Page 4 of His Unicorn Alpha (Shifters Sanctuary #3)

“ T here he is!” Beck’s voice was loud and joyful, rising over the small crowd of people at Sioux City airport.

I dropped my bags, just gathered from the baggage carousel, and crouched with my arms extended as his two-year-olds barreled towards me on chubby toddler legs.

Even though I’d only met them in person a couple of times, I Facetimed with Sandy, Beck and the kids often enough that they recognized me on sight. My heart thumped as their solid little frames crashed into my sides, chipmunk voices excitedly greeting me as “Unca' Micah!” in unison.

Immediately, some of that awful buzzing under my skin seemed to fade. This felt right. Being here with my old friend felt right.

I straightened up, lifting Rory and Duke as I stood, and Beck grabbed my bags from the ground.

“How was your flight?” Beck asked, and I shrugged as best I could with two small shifters in my arms.

“It was fine. A little bumpy at the end there, but still uneventful.” I smirked at him, remembering how he got to Iowa. “Better than by dragon, I bet.”

“I don’t recommend flying by dragon if you can help it. Though, I will say, the legroom is usually better.”

I snorted. I was taller than him and, yeah, squeezing into cramped economy seats was a bitch. “I’ll stick with commercial for now.” After a beat, I added, “Thanks for coming to pick me up. I could have hired a car.”

“It’s fine. The monsters like going for long drives. Besides, I think Ollie was looking forward to us being out of his hair for a while. He and Eric had some sort of research-y breakthrough and I’m pretty sure he would bury himself in whatever books they unearthed if he had half a chance.”

The way he talked about his mate was fond and affectionate. He even rubbed at his chest, and a part of me panged with jealousy. As a beta, even if I did find someone to settle down with, I wouldn’t ever get to experience a full mating bond. That magic was reserved for alphas and omegas.

“Well, that answers my question about how he’s doing,” I laughed lightly as we continued our way towards the exit. “And how’s San?”

“Still flying in and out for work. We’re lucky that she’s able to work remotely most of the time, but they still like having her in the office for fuck knows what reason.”

Duke and Rory giggled, and Beck groaned. “Please don’t tell Papa.”

Looking very much like Beck, Rory practically smirked as she leaned across my chest to tell her father, “Bad word.”

“Yes, I said a bad word.”

“Buck.” That was Duke’s contribution.

“Thank god he can’t make the ‘ffff’ sound yet,” Beck muttered. Then, as we came up to the exit doors, he stopped and turned to me. “Potty before we get in the car.”

I blinked at him. “Uh…”

“Not you, them .” He pointed at his kids, both happily looking around the airport with all the wonder of being at a carnival. “Come on,” he reached for Duke, “potty time.”

“Aren’t they still a bit young for potty training?” I handed the now squirming kid over, and we both ignored his protests and determined ‘no’s.

Beck shrugged. “Ollie read something that said the average age is just over two. I don’t know. It’s a pain in the a—uh—butt,” he hastily censored himself as we walked together towards the bathrooms, “but Rory’s getting it. Duke’s…a little slower on the uptake. But I’ve got them both in pull-ups anyway. Still , if we don’t stay consistent… ”

I bit my lip against my amusement as Beck clearly parroted his mate’s words. “Sounds like you’re well-trained,” I teased.

“Do you want to shift and run from here back to the pack? Because that’s still an option.”

It was not an appealing one, so I bounced Rory on my hip. “So, potty time?”

He snorted and reached for Rory with his free hand. “I’ve got this. You should enjoy the wonders of not having kids.”

“Oh, yeah. All the wonders of standing outside an airport bathroom.” I rolled my eyes and kept Rory tucked into my side. “I don’t mind helping. Besides, two of them against one of you seems like unfair odds anyway.”

“Being outnumbered does sometimes suck,” he agreed as we strolled towards the bathrooms. “It is getting easier as they get older, though. Sometimes. Maybe. Well, until they run in opposite directions. And, no,” he gave me a pitiful look, “Ollie isn’t a fan of the whole ‘backpack with a leash’ idea. I don’t judge parents who use them, but Ollie has a thing about being a wolf on a leash…it doesn’t matter that these guys can’t shift yet. It’s a whole thing with him. I don’t argue.”

It was tempting to joke about him being well trained again, but I really did prefer to be driven to the pack, so I kept those thoughts inside that time.

Getting the kids to use the bathroom was a relatively painless affair, and they were excited to be ‘rewarded’ by using the automatic hand soap dispenser and hand dryers after they were done.

“At least they’re easily entertained,” I mused, and Beck chuckled, ruffling Duke’s light-brown hair.

“Yeah. They’re easy to please.”

“Most kids are.”

Beck eyed me curiously as we left the bathroom with my bags and the kids still in tow. “How do you know so much about kids anyway? I didn’t think you were a kid person. I wasn’t. Not before these guys came along, anyway.”

“I’ve actually always wanted kids,” I admitted easily. It was always easy talking to Beck or Sandy. They were my pack away from home, even if we no longer lived together. “I came from a large, supportive pack. Nothing like Ollie’s. We were one big happy hippy commune, mostly. So I was always surrounded by the pack kids, I guess.”

“So, why’d you leave?”

We exited the main building, and Beck led the way towards the parking lot while I considered my answer. While it was easy talking to him about some things, others remained too personal. “I love my family, but I didn’t really fit in. The small-town commune life wasn’t for me. I wanted to travel. I wanted to live somewhere big and eclectic.” I’d wanted to find people who could work around my less-than-impressive physical traits. Somewhere where I wouldn’t be seen as a disappointment as a beta. “I stumbled into makeup artistry and the rest his history, I guess.”

“And now? When you called, it sounded like you wanted to escape for a while. Not that Sandy and I aren’t thrilled to have you back with us, but…why not go back to your pack?”

My instincts revolted against the very idea, but I didn’t know how to explain it. I didn’t fully understand it myself. Why would I feel more drawn to staying with my friends instead of my family? It was a small-town existence either way. The only difference was my shifter side was telling me I’d be more at ease in Beck’s pack than in the one I’d grown up in.

“Honestly?” I found myself answering. “This is where my gut is telling me I need to be. I’ve wanted to be back here since your wedding.”

Beck raised his eyebrows. “Really?”

“Really. I can’t explain it, but…I guess you’ve got a good thing going here. Shifters of all shapes and sizes. Potential alphas. Dragons .” I paused. “Maybe that’s it. You and Sandy were my family away from family—shut up, that’s as sappy as I’m getting,” I rolled my eyes at the expression on his face; something between amusement and fondness. “But on top of that, your small-town pack is actually pretty exciting behind the scenes. However, I’d like to avoid any culty ambushes while I’m here. Think you can keep those at bay?”

The Moonmusic people had made two separate attacks on Beck’s pack since he and Ollie had moved there, but ever since Beck and the rest of his town council had reached out to neighboring towns, they’d made allies of the mixed lot of humans and shifters who lived nearby. In doing so, they’d taken a gamble by making their status as a shifter pack known, but the Moonmusic cult had seemingly backed off.

It didn’t hurt that Joe Morstein —their weasel shifter leader— was losing followers at what felt like a breakneck pace. More people were starting to realize that they didn’t have to pay his cult tithes, that his ‘religion’ did nothing for them, and that perhaps the ‘neo-shifters’, as Beck’s lot were being referred to, might have the right idea when it came to treating omegas as equals rather than minions.

After all, it was only ‘neo-shifters’ who had the fortune of discovering alphas again. Perhaps that said something about magic and fate favoring those who treated each other properly?

Of course, if that were true, why hadn’t any alphas appeared in packs like the one I had grown up in? They weren’t cult-ridden lunatics. They were hippies, yes, but they were all about equality and love.

Well.

Except for betas like me. But I hadn’t exactly helped myself to fit in with them, either. I’d resented my pack and I couldn’t wait to graduate high school and leave for greener pastures.

“We’ve got proper security measures in place now,” Beck was saying in response to my teasing, and it took me a moment to remember why we’d been discussing it at all. “You’ll be safe in Shifters’ Sanctuary, Micah.”

I nudged his shoulder with my own and grinned. “I know. I hear the pack has a pretty awesome alpha.”

And dragons.

I had no idea why I was so fixated on that part of the town, either. I mean, sure, what kid didn’t grow up loving the idea of the mythical creatures? They could fly and breathe fire, after all. And learning they weren’t as mythical as I’d thought was a trip, though I still hadn’t actually seen one with my own eyes.

I supposed that was why I was still so drawn to the idea of them. When I visited the town for Beck’s wedding, I was hoping to meet the four dragons that lived there, but two of them (Sage and Dexter) were travelling, researching magic of all things, and I kept just missing the older one, Brandt, any time someone came close to introducing me. I did get to meet Eric, the dragon who had also been Ollie’s boss in Manhattan, but he was unable to join the pack during the celebratory run as he had been designated as the on-call emergency doctor for the night.

But I was planning on staying for a couple of months at least this time. Surely I’d get to see a dragon during this visit.

My inner horse whinnied at the idea, practically prancing around in my soul.

I didn’t understand his excitement, but I couldn’t help but share in it.

“Oh, sorry, I need to make a quick stop before we get home,” Beck told me as we pulled off Main Street in the quaint little shifter town. We headed down the country road which I remembered led to the farm he and Ollie lived on, but he took an earlier driveway than the one I knew belonged to his house. “I need to grab Ollie’s meds from the clinic. Brandt said they’d be good to go today.”

“Meds?” I cocked my head to the side. “Is he sick? I wouldn’t have come if—”

“No,” Beck looked into the rearview mirror, and I looked over my shoulder, smiling at the two sleeping toddlers in their car seats. “We’re, uh, trialing Eric and Brandt’s omega birth control.”

I blinked. “Trialing?”

The truck rumbled over bumpy gravel, and some part of my soul sang as I looked out over stretches of green grass and copses of fruit trees. It would be magical to shift into my horse form and run through acres of fields. I didn’t get many opportunities like that in New York or LA.

“Yeah. We’re the first test subjects. There hasn’t really been a way to test whether they work for omegas because, y’know, there are only three known alphas in the world. But Brandt and Eric worked for over a year on the science. They even used the same principals as part of whatever it was they did to extract eggs from the omegas for their research.” He put the truck into park in front of the little cottage which had a new sign on the door declaring the space as the town’s 'Fertility and Birth Center'.

“Well, you are the Pack Alpha, too,” I reasoned. “It makes sense that you’re taking on the responsibility of testing their effectiveness. But, I have to admit, after a run of three of you alphas all appearing so quickly, I’m surprised there haven’t been more.”

“That we know of,” Beck unbuckled his seatbelt. “We’re actively trying to reach out to shifter communities overseas —Sage and Dexter are supposed to be helping with that while they’re traveling— but if new alphas are popping up in situations like me and Ollie faced, outside of known packs, well…who would know? Damon set up a few Facebook groups and stuff, but so far it’s mostly been trolls and pranksters joining.” He looked over his shoulder, then back at me. “Can you watch the kids? I won’t be long.”

Then he was out of the truck and trotting across the tiny gravel parking lot to the clinic’s front door.

When the door swung open, I inhaled sharply. The man standing just inside was magnetic . He was about my height, but broad and thickly built. I wouldn’t describe him as muscular, though his biceps did look impressive. He had a bit of a tummy, but I had a thing for cuddly men. Then there was his gray-speckled goatee and the long, thick, silver-streaked dark hair on his head.

Then we locked eyes, and I swallowed thickly, my heart suddenly going wild.

His eyes widened, though, and I swear he looked almost… panicked?

With my hand on the handle to open the passenger door and climb out of the truck, I watched as the man said something hastily to Beck, shoved a little package into his hands, and then shut the door in his face without another glance my way.

I sat there, stunned as my shifter side brayed and hoofed at the ground, wanting me to charge into the clinic and after that man.

What the fuck was that about?