Page 16 of The Brooding Alpha’s Mate (Omegas of the Shifter Mafia #9)

Alex

All I wanted to do was take my mate into my arms and hold him tight, blocking the rest of the world away. But there were things we needed to attend to first—mainly his friend Chad.

Now that Dean was dead and Colson was alive and well in my arms, my anger toward his friend had dissipated. Chad was a victim too, and just because I hated that my mate had been in danger, that didn’t make it any less true.

We arrived back at the warehouse to find him sobbing in a corner by himself. I was glad that he found a place to let it all out. He didn’t need to be kept prisoner, despite how, not too many hours ago, I had wanted to tear him limb from limb.

“Hey.” My mate took one step closer. “Chad?”

Slowly, the omega lifted his head. When he saw my mate, his face bloomed into a smile, and he rushed over to him, hugging him, apologizing over and over again. Repeating how he didn’t mean to lead Dean to us, how he wished he could take it back.

And my mate, being so much more gracious than I ever could, assured him that he didn’t blame him, that he might have done the same thing.

Me? I knew better. Colson was stronger than that. Heck, he was the strongest person I know.

I couldn’t fault Chad for being weak, not when his freedom had been taken from him. He had seen a glimmer of hope flashing before him and went for it. I’d have wanted my mate to do the same thing. As selfish as I was.

“We need to get you to a healer and get that chip out,” I said. Dean might be dead, but who knew who had access to that tracker and what they might or might not do with it.

“No, you don’t.” Chad broke away from Colson and pulled down the waistband of his pants, where a gnarly wound was still healing. “I got it out and flushed it. The only thing it’ll lead anybody to is the sewage treatment plant.”

That amused me far more than it should, picturing Dean floating around in a pile of sewage. Being dead was better, because it meant that my mate was finally safe from him.

“I still think we need to get you to a healer, to get that wound tended to.” Colson grabbed his wrist.

“I don’t deserve that. I deserve the scar this leaves. It’s a reminder of what’s important.”

“That’s hogwash, and you know it,” my mate barked back at him and then turned to me. “Get the healer. We’ll meet you in the conference room.”

The poor healer was already here, working on checking out all of the infants and omegas. He was going to be here for a while. There were just so many people involved.

The healer came and tended to Chad’s wound, assuring him that the tracker was gone and there were no others in there.

I was no expert, but I had a feeling the healer was just trying to make the guy feel good, because how would he know? But then again, how did healers know anything?

“Mate, I need you to say goodbye to Chad now. Tell him you’ll see him in about a week.”

“A week? Why?”

“Because I’m taking you home, and I don’t think I can bear to leave your arms for at least a week.” I reached for his hand.

“Works for me.”

I pressed a kiss against his lips, and he said goodbye to his friend as I told the others we were leaving.

I hadn’t been home in too long. Nothing in the fridge would still be good, but I didn’t want to go back to the safe house.

Instead, I sent in a pickup order at the grocery store, just duplicating my last order.

I didn’t bother looking at what it was, not wanting to waste a second more than I had to.

Fingers crossed, past me had made good choices.

It would be nice for my mate to have his own clothes, but I doubted we were going to be wearing any clothing at all and if we did, I’d be happy to see him wearing mine.

“This is the home I grew up in,” I told him as we pulled in. “I kind of never left.”

“That’s because it’s home.” He unclicked his seat belt.

“No, mate. You are.”

We spent the next week holding each other, communicating with words and our bodies, and eating a whole lot of pasta, because apparently, the last time I ordered groceries, it was on a big sale. I rarely did pickup, so it could have been anything. At least pasta was easy to cook.

On the eighth day, as we were getting ready to head back to the warehouse to check in with everybody and help with the omegas and babies, my mate bolted to the bathroom.

We’d known he was pregnant. We could scent it. Others could scent it. If I listened really carefully with my ear against his lower abdomen, I could hear it. But for some reason, listening to him get sick made it more real.

I felt awful thinking such a thing. But as he walked out, his hand resting above where a baby was growing, the first words out of his mouth were, “Huh. Guess I am knocked up.”

“You’re the best.” I wrapped him in my arms, kissing the top of his head. “The very best. If you want to stay here today and skip the warehouse, that’s fine. I can call in. They’d understand. The team’s been through a lot of pregnancies over the years.”

So many, I needed to use my fingers to count them all as I named them. It was a great problem to have. Children were our future as cliché as that was.

Our pack probably wouldn’t always look like this. One day, the world would be kinder to omegas. Alphas would no longer feel like they could own…then control them…use them as a way to make money, but for now, we were needed.

“Mate.” He wove his fingers with mine. “I really want to go. I want to help. There are a lot of babies to feed there, and a lot of them we haven’t been able to find their parents yet. There’s a whole lot of baby duty needing to be covered. We can get some practice in before our little one comes.”

“As long as you are sure. But if at any point in time it’s too much, you let me know.” Who me? Overprotective? Heck, yeah I was.

“Deal.”

Chad was waiting for us when we arrived. He looked so different already. He’d put on some weight, the slight limp he had was a little better, but more than that, I could see the brilliance in his eyes. They were no longer sunken and hiding.

It was weird to think of eyes as hiding, but his had been. Now, his true colors shone bright for all to see. He was like a new man.

“You look good.” Colson hugged him. “What have you been up to?”

“About up to here”—he held his hands up to his chest—“with dirty diapers. Want to help?”

The two of them went off to help with the babies, and I went to check in with my team.

“So this is what it’s like being mated and working together.” I handed my cousin a coffee.

“Yeah. It’s pretty great, isn’t it?”

“It really is. It really really is.” I took a sip of my coffee. “Do we have any word from the DA’s office?”

And just like that, we fell into work, only this time, I wasn’t running errands. I was helping sort information from multiple sources.

I had moved up.

I really hoped I was ready.

These omegas and children deserved only the best.