Page 4

Unsettled

Deke

S omething in me changed the day the permanent portal between our world and Abrocaelum was established. As Head Enforcer, I was there watching the elves do their spell work, ensuring there were no costly mistakes, even if I was useless with magic. It was still cool as fuck to watch.

One of my biggest secrets I’d kept in my nearly thirty years on the planet was my ability to sense magic. As abilities went, it was pretty useless, like really fucking useless. Not at all like Hiroshi’s healing or my cousin Chase’s way of telling the truth from lies. Hell, even Blake’s strange fighting skill would have been better. He could sense where an attack was coming from which would have been handy in my job. Being able to track punches would have saved me a few hits.

No, all I could do was sense magic and the people who used it. A completely shit ability. So imagine my surprise when the portal opened, became fixed in place, and I had to work to stay on my feet. The sheer power coming off it, those around it, and the people on the other side, was so overwhelming I struggled to keep my awe off my face. I was sure one of the elves heard my whispered, “fuck!”

While the feeling finally settled, only becoming a buzz when I was stationed near it, there was an itch under my skin, a tug on my heart I couldn’t explain. It was fucking weird. Whenever I could, I avoided being near it.

The portal had been open for nearly two years, but still the feeling nagged at me. Never leaving me alone, pulling me out of sleep some days. I kept it a secret, though, even when I hated it. The situation made me feel abnormal and the pack was going through enough without me worrying my cousins. All of them, even Chase, had too much on their plates to deal with my shit too.

Over the time the elves had been with us, our betas had come out of the sickness, Kade and Blake had their triplets, including a female alpha, the first in hundreds of years. More babies were born. Then Tate and Asher changed designations, no longer betas, they both became something else. More than that, Tate got pregnant!

I thought the shocks were done when Hiroshi figured out the reason for the beta sickness, but no, our goddess was not done. I’d have bet money that it was all down to Blake. She’d been absent when I was in charge.

My father had been wrong to abandon the pack. He’d been too lost in grief for his sister, my cousin’s mother, to do what was necessary to get the pack back in the black and thriving. I’d failed, too, when I’d tried. There had been so much to do, and I’d just not been the leader they wanted.

Blake was the Alpha of the Sweetwater pack, the one everyone loved even before he came of age to ascend to leadership at twenty-one. Seeing him find his fated mate, become a dad to the first alpha female in centuries, really told me how special my cousin was. He had done things I thought were impossible.

It was my job to make up for my failures as Alpha by making sure Blake had all the support he needed as he healed the pack from his own father’s leadership.

Through him we had more alphas and omegas than ever because The Luna had gifted us the chance at change for the betas. We had more alliances with our friends, the witches in the Northarbor coven, the Northarbor pride of shifters, and now Greenbriar, another pack hours from us was connected by a portal. We even had demons working in partnership with us!

Thanks to Blake’s solid leadership, we had more young than any other pack I knew of. We were the envy of the shifter world with our regular contact with our goddess. It gave us enemies, though. So many damn enemies. They were everywhere, at least that’s what it felt like.

The Northarbor aviary was our closest and most pressing issue. They were constantly trying to get to our people, to steal the alpha females even though they were just babies. Fucking savages. None of them deserved their animal form. They had the council against us, bunch of alphahole bastards. Both were a constant headache for me. It was a daily job keeping the pack safe from them.

Being Head Enforcer was a great sign of trust from Blake considering I’d been the one in his role for a year before he came of age. I’d been relieved to step aside, but I knew plenty of Alphas who would have been hesitant to put me in such a close working job. His trust in me was absolute, as was mine in him. My cousin was the best of men, and his mate, Kade, was special to me.

Being their family was enough for me, even if it made me wish for something more. For the last couple of years, since Kade had joined the pack, really, I’d noticed a hole in my life. I wanted what they had. A mate of my own.

Seeing all the couples, or throuples, forming in the pack made me realize how lonely I was. The pull I felt towards the portal nagged at me harder as time went on. It was so fucking distracting I could barely focus on what I needed to do. Dangerous, considering how badly the aviary was coming for us. They’d even gotten the mayor onside. He was a shit-head with a face I wanted to punch.

“Deke?” Chase wrapped his arms around me from behind, startling me. How long had he been lurking like a weirdo?

One of the twins and Blake’s older brother, Chase, was the only one of them unmated. Just the way he liked it. I knew he could feel something was off from me. I worked really hard to hide just how much I wanted to ignore everything in the pack and launch myself through that damn portal to Abrocaelum.

I gave a grunt in response.

“Is everything ready for going to register Dally’s babies?”

Once I would have considered Dalton and Axel to be closer friends than Dalton and Chase were. Since finding out his true omega nature, Axel had pulled away from his friend, making Chase fill that void for Dalton. Axel was also so in love with his husband, Teárlach, prince of the elves, that he had little time for anyone else. Not that I blamed him, he was building a family, like Dalton was now doing with Larken.

“Yeah. I’ve got plan a, b, and c ready to go, with backups for our backup. All the exits are covered.” I sighed and covered my face with my hands, exhaustion clawing at me. Our appointment was in a few hours. I’d have to nap, but sleep often eluded me these days. I was so fucking tired.

“I hate this,” I muttered.

Chase squeezed me tighter. “Me too.” He pulled away and stroked my hair. “Wanna shift and get some sleep? I could do with some wolf time.”

Yeah, I knew he was doing it for my benefit since he could feel my exhaustion, I just didn’t care. My wolf needed out as much as I needed sleep. Dalton said he slept better in raccoon form while pregnant. Maybe it would work for me, not that I was carrying a baby. I couldn’t. I was an alpha without a mate, no babies were in my future. Probably for the best, I’d be a shit dad, like my own. Rest in peace, asshole.

I’d never told my cousins their uncle was gone. After Blake became Alpha, Dad just sort of gave up on living. He had always blamed himself for his sister’s death at the hands of her mate. Having left the area when I took over as Alpha, I wasn’t with him when he passed. Instead, the council sent me a letter announcing his death. As harsh as it sounded, he’d died to me the day he walked away from the pack. He’d abandoned us. Me. I couldn’t forgive him for that.

Shaking myself out of the moody ass spiral I was heading down, I nodded. “Sure.”

There was a pallet in the corner of my office that was perfect for taking a nap on while in shifted form. We stripped out of our clothes quickly, both used to seeing each other naked. Chase was my family, far closer than a mere cousin, I felt like another brother.

His wolf was more charcoal than black like his twin and baby brother. He had patches of white like my wolf. Side by side, our wolves looked like brothers, our alters fought like brothers, too. It was soothing to my wolf to have Chase next to me. My alter gave a pleased rumble. If I couldn’t have what was waiting for me at the other side of the portal, family would do.

Come on , Chase urged, padding towards the corner. We can get a couple of hours of sleep .

What about everything—

They know we’re resting up. They’ll deal with it all.

Sleep had never come so easily to me as it did then.

Chase was staying behind, ready at the spot we’d picked out for an emergency portal. He would have a team ready to fight if shit hit the fan, which was the most likely outcome of this lunacy.

Who knows what the fuck the mayor thought he was doing by making us register the babies in person, especially with the Sweetwater office closed. Going into Northarbor with the aviary gunning for blood was ridiculous. All my alpha instincts told me this was a trap, yet there was fuck all I could do about it.

Larken was in full on alpha mode, guarding his pups as he shielded Dalton. Constantly checking on the guards, assessing they had the kids in hand, he didn’t stop moving. We had the couple, the nanny, Ingal, Melody, one of my best fighters in human form. The woman was lethal.

Hakeem was an unknown quantity to me. Sure, I’d seen the massive elf spar, but fighting shifters and potentially witches was something different.

Farryn was a badass. I knew she’d have my back, which is why I’d insisted we take her over Chase. Plus she could do the portals like nobody’s business. I’d thought about asking her to take me around Abrocaelum more than once to find the source of the magic that was constantly pulling at me.

The appointment went well with the babies all behaving. They were super cute, taking features from each of their parents. Except I couldn’t relax, a rising sense of dread tightening my gut. Something was wrong.

When the registrar admitted people were coming, we got the hell out of there. Too late. Far too fucking late.

The attack was swift and brutal. My people did their jobs exactly as trained, focusing on getting the babies out of there. We had to run to get out of the way of the portal blocker. My heart was in my throat as I ran behind Dalton and his precious cargo. My only thought was getting my friends and the babies to safety.

When the portal went up thanks to Farryn’s quick work, I could finally breathe again. Right as planned.

The tiger attacked just as they went through, all of them safe, just me, Hakeem, and Melody holding our own until help came.

Larken, against orders, came back for me when the portal reopened, bringing a mix of elves and shifters to fight with us. As the only other shifter with a mate and a baby to think of, Hakeem fled back to Sweetwater, sending our backup in. I’d never been as grateful for Larken’s loyalty and friendship as I was when I faced down that tiger. Fucking Jared just wouldn’t let it go. Hiroshi had mates, babies, a life free of the tiger shifter. Jared had backed the losing side by working with the aviary.

We swiped and snapped at each other. Jared took more hits than he gave, but he was powerful, fast. I’d been running on too little sleep, it was catching up to me. The nap had helped, but wasn’t enough.

With Melody providing a distraction, I managed to leap onto Jared, getting my teeth around his throat. I held on, trying to tear him open to end the fight faster. The bastard had to die for what he’d done to Hiroshi.

Jared tripped and rolled, pinning me under him.

His weight was suffocating as he crushed me into the sidewalk. I felt bones creak and snap under the pressure. I lost my hold on his throat and yelped.

It only could have been for less than a minute, but I couldn’t move. No part of my body would respond.

I was so fucked.

Jared snapped at my leg, adding more pain to my agony. I wanted to scream, just couldn’t.

Blackness drew in around me. I struggled to stay awake.

For a long while, all I knew was pain while the fight ended around me. Jared was dead. One enemy gone at least.

The pain was immense. I wanted to stay in the darkness, to give up. My alter urged me to stay.

Mate , he told me. He’s waiting.

He?

My wolf was so sure. All I could do was trust in him and hold on for the omega of my future.

I was carried through the portal where the healers got to work straight away. With their magic I was quickly stabilized and the pain vanished. Magical pain relief was the good shit.

The few hours after the attack were a blur of more healing. Aldrin insisted I would be in the clinic for a while since the crushing injuries would take some time to heal.

Things seemed to be okay, so why was I filled with dread?

All I remembered was joking about being godfather before Aldrin made me sleep. Then there was the brief memory of friends and family coming in to see me, telling me how grateful they were that I’d made it.

Machines started to beep. Hiroshi rushed in, checked me over before injecting me with something. I couldn’t hear what he was saying, but his panic was clear. This was really fucking bad if he looked like that.

Remember, hold on , my wolf told me before I was sucked into the darkness.