Page 16 of Lost Wolf (Exiled Omegas #2)

Sixteen

Ollie

No matter how much I slept yesterday and last night, my body is still exhausted. Not surprising given the circumstances, but also a little frustrating since we’ve been driving less than ten minutes and I’m already struggling to keep my eyes open.

As the world outside shifts from rolling hills to flatter expanses of farmland, my eyes grow even heavier and my mind drifts into a light doze, my senses coasting along the surface of sleep while still semi-aware of the real world around me.

Instead of dreams, a sideshow of disconnected images flashes behind my eyes, each one too fleeting for me to fully grasp. More memories? Probably, but nothing that sticks out enough for me to hold on to and nothing that makes any sense to me.

Swimming in a cold river.

An imposing female figure.

A teenage alpha with his arm around my shoulders.

There’s no dialogue, no greater narrative to the images, and none of the people or places are clear enough for me to connect them with anything else floating around in my head. These piecemeal bits of memory are almost more frustrating that not having any at all.

But I’ll take what I can get. I don’t want to spend the rest of my life wondering who I am.

Or, rather, who I was .

The images dissolve into a flash of teeth and claws and blood that has me jolting awake with a soft gasp, my heart racing in my chest as a phantom pain rakes across my side. I press my hand to the area, but the pain is gone almost as quickly as it appeared.

Whatever that memory was, it wasn’t something pleasant.

I straighten away from the window my head was resting on, my neck giving a painful twinge from the awkward angle. Luke glances toward me at the movement, offering up a small smile before returning his attention to the road.

“Have a nice nap?” he asks.

I rub at the back of my neck and roll my shoulders a couple times. “Not really. The dreams… memories?” I shake my head. “It’s like my brain still hasn’t really gotten a chance to rest.”

He slides his hand across the center console and curls his fingers around mine. “Hopefully that will resolve as more time passes.”

“Yeah,” I say, staring out the window and watching as the landscape speeds by.

Luke squeezes my hand, then returns both hands to the steering wheel, and I take the time to study him. His jaw is tense and there’s a furrow between his brows that doesn’t seem to be going anywhere. There’s also an underlying sadness to him, something that plucks at my heart strings and makes me want to reach out to him.

To comfort him. To soothe him.

I’m still wrapping my head around the whole fated mates thing, and I can’t explain the connection I feel to him, but that doesn’t make it any less important, and doesn’t change the fact that I feel nothing but safety and comfort in his presence.

And I hate how stressed he looks.

I never imagined there was someone just for me out there. Hell, I was barely able to imagine there was anything but the lab and the cage.

But I’m so happy to have found him even if I had to go through that hell to do it.

The memory of what Luke and I did this morning—or, rather, what Luke did to me—flashes through my mind, bringing heat to my cheeks and a flare of desire in my stomach. The back of my neck is tingling again, the sensation bordering on uncomfortable.

I lean into Luke’s shoulder, nuzzling at his shirt, and take a deep inhale of his scent, and the tingling stops. The mating bond will have to be completed, but this closeness is enough to appease it for now.

Wait… how do I know that?

I reach for the thought, but whatever pulled that knowledge from my brain is gone again. This amnesia crap is the most frustrating experience of my life.

That I remember anyway.

I snort under my breath.

Luke brings his hand up, cradling the side of my head as his fingers stroke my hair almost absentmindedly. I relax into the touch and let my mind drift again, the scent and safety of my mate wrapping around me and grounding me in place.

Twenty minutes later, we make a quick stop for a bathroom break and to scarf down the lunch Macy made us—peanut butter and jelly on soggy bread isn’t exactly gourmet, but my stomach appreciates it anyway—then get back in the car and keep moving.

The rest of the drive passes with me going back and forth between dozing against the window and cuddling up to Luke as closely as the center console will let me. Thanks to some traffic just outside Chicago, it’s almost eight by the time Luke slows and turns on to a long driveway, following the gentle curves up to a house and pulling to a stop next to another SUV, this one black.

The front door opens before we’re even out of the car, a large man with chin-length blond hair standing framed in the doorway, eyes narrowed with a slight scowl on his face. His expression shifts into something a little less intimidating when Luke steps out of the vehicle and waves.

“Hey, Julien,” says Luke. “How’s it going?”

The man—Julien, I’m assuming—jerks his chin in greeting. “Luke? What are you doing here?”

Luke sighs. “Sorry to drop in with no notice. It’s kind of a long story.” He glances up and gives the man in the doorway a half-smile. “Besides, I sort of owe Keir a visit.”

“Yeah, you do,” says a second man as he pops into the doorway behind Julien. This man is shorter—though still a few inches taller than me—with dark hair and gray-blue eyes. He pokes the larger man with his elbow and grins at Luke.

“It’s good to see you,” he says. “It’s about time you made it up here.” He nudges the larger man out of the doorway. “You ready to finally meet your… niece and nephew?” He glances up at the blond man. “What are someone’s cousin’s kids considered to them?”

Julien chuckles and shrugs. “I have no idea. It probably falls into one of those once removed things or something.”

Keir thinks for a second, then shrugs. “Niece and nephew it is then.”

“As much as I’m looking forward to that, it’s not the only reason I’m here,” says Luke. He motions for me to exit the vehicle and I jump out, quickly moving to my mate’s side. “This is Ollie.”

Keir’s brows rise and his gaze darts to Luke’s arm over my shoulder. “And who exactly is Ollie?”

A pink tinge spreads across Luke’s cheeks and he tucks me closer to his body. “Remember why I went up to Smyrna in the first place?”

“The shifter stuck as a wolf?” Keir cocks his head to the side, studying me. “This is him?”

“Yeah. It turns out he’s also my fated mate.” Luke pauses. “And an omega.”

“Well, shit,” says Keir, letting out a startled huff of a laugh. “You know I was just kidding about the whole fated mate thing yesterday. I didn’t actually expect you to go out and find one.”

“I wasn’t expecting to,” says Luke. He presses a kiss to the top of my head. “But I’m not complaining.”

Keir walks toward me, grinning and holding out his hand. “Nice to meet you, Ollie. If you haven’t figured it out yet, I’m Keir, and the guy looming in the doorway is my fated mate and Alpha of the Madison pack, Julien Matisse.”

“Nice to meet you,” I say, taking Keir’s hand.

Julien gives me a warm smile over his mate’s shoulder. “Welcome to the family, Ollie.”

“Uh, thank you, Alpha Matisse,” I say.

Keir snorts. “You can just call him Julien. We don’t stand much on formality here.”

We all file inside and Keir leads us into a comfortable looking living room with two overstuffed couches set up in front of an entertainment center. In the corner, there’s a carved wooden box overflowing with blankets and soft toys. A small white speaker—a baby monitor—sits on one of the end tables and a burbling noise comes from it.

“We just put the twins down, so they aren’t asleep yet,” says Julien, gesturing toward the monitor. “Did you want to meet them now?”

Luke glances at me. “In the morning? I wouldn’t want to mess up their routine or whatever.”

“Then let’s all have a seat and you can explain more about what brought you up here,” says Julien, gesturing to the couches.

“And why you didn’t call to let us know you were coming ,” adds Keir with an exaggerated eyebrow raise.

Luke blinks at his cousin, then shakes his head. “So much happened that I didn’t even think about that. I suppose a heads up would have been nice, huh?”

Keir rolls his eyes and plops himself down in Julien’s lap. “You’re lucky you didn’t get here an hour later.” He presses a kiss to Julien’s pink tinged cheek and waggles his eyebrows. “We probably would have been busy.”

Luke laughs and takes a seat on the other couch, pulling me down beside him. “Sorry to keep you then.”

Keir lets out a dramatic sigh. “I’ll live, I suppose.” He winks at me, then slides off Julien’s lap, moving to sit beside him instead. “So, you met your fated mate and instead of taking him back home, you brought him here… I take it things haven’t changed much in Sweet Water then? Or not enough?”

Luke frowns and shakes his head. “Randall might be gone but…”

“There are still plenty of homophobic assholes?” Keir chuckles, the sound more derisive than actually amused. “Not to mention the whole male omega thing.”

Luke’s shoulder slump. “Yeah,” he says, staring down at the floor. He brings his gaze up to meet Keir’s. “After what they did to you, how can I possibly bring Ollie into that? What if…?”

“You won’t let that happen,” says Julien, his voice confident. “You’re the Alpha now. You make the rules.”

“That’s true enough, I guess, but that doesn’t mean the old superstitions aren’t lingering. That doesn’t mean John and his cronies won’t try something,” says Luke, his hand tightening on my waist and tugging me closer. “What if they get him alone? What if they hurt him?”

“You won’t let that happen,” repeats Julien, more firmly this time, his gaze soft and understanding.

Keir watches Luke’s face, eyes narrowing. “But that’s not the only problem, is it?”

“Nope,” says Luke, sighing. He gives our audience a brief rundown of the past twenty-four hours or so, thankfully leaving out the more intimate details. As he speaks both Keir and Julien go still, their expressions growing uneasy.

Once Luke is done, Keir turns to me, brow furrowed. “So, you don’t remember anything from before the lab?”

“Bits and pieces have come back—like my name and the fact that my mom died, but nothing really concrete,” I say. “We were going to figure out our next steps this morning, but then the humans showed up at Doc’s house, and… here we are.”

“There was no way I could avoid making a report to the triumvirate,” says Luke. “And I wasn’t sure what they might do about Ollie, so I wanted to get him somewhere safe while we decided the best course of action.”

“You two are more than welcome to stay as long as you need,” says Julien.

“Any idea on what you’re going to do?” asks Keir. “I know how sticky these fated mate, male omega situations can be, especially if you don’t know anything about his pack.”

“One idea was to find Ollie’s pack,” says Luke.

“And hope they’re not complete assholes,” I add.

Keir laughs, then glances toward Julien. “Do you think Remy could help with finding Ollie’s pack?” His attention returns to me. “That’s Julien’s brother. He’s the best researcher I know.”

“I’m sure he’d be happy to help,” says Julien. “I’ll give him a call and ask him to come over in the morning.” Keir makes a kissy face at his mate and Julien rolls his eyes before turning to me. “Would you be comfortable having our pack doctor examine you? Since you don’t know exactly what was going on in that lab, it might not be a bad idea to get checked out.”

“That’d be great,” I say.

“I’ll give Doctor Benton a call as well then,” says Julien.

“Thanks,” I say softly. My mouth stretches into an involuntary yawn that I hide with the back of my hand.

“Either way, nothing is going to be resolved tonight,” says Keir. “Why don’t we feed you guys—there’s some leftovers of Rachel’s lasagna—and then we’ll revisit all this in the morning?”

“Sounds perfect,” says Luke, rubbing his hand over my lower back.

After we scarf down a couple plates of reheated lasagna, Keir leads Luke and I to a bedroom upstairs. He pauses before opening the door, glancing at me. “I assumed you guys would share a room, but, uh, if that’s not…”

“Yes,” I say.

“Great,” he says, smiling. He points at a door across the hallway. “The guest room has an en suite, but if you need any towels or whatever, you can find them in there.” He jerks his thumb toward the other end of the hall. “Julien and I are just down the hall if there’s anything else you need tonight.”

Luke nods, tucking me into his side. “Thanks again, Keir.”

“No problem,” says Keir. “Get some rest. We’ll talk more in the morning.”