But Parker deserved the freedom to leave me if that was what he wanted, too.
A glare around the bar brought the silence I needed to make such a tiring decision.
I pushed my way through the door and back onto the street. My mate was gone, but that didn't mean it had to be a permanent issue.
16
Parker
How had he found me?
Scott drove as I stared out the window. We headed to the west end of the city, past the hot dog stand and so many ice cream shops. I watched them fade in the distance without much thought. I'd loved ice cream for so long, but it was a forgotten memory. As my brother trundled along, I stroked my belly. I wasn't as round as I was going to get, but I'd certainly added to my girth in the past couple of weeks. Despite throwing up every other thing that went down my throat, I kept gaining weight.
"You want anything?" Scott asked.
I looked around at the various fast food restaurants, frowning. There were too many choices, too much neon, too much everything. There, on the other end of the street, I saw a familiar sign.
"Taco Bell."
"Graham's said every time you have that, you throw up."
"You're really going to hassle a pregnant omega with a broken heart?" I asked him. "Taco Bell."
Our trip to the border was over in less than a minute. I had to compliment the staff on one thing: they tried to keep the traffic moving in the drive-thru. I tore into the bag and delighted in the misery that was my upset stomach. I'd sob and puke my guts out later. The only cure for the hurt I felt was grease, cheese, and tiny bits of ground beef.
"I'm making you a salad when we get in," Scott said.
"Lived on that for a decade," I grumbled. "I need beef."
"Neanderthal."
"Vegan."
Scott snorted and pulled into his driveway. In the following moments, I realized my brother had done well for himself.
His house stretched a quarter of a city block. It wasn't anything like Graham's, but it was enough for me. The yard was perfect for pups. Did I have nephews? Nieces? I had no idea. It wasn't something we'd covered yet.
"Anoki?" Scott called.
There was no answer. I followed him in. Toys lay scattered on the floor and the whole place smelled like a bakery. It breathed home in a way that Graham's house hadn't. Maybe that was because it hadn't really ever been ours. Just his. Wasn't that all he cared about?
"He's probably just run out to grab some dinner," Scott said. "Make yourself at home. We've got a spare bedroom you can crash in."
"Thank you," I said, sinking into his couch.
The Taco Bell aura swam in my vision, Baja Blast dancing in my mind. I'd just eaten so much, I felt like I couldn't move. There was a joke about pregnant omegas feeling like beached whales. If this was how they felt, no wonder the poor whales died.
"Please let Daddy have his misery meal, kids," I whispered to my belly.
It wasn't going to happen. The next several minutes were a war between myself and my endless sickness. The queasiness won. This time, there was no Graham to hold my hair and kiss it better. There was no soothing cool towel on the back of my neck.
There would be no alpha with me when I went into labor, no support while I pushed our new life into this world. I sniffled against my brother's toilet seat, and he let me. I had a good brother.
When I returned to the living room, there was a small plate of cheese crackers on the couch. A mug of hot black tea sat on the end table. I frowned at him.
"It's what Anoki needed when he was pregnant," Scott shrugged.
Scott's phone buzzed as I sipped my tea and sampled a cracker. He uttered a curse and slammed the phone down a moment later. I frowned at him, my nerves starting to light up. Hadn't today been enough of a headache already?
"Your mate's pack alpha," he said, with no introduction.
"He's what?" I asked, numb.
"Pack alpha. Jenard fell. I don't know when or how. The alert just went out to the alphas' phones. We're supposed to alert you omegas ourselves. He'll have the pack hunting you down in no time."
Had Graham gone insane? He was too young to hold pack alpha position. Some older, deposed male would put him down in a matter of weeks. How was I going to keep our sons and myself safe from a pack alpha? The world started to narrow to one little pinpoint of light again.
"I'll get you on a bus tonight," Scott said. "It's the only way. If you're out of his reach, somewhere like San Francisco, he won't be able to put you through any of that therapy garbage. Rise has an office up there. We could get you work?"
"I never finished my degree," I swallowed.
"They'll teach you. We teach so many omegas everything. Hell, one of the top officers in New York couldn't even read when she got away from her alpha. Look at where she is now," Scott said. He joined me. "You'll be alright. All three of you will be. I'll make sure of it."
I scooted closer to my brother. He wrapped his free arm around my shoulders and gave me a squeeze. In this world where Graham was suddenly the enemy, I was glad that I still had Scott to rely on. Away from Anthony and the greater El Paso metropolitan area, who would I have?
"I can't work for Rise here?" I asked.
"Not with the Sassagoula pack after you. They only range up through Los Angeles. I know it's a long way," Scott said. "But if Graham wants you on a table or half-conscious, it's all we've got. Maybe we can bring you back after he's settled down, found somebody else to harass."
I ground my teeth at the idea of my mate bedding another omega, at my sons having half-siblings. As a pack alpha, Graham could buy whoever he wanted. The ceremony didn't apply to him anymore. I glared at the television and tried to force myself to let it go.
"You can't have everything, Parker," Scott said.
Why not? It wasn't as though I was asking for much. I just wanted Graham to be a rational alpha and for our family to be able to stay together. As pack alpha, he had so much new power that I doubted he knew the extent of it. I finished my tea and hovered over the crackers. I kept coming back to trying to convince my mate of new ideas, but hadn't I tried enough? It was clear, at this point, that it wasn't going to work.
San Francisco gave me a chance to start over.
Did I want that?
"Could he make you give me up?" I asked Scott.
"Better. He could make me give you up, then use the rest of the family as an example. An ode to his rising to power, so to speak. He'd probably hang the pups on poles outside of Roll Over, right beside mine and Anoki's heads. Give him a whole warlord vibe instead of just a plain old pack alpha. He seems to want that kind of power, that kind of aura," Scott said.
I stared at him in horror, gape-mouthed and drawing back. I dropped my crackers.
"Maybe that's a little dramatic," Scott admitted. "But he could still force me to turn you over and take it out of my skin for hiding you. You're family, little brother, but he owns you."
"Do you think he would?"
"I didn't think he'd allow some kind of asinine commercial like that or a program that hurt omegas," Scott said. "I've been with him since the beginning. Before, really. We owned a little computer shop throughout college. Roll Over was a joke, but he went through with it. I never thought he was out to hurt anyone, just be a little bit too cocksure about it all. Other alphas were far worse. I thought I knew him. I was wrong."
"I was wrong, too," I said, quietly.
I sniffled.
Scott hugged me.
The television happily played a sitcom about weird, heterosexual, free-spirited werewolves moving in next to a typical beta couple with a few adopted pups. I let it take my attention away as long as I could. Thinking drove a spike through my heart that nothing could fix.
Then the door boomed against someone's knocking hand.
"Hide," Scott hissed to me.
I ran to obey. The closet seemed like the most obvious option, so I opted for the pantry instead. Surely it was too early for Graham to have sent s
earchers for me? If the alert had just gone out on pack members' cell phones, hadn't he just assumed power?
"What can I help you with?" Scott asked.
"I can smell him," Graham answered. "Where is he?"
My blood turned to ice in my veins. I gripped the door's handle to keep from sinking to the ground. How long had we been here? An hour? At most? Scott's plan was going to ruin in front of me. I had dreamed of staying with my brother for a time unimaginable, and Graham had found me in less time than it took the dishwasher to run a cycle.
"You can smell whatever you want, sir," Scott said. "He was here a while ago, but you just missed him. Said he had to get back home before you worried."
"You're lying," Graham growled. "I saw him in your car, fleeing the bar. Where is he? I need to explain a few things to him."
"He's my brother."
"He's my mate."
"Which is why I'm standing in your way, pack alpha," Scott said.
"Then you have no idea what you're doing," Graham answered.
There was a pause before Scott spoke. "I'm listening."
"I spent years putting up with Jenard. You think I just so happened to put him down, today, when that commercial aired last night? I think Parker saw it, and I think Parker thinks I approved it."
"You didn't?" I could just see Scott fold his arms.
"I'm an idiot. I gave Jenard free rein on the project after I did the introduction. I didn't think he'd go as far as he did. Now I'm paying for it. You think I'd ever let an omega end up in that spot?" Graham asked.
Scott thought it over for a while. I prayed as hard as I could. My brother knew better. He had to.
"He's in the pantry. And if you hurt him, I'll kill you."
Could any alpha be trusted? Panic seized me and the world seemed to slow as Graham made his way into the house. He took his time approaching the pantry. I thought I would wither and die before he got to the cabinet, but it was only a matter of seconds. An eye filled the gap I stared from, then a smile.
"Parker."
The voice sent a bolt of adrenaline through me, the likes of which I had never experienced before. Now I knew what a hunted rabbit felt like. I had to act. Just because Scott had decided to betray me, to trust Graham instead of me, meant nothing. If Graham got his hands on me, I didn't know what he would do. He could lie now, sew whatever he wanted, with his pack alpha mantle. He could send our sons to any camp, even cull them if he wanted alpha boys instead, and breed me until my body fell apart. This was the monster I'd feared beyond everything else in my life. The pack alpha was responsible for every nightmare in my life.
And now my pack alpha was Graham.
I screamed at the top of my lungs and flung a huge can of peas directly into my mate's face. Without so much as a spare shirt, I jumped him, tore past my brother, and ran out into the darkening wilderness of the edge of our desert city.
17
Graham
I found myself on the floor, confused and bloodied. I was having a hell of a time with injuries. If I wasn't careful, I'd end up in a hospital.
Parker fled past Scott, knocking him to the ground. By the time I sat up, he was gone.
Shit.
Heaving myself from the floor, I stumbled past his brother and poked my head out the door after him. All that remained was a single, damp paw print on the ground just beyond a neighbor's heavily watered lawn. The sprinklers were still on late at night, trying to preserve the verdant look of the non-native grass. Still, it'd been more help than anything else. At least I knew my mate was in wolf form.
"Scott?" I called.
"You know, I thought he'd stop when he saw me. I thought he might trust me enough to give you another chance," Scott said. "But nope. He flattened me like a pancake."
I rolled my eyes and offered Scott a hand up. He took it graciously and grunted with the effort of standing.
"I can't let him go tearing around the desert at night," I told him.
"I know you can't," Scott sighed. "I'll give some friends a call, see what I can find out. Maybe there's a pack out hunting or somebody that can scoop him up and keep him safe until one of us can get to him."
That sounded pretty promising. I gave my brother-in-law's hand a squeeze, then shucked my shirt to the ground and shifted. The change came on strong and fast. I'd had so much practice with it of late that I was surprised I hadn't given in to running around in my fur full-time. My omega's scent was heavy on the wind. I walked past the paw print on the ground, casting around in a circle to assure I knew where he'd gone. Parker was a smart wolf. If he knew I was likely to follow him, he'd make it difficult.
I was right. His scent shot off in three different directions. It could have been the wind, but I somehow doubted it. Choosing the central one, off toward the hills, I started at a trot. I couldn't blow myself out chasing an upset omega, no matter how much I wanted to.
How long had I missed him by? It couldn't have been more than a few minutes, yet he'd had time to lay down multiple scent trails? I huffed and put my head to the ground. There were no more prints, but there was plenty of Parker. His musk stank of fear and I swallowed a whine of my own. Alphas didn't whine after the disappearance of their mate. They got out there, found him, and took him home.
But Parker was frightened of me, and that hurt more than words could explain.
I padded along, my ears tight to my head, occasionally checking to make certain that I was following the correct path. I didn't know how far he'd led out false trails, but after the first mile of the one I'd chosen, I was nearly certain that he couldn't have had the time to progress a fake one this far in every direction.
"You the one looking for the omega?" asked a voice behind me.
I spun, resisting the urge to peel my lips back at them. Didn't these people know it wasn't a good idea to startle an alpha in a hunt?
Their dark blue shirts, their picket signs, even their faces were familiar to me. I spent a solid minute staring at them until I realized just what Scott had done--and what he'd been doing in Roll Over all along. Most alphas with omega siblings didn't care what happened to them. Hadn't Scott and I become friends over losing Parker? I should have known he was in with Rise.
I sat down and perked my ears up, despite myself. Scott and I were going to have a long talk when I got home. He'd shown his cards to me at last and I found them... amusing? Quite honestly, I wasn't really sure what to think.
The tip of my tail wiggled. My tongue lolled out of my mouth. For humans, it was an expression of a careless dog. For our kind, it showed polite interest.
"I can't believe I'm about to say this," said a lean omega with harsh features. "If you need us, we're here for you--and for him. The desert is no place for a lone wolf."
I shifted back halfway. A bipedal wolf form wasn't something we used often. Where was the reason to? But half mutt, half human, I settled onto my haunches and watched him. We needed to work out an accord.
"I don't owe you anything for this," I said.
"You don't owe us anything, no. Why would you? We're here to help omegas. It's not something you'd know much about," the little upstart snapped.
My tail wagged a bit harder. I liked a challenge.
"You know who I am, who are you?"
"Kyle Warner. Scott shot me a call about ten minutes ago."
"And you gather that fast?" I frowned.
"We're always on call. Immediate omega danger response unit," Kyle said. "A mixture of omegas and alphas willing to work together to take care of anyone in need. If all that's settled, can we get a move on? There's a lot of unfriendly fauna out there and your mate is pregnant."
I stretched back into my wolf's body and stiffened when I realized they were doing the same. The moon was nearly full and here I was, about to be crowded around by omegas. I took a few uncertain steps away from them as they passed by me. Unable to hold my breath for long, I inhaled and--
Nothing. I sniffed again. Still, nothing. It was rude, but I walked fo
rward and shoved my nose beneath the tail of one of the other omegas. He spun, teeth bared and ears flat. That garnered several steps backward on my part. I cocked my head at Kyle, who opened his jaws in a wolf's laugh.
It was a crime to neuter a werewolf. Had they done that horrible thing? Or had they forsaken the moon and our pact with Her? I snorted and shook my head, confused. Omegas around me should have sent me into a flurry, mating them, pinning them, forcing them to take my knot. It was what all the stories said. Yet, as they streamed around me to help with the hunt, there was nothing.
Except for Parker.
I could investigate their strangeness later, when my mate and I were reunited. I surged to the head of the pack, each of us breaking off within visible distance of one another, yet working through the many scents that lay a colorful pattern upon the ground to those of our blood. I huffed and puffed and tried to hold out hope that my mate hadn't run afoul of the red wolves that hunted the desert beyond the town.
Kyle and I kept the pace brisk as I attempted to remember where I knew him from. I had seen that face before, somewhere, and I didn't think it belonged in a protest group.
Talking was difficult when you had all four paws on the ground. Besides that, if Parker heard us coming he might well run off again. Then we'd have to wear him down, hunt him like a deer. I didn't want to do that to the love of my life. The pups were already wearing him down. Why push him further than we had to?
As we left the furthest reaches of the city, I came to appreciate why it seemed to be so hard to get rid of a Rise group. These wolves were trained, cautious, and smart. Every time a coyote chattered in the distance, they moved further apart and vanished in the shadows. I'd been a city-bound wolf most of my days and only really recognized the sound from country-western movies, the sort with John Wayne or one of those ancient-and-long-dead actors.
It reminded me of my father.
I shook that idea away as soon as it came along.
Kyle cocked his head at me, but I ignored him. The omega wasn't going to distract me while I looked for my mate. Probably whatever he'd done to take care of my nose was going to wear off any moment. It'd be his fault. All his fault.
Furbitten Falls Alpha's: A Wolf Shifter Mpreg Romance Bundle Page 46