Page 63 of Their Alpha

“We need to get out of this rain,” Artemis said, urging us all forward to the front of the house. “Then I’ll explain what happened.”

Victor and Simon seemed more than happy to get out of the rain with us. We rushed as fast as we could without letting go of Gideon around to the front porch and up into the house. I was so grateful that the fire was still blazing and the house was warm and dry. Even though we’d only been there for a few days, the sights and scents of that little home put me at ease, like we’d returned to our own, safe space after a near catastrophe. Everything would be alright.

“Thank you for coming,” Artemis said, letting go of Gideon to embrace his friend as I moved a trembling Gideon closer to the fire.

“We dropped everything to come up here the second I gotoff the phone with Fletcher,” Victor said, nodding to me. “And we picked up Detective Shirley along the way.”

“Det. Shirley?” I asked, rubbing Gideon’s arms to get warmth back into his body. Really, he needed to get out of his sodden clothes and into something warmer. We all did.

Victor glanced at me, peeked uncertainly at Gideon, then said, “I’ve been doing a little research about Justice Goode in the last few days, since your first call. It turns out that the Barrington Bureau of Investigation has an entire file on him and several of his friends from The People of God on Earth. Goode is guilty of several counts of human trafficking and endangering the welfare of a minor.”

I felt a gust of emotion from Gideon that was alarmed but not at all surprised. “Sometimes young people disappear,” he said quietly, his eyes wide. “We’ve always been told they were taken to another community to marry an alpha there, but sometimes we never heard from them again.”

Victor sent Gideon a sad, sympathetic look. “I’m afraid we discovered as part of our investigation that Goode had a buyer lined up for you after he had his fill of you.”

The burst of fear, anger, and outrage that welled up both within me and through the bond that the three of us shared was almost enough to buckle my knees.

“It’s alright, though,” Det. Shirley said as she walked through the door, shutting it behind her. “Thanks to the research Mr. Woodbury and his mate have been doing for us for the last few days, we have units raiding the compounds of both the potential buyer and several other alphas of note as we speak. They should all be behind bars by the time we get back to Barrington.”

“Thank God,” Artemis said, pushing a shaky hand through his wet hair.

“Are you certain Gideon is safe?” I asked, hugging my husband tightly, as if the force of my love alone could shield him from the evil people who wanted to hurt him.

“Yes, actually, I am,” Det. Shirley said. She was so convincing that I couldn’t help but believe her.

“I think the three of us need to dry off and change clothes,” Artemis said, leaving his friends and heading over to us. “Then we’ll talk about this and sort things out.”

“There are refreshments on the table,” Gideon said in a small, hopeful voice, pointing to the table at the other end of the room. “I didn’t know you were coming, but at least we’re ready.”

“Thank you,” Simon answered him with a nod and a smile.

I recognized the tiny interaction as two omegas reassuring each other with courtesy. It was sweet, actually.

I liked the idea of Gideon and Simon becoming friends, just like I wanted to become friends with Artemis’s friend Victor, but all of that had to wait until we were all warm and dry.

The three of us headed into the bedroom, and as soon as the lamps were lit, Artemis and I worked together to get Gideon out of his clothes, rubbing him dry with fresh towels and wrapping him up in a blanket on the bed for a moment as the two of us stripped and toweled off.

“It’s over,” Gideon said in a shaky voice, hugging himself in his blanket. “I think it’s actually over. Goode is dead.”

“Did you see him?” Artemis asked, wariness in his voice. When Gideon shook his head, Artemis said, “Good.”

He glanced at me, and I felt his relief that our sweetheart hadn’t seen the ugly sight.

“I can feel that,” Gideon said breathlessly, joy suddenly spilling off him. “I can feel what both of you are feeling.”

“That’s because we’ve bonded,” I said, bursting with shared happiness myself.

I was still naked, but I moved to the bed to hug Gideon tightly. I’d longed for some sort of bond, any sort, with Gideon for so long, but I’d believed it was impossible. I was incredibly grateful to be wrong. And even though I felt Gideon like moonlight and Artemis like the sun, I didn’t care. The bond was between the three of us with Artemis as the center point, but I loved that.

We finished getting dressed, and when we went back out to the living room, Victor was seated in the large armchair with Simon kneeling on the floor beside him—which was both strange and weirdly thrilling—and Det. Shirley was lounging in the smaller chair. All three were eating, which I could feel made Gideon happy.

The three of us took a seat on the sofa with Gideon in the middle. We couldn’t stop touching each other, but that seemed just about right, all things considered.

“You’ve really been doing research into Justice Goode’s activities?” Artemis asked Victor once we were all settled.

Victor nodded. “As soon as I got your call, I wanted to help. I have a few contacts on the inside—” he glanced at Det. Shirley, “—so it wasn’t as hard to piece things together as it could have been.”

“It helps that Arise Financial has been under investigation right along with Goode himself for a while now,” Det. Shirley said. “The company has been used for money laundering purposes in connection with the trafficking operation. In fact, I just heard from my colleague. A raid of the offices is taking place right now.” She held up her cell phone. “Though the reception out here is patchy at best.”

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