Page 6 of The Brooding Alpha’s Mate (Omegas of the Shifter Mafia #9)
Alex
Things tended to get very complicated once humans got involved. Tonight was no exception.
We had to deal with ambulance and fire and police…
telling them enough so they’d let us be, but not too much so they needed to investigate more.
If we had all been shifters, it wouldn’t have been a big deal.
But the guy behind the counter was very human and kept insisting there was a lion in the store.
Because of that, we all got a thousand additional questions.
Including the fucking lion.
It turned out his name was Dean. And Dean had a death wish, one I longed to fulfill for him. How dare he abuse an omega? And to have the audacity to abuse my mate? Fuck no.
In the end, the police were sure that the chemicals had gotten to the employee’s head and that he needed to be seen. If all luck was on that poor guy’s side, he’d believe that was what happened in the morning. Because no one wanted to live in a world where everybody thought you were a liar.
But with Dean hovering around, waiting for us to leave…or waiting for the humans to leave, I didn’t know which, I had no choice but to get the omega into the ambulance with me by his side.
Dean had tried to take my spot, but the omega had grabbed my arm. He wasn’t even fully conscious, but that was enough for the authorities to tell Dean to bug off. And then there was the fact that his shirt was missing. That couldn’t have helped him at all.
The omega whispered, “Gun.”
And as they were shutting the door, I shouted, “Dean has a gun,” hoping to buy some more time. And as we drove off, I witnessed the police circling him. So maybe we would be lucky there.
By some miracle, everyone in the ambulance was a shifter.
“He needs a healer, not a hospital,” I said.
“And who are you to him?”
I wanted to punch the guy in the face until he added, “Because there are tons of signs of abuse here. And if you tell me that you’re who he came with, we’re going straight to the human hospital, and you can fight me on it.”
Good.
Let him protect the omega.
My omega.
And then I said out loud for the very first time, “He’s mine. Fate sent him to me. I don’t know anything about him, though. I just met him now.”
And that was enough for the crew, and we turned toward the healer’s house.
It was a couple hours later, when he had been checked out by everybody that needed to and we were settled in at the healer’s, that I was finally able to get some alone time with him.
“Hey, I know you don’t really want to talk about this, but I kind of need to know who that guy was. Like everything about him.”
And he told me, in detail, everything that had happened to him.
I couldn’t help the tears building in my eyes.
And the guilt. Guilt for not finding him earlier, preventing this from ever happening to him. Guilt from not killing Dean already. And guilt for not being able to save his friend too.
But guilt wasn’t going to get us anywhere. The only thing that was, was protecting him and keeping him alive until we could figure all this shit out. And there was a whole lot to figure out.
My bear wanted to take him home, feed him a lot, pamper him, and love him. But I’d heard about guys like Dean from the team. It was scary how many of them there were. And if he waited around, he was going to hunt him down.
And to make matters worse, he’d heard my name. We were interviewed by the cops at the same time. It would be nothing for him to find me. It would be nothing for him to find me there, either. But at least here, protections were in place.
According to the scanner in the ambulance, he’d been detained. That bought us some time. I wasn’t sure how much.
“Listen, the healer’s coming in. He needs to look you over again, and I need to go and talk to the guys.”
He froze. “What guys?”
“My cousin and the people he works with. They protect people, and I just need some advice from them. You need to heal. I promise I’ll be back.”
“Can I go with you?” The plea in his voice nearly broke me.
“No. This is the safest place you can be right now. Healers are protected. No one can come on this land. And it doesn’t matter how much they’re willing to break other laws, but this one, they won’t.”
I had to hold onto that belief. It wasn’t out of the goodness of their heart. All shifters knew that the second they broke this law, no healer in the country would see them. And being a shifter, that was a death sentence.
I borrowed the healer’s car and drove to the warehouse, sending out a group text ahead of me saying I needed to meet everybody there, and it was an emergency.
When I reached the conference room, there were carafes of coffee, and everyone sitting around looking like they’d come straight from bed. Which they probably had.
“I need to talk to you guys. I went back to get my phone—”
“Oh good. Was it still there?” my cousin asked.
“I don’t know. That’s not the point of the story.” I closed my eyes, trying to hold my bear back but already scenting him. “My mate was at the gas station. And long story short, I need to protect him from a crazy-ass lion.”
“Whoa,” Pop-Tart said. “You’re gonna have to slow down and give us the long version of this.”
“Fine, but I really don’t have a lot of time. I need to get back to him.” I told them every last detail.
“What can I do? If I bring him home, he’ll be tracked there. If I bring him out there, all the humans and other omegas, not to mention the countless children might overwhelm him. There are too many unknowns.” I wanted to protect my mate, but I refused to endanger another to do so.
“Cousin, I’ll follow you back to the healer with my car. And you can take it with your omega. We have a safe house you can hide out in while the team investigates, and figures out a plan.”
“But how will you get home?” If I had to drive him back here, I could potentially be luring Dean to the warehouse full of children and omegas, and I refused to allow that to happen.
“I’ll follow behind him.” Hammer stood up.
“You—”
“It’s probably best for both of us.” He was hearing none of it.
My bear growled.
“Chill.” Aziz rolled his eyes. “I forgot how possessive unmarked mates could be.”
He had no idea.