Page 4 of The Brooding Alpha’s Mate (Omegas of the Shifter Mafia #9)

Alex

The team was throwing a huge barbecue at the warehouse.

An apartment building designated for low-income single omegas and their kids had burned down after a lightning strike. Thank goddess, no one was hurt. After seeing it on the news, the guys reached out to one of their contacts, the end result…the warehouse full of new guests.

Normally, when they had people staying at the warehouse, it was because they were rescued from an all-around horrible situation.

Usually some sort of trafficking. This was different.

These were people who had good lives and were working on making them better, only to have everything taken from them.

And because they were lower-income rentals, most of them didn’t have insurance, which meant there were no places for them to go.

In theory, they were allowed to stay at the local hotels and be reimbursed. But being reimbursed meant you had it to begin with and they didn’t.

There was definitely a different vibe in the warehouse than normal and a lot more going and coming.

The kids had school, the omegas had work, and one by one, they were finding new places to stay as the county figured out placements.

It was a very slow process up until recently, which led to our celebration.

We learned our lesson after the last barbecue when we ran out of gas for the grills. Back then, it was just the team and their families, and moving the hot dogs and hamburgers into the kitchen. It was a huge deal now.

There were far too many people to feed in the kitchen; it just wasn’t large enough for that. Not with this kind of meal, which was how I got assigned the task of refilling the canisters.

There was only one station in the region that still allowed refills. All the others had gone to the brand where you just swapped out the empty for the full. But for whatever reason, the guys hadn’t moved on to that.

I didn’t mind. I was not only doing my job, I was doing something I knew would put smiles on omegas and their children’s faces. It didn’t get much better than that.

This was the first group I really got to know since working here. When the people they helped were rescued from high-trauma situations, we tried to limit the number of alphas they were exposed to for their comfort. Since my job was mostly off-site, it was easy for me to step aside.

The other unique thing about this particular group of people was that it was mixed.

Some were shifters and some were human, which made things interesting.

They were “randomly” broken into two groups, humans and shifters.

That made it easier to take the shifters out for a run or flight or swim, depending upon what their animals were.

The humans had activities too, but theirs were more human based, like parks and going to the mall.

It was working out, but far from my idea. It meant the shifters had to keep quiet about who they were in their own home. And no one wanted to be hiding 24/7.

According to the social worker Tyrus had been in contact with, almost everybody was going to be in their new place within the next week or so. Which was great. They deserved it.

I got the last of the tanks hooked up to the grill, when my cousin came out and smacked the back of my head.

“What, I’m trash now?” I couldn’t tell if my cousin was being silly or if he was truly pissed.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” I stood up and brushed off my knees.

“I’ve called you three times in the last the hour. I wanted to see if you could pick up the cake.”

“You called me?” I reached in my back pocket for my phone. “Crap. I must have left it in the truck.”

I learned very quickly that I not only did not leave it in the truck, but I hadn’t left it in the warehouse either. My best guess was that it was at the gas station, because I did text the guys from there.

Because of the kind of work I did, I tended not to use the “Find Phone” option, just to keep from getting tracked. There was more to it than that, but I wasn’t the tech guy. The team set up the security settings for me and I trusted whatever they did.

The cake was for the party and had to come first. And when I returned with it, all of the kids wanted me to stay.

I didn’t love the idea of my phone being out in the wild, but there was not much I could do about it.

Disappointing the children was not something I was willing to do all for the sake of convenience.

The barbecue was a success, but I started to get antsy and my cousin asked why I didn’t go out and get some air. He told me it was fine to leave and that everything was winding down. I promised everybody I’d be back soon to help clean up, and drove to the gas station.

I pulled in, parking in the same spot I had been in earlier. My plan was to retrace my steps and hope for the best.

The second I opened the door, I could scent them. My mate was here. My bear pushed so hard, it was shocking that I hadn’t shifted right then and there.

Calm down. We’ll see our mate in a minute.

I ran to the entrance, opened it up, and looked around, trying to see him. If I allowed my bear to track him by scent, he’d rip through his fur, and there was no way I was allowing that. The last thing this place needed was bear sightings.

The guy behind the counter kept looking between me, the beer case, and an aisle I couldn’t see down, and then back to me again.

“Just here to see if you had my phone.”

He gave a nod, and I started toward him, my eyes still focused on the rest of the building. It had to be the guy in the aisle, because beer guy? Just no. Fate wouldn’t do that to me.

“Hey,” barked the beer guy, “where are you?”

I spun around thinking he was talking to me. He wasn’t.

Before I could fully take in the scene before me, there was a huge crash. An entire section of shelving toppled to the ground. The scent of chemicals filled the air. Whatever had been on that shelf was either cleaning fluid or… No, that was the only thing it could be.

My head was already spinning. I remembered from chemistry class that certain chemicals couldn’t be combined without being dangerous. I had a feeling she was talking about these.

From there, everything happened all at once.

An alarm was ringing.

The sprinkler system was going off.

The attendant screamed, “Everybody out, everybody out!” Over and over again. I assumed he meant because of the chemicals. I was so wrong.

The next words from his lip were, “There’s a fucking lion in here!”

And there was, and that lion was going toward the person I hadn’t seen until that moment.

Mate or not, I couldn’t tell. The chemicals were too overwhelming. One thing was for sure; I wasn’t leaving without helping him. He looked so scared, cowering, his eyes going back-and-forth between the door and the lion, as if determining his best options.

This wasn’t a stranger to him, and this wasn’t new. The omega’s animal was showing in his eyes, and he didn’t show surprise over the beast, getting ready to pounce. If I were to guess, he created the distraction intentionally.

I crossed over to him without hesitation, and scooped up the omega, as I kicked the lion to the side. No one ever accused me of being weak, but this was the first time I fought back 100 percent. I kicked so powerfully, my knee was killing me. I didn’t care. I needed to get the omega out of there.

The lion shifted back as we were leaving, but I didn’t look to see where he was going.

As we walked through the front door, the lion’s words sent shivers down my spine. “No one steals what’s mine, give me back my property.”

My bear threatened to come loose and tear him to shreds. I couldn’t allow it with flashing lights and sirens filling the parking lot already. I needed to get him out of there and to them. I’d figure out how to keep him safe from there.

But one thing was sure…that lion was never laying a hand on this omega ever again.