Page 66 of Dream Mates (Into The Parallel Omegaverse #2)

Chapter Forty-Three

Wes

I ended Spencer’s call and took Brennan’s. “Bren?”

“Hey, Evan’s staying at work because he can monitor things better there, but the rest of us should all centralize someplace,” he told me. “Home or my office?”

“Spencer’s having me hack the government. Where do you want me to be?” I set my status to away and shot my team an email that Spencer was pulling me for an off-site project.

“Hmmm. Here. I’d rather my office be raided than home. I’ll see you there.”

I caught up on the group chat and sent Grace some reassuring words. I texted Riley.

Me

Is anyone getting you?

Riley

Why?

Me

Wanna hack the government with me?

Riley

Instead of a literature test? Please?

What’s going on?

Me

Grace has been taken by the Office of Designation Management. I’ll tell you more when I get you.

Riley

Fucking shit.

I’m in class so you have to go to the office and ask for me. I can’t just leave and get in your car.

Yeah, I knew how school worked.

Me

See you soon.

I detached my laptop from my work setup, and put it in my bag, along with a few other things. Locking my office, I left.

Grace’s panic was hard to tamp down but that also meant she was alive. Fuck. The Office of Designation Management had my mate. Part of me wanted to drive to the airport and fly to her. But Spencer had a point.

I got Riley from school, and we stopped at the dorms for her to get her other laptop, then drove to Brennan’s office.

“I’m so happy to get out of the test, but were you supposed to get me?” Riley texted someone.

“Bren said to centralize. Spencer said to hack the government.” I shrugged. Riley was pack and could help me.

I was going to need all the help I could get.

“You know, we could do this faster.” Riley threw a rubber band at me.

“Let’s not get arrested.” Right now, I was trying to figure out what was going on. Riley was trying to unlock Grace’s mom’s record in the genscan Brennan had gotten on her.

Which was fucking weird. I knew all about Grace’s mom.

“Please don’t get arrested,” Brennan sighed. He’d been on the phone a lot with the pack lawyers.

I looked at what I’d found so far. Mind blown.

Brennan’s phone rang. He grimaced. “Do I even?”

Jett shrugged. “Would you rather her show up?”

“She’s banned.” He sighed again. “What do you want, Mother?”

Just what we needed. I kept working, Brennan’s scent going sour.

“Mother, I don’t want to hear it. What you and Ian are doing is not okay,” he snapped.

“No. Give me access to everything now, and I’ll drop it.

” He grunted. “Yeah, I know you tied everything up. I’ll take the building.

Might be better than the press you’ll get if I have to force a sale.

They’re already pretty upset about you cutting the scholarships. ”

I kept digging, Brennan kept snapping at his mother.

Okay, who had this number that called in the tip? My fingers danced across the screen? Oh.

“Do you even hear yourself? I’m an adult and I’m allowed to do all these things. Why don’t you go bully someone who cares.” Brennan ended the call. “Fuck me.”

“Eww. Not here.” Riley made a face. “Sweet baby cheeses, I’m trying to unlock a file, you know.”

Jett shook his head. “Not sure how I feel about this.”

“I’m the best, fucker.” She rolled her eyes.

“Good job for standing up to your mom, Bren.” I looked at Jett. “Do you have the background checks on the Thornes yet, Jett?”

“So far I have ones for Creed, Verity, and Hale, who are the adult children in the house, as well as Nate and Harry. Still waiting on the others. Want me to send them?” Jett asked.

“Yeah. I need the one for the alpha that hurt her, ASAP.” I kept working.

“Why?” Jett asked. “What did you find?”

My phone rang. Spencer. I answered. “Spence, you’re on speaker.”

“Hey, I’m there. They won’t let me sit inside, but they know that I’m here. I talked to the judge, and he’s resisting giving them the court order to unseal the record until we give the go ahead. How are you doing?” Spencer asked.

“The tip was called in anonymously. They cited duplicate records, that Grace Ellington was someone called Grace Silvers, and they thought she might be the child of a fugitive. This Grace only has the barest record, like infant medical records without the genetic registration, like the hospital would make when a child is born. The mother in Grace Silver’s file is locked, the father is Nathaniel Thorne.

The genscan attached itself to that record.

Her birthday is exact except for the year,” I told him.

He sucked in a breath. “Yes, because Evan had her birthdate changed to make her a year older.”

“Yes. Grace Silvers’ record is tagged as a misfiled child, cited as a possible duplicate of someone named Cassidy Silvers,” I said.

“Whose mother’s record is also locked, father unknown, who has the same birthdate and also the barest of baby records.

Though she is marked as a homebirth where Grace has a hospital listed. ”

Cassidy was Grace’s middle name. This was weird.

“Misfiled child? That could mean a number of things. Who’s Cassidy?" Spencer asked.

Jett was on his phone, probably seeing what his contacts had.

“Don’t know. I managed to figure out what phone number the tip came from and traced it to Adriana Thorne,” I added. “We don’t have her background check yet.”

“Shit. Why? Why was she so convinced this wasn’t Nate’s Grace?” Spencer said.

“That’s the alpha that fucking grabbed her, right?” Riley asked.

“Yes,” Spencer replied. “Thank you. Good work I’ll call back when I have more info.” He ended the call.

“Wait, so one of the alphas of Grace’s bio-dad called in a tip, not my mother?” Brennan frowned. “We’re fucking missing something.”

“This entire thing is so strange,” Jett agreed.

According to the background checks Jett got on the Thorne family, the kids were all fine, other than Hale looking like a chaotic mess. Nate and Harry were also upstanding people.

I texted Evan, not liking that he wasn’t here with us, but understanding what a resource he was.

Me

Are you doing okay?

Evan

I’m still feeling her a lot. The person the local Center is sending her will be there soon. I’m okay here for now.

Me

The moment you need to leave, leave. We’re still at Bren’s office. Can I call?

Evan

Give me a second to hide in the closet.

Which was where they took personal phone calls.

I called him. “Hey, Babe.”

“Hey. So, what’s up?”

I told him everything we’d found so far.

“Shit. So, I sat down and really poked at Nate’s record with the Center–at least the parts I have access to.

Around the time Grace would have been a baby, Nate filed for an un-bonding but rescinded it.

There’s a note that it was rescinded for the right reasons, but his file was tagged as vulnerable omega , and he was monitored very closely, with mandatory pack counseling for years.

Then, he met with his advocate until he retired, just a few years ago.

This means something big happened in his pack, early on,” Evan told me.

“Wow.”

Nate had filed for an un-bonding? What had happened there?

“Wes, I need your help,” Riley called.

“I’ve got to go. We’ll keep you up to date. Love you.” I ended the call and sent lots of love through the bond to both of them.

I went over to Riley. “Okay, let’s do this.”

We were running out of time, and I still didn’t have a fucking clue what was going on other than some fucker had intentionally put my Grace in danger.