Page 21 of Lone Wolf
I didn’t find it funny. If all he wanted to do at this point was bite me, I’d take it and count myself blessed.
Da showed my mom into a chair in front of the desk, then got one for me from the corner and took the one that was already there for himself.
The Alpha folded his hands together on top of the desk and looked at all three of us. “So, we have a problem. Is it that bad a problem? It wouldn’t be the first time someone got pregnant accidentally.”
“We don’t know who the sire is,” Da said quietly. “He was a client. We think.”
The Alpha sat back in astonishment and squinted at me. “That’s not possible.”
Ma held out a hand and I put the ultrasound picture in it. She set it carefully on the polished wood of the desk and pushed it across until it sat right in front of him. “I’ve never known Salem to be untruthful. If anything, he leans too much the other way,” Ma said, and there was something in her tone…
The Alpha smiled and sent her and Da a look that implied a story I wasn’t aware of. “Yes, I remember that about him.” He picked up the picture and stared at it for a moment, then handed it back to my mother. “Salem, it’s okay if you got carried away with one of the alphas here in the enclave. It’s also okay if you don’t want to mate him—I won’t force that on anyone, but especially on an omega, given how vulnerable a mating makes them.”
I watched him numbly, trying to wrap my mind around what he was implying. Did he think I’d been careless and was now embarrassed that an alpha had caught me in heat? A little flame of anger suddenly blew into being inside me and I fanned it desperately for the sake of the strength it could give, even if it was only for the few minutes we’d be in this office. “I didn’t let myself get caught unaware. I was escorted to and from work as we’re supposed to be, I never left the third floor while I was on shift. I don’t know how this happened!” My voice broke a little on the last sentence and I had to take a breath and look away before I started to angry-cry in front of them.
“Salem is just about the youngest of our front of house workers to be raised to the blue level. He does hold himself to a high standard,” Ma said. I wondered if the Alpha caught the tension in her words and I knew she was thinking of the same thing as I was—shifting for David hadn’t been professional at all.
“And you’re really convinced this was a client? How did a shifter get past our doors during November?”
“I don’t know,” Ma admitted. “The best explanation we can come up with is that he took something that changed his scent. Salem remembers thinking he smelled an alpha up there occasionally, but nothing certain enough that it couldn’t be shrugged off as a problem with the air system, or just his imagination.”
Da broke in. “No one else smelled a strange alpha, but Jacinta was working reception and she’s in pup, so she probably wouldn’t have noticed if there was a hint of alpha around.”
“We’ve narrowed the likely suspects down to three,” Ma said, and took out her tablet. “Of the three, the most likely one is this David Walker, because it was around him that Salem said he thought he smelled a strange alpha.”
The Alpha took the tablet, then looked up as his office door opened. “Hello, love,” he said, and his entire appearance changed. The edges of his expression softened and his body language relaxed. And then I remembered that his mate was an omega.
Why did he ask her to come?
She held out her hand to me. “Salem, why don’t we go for a walk and you and I can talk about this, omega to omega?”
I glanced at Ma and Da. They nodded at me and Ma patted my thigh. “It’s okay. We’ll figure this out.” I could smell that she was still a little angry with me, or maybe just with the situation, but it had faded and now worry and heartbreak were the top notes in the scents that drifted around my parents. I nodded and got obediently to my feet and kissed them both on the cheek.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered and then left with the Alpha’s Mate before I could break down in front of them. I’d caused enough chaos in their lives today, they didn’t need guilt on top of it. And if I was old enough to work the houses, old enough to choose this life, then I was also old enough to accept the consequences.
It had been a good run, while it lasted. I hoped I’d find some way back onto the path before the end.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Verena looped her arm through mine and led me out of the Alpha’s office, down a short hallway—not the public one, but one I soon realized connected to their apartment in the municipal building.
“Would you like something to drink?” she asked me as she led me through the door. “Juice, maybe? If you’ve got a pup coming, you’ll have to pay attention to your nutrition even more than ever.”
Lysoonka, did everyone know? “Thank you, I’m fine.” She looked doubtful, so I gave a polite grimace and added, “I don’t know if I could keep it down right now anyway.” It wasn’t entirely a lie—my stomach was churning like a washing machine.
“Then let’s go down to my sitting room and make ourselves comfortable.” She led me around a corner and down another hallway. We passed their formal living room, then another room I thought might have been the Alpha’s den, then another large room that was probably just for family. All the rooms had walls made entirely of glass, just like the Alpha’s office. The family room was at the corner of the building, so it had two. That was really all I took in about the place, though I could tell it was a step or three above even my parents’ apartment, and we weren’t particularly poor as packmembers went.
The room she led me to was small, but cozy and cool. Slatted blinds kept the sun out, and plump, comfortable-looking chairs invited me to curl up in them and relax. A long table ran down one wall and a set of shelves covered another. I peeked a little, trying not to look like I was prying. Mounds of cloth in all different colors filled the shelves. I saw faux fur and little plastic eyes, and stacks of thread, and bunch of other things I couldn’t identify before I was ushered into a seat near one of the windows.
“Now,” she said as she made herself comfortable on a chair beside me. “The bathroom is just across the hall, in case you start to feel unwell. This can be an unsettled time for your digestion. I know I spent an entire month with each of my pups planning how I could be no more than twenty feet from a bathroom at all times.” She smiled warmly at me, as if we shared a secret now and that made everything all right.
It didn’t. She was Alpha’s Mate and there was always more to them than met the eye. My mother had told me that when I was younger, wondering why an Alpha would mate an omega. I could see it in her now, how perfectly inoffensive she was, so kind and sweet you’d feel terrible if you lied to her or didn’t do the one little teensy thing she’d really appreciate it if you did.
At the same time, she was omega. She’d had five pups with an alpha. More than my own alpha mother, Verena knew what I was going through, what I could expect. Maybe even what I should, or could, do.
“I really don’t know who it was,” I started with, getting right to the throat of the matter. “I followed all the rules—I didn’t want to end my career this soon. I had plans. I wanted an apartment and to be able to pick my own mate when I was ready. The traditional path was never my future.”
Ma had raised me to be independent and I’d spent my entire life being told I didn’t have to let omega define me, but that it could be a wonderful thing when I was ready to embrace it. I was glad I’d been born in Nevada Ashes—in other packs, I was told, omegas mated early, sometimes even before they were legal adults, and that was their life and their only choice. Sure, some of us here took that route. But we also had the option of the houses, and the credits and freedom and power that gave an omega. I couldn’t imagine another life.
