Page 19 of Lost Wolf (Exiled Omegas #2)

Nineteen

Ollie

Keir’s waiting on the other side of the door to lead me to Julien’s office where we find Remy sitting behind the desk with a laptop open in front of him. The younger Matisse brother glances up and gestures us over. Keir grabs one of the chairs on the opposite side of the desk and drags it around until it’s sitting beside Remy. He motions for me to take that chair, then shifts to stand behind Remy.

Remy swivels his chair to face me. “I’ve been able to locate five packs who indicated in some way that they had a white wolf in their pack. Unfortunately, none of the registered white wolves were you. Two of them are clearly too old and the other three are all accounted for.”

“How is that helpful then?” I ask.

“Because even if the registered white wolves aren’t you, we now know of five packs that have the gene.” Remy ticks each pack off on his fingers. “Onaway, Michigan. Drift Creek, Oregon. Rockcastle, Kentucky. Denver, Colorado. Richmond, Virginia.” He pauses and raises his brows. “Any of those places sound familiar?”

I shake my head. “No, sorry.”

“No problem. I can still narrow things down a bit. Since you mentioned being from a rural location, we can probably already rule out the two bigger packs—Denver and Richmond,” says Remy. “How do you feel about looking at some pictures of the other areas to see if they spark some memories?”

“Do you really think that will help?”

“I do,” says Remy. He reaches over and wakes the laptop and pulls up a search engine.

Images of the first location fill the screen in a grid. None of them trigger any sort of recognition, so I shake my head. He repeats the search for each of the other locations—with the same result. Not a single image tugs at my memories, not a single one looks at all familiar.

“I guess that means it’s back to square one,” says Remy, scowling at the screen.

“What about missing persons?” I ask. “Can you check for any reports from these areas?”

Remy frowns. “I already did. There weren’t any missing person reports for anyone matching your description in the past five years. I can go back farther, but not in the databases I have access to easily.”

“No one’s even looking for me?” I ask.

Keir squeezes my shoulder. “Not necessarily,” he says. “It could simply be no one knows you’re actually missing. Maybe you left your pack or something before the humans caught you. If something had happened to me in the four years I spent on my own, there wouldn’t have been any reports about me either.”

“You left your pack for a good reason,” I say. “What if I did too? Maybe we should just let sleeping dogs lie, or whatever, and not bother looking any farther.”

Keir sighs. “We can do that if you really want, but even after everything that happened in Sweet Water, I knew where I came from. No matter what we find, I think it’s important you do too. No one’s saying you have to go visit your birth pack or anything, but you should at least know who they are.”

“I agree with Keir,” says Remy as he starts closing the browser tabs one by one. My gaze catches on an image in the lower corner of the screen. Only the top half of the image is visible, but there’s something…

I grab Remy’s wrist and point at the screen with my other hand. “Scroll down.”

Remy’s brows go up, but he does as I ask.

Memories niggle at the back of my mind as the full image comes into view. It’s a simple picture of tree on a river shore with a mountain vista in the background, but there’s something about the shape of the tree and the way the colors come together that makes my brain stand up and pay attention.

I know this place.

And with that blast of certainty comes a memory.

The teenage alpha I saw in my dreams is holding on to a rope and swinging out over the water. He lets go as the rope reaches the edge of its limits and he plummets into the water, popping up a few seconds later and shaking the water out of his hair.

“Come on, Ollie,” he says. “It’s not that cold.”

Older than in the memory with my mother, maybe eleven or twelve, I edge closer, reaching out to grab the still gently swinging rope.

“Promise not to let me get swept away?” I ask.

“Promise,” says Blake— my brother —as he grins up at me from the water.

I can’t help the smile that takes over my face, and I whisper my brother’s name with something close to awe. My gaze flies up to meet Remy’s. “I have a brother.” I point at the screen. “He took me swimming there.”

Remy moves his hand away from the laptop, his eyes darting between me and the screen. He blows out a breath, then gives me a semi-pained smile. “Damn, I was kind of hoping it wasn’t going to be Rockcastle.”

“That… doesn’t sound promising,” I say. “What’s wrong with Rockcastle?”

“I think the question is, what isn’t wrong with Rockcastle.” Remy lets out a low chuckle. “To start off with, they’re really isolated. Most packs are named after the nearest city or town, but Rockcastle is named after a river that goes through Kentucky and part of the Daniel Boone National Forest. The pack is located a good hundred miles from anything.”

“So, it’s rural like I remembered,” I say.

“Yeah,” says Remy. “But there’s ‘rural’ and there’s ‘the ass end of nowhere.’ Rockcastle is very definitely the latter. Plus, it’s not just the physical isolation that’s an issue. The Rockcastle pack doesn’t interact with other packs. Their Alpha doesn’t attend any of the summits. They aren’t even fully registered with the triumvirate. The only reason I know they have the white wolf gene is because there was a smaller registered pack that Rockcastle kind of… absorbed?”

He glances toward Keir before continuing, “If you decide to contact them, you’ll need to be careful how you go about things. There was a ton of drama that went down when Keir and Julien got together because of Sweet Water’s isolation and backward ways. Who knows what kinds of laws and traditions Rockcastle might have.”

He shares a look with Keir, then Keir focuses on me. “Before we get too far into making a decision on that, how much time have you and Luke had to discuss the fated mate bond and what that means?”

“Not much,” I say. “We’ve been kind of worried about other stuff.”

Keir chuckles. “I know exactly what you mean. You wouldn’t believe all the shit Julien and I went through when we first got together. It was like every time we turned around some new issue popped up. Hopefully, you and Luke won’t have such an eventful courtship.”

“I don’t know,” I say. “Things have been pretty crazy so far.”

“True enough.” He shoots me a playful smile. “But how many times have you been kidnapped?”

“Uh, at least once? Probably?”

He breaks out into laughter, muffling the sound with his hand. “I’m kidding. Well, not really. Kidnapping was like a rite of passage for me.” His expression goes serious. “But you’re… okay with everything? The whole fated mates thing?”

“Of course,” I say, tilting my head to the side. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

“You could have your reasons,” says Keir. He presses his lips together and glances down at his hands. “Look, I get the impression you don’t have much experience with, well, life, but you should know that as an omega you have choices if you want them.” His gaze darts to the doorway and then back to me. “You aren’t… required to make things work with Luke if he’s not what you want.”

“But isn’t a fated mate bond permanent?” I ask.

“Most people think so,” he replies. “But apparently it doesn’t work the same way for omegas. We’re kind of valuable for whatever reason, and I guess fate didn’t want anyone to be able to take advantage of us, so we can choose to walk away from a fated mate.”

“Would you have walked away from Julien when you first met him?” I ask.

Keir lets out an amused huff. “I kind of did,” he says. “I was so scared of what he represented that I ran the first chance I got—even though at the time I didn’t even know I could refuse the fated mate bond. He tracked me down and the two of us made it work, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t have doubts, like a lot of them.”

“I don’t understand why you’re telling me all this.”

“Because I’m pretty sure my dear brother-in-law is going to suggest ‘mitigating the risk’ of problems with Rockcastle by completing the mate bond ASAP, and I want to be sure you know you have options.” He sighs. “Luke and I weren’t particularly close as kids or anything, but the guy saved my life more than once so I owe him—but you don’t.”

“I know that,” I say. “But I don’t need that out or whatever. Luke is… everything I never knew I wanted. I’m all in.”

Keir’s expression softens. “I’m glad,” he says in a low voice. “My baggage prevented me from leaning into things right away, and though we’re solid now, I think that makes Julien still a little worried.” He pauses, then grins at me. “Okay, now that that’s sorted, it’s time for the safe sex talk. As an omega, you don’t have to worry about lube, but I’ll leave some condoms in the bathroom. You might feel ready to complete the mating bond, but I’m sure neither one of you is ready for a surprise pregnancy.”

Remy coughs out a laugh and I join in.

“Definitely not,” I say.

Remy claps once. “Okay, back to the matter at hand. Keir’s right about me suggesting you complete the mating bond before having any dealings with Rockcastle. That aside, the question is, do you want to contact Rockcastle?”

“Yes,” I say with only a second’s hesitation. “If nothing else, I want to talk to my brother.”

“Completely understandable. Let’s see if we can get you in touch with him.” Remy turns back to the computer, his fingers flying over the keyboard as his eyes narrow on the screen. After a few minutes, his brow furrows. “There’s only one phone number for the entire pack,” he says, his gaze sliding to me. “Are you okay with talking to whoever answers?”

“I guess so? I can probably just ask for my brother, right?”

Remy shrugs. “Normally if there’s only one number for an entire pack, it goes to the central pack house—the Alpha’s house. With everything we don’t know about the situation, it might be better if you let me do the talking. If everything goes okay, and we can get your brother on the phone, Keir and I will step out and give you some privacy.”

“Sounds fine to me,” I say. “Go ahead.”

Remy gives me a tight smile, then pulls the deck phone closer to him and puts it on speaker. He enters in a number glancing back and forth from the screen to the keypad. My nerves amp up as the buzz of the dial tone is replaced by ringing.

Each ring sends another burst of anxiety through me.

Is this a mistake? Maybe I should —

“Hello?” The voice is female, tone sharp and annoyed.

“Hi,” says Remy. “I was hoping to speak to Blake.”

There’s a long pause. “Blake Shiflett?”

Remy glances at me and I shrug. The last name isn’t ringing any bells.

“Yes. Is he there?”

“Who is this?” she asks, suspicion lacing her voice.

Remy’s expression grows strained. “Sorry, I’m Remy Matisse, the procurator of the Madison pack and its Alpha, Julien Matisse. With whom am I speaking?”

“Wanda Jenkins, Alpha Mate of the Rockcastle pack,” she replies. “What do you want with Blake?”

“That’s where things get a bit confusing. You see, I have someone here who believes Blake is his brother and—”

“Oliver’s with you?”

“Yes,” says Remy slowly, his gaze sliding to me. “But there’s been an accident and Oliver—Ollie—doesn’t really remember anything from before. Using the bits and pieces he does remember, I was able to track down your number and we were hoping he could speak with his brother to see if it might jog his memories.”

“Where’d you say you were calling from again?” asks Wanda.

“I didn’t. I’m in Madison, Wisconsin,” replies Remy.

“How the hell did Oliver end up in an accident way up there?”

“Well, as I said, he doesn’t remember much from prior to a few days ago, but he was actually found near Smyrna, Tennessee.” Remy pauses. “My brother-in-law’s cousin, the Alpha of a pack nearby, took Ollie in. He brought Ollie up here so our pack doctor could check him out.”

“Huh,” she says. “We’d be happy to have Oliver home if your Alpha friend wouldn’t mind bringing him our way when he leaves to return to his own pack.”

“The thing is—”

“I just need to see with my own two eyes that he’s safe and sound,” she says with an audible sniffle. “We’ve all been so worried.”

Remy glances at me, raising his brows in question and do a little half-shrug, half-nod. “To clarify, you are offering a blanket invitation for Alpha Anderson to accompany Ollie into your territory?”

“Of course,” she says. “We’ll be looking forward to it. Now, I best make sure everything’s in tip-top shape if we’re going to have a visitor.” Her tone gains an odd edge. “Tell Oliver I’ll be looking forward to having him home real soon.”