Page 13 of His Temporary Alpha Mate
After eating quickly, I hunted down Deke and begged him to allow me to work.
“Inside patrols only. I want you on the offices and always with a partner.” He gave me a no nonsense look.
“Isn’t that overkill? Aldrin gave me a potion. I’m fine.” Deke giving me special treatment wouldn’t go downwell with the other alphas. Not that I particularly cared what they thought of me.
“I’m being cautious. As you should be. We don’t know a lot about the magic they used on you. Head injuries are no joke, even with magical healing.”
His concern was touching, so I just nodded. “Okay, I’ll head around.”
“Lark?” Deke called as I left his office. I paused and turned to meet his gaze. “You are on the trusted list. Blake automatically put you there after what you did. If no one has said it yet, it’s because things have been out of control here. Thank you for delaying them and raising the alarm. You helped save that little girl.”
My shift had barely begun when I got a text from Melody on the front door to say I had a visitor needing into my room.
Curious, I let my partner know I was leaving and headed over to where a cluster of people were waiting for me. A cute omega was standing with two betas, Melody and another enforcer standing by, listening out for my approach.
“Hey, so you want into our room?” I asked as I got close. Why would they want in my room?
“Hi, so I’m Hiroshi, and I’m Roan’s fated mate!”
The words tore my heart apart. I felt myself falter, leaving a pause slightly too long before I replied. “That’s wonderful!”Oh fuck! Shit!My alter tried tosoothe my panic. Frankly, he was shit at it and just as scared we were about to lose Roan as I was. I tried to hold back tears and inject enthusiasm into my voice.
“Congratulations. I can’t wait to get to know you better, Hiroshi.”I hate you, I hate you.The sentiment could have been coming from me or my alter. “Come on, let’s get some of his stuff.”He’s taking him away from me!The dragon inside growled at the audacity of this omega.
I got myself together to ask the most important question. “Is he okay?”
Behind us, the betas followed silently as Hiroshi filled me in on the healing he had done with Roan. There was still a way to go as he recovered from the blood loss, and finished healing up his arm. The relief was staggering. I had to ask again to make sure.
“So he’s really okay?” I practically whispered as I deactivated the wards to allow the visitors to enter.
We were just into the relative safety within our wards when Hiroshi dropped another bomb on me.
“Oh, absolutely. We just want to get to know him better before we try our bonding.” He said it with such nonchalance, too.
Stopping dead, I felt hope rise within me. “What? What’s wrong with your bond? Why wouldn’t it work?”Please let it not work.
“Well, because we want all four of us to be bonded,” Hiroshi said, as if it was a foregone conclusion that Roan would want to mate with an omega and two betas.
Hiroshi twitched as he waited for me to speak.
“And Roan is on board with this?” I asked. Why would he be so open to betas, a poly bond, and completely ignore me and all I’d done for him? Was I not enough?
“He said he’s willing to try, which is more than any of us expected,” the blond beta said. He missed the other one narrowing his eyes. It felt like not all of them were equally on board with this plan.
“Try.” I paused. “Being in a poly bond?”
“I know it’s unusual—“ Hiroshi began.
“Unheard of, but you know what? It isn’t any of my business. If that’s what Roan wants, then that’s what he should do.” Goddess, it hurt. I needed to get them out of my space, then drink as much of our Sweetwater cider as I could manage. Blackout drunk. This called for being absolutely, forget your name wasted.
“You need to know something, though,” I warned.
“What?” Hiroshi was nervously biting his lip. Dammit, he was so cute! No wonder he was so assured Roan would want him. Roan probably took one glance and fell in love with the little omega.
“Roan has enemies in the pack. We still haven’t proven which ones were in on the attack on him.” Theyneeded to know the truth about Roan’s standing in the pack if they had any hope of protecting him. Why didn’t they question why we had such powerful wards on our door?
“Attack?” The tall, dark-skinned beta straightened up from where he stood, leaning against the wall. He was imposing. I hoped he would help protect Roan.
“During the beta sickness, other alphas of the pack attacked and badly beat Roan. They left him on the floor a mangled mess.” All my energy drained out of me and I slumped onto the bed, feeling so defeated. This was really happening. An omega had come to take Roan away from me.
