Page 14 of The Brooding Alpha’s Mate (Omegas of the Shifter Mafia #9)

Alex

The rescue mission had gone well…almost too well. We went and found who we were looking for and got them out with everyone safe. We should be celebrating, but I couldn’t. Not with the largest of loose ends still flapping in the wind.

Dean was still at large. He had zero regard for the law, or human or shifter life, and had a violent streak of proportions I could never understand.

My bear was so far from docile. I’d been known to bleed out a few shifters in my day, but my bloodthirst was nothing like his.

And the bull’s-eye he was currently aiming for was my mate.

I wasn’t going to rest easy until he was gone from this earth. And while my bear wanted to be the one to do it, my human half didn’t care as long as he was dead and buried. No, not buried. He didn’t deserve that respect.

It terrified me that Dean was so focused on my mate, and all of our intel said that he was. Not only that he lost what he called property, but he also lost face after not being able to deliver him to another, losing a man in the process. To someone like Dean, that made my mate enemy number one.

And all of that was before we took his business from him.

Things we’re going to get bad and quick if we didn’t find him soon.

If it were up to me, we’d already be scouring the world for him, not resting until he took his last breath.

It wasn’t up to me though, and the plan was only half enacted. We couldn’t stop now.

All of us from the team were watching on computer monitors as the financial takedown took place in real life.

The money didn’t come out in one chunk; that would get flagged according to the conversations we’ve had.

There were so many days I felt completely ready to be an active part of this team…

going on missions and doing the good work.

And then there were days like today when I didn’t even fully understand the plan, much less be able to help form the details of it. It was moments like this when I realized that delivery duty was where I belonged…at least for now.

Watching it go from more money than I’d ever heard of, down to zero and then being redistributed to nonprofits that helped omegas, both shifter and human alike, felt amazing. No one was going to be able to slide in and take over the pride. There was nothing left there.

I wished my mate could’ve been by my side, watching his abuser lose everything in real time, but when all of the omegas and babies and slaves were brought back to the warehouse, Colson had wanted to stay with the other mates and help get everybody situated.

It was going to be no small task. We were filled beyond capacity, but there wasn’t much we could do about it. It was either this, or just tell them to go on their way, which was heartless and also impossible for the youngest of them.

At least the apartment crew had finally been placed in permanent housing. If they’d still been here, I wasn’t sure what we’d do, but we’d have figured it out. The team always did.

“They’re gonna be pissed,” Hammer said almost gleefully.

“I don’t think pissed even broaches it,” Sutton, another bear said, and then fist-bumped Aziz.

“Guys, this is all great, but Dean’s still at large,” I reminded them.

Pop Tart’s arm came around my shoulder. “We have to take the wins where we have them.”

He was right. We did. But knowing that Dean was still out there had me on edge in a way it didn’t for them. We had turned his beast into a ticking time bomb, and that time bomb was going to be delivered to my mate if Dean had his way.

My bear pushed forward, pleading with me to find and kill him. I wanted that too, but being part of a team meant following the plan we all agreed on. I was smart enough to know that I was currently thinking with my heart and not my brain. That was a recipe for disaster.

“Hey, Maverick. Maybe circle my property… I mean, make sure it’s safe.”

He looked at me like I had three heads. It took a second for me to figure out why.

“I mean the safe house.” I wasn’t sure that my property would ever be safe again. My name would be attached to this, and even if that pride was decimated to extinction, there were others who would look at me as a threat.

Aziz looked at me, pity in his eyes. “You need to believe that Fate doesn’t make mistakes. They’re not going to give you Colson only to take him right away.”

I wanted to believe that was true. I needed to believe that was true. But my anxiety refused to allow me.

“Please, Maverick.” I ignored Aziz. “Can you handle this? Just circle it tonight. See if there’s anyone there.”

His dragon had a view none of us did. Normally, I wouldn’t ask a shifter to do something like that, something so specific to their beast. There was nothing normal about right now.

“Yeah, I can do that. Hutch has his hands full here, and Lachlan is hanging out with Jack and the other mate’s children… I’ll make it work.”

I wasn’t sure how I would repay him, but I vowed to myself.

We went back to finalizing the phase of the plan…getting the information proving embezzlement and wire fraud to the human agencies. We didn’t get very far; a blood-curdling scream came through the door.

I didn’t recognize it, and at first, I thought that was great—because it wasn’t my mate. Then the guilt set in, because why would it be great no matter who it was?

I was hit with abject terror as Chad rushed to us, his arm bloody, tears streaming down his face.

“Colson! Dean—” he cried out. “Dean was here.”

I raced to him. Not to give him the comfort he was looking for but because I needed to know what had happened.

“Colson. Where is Colson?” It hurt to breathe.

“Dean took him. He’s gone.”

“What do you mean he’s gone?” My hand partially shifted, my bear ready to tear Chad open. It took all of my strength to contain him.

“We went outside, because we needed to…he was helping me because…there was a thing.”

I closed my eyes and attempted to gain more power from my beast.

“And Dean showed up. I tried to help, I did, but he was too strong for us. He drove off in a truck. Colson in the back.”

“How did he find us?” Hammer looked pointedly at Chad. What was he seeing that I didn’t?

“That’s… I didn’t want to be left behind when you rescued everyone. I promise you, I didn’t mean any harm.” And then he started sobbing violently.

I was ready to kill him right then and there for the information, my bear in full agreement. King grabbed me from behind, his arms around me, keeping me immobile. He yanked me away, asking me over and over again to trust him.

It was hard to trust a fucking lion when there was another out there with your mate. But he’d been right to get me out of there.

Once I was gone, Chad tried to calm down enough to let us know that Dean had invested in a tracker for him after Colson disappeared.

That was all I needed to hear.

I didn’t have a plan, or even part of a plan, but I raced out of there as fast as I could.

I had a mate to find, and no one and nothing was going to get in the way.