?"
"Everything is fine," Connor said, a snarl building in his chest.
"It's okay," Mel said with a nod. "I've got it."
Hassan nodded back. "We'll be here if either of you need anything," he murmure
d, closing the door behind them.
"What happened?" Mel asked gently, wiping Connor's cheek with the edge of his sleeve.
"It was just a dream. It's nothing."
Mel frowned. "I've never seen you like that, Connor. I've never seen you...scared."
"That's how nightmares work, isn't it? Fear?"
"I know nightmares. I've had nightmares, and I've had worse," he murmured. "I know you don't like talking about these things, but I get it, Con. I'd understand if you told me. Sometimes it helps."
Connor looked away. "I don't see how."
"It was about that place, wasn't it?" Mel asked softly, brushing a damp strand of hair out of his face. "The one that bought you."
"Which one?" he scoffed. Mel's worried expression wouldn't break and Connor realized he wasn't going to give up. "It was."
"What happened?"
"Nothing that hadn't happened a thousand times before," he murmured. "I bit a client and Lora held my head under water until I went unconscious. I don't know why my brain picked that night to fixate on. It wasn't the worst. Hell, it probably wasn't the worst thing that happened that day."
Mel gave his hand a gentle squeeze. "That's just how it is with trauma. The most insignificant details can get replayed on a loop in crisp detail, but you can forget the most important things. The best."
Connor managed a weak smile. "I suppose I should be glad I'm not dreaming about Richard."
"Richard?" Mel frowned.
"He was the alpha who owned the ruthouse. The Parlor, they called it. Lora just ran it," he murmured. "The old bitch kept us in line, but Richard was the one who profited off of us and used us for his own amusement. I was his favorite."
Mel's mouth twitched into a snarl and Connor could feel the anger rising through their link. It was faint but it hadn't faded entirely after Hassan had marked him. Connor wondered sometimes if that was why he was changing, but it didn't matter. The only way to find out would be to break the link completely and that wasn't something he was willing to do, no matter what the cost of leaving it was. "Why haven't you ever mentioned him before? What happened?"