Page 51 of His Temporary Alpha Mate
Chase laughed. “I’ve been here at least half an hour. You’re slipping!”
“Fuck off,” Deke snapped with little heat. “Why are you here again?”
“Because Axel and T are making kissy faces at each other. It’s disgusting.”
“Make them go somewhere else.” He waved Chase off. “You can’t just come over here and bug me while I’m trying to get your supply run organized.”
Deke was looking frazzled. His normally neat hair was in disarray. He’d cut it again, irritated at having to tie it back all the time. I was pretty sure he was wearing clothes from the day before, because the coffee stain on his shirt was in the same place as yesterday’s one.
“You okay?” Chase peeled himself off the wall and wrapped his arms around Deke’s shoulders from behind him. He rested his head on top of Deke’s in an affectionate gesture. It was reminiscent of two wolves giving each other comfort. Only Chase could get away with something like that with the standoffish alpha.
Over the last few weeks, I’d noticed a change in Deke. The alpha wasn’t the most social of people to start with, very much a lone wolf. Still, it was still noticeable when he pulled away from the pack and his friends. He was spending less time with his family, though maybe they didn’t notice like I did, since they were busy with their mates.
Though, given Chase’s appearance in Deke’s office, some of his family had noticed. There were dozens of places Chase could escape his twin and his mate. I would have thought Deke would have been lower on the list after Blake, Kade, and the pups.
“Stressed out. The attacks are… look, it’s hard for me to find routes through the city to where we collect our order.” He rubbed at his face, showing his growingagitation. “We need the supplies. In this load there’re medicines, food, clothing, and equipment.”
Northarbor’s strategic campaign against us was so difficult to manage we’d had to stop getting post delivered to the compound. We had to go to Sweetwater to collect it. If the pack wanted to order anything online, they had to wait for someone to get it from the depot in Sweetwater. Even that was dangerous. The birds could fly high enough you couldn’t tell the difference until one was dropping out of the sky and shifting. They were vicious. Relentless. All because we had different ideals from them. We weren’t stopping them from being backwards.
“Okay, but is there no one else who could go? Dalton will freak if Larken is outside of the compound. He’s due to go into heat any day now.”
Why was Chase being the voice of reason?
I knew there weren’t many free enforcers who could go. This job required someone who could drive the truck and also be someone Deke could trust. I was both.
“The last couple of runs have been fine. Dalton won’t mind,” I said, adding my opinion to the conversation before things got heated between the pair.
Deke looked skeptical. “You sure?”
“Yeah. I’m feeling a little suffocated in the compound. It’ll be great.”
Chase snorted. “Your funeral.”
***
It was my fault. I jinxed the run. Why was I always doing that?
Everything was going fine. We’d gotten to the warehouse and swapped the vehicles out rather than unload one to load another up. Having two different trucks would confuse anyone following us.
We didn’t factor in their knowledge of the warehouse’s whereabouts. Now it lay in ruins and we were speeding along roads, hoping to get to civilization before the truck following us caught up.
Just a couple of miles down the curving road was safety, the outer limits of Northarbor.
On one side of the road, we had a high cliff face. On the other, trees and a steep drop. We had to make it to the city.
“Make the call!” I yelled, as I yanked at the steering wheel. Where was our backup? There was supposed to be a car following us, being our guard. They’d never appeared behind us. We needed help.
The truck whined as I pushed it harder, almost going on two wheels as I took a sharp turn. I was grateful for the additional driving courses I’d taken.
My gut clenched with fear. I couldn’t do this to Dalton. This mission was supposed to be easy. I needed to get home so he could be mad at me.
If my companions said anything, I missed it as we sped towards Northarbor. We were nearly there!
Suddenly, there was the squealing sound of metal on metal as the truck behind us hit our bumper. It rocketed us forward.
Just recovered from the last bend, we fishtailed and spun. I followed my training and went with it until our momentum slowed. I tried to right the truck as the aviary struck again.
“Portal!”
