Page 6 of The Brooding Alpha's Mate
Mate.
Mine.
I stumbled a bit down the aisle, getting the stink eye from Dean. I had to stop my legs from running right there in thatmoment to find the owner of that scent. The alpha who I belonged to.
“Get the damned jerky and stop fucking around!” Dean shouted, making me jump about a mile high. I gripped one of the displays, torn between running and not getting killed before I met my mate.
Certainly if I ran and caught him, my alpha, he would protect me against Dean.
But then again, Dean was a nasty male, and I knew he had a gun stashed under his semi-designer coat.
I was screwed.
So damned screwed. I walked slowly to the next aisle and got to the beef jerky and other meats. I could see Dean in my peripheral, considering the beer in the case. The front door was so close. So damned close. There was a chance I could make it.
Then again, there was a chance Dean would catch me.
He would kill me, bet or not.
Sale or not.
He would kill me and then I’d never meet the alpha who smelled like amber and oak and everything I’d ever wanted a den to be.
Chapter Four
Alex
The team was throwing a huge barbecue at the warehouse.
An apartment building designated for low-income single omegas and their kids had burned down after a lightning strike. Thank goddess, no one was hurt. After seeing it on the news, the guys reached out to one of their contacts, the end result…the warehouse full of new guests.
Normally, when they had people staying at the warehouse, it was because they were rescued from an all-around horrible situation. Usually some sort of trafficking. This was different. These were people who had good lives and were working on making them better, only to have everything taken from them. And because they were lower-income rentals, most of them didn’t have insurance, which meant there were no places for them to go.
In theory, they were allowed to stay at the local hotels and be reimbursed. But being reimbursed meant you had it to begin with and they didn’t.
There was definitely a different vibe in the warehouse than normal and a lot more going and coming. The kids had school, the omegas had work, and one by one, they were finding new places to stay as the county figured out placements. It was a very slow process up until recently, which led to our celebration.
We learned our lesson after the last barbecue when we ran out of gas for the grills. Back then, it was just the team and their families, and moving the hot dogs and hamburgers into the kitchen. It was a huge deal now.
There were far too many people to feed in the kitchen; it just wasn’t large enough for that. Not with this kind of meal, which was how I got assigned the task of refilling the canisters.
There was only one station in the region that still allowed refills. All the others had gone to the brand where you just swapped out the empty for the full. But for whatever reason, the guys hadn’t moved on to that.
I didn’t mind. I was not only doing my job, I was doing something I knew would put smiles on omegas and their children’s faces. It didn’t get much better than that.
This was the first group I really got to know since working here. When the people they helped were rescued from high-trauma situations, we tried to limit the number of alphas they were exposed to for their comfort. Since my job was mostly off-site, it was easy for me to step aside.
The other unique thing about this particular group of people was that it was mixed. Some were shifters and some were human, which made things interesting. They were “randomly” broken into two groups, humans and shifters. That made it easier to take the shifters out for a run or flight or swim, depending upon what their animals were. The humans had activities too, but theirs were more human based, like parks and going to the mall.
It was working out, but far from my idea. It meant the shifters had to keep quiet about who they were in their own home. And no one wanted to be hiding 24/7.
According to the social worker Tyrus had been in contact with, almost everybody was going to be in their new place within the next week or so. Which was great. They deserved it.
I got the last of the tanks hooked up to the grill, when my cousin came out and smacked the back of my head.
“What, I’m trash now?” I couldn’t tell if my cousin was being silly or if he was truly pissed.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” I stood up and brushed off my knees.
