Page 42 of His Rejected Alpha Mate
“D’you think he’ll let them stay?”
“Blake? Of course he will. Besides, we don’t have any birds in the pack. They’d be useful as long as one isn’t too badly damaged.”
Distantly I heard, “welcome to the Sweetwater pack,” and shared a smile with Kade.
I decided I better call my parents. Dad was officially the pack healer, so he should take a look at Sebastian’s arm to see if there was a possibility of a lasting injury. I hoped for his sake that the arm would be fine and he could fly again.
The crowd dispersed as Chase came and helped the men up, leading them into the house. I could make out some of the conversation, some of it lost in the noise of enforcers returning to their jobs.
“Dakota, make sure Jake and Sebastian get medical attention and then get me on the phone to the council.” He took a seat next to his mate, looking worried. “I have to notify them that shifters now claiming sanctuary are here from the aviary. They claim they were attacked near this territory. We should also notify the aviary that we’ve taken the shifters in and we’ll decide their future with our pack as soon as the council clears them of any wrongdoings.”
“You’re going to make them pack, aren’t you?” Kade looked anxious, almost ready to get off the couch and seek the men out. As alpha mate, he’d want to welcome and reassure the new members.
“Absolutely. Chase is checking that they aren’t hiding anything right now.” Chase, Blake’s older brother, had the ability to tell when someone was lying. It was an incredibly useful gift. “Pointless, but it’s protocol. Even I could tell they were telling the truth. There’s no secret that the aviary practices a lot of the old ways. Ones that don’t even make sense. Betas can’t have children, so keeping them apart does nothing but breed resentment in a pack.” Blake made a scoffing noise. “They say they want to keep bloodlines clear. If it was up to them, whole bloodlines would die out. Keeping like with like suppresses the birth rate. Arranged matings especially.”
That piqued my interest. “How so?”
“Happily mated couples naturally have more children. My father is proof of this. He treated my mother like a queen until she had me, then he changed. No more children after that.”
“That theory has flaws—my own parents.”
“Were unlucky, or very lucky, depending on how you see it. They had you, at a time when they were established in their pack and careers. Had they ever expressed a desire for more children? Were they even trying for you before they had you?”
That pulled me up short. I couldn’t remember a time where they had said they had wanted another child. I had the distinct impression that they had planned for me. Dad had been training in another speciality when he’d met Papa at the hospital where they both worked.
“If you look into trends, arranged matings for pure bloodlines generally have more issues with conceiving. Fated mate bonds don’t have that problem. Mixed mated pairings make things more complicated, but usually a mixed pairing is because of a fated bond. Either that or they have such a fantastic connection they are willing to bond, regardless of not being fated. These pairings have children fairly easily, perhaps not at the same level as fated. Happiness seems to be a major factor.”
“Huh.” It dumbfounded me that Blake knew all this.
Kade grinned. “My mate knows all kinds of random shit.”
Apparently so.
“Go make calls,” Blake ordered, a sly grin on his face. He turned and launched himself at his mate, peppering his face with kisses while Kade shrieked.
The calls were pretty straightforward. My contact with the council confirmed my suspicions that nothing had been documented with them from the aviary. The form locking was unsanctioned. It would be up to Jake if he wanted to lodge a formal complaint against his former pack.
I’d just hung up with a complete dick of an assistant over at the aviary, who gave zero fucks about two missing pack members, when a call came from the main gate. “Hey, Melody.”
“Hey, Dakota. Could you ask the alpha if two betas can come up? They work for the council. Said they are here to visit Jasper, by the way.” Strange. He hadn’t mentioned visitors.
“More betas?”
“I know, right? Four in one day! Two literally landing on our doorstep. How’s everything going with that?”
“Mel, I better check with our alpha to see if we were aware of visitors coming. You can check in on the aviary betas after my dad has finished with them.”
My phone buzzed with a handful of messages coming in at once. Signal must have dropped out.
Blake: Tell Melody to send them up.
Dad: Sebastian has given permission for me to discuss his injury. He shouldn’t shift for a couple of weeks. No lasting damage.
Jasper: I forgot to tell you Grady and Trey are visiting. I’ll message Kade too. They have some more of our stuff.
Right. The guards. The ones that knew Jasper’s ex. Had he told them he was pregnant? Told them anything about me?
“Mel, send Grady and Trey up, please. We should have been told they were coming. I think Jasper forgot.”
