Page 26 of His Temporary Alpha Mate
He looked so downtrodden. “Yeah, I think so. I knew that our mating wasn’t popular within the pack, but that was just—“
“I know. A couple of them have been saying shit like that all day. Most of it, the omegas didn’t hear.”I was so grateful for that. “Then he started getting inappropriate with Hiroshi, then you heard what he said.”
“Inappropriate?” Roan looked ready to murder Trevor and any of the other enforcers who were harassing his mate.
I tried to downplay it. Everything would be reported to Deke, not Roan, because I didn’t want my friend getting into more trouble with his pack mates by getting his revenge. “Just touches that lingered. Saying that Hiroshi deserved more than this. More than being hidden away for most of your mating.”
I caught his flinch. “Hey, we know why you had to do that. The pack has shown that some don’t get it.”
“What ’bout you?” His voice was gruff, his body tense as he waited for my response.
So here it was, my chance to clear the air some.
“At first I didn’t get it.” Needing to move, I put distance between us and paced. “I always knew that one day an omega would come and turn your head, but two betas as well? It was a lot.”
Without meaning to, my eyes met his. “I see how you care about them. This thing with Asher has you tied in knots, but you still bend over backwards for a pack that attacked you.”
I wanted him to understand just how good he was! “You deserve better than that, Roan. You’re the bestperson I know.” Aside from Dalton, but now wasn’t the time to be discussing the beta or my growing feelings for him, even as my crush on Roan waned.
Roan pulled me into a rib-crushing hug. “I’m so glad I have you.”
“You’re never getting rid of me.”
Tate was safely in bed, a plate of delicious looking food was being prepared for him by James. I had no idea the healer’s assistant and Dakota’s omega father was such a fantastic cook! I was practically drooling over the thought of getting to eat some of it. James had assured me a plate had my name on it for protecting the omegas so well.
“Roan, I need to head out,” Deke called, rounding the corner into the kitchen from the living room. His body language was tense. Okay, so he was always on guard. This was just extra.
“Everything okay?” Roan asked. He hadn’t even finished dealing with the last crisis before he was asking about another one. He needed to relax with his family rather than getting involved with something else.
“Blake just called. The coven has called us. They need our help.” Deke was always concise. I liked that about the other alpha. He hadn’t been the pack Alpha when I came to Sweetwater. Blake had taken over just recently, so I only ever knew him as the Head Enforcer. Dalton had plenty of stories from Deke’s time in charge of the pack.
His words instantly set the room on edge. “Help? Do they need a healer?” James looked at his mate, who nodded.
“Not sure. Probably not. We are going on a witch hunt.” Deke was pretty nonchalant about it.
Fuck. I shared a look with Roan. We both seemed to agree on this without words. This could be really dangerous.
“Witch hunt? Need a hand?” I moved from my place near the door to join them at the breakfast bar. If Deke was heading into a situation, I wanted to be there to guard his back.
“Sure. Roan, you’re needed here. Keep your phone on you in case we need any more support. Blake and a couple of other enforcers are coming.” Deke was already heading for the door, barely pausing to let me ask James to save me some food. I was not missing out on whatever was cooking!
“Blake is going? What about Kade and the babies?” Roan was frowning in concern.
Deke probably expected the question. After Hiroshi and Tate, Kade was his biggest concern. “They are protected. We’ve put more elves on it. Basil has a demon, and we need to rescue him.”
Just hearing we were rescuing a demon had me rushing for the door. I was still angry over the enforcers and the treatment of the omegas. Hopefully, I could find something to take it out on, and find the demon, of course!
The Call
Dalton
For days, I’d been working on concepts for our partnership with the demon Larken and the others had saved. Toth, his name was. His mate had mentioned his special apples and the possibility of a partnership during the daring rescue and the failed attempt at capturing the witch, Basil, who had plagued both our pack and the Northarbor Coven with his illegal spells.
Dakota had a lot of business skill, though he fell down on the accounting side of things, which is where I came in. I worked over a few days, running the numbers, checking market trends with Dakota, until we had drawn up what we felt was a generous proposal.
Partnering with a demon was a risk the pack desperately needed to take, thanks to the continued harassment from the Northarbor aviary. They were doing everything they could to damage the pack’sstanding in the community, still disrupting deliveries, damaging stock. Now they were just being more covert about it. We knew it was them, we just didn’t have the proof we needed to get the council to act.
Not that the council was useful for anything. Like Axel, Blake, Dakota, even Deke, all believed the council was in on the aggressions from the aviary. Some of the aviary’s moves on us were just too spot on to be coincidental. Someone, likely a council member, was feeding them information directly from our pack.
