by Hawke Oakley
“What’s up?” he asked as I walked in. But then he turned and saw the expression on my face and he asked with concern, “Jericho, is everything okay?”
“I don’t know,” I said honestly. I held up the paper. “I found this… weird note outside. Being carried by a bird.”
Mason narrowed his eyes. “A bird?”
“Yeah, like a crow or raven or something.”
He frowned. Judging by the look on his face, he was clearly thinking about something.
“Do you know something about it?” I asked.
Mason slowly shook his head. “Not really. I was just thinking that I saw a weird raven too, the other night when we were all out celebrating. I thought it was weird because ravens stay out in the wilderness and don’t really come into town. Wait, did you say the bird was carrying the note?”
I nodded. “It’s definitely no ordinary bird.”
Mason looked nervous now. “What does the note say?”
“That’s the weirdest part,” I mumbled.
I went over to sit next to him and then showed him the note. His eyes went over it a few times before he leaned back and muttered, “What? What does that mean?”
“I don’t know,” I admitted.
“Maybe it’s some kind of prank?” Mason suggested.
“I thought so at first, too, but the way that bird stared at me when I read the note gave me the chills,” I growled. “I think it’s serious.”
Mason’s face flickered with anxiety. I put a protective arm around him. “No matter what this is, I won’t let anything happen to you or the pups,” I promised with a deep growl. “Just remember that.”
He laid his head on my shoulder but his voice was still nervous. “I know… I just don’t know what it means. Is it a warning or a threat? What are we supposed to do about it?” He glanced at me with fearful eyes. “Who is the traitor?”
“I don’t know,” I said, shaking my head. “And it’s not like we can just go around asking everybody we know if they’re planning to betray us.”
Mason’s face clouded with anxiety and stress. I pulled him closer as a deep growl built in my throat. I was angry on his behalf. I wanted to know who was out there making my mate feel wary and why. What business did the note-writer have with us?
“That bird… it must have been watching us,” Mason muttered. “That means it heard our entire conversation at dinner. I distinctly remember it flying away once we were leaving…” His head suddenly shot up. His eyes were as wide as saucers with fear. “Do you think it went back to Scarlet Ridge?”
Dread crawled up my spine. “What?”
“We were talking about Scarlet Ridge, Gunner’s army, the shock collars, everything… Nothing about any other pack. The bird must have flown back to Scarlet Ridge after spying on us,” Mason muttered, his voice becoming increasingly panicked.
“Easy,” I told him, putting my hands on his shoulders in an attempt to calm him down. “Don’t freak out. We’re going to get through this together.”
Suddenly Mason stood up and glared at me, his eyes burning with fear and anger. “How am I supposed to not freak out? I’m two months pregnant, I have two unborn babies, and now I’m getting weird messages after some fucking bird spies on me? Tell me how I’m supposed to keep calm about this, Jericho!”
I didn’t rise to meet him. I looked him in the eye and blinked slowly while touching the space next to me on the couch. I felt the protective aura of my alpha energy reaching out to Mason and enveloping him. A moment later, the fight left his body. He sighed and sat back down.
“Sorry,” he muttered.
“It’s okay,” I said. “I know you’re upset. You have every right to be. But we need to try and keep calm. We don’t know anything about this situation. Whatever it is, I’m right here by your side. I won’t let anything hurt you or the pups. I swear it on my life.”
Some of the tension left Mason’s shoulders as he leaned on me. “Thanks. I know that. I just can’t help the anxiety…”
I stroked his hair and growled softly, “I know. I’m here for you and I love you.”
Mason blinked up at me with big doe eyes. “I… I love you, too.”
I kissed him softly on the lips.
“Starting tomorrow, we’re going to get to the bottom of this,” I promised him. “So don’t you worry your pretty little head, alright?”
He smiled. “Alright.”
***
The next morning, both of us were significantly less stressed out about the strange note. A good night’s sleep had helped a lot. Mason was feeling well and decided to go to work, despite the note.
“I’m not letting some weird note and some weird bird dictate my life,” he had growled while getting dressed.
While walking him to work, I pulled him aside and said, “Listen. If anything strange happens today - anything at all - call for me. I’ll come running as fast as I can.”
“I will,” he promised. He paused, then gave me a tight hug. “I’ll see you later.”
“Bye, my little omega. Have a good day at work.”
He smiled, then disappeared into the building.
Then it was time for me to get to work, too. I rounded up the guys and told them to meet me at the guild building, just like when we went hunting.
“What’s this all about?” Flint asked, already on alert. He was my close friend and knew me well enough to know when I was serious. I’d asked him to bring Charlie along, too, because of the topic - I was hoping he knew something about this bird.
“Where’s Casey?” I asked, somewhat disappointed not to see the little spitfire. I’d been so busy lately that I missed her on hunts, which she was now regularly joining.
“She’s with Tyson upstairs,” Charlie said, pointing up to the loft.
“So what’s happening?” Ken asked. “You sounded like you were in a rush on the phone.”
Around the table, Flint, Charlie, Ken, David, and Shadow had gathered. We would fill in Tyson on the details later; right now babysitting was more important for him.
“I’ll get straight to the point,” I said, and threw the note down on the table. The guys all squinted at it.
“What’s this?” Charlie asked, gingerly picking up the note and reading it out loud. “Be wary. There is a traitor amongst you… What?” He dropped the note, almost in revulsion.
Everyone looked at each other in confusion.
“What traitor?” Ken asked.
“Jericho, where did you get this note?” David growled.
I explained to them what happened the previous night; about the strangely intelligent raven and the note in its beak.
“Mason and I were talking about it, and he thinks that the bird is from Scarlet Ridge,” I told them.
“Why?” Charlie asked.
“Because he said it was spying on us,” I said. “And who else has a reason to spy on us except them?”
David’s eyes narrowed. “Why does he think it was spying on us?”
“He saw it the other night, at the cafe,” I explained. “He said he saw a strange black bird fly away after our conversation.”
“That could be any bird,” David countered. “How do you know it’s the same one?”
I paused. “I don’t know. I’m just trusting what Mason told me.”
A spark of doubt flickered inside me. Why was David asking me so many questions? Could it be that he was the traitor?
Suddenly I felt ashamed for even thinking that. David had been my friend and hunting partner for years. He could be gruff and abrasive, but he would never betray any of us.
I noticed others at the table giving David the same side-eye, and wondered if they were thinking the same thing I did.
“Guys, we can’t let this note make us paranoid,” I growled deeply. “Our hunting party is a family. We have to trust each other.”
The table fell silent. Shadow shifted awkwardly as a few eyes landed on him.
“Okay, I know Shadow isn’t a member
of the hunting party, but he’s still a member of our pack,” I said. “Come on, guys.”
“Then what are we supposed to make of this note?” Ken asked, holding it carefully between his fingers like it was a venomous snake. “That there’s someone outside Indigo Mountain warning of us a danger from within?”
“Why would someone outside of our pack care about that, though?” Flint growled. “It just seems too suspicious to me.”
“Maybe someone’s just trying to cause chaos within our pack,” Shadow growled.
“But why?” Charlie asked genuinely. “What would that accomplish?”
David’s lip curled and he bared a fang. “Maybe it is Scarlet Ridge. Maybe they’re trying to cause disarray among us as an opening for their attack.”
“Aren’t there easier ways to do that instead of sending a bird with a cagey note?” Ken asked, raising an eyebrow.
Suddenly a thought struck me like lightning.
“Hang on a second,” I said, holding up a hand. Everyone looked towards me. “I just remembered something Mason told me when he first arrived here. He said somebody unlocked his collar and then told him to escape.”
Charlie gasped. Everyone else’s eyes widened.
“How is that possible?” Flint asked.
“Who was it?” Charlie asked desperately.
“I don’t know,” I admitted. “I don’t think Mason knows, either. The way he spoke made it seem like he didn’t know the guy. Just called him a strange alpha.”
“Don’t you think this is information you should’ve brought up earlier?” David grumbled.
I shrugged. “Sorry. It only just came to me now.”
Everyone looked at each other.
“So, you’re theorizing that this strange alpha who unlocked Mason’s collar wrote the note?” Ken asked.
“I dunno. Maybe. It’s the only thing I can think of right now,” I said with a shrug.
“It does make sense that the one who released him would warn him of danger,” Charlie mused. “I just wish I knew who he was. I mean, if there’s a Scarlet Ridge alpha releasing omegas from the collars, doesn’t that mean he’s on our side?”
“Not necessarily,” David growled. “There could be some other ulterior motive. We can’t assume anything.”
Charlie sighed. “I know, but… If he has the shock collar key and is helping omegas escape, I don’t think this guy is a bad person.”
David had no response this time. Flint turned to me.
“So, what should we do about the note?” he asked. “It seems like we’ve reached a standstill about what to do about it.”
“I don’t think there’s anything we can do about it,” I admitted.
“I agree,” Ken added. “Not with the information we have right now. But most importantly, I think we can all agree to trust our brothers.”
As he glanced around the table, all of us nodded - Shadow included. He wasn’t a member of our close-knit hunting party, but he was still a packmate. We needed to trust each other. We weren’t going to let this warning tear us apart.
***
Later that evening, I went to pick up Mason from work. Our routine had become comfortable and I looked forward to walking him home every night.
“Hey, sexy,” I said as he walked out with the same tired smile on his face.
“Hey,” he said.
“You a bit less anxious now?” I asked.
“Yeah. Work does me good that way. It keeps my mind off things,” he said. “It reminds me that there are real problems, like hunger. I don’t have time to waste thinking about things like that stupid note.”
I chuckled. “I was actually talking about that with the guys tonight.”
“Yeah?” Mason said with a note of curiosity in his voice. “What’d they say?”
“We basically promised we would all trust each other, and that we weren’t going to let this cause chaos among us,” I told him. “And actually, Charlie brought up a good point. He wondered if maybe whoever sent this note was the same guy who unlocked your collar that night.”
Mason stopped and blinked at me. “I never thought of that,” he mumbled. “I guess… that does make me feel a bit better about being spied on?”
“That’s a good way to think about it,” I said with a grin. “Look at you, looking at the bright side of things now.”
He blushed and rolled his eyes. “Shut up.”
I wrapped my arm around his waist and leaned in to give him a kiss to the temple. “Mm… You’re so cute when you’re feisty.”
He grumbled but didn’t attempt to bat me away. “Save it for when we get home, at least. The last thing the pack needs to see is us doing it on the street.”
I laughed and promised to keep it in my pants until we got home. But when we did, it was fair game.
Mason lay across the bed in the dim light, looking at me with his bright eyes. The room was already filled with the musky scent of his arousal - his pregnancy was making his hormones go haywire. Thankfully I was here to fulfil his needs.
He groaned as my hand brushed against his already hard cock, straining inside his stretchy pants. His belly was swollen from the pregnancy and it was making me go fucking crazy. I wanted to rip off his clothes and fuck him until he was pregnant a third time.
I leaned up to cradle his face and kiss him. We melted into each other for five minutes, lost in the pleasure of kissing.
Mason broke away. I thought he just wanted some air, and gave him a moment to catch his breath before I leaned back in to kiss him again, but he held out a hand and pressed it to my lips.
“Wait,” he said. “Jericho, I…”
Concerned, I sat back. “What’s wrong? Is everything okay?”
Mason averted his eyes. His expression was strange, almost like a mix of guilt and concern. I stroked his hair soothingly as I waited for him to speak again.
“I’m fine, yeah,” he murmured, still not looking at me. “There’s just… I have something I need to tell you. Something I should’ve told you a long time ago.”
My heart rate sped up and I bit my lip nervously. If there was one thing you never wanted to hear, it was the words Mason just said.
“What is it?” I asked quietly.
Mason forced himself to look me in the eye. He reached for my hands and laced his fingers with my own. “It’s not bad. Not anymore. Don’t worry.”
I groaned. “Will you just spit it out? The suspense is driving me crazy over here, Mason.”
“Sorry. It’s just hard to say after so long, I guess…” He sighed. “Okay. So. You know, when we first met? How you invited me here?”
“Yeah?”
“Well, I… never really planned on staying,” he said, looking down again. “In fact, I was only staying here because I was scared and didn’t have anywhere else to go.”
I blinked. “Is that all?”
Mason looked a bit confused. “I was using you, Jericho. For food, shelter, everything else… Just so my baby could survive.”
“I don’t get it,” I admitted. “What’s the big deal?”
“I was using you,” Mason stated again more firmly. “Don’t you care?”
I looked down at him seriously. “You were a lost, pregnant omega with nowhere to go, and I offered you a place to stay. What’s so ridiculous about that?”
“Because I was going to leave as soon as my first pup was born!” Mason cried. “I was going to leave you, this pack, everything behind!”
“Mason,” I said softly. “Is this what’s been bothering you for so long?”
His mouth went taut. “I - I guess.” He paused. “Does this not bother you?”
“Not particularly,” I said with a shrug. “I guess I figured you’d do something like that when I found you. I mean, no offense, but you seemed pretty flighty and unstable. I didn’t even know if you’d stay the night without running off.”
Mason paused then chuckled. “I guess you’re right. It seems like ages ago, now. Isn’t that we
ird?”
“Yeah,” I agreed. “I feel like I’ve known you my whole life. Like I was destined to meet you - as cheesy as that sounds. But I guess you are my fated mate.”
Mason blushed deeply. “Shut up,” he mumbled, but then leaned up to kiss me again.
The words melted away as we kissed. Mason groaned and bucked his hips up to meet mine. Our clothed cocks met with a brief flash of friction. With one hand I reached down and fiercely tugged down his waistband, freeing his cock. I grabbed it instantly and squeezed just enough to make Mason whimper.
With my other hand, I pressed my fingers against his waiting hole and pressed inside. He gasped.
“Oh, yes,” he mumbled. “More.”
With a growl, I pushed in deeper. His entrance was slick and ready for my cock, but I wanted to draw it out. I pushed and pulled my fingers inside him, stretching him, although judging by how wet he was, he didn’t need much of it.
Mason lay taut against the bed, biting his lip and clutching the sheets. He wiggled his hips and whined for more.
I chuckled. “My poor, desperate little omega.”
“Don’t make fun of me,” he whimpered. “I need to get fucked so badly, you don’t understand.”
“Oh? You do?” I teased. I withdrew my hand slightly, then thrust inside him with three fingers. He gasped and threw his head back.
I pumped his cock a bit faster while thrusting in and out of him. His shaft throbbed in my hand, already close to bursting. I drew my hand back, added a fourth finger, and slipped back inside his hole, making him stretched and loose. Mason was whining unintelligibly, so I knew he liked it. I kept teasing him until he couldn’t take it anymore, then finally I put my mouth over the head of his cock and pumped him faster until he came. I held myself in place, letting his seed shoot down my throat, and pulled back with a grin when he was finally done.
“That was fast,” I said, smirking.
“Oh, can it,” he muttered. “I’m hormonal. But you better not be done with me yet.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it,” I said, crawling into position.
I aligned the head of my cock with his waiting and willing hole, then slipped inside. I groaned instantly as his wet heat enveloped my sensitive flesh. A deep, pleasurable growl rose in my throat.