Page 21 of Found (Mate Rejected #8)

21

AERIN

S unlight is warming my face and the sound of several voices wakes me.

When I peel my eyes open, I’m sleeping on the couch, a blanket covering me, and a pillow that someone must have gotten from upstairs under my head.

Penny is sitting in Colton’s lap in an armchair and they’re quietly talking to each other. Or they were because, as I struggle to sit up, they twist to face me.

“How’d you sleep?” Penny springs to her feet with a grace I’m immediately envious of. With three months still to go until I give birth, I feel like I’ve been pregnant forever already.

“I don’t know. It felt like I just passed out,” I mutter as she helps me sit up.

She smiles at me. “Yeah, you nearly fell asleep in your omelet.”

I raise my eyebrow.

She laughs. “I’m only half-joking. We were going to carry you up, but the stairs in this house are pretty steep. It’s not something you want to discover coming down them while still half asleep the next morning. Ask Colton. He nearly fell down them the other day.”

I look at Colton, who smiles wryly at me. “They are steep. We’ve all eaten breakfast, but Ivy said she can make something for you.”

I glance at the open doorway, toward the kitchen. “What’s up with all the raised voices?”

Penny sinks onto the couch beside me as Colton gets up and crosses the room to open the curtains to reveal it has to be near mid-morning or even afternoon.

“Not long after you fell asleep, we agreed we needed more help,” she says.

“Clary called his pack in new Mexico,” I remember. “Did they arrive?”

Colton shakes his head as he sits on the edge of the armchair. “Not yet, but they’re on their way. I mean other help. Your dad was calling every Alpha he knew, especially the ones who had their omegas kidnapped by the Raleighs.”

I sit up in my seat, excited. “And?”

“Half the Alphas refused to commit, and the others thought it was a trap and that Douglas was behind it all,” Colton says.

“That’s ridiculous. Why would they think my dad was behind it?” I frown.

Penny shrugs. “You left, and they figured that since the Boones no longer had an omega, he might have wanted to replace you.”

I stare at her. “They can’t honestly think that, can they?”

“They did,” my dad says from the doorway.

For the first time that I can remember, he looks exhausted.

“So what happens now?” I ask. “Mack is back there, and he’s going to need help getting out of there. And so will the omegas.”

“My pack is on their way,” Clary says, stepping into the room and giving me a small smile. “I don’t know if it’s going to be enough, but its ten more people than we had before. They should be here by tonight.”

“And then?” I prompt.

No one responds.

I start to get worried. We’re up against a lot of Raleighs. A whole house full of them, and Mack is in that house alone.

“We can’t leave Mack there. And we have to rescue the stolen omegas,” I say, my voice rising.

“No one is going to leave them there, Aerin,” my dad says. “Mack doesn’t strike me as a stupid man.”

I blink at him. “What’s that got to do with anything?”

He gives me a look that could almost be amused. “I’m sure he will be busy creating an opportunity for us to exploit. We just have to be ready for it.”

“But that likely won’t be until later.” Ivy steps into the room.

“And by then, my pack will be here to help,” Clary says.

I nod, hoping that it’s going to be enough, but worried that it won’t be.

We’ve spent hours pretty much counting down time.

No Alphas have arrived to help rescue the omegas, but we have received news that Clary’s pack is in Michigan and on their way to the house.

At nearly 9, after a hastily thrown together meal, I go looking for my dad in the backyard to find out why he’s here in Michigan when he has a pack to run in Minnesota.

I find him sitting on a bench next to the back door, staring into the deep purplish-blue late evening sky.

“You don’t do a lot of resting for a heavily pregnant woman,” he says mildly.

“Is that another way of telling me to sit down?”

He points at the bench without looking at me.

I take the seat he offers without complaint. He’s made his point less politely than that before, so I decide not to argue. “I thought you were getting more mellow in your old age.”

“Perhaps,” he says evasively.

The air is cool and refreshing. Exactly what I needed after being cooped up inside for hours. I think that feeling of being trapped is counting down the hours, knowing Mack is in a place where it’s not safe, and that Franklin could kill him like he killed Shane if we don’t get him out soon.

So even though I’ve done a lot of pacing, I have still felt trapped. I don’t think that feeling will truly go away until Mack is with me, and I’m back in his arms again.

“I loved her.”

I turn to look at Dad, immediately knowing who he must mean. “Mom?”

He nods. “It was important that I tell you that.”

My eyes narrow. “You are getting mellow in your old age, aren’t you?”

I’d only been half-joking about it before, but maybe he wasn’t joking when he said, ‘perhaps.’

He looks at me, and even though there’s not a hint of a smile playing on his lips, I get the sense he’s hiding his amusement from me. “I say that so you will understand why Mack did what he did.”

I’m not sure I like the direction of this conversation.

“Mom died. I love her and I miss her, but Mack isn’t dead, and he’s not going to die. I’m getting him back.”

His eyes flick to my belly and I place a hand over it. “You’re pregnant.”

“But I’m not dead.”

“And your powers are not working, Ivy said.”

“I’m getting Mack back, Dad, no matter what. I’m not leaving him here.”

He nods then resumes peering into the distance.

It’s quiet here in Karson, Michigan. Not as quiet as Winter Lake, because there’s a faint rumbling of sound that might be from a railway.

“There are times when you have to accept that something matters more, Aerin.”

I frown. “I don’t understand. Is this is about me staying at the house while you go rescue Mack and the omegas?”

“Being Alpha means you come to a point, at least once in your life, that you accept you don’t know everything, and that you can’t do everything on your own.”

It takes me a second, but then I get it.

“You’re going in to get Mack and you want me to stay behind, aren’t you?”

“I’ve stepped down.”

I blink at him in surprise. “Stepped down from what?”

“The Boones. I’m no longer the Alpha.”

As I stare at him, I’m not sure if I fell asleep on the couch and don’t remember it because what he just admitted to doesn’t make sense.

“But you’re Douglas Boone.”

The dry half-smile he points down at me is unfamiliar. Mainly because I’m not used to my dad smiling at all. He was always serious, and he was, I thought, always going to be Alpha.

I envisioned him as an old, old man, still leading until he went to bed and didn’t wake up. Because in my life, that’s all he’s ever been. Or that’s all I’ve ever known him as.

“There also comes a point in a person’s life when they look around and realize that the people who they thought needed them don’t need them quite so much as they want them to.”

“The Boones?”

“My daughter,” he softly corrects me.

I struggle to believe what I’m hearing. “So you stepped aside?”

“The Boones have a new Alpha. They will be fine.” He nods firmly. “I thought I knew everything about the world, but it turns out that it’s possible to learn something from my daughter.”

When he gets up, I watch him turn to go inside, still struggling to comprehend that he would give up leadership of the pack just like that.

“What did you learn from me?” I call after him.

“That there’s more to life than leading. That I don’t want to be an old man with just a reputation for being a good leader.”

He walks inside and I remain sitting outside, staring at the sky.

I wince when Thumper kicks me. The kick is another reminder of why I can’t shift and charge into the Raleigh home and save Mack.

He took my place in there so he could be in the perfect position to help us when we attack and save the omegas.

Slowly, I get to my feet and make my way inside, more tired now than I was before I sat down.

Inside, everyone has once again made the dining room the war room. They’re all crowded around the table with a big piece of paper at the center. As I approach, Helena gets up from her seat and offers me her chair.

I’m refusing it when Bennett pulls Helena into her lap and he nods at me. “Take the chair.”

Smiling gratefully, I sink into it and realize they were paying attention to every single word I told them about the Raleigh property.

They have sketched out the buildings in detail and even noted where they believe the omegas are. And more importantly, they have drawn crosses. Since one cross marks the driveway to the house, I assume the other crosses mark other possible entrances and exits.

Clary’s phone vibrates. He picks it up from the table and, grinning, gets to his feet. “My pack is here.”

Outside, we hear the approach of a car engine.

It sounds like there are two or maybe three vehicles. Which makes sense. He said he had ten members in his pack.

“I’ll go get them,” Clary says, headed for the front door.

“And I’ll go with him,” my dad adds. “Just to make sure it truly is them.”

They’ve walked outside when I hear the approach of more vehicles.

“Uh, why does it suddenly sound like there’s a whole heap of traffic out there?” I ask, twisting to look at the front door.

“Good question.” Bennett helps Helena to her feet.

“How about we check it out?” Helena suggests.

“Let’s do that,” Connall adds, following them out.