Page 15 of Tides of Fate (Fated in the Stars #3)

(Rewind)

There’s a crazy sense of dread crawling down Gideon’s spine as he drives through the gates at the compound ninety minutes after he’d reluctantly left Nix at home alone.

Everything looks as it usually does—decorated for fall with marigolds, chrysanthemums, and tall ornamental grasses in large clay pots, handpicked by Grayson just a few weeks ago. They’re as calm and welcoming as the man who chose them.

The day so far had been too unsettling for his wolf. With his soulmate out in a stranger’s office, Rowan backing up Grayson—who was away from his own soulmate, BBS be damned—his wolf felt restless. Finn was at the hospital, meeting with his mentor to prepare for the official launch of the Department of Andrology.

Gideon had grown comfortable with them all under his roof as they let their bonds settle, and now, their absence…chafes. Perhaps that was why the feeling of dread he’d had when Maureen called about the fire hadn’t dissipated one iota.

At least Nix is at home with Tsuki, safe behind the gates and security system. He’d checked that Nix’s phone was still at the compound three times while he’d been busy holding his tongue with the suspicious fire marshal.

As if he’d set fire to the kitchen of his successful multimillion-dollar business. But after the third round of the same damn questions, his temper was hanging by a thread .

It hadn’t taken the fire marshal and the arson detective long to confirm his kitchen had been torched—from the inside.

And, alright, that wasn’t the best thing to hear. Someone had circumvented the alarms and destroyed the heart of his second home. But no one had been hurt, and it could have been fucking worse.

It could have been their den.

Instincts twinging hard, the thought has no sooner entered his brain than he bolts from the SUV and into the house. There is no doubt in his mind that something isn’t as it should be, and that suspicion is only validated when he finds the alarm deactivated and the living room empty.

“Nix! Tsuki!” he shouts, but there is no answer.

Taking the stairs two at a time, he checks every open door down the hallway. In his omega’s room, he finds Nix’s phone on the nightstand, a wet towel hanging over the bar of the shower, and the scent of vanilla—singed around the edges.

“Fuck. Where are you, kitten?” he mutters to himself. His dread hasn’t worsened, but it hasn’t eased either.

Where could Nix have gone that he would take Tsuki with him and leave his phone behind?

After he and Leo had left their phones at home that one time, Nix had committed to taking his device with him wherever he went. And more importantly, he wasn’t supposed to leave the house alone—not until he could wear a scent-blocking patch and not without a packmate. Not yet.

There’s a commotion in the kitchen as three-quarters of LRH crashes back into the house. They’re happy and boisterous—completely unaware that Gideon is about to burst that bubble with a hand grenade.

Because their omega is gone.

“Sugar, it was epic!” Luca shouts, causing Leo to cringe at the volume of his mate’s enthusiasm. He’s hanging off Leo—first on his back, then swinging around to his front—kneading his shoulders and kissing his face like an especially affectionate, exuberant squirrel.

“Wasn’t it epic, Leo? They’re so nice.”

“Catch!” Leo yells, and of course, Gideon does—as Leo throws the smaller man four feet through the air, just so he can have free hands to dig around in the fridge.

Gideon drops Luca’s feet to the floor. “Stand, please.”

“But, sugar…” Luca has already found a spare T-shirt from somewhere and is in the process of dropping his skirt to the floor—only to pause, his nose in the air.

“Oh, shit. Why do you smell worked up?”

“Jay,” Gideon says.

Jay is smiling at his phone, scrolling through photos from this past week—happy ones of Nix, the others, and even Tsuki.

He wishes he could let them ride this high, and if Jay’s reaction to Leo and Nix’s disappearance earlier in the week is any indication—but Gideon doesn’t have time to ease him into it.

“Hey, love. Meeting was good.” Jay’s face falls, and his eyes dart behind Gideon to the living room. “What is it?”

It doesn’t take him more than a heartbeat to figure out something is off. “Where is Nix?”

Scenting the air, he tracks Nix’s scent to the pile of blankets on the couch, and he tries to go upstairs, but Gideon saves him the trouble.

“He’s not here.”

It helps Gideon keep his fear at bay when he notes there is no sign of struggle and only the same tinge of singed vanilla. No signs of pain or fear, and no blood. They need to see the camera footage to figure out what the fuck is going on.

Leo is ahead of him, as usual, and with a breadstick hanging out of his mouth like Bugs Bunny with a carrot, he opens the cupboard where they keep the security electronics and grabs two linked tablets.

“When did he leave, do you think?”

Leo doesn’t waste time asking how Nix could leave the house without Gideon knowing. He just focuses on trying to figure out where he went.

Jay’s growl makes the hair on the back of Gideon’s neck stand up. His alpha is hanging on by a thread.

“Gideon? ”

He is doing an admirable job of not losing his mind, but Jay’s smoky pine scent fills the kitchen, causing Luca to cover his nose with the bottom of his t-shirt, leaving him perfectly naked, as usual.

It takes Leo just minutes to pull up the in-house security footage. There are cameras throughout the house; it won’t be hard to see when their mate left.

Gideon is only worried about why .

Sighing with frustration, Gideon runs his hands through his hair, and Jay’s nose flares again.

“Hey, I smell actual fire—burned plastic and gasoline. What the fuck is going on, Gideon? I am hanging on here, but I need—”

He needs his omega.

Same-same.

The news about Quest should be the worst information he’s had all day, but that feeling of dread says it’s only going to get worse.

“I had a call from the arson squad about Quest.”

“No,” Luca gasps.

“Yeah, baby. Look, someone torched the kitchen this morning. Must have been after all of you left for your meetings.”

Something about that tickles the back of Gideon’s mind. Some pattern he’s missing.

“I didn’t want to take Nix with me. There were just too many cops and unknowns.”

Too many damn questions about his perfect, sweet-smelling mate—who still can’t wear a scent blocker and who draws people to him like the rising sun.

“You left him here alone?” Leo asks incredulously as there’s a swoosh, and both tablets light up with footage already in motion.

There is no sound, but they can see Nix talking to Tsuki and then leaving the room.

Leo brings up the next camera footage for the hallway outside Nix’s bedroom.

Fifteen minutes later, he jogs out of range in his new clothes, Tsuki hot on his heels.

Another camera changes, and Nix is digging something out of the couch.

Luca’s eyes pop wide. “My phone. Shit.”

They watch as their mate answers it with a concerned frown while walking out of range.

The front door camera picks them up on the porch as Nix resets the alarm and walks through the gate toward the city.

“Why would he go? Who would call me, and what’s so important that he would leave? Did he look upset?”

Luca comes up under his arm and buries his nose in Gideon’s armpit, pulling the edge of his t-shirt up to get at the bare skin along the top of Gideon’s pants to soothe himself.

“Holy shit. Check this out.”

Leo has fast-forwarded the video ahead fifteen minutes, and then—there are intruders in Gideon’s den.

Intruders in black sweats and heavy boots, with balaclavas, going from room to room, looking for something.

Or someone.

Jay starts a low, menacing growl that sends goosebumps down Gideon’s spine, while both betas give a full-on shudder.

Strangers in a Were enigma’s den?

They had to be banking on all three of them being absent—because no one could be that stupid.

The intruders are all over the house for six minutes before the tallest of the three men looks up at the camera in the living room and, with a cocky salute, they all disappear out the back door.

The camera picks them up in the backyard, disappearing into the treeline at a fast clip. Since there aren’t any cameras along the wall, they lose sight of them quickly.

When they’re no longer visible, Gideon slams his fist down on the granite countertop, and it does nothing to appease his frustration when it cracks.

They were in his fucking home.

Where his omega had been fifteen minutes before .

A white-hot fury pulses behind his eyes.

He’s not the only one pissed, either.

Gideon has an almost-feral, fully fanged-out enigma alpha on his hands.

At least it’s just one right now.

“He left with Tsuki,” Leo offers, running the whole intruder clip again—but he has the foresight to take the tablet out of Jay’s range, just in case.

Nix hadn’t been here when they’d broken in.

But what if he had been?

It was pure luck—or coincidence, or divine intervention—that he hadn’t had to face them by himself.

Gideon had seen no telltale bulges of firearms, but a syringe of drugs that sedated? That would easily fit in a pocket.

But what if they had run into Gideon’s kitten?

It’s terrifying—and yet, Gideon lets a bark of laughter sneak past his lips.

It draws Jay’s attention like a live wire snapping loose.

“Not fucking funny, Gideon. Where is Nix?”

“I’m just imagining what would have happened if they had found Nix here. No guns or tranqs,” Gideon says.

Jay’s growl intensifies, and he slams his fist on the counter, adding his own cracks to the surface.

“He’d have kicked their ass.”

Leo’s eyes go wide while Luca pulls back just enough to giggle.

“Can you imagine if they’d come across the Nix we know? The battle-ready, ass-kicking omega who has never—not once—liked strangers in his den?”

Luca shudders theatrically. “We’d have a big mess, that’s for sure. Yikes.” He pulls away suddenly. “Jay! Nix took my phone. Won’t he show up on the security app?”

Gideon wants to facepalm.

Jay already has the family security app open on his phone before Luca even finishes his sentence.

Sure enough, it shows Luca’s location—except it looks like Luca is at the hospital .

With Finn.

And…Tsuki?

They’re at the hospital?

The last time Nix had been in a hospital flashes through Gideon’s mind like a punch to the gut.

He knows he’s not alone in that thought when Jay immediately dials Finn’s phone instead of Luca’s—then starts pacing, waiting for him to answer.

“Rowan had Tsuki chipped?” Gideon asks, distracted for the briefest moment.

The front door beeps, and Rowan confirms it while removing his suit jacket. “Fuck yeah, I did.”

His broad shoulders strain against the light pink dress shirt. Whoa. They’ll have to get him a few new suits at this rate. Where he’d always been tall, he’s only been growing broader by the day—maybe it’s the presence of their omega that’s ramping up the enigma’s physique.

“Sure as fuck not giving a gift only to have a stranger steal her away.” His nose goes in the air. “Hey, did we have people in while I was gone?”

“Not voluntarily,” Leo says, handing Rowan the tablet.

Rowan goes stock still.

Grayson joins them a minute later from the powder room, minus his jacket and scent patch, looking pale and sweaty.

“Is it the BBS, Gray?” Luca asks, already finding their mate a glass of juice and some anti-nausea meds.

“Yeah. I was away too long. The CEO stopped us at the door. But it got worse a little while ago—then there was an accident on the highway. Fucking detours. Where’s Nix? And did you say we had visitors?”

Grayson does exactly what Jay had done. With an ominous growl, he puts his nose in the air before moving at a fast clip toward the stairs.

Gideon doesn’t stop him.

A few minutes later, Grayson returns with Nix’s sleep shirt wrapped around his face. It seems to help his color somewhat—but not the waves of menace oozing from his every pore.

“What the fuck is going on?” he asks.

Rowan hands the tablet back to Leo before disappearing out the back door and across the yard—the same way the intruders had gone.

“Fuck. Rowan!”

Gideon takes off after him.

The last thing he wants is his alpha clearing the wall in one fell swoop and chasing whatever scent trail he’s caught—barefoot through the streets of Nashville.

He bursts through the doors just a second behind Rowan, who is already sprinting into the woods.

Rowan’s toes dig into the stone wall, and he’s six feet off the ground, one leg swinging over the top, when Gideon catches him around the waist.

Together, they tumble backward toward the ground.

Like a big cat, Rowan twists midair, taking the brunt of the impact on his back—Gideon clasped to his chest.

Later, Gideon will say he was breathless from the impact—not the sheer muscular athleticism it took, or how it pinged his libido, hard.

“I can smell them. You gotta let me go. I can track them, and we can at least know who they are and why they were here.”

Rowan sits up, and Gideon slides off into the pine needles and fallen leaves.

He can’t let his mate run off half-cocked (even if that were still more than the average amount of cock), not just because they don’t know who these intruders are, but also because only the Goddess knows what an enraged Rowan Foster would do when he figures out why they were here.

“Come on, I can’t let you go. Let’s see if Nix and Finn are back.”

“I want to go on record as saying I could have had them.”

A brisk breeze rustles through the trees, and Rowan climbs to his feet.

“It’s almost gone now. Dill pickles…and dirt? Maybe licorice. I’ll remember them for next time.”

Next time? Shit. Gideon hadn’t thought about that.

He brushes off the back of Rowan’s shirt and pants, copping a feel as he does.

It’s a testament to how unsettled his mate is that Rowan just allows it .

When they get back to the house, the entire pack is p iled together on the floor, with Gideon’s kitten nestled in the center.

Jay is underneath, eyes closed and jaw clenched, while Nix listens to his heartbeat.

Finn is curled up close on Nix’s left side, nose buried in the back of his head, while Grayson lies on the right, rubbing noses and pressing soft kisses to their omega’s mouth.

Luca is sprawled across Nix’s back, face tucked behind his ear, trying to steal kisses from Grayson—all while Leo cradles Jay’s head in his lap, taking turns running his fingers through everyone’s hair.

Tsuki is stretched out on the couch, eyes closed but ears perked.

The dread finally eases now that everyone is here and together again.

Finn might even be asleep—relaxed in a way he hasn’t been in ages. Strange, given that they’d surely received a scathing rebuke from Jay about Nix being out of the house, no matter the reason.

Rowan joins them and pretends he’s about to flop onto Luca’s back, just to hear everyone but Nix shout, “Rowan, no!” without even opening their eyes.

Instead, Rowan nudges open the tangled limbs of the three-stack of mates and scoots in until his head rests on the back of Luca’s thigh. It’s weird, but no one complains.

For the second time in twenty-four hours, his pack has curled into a puppy pile of comfort. He hates that they need it, but he’s glad they can have it—that it isn’t so much worse.

Taking a seat on the couch beside Tsuki instead of joining in, he accepts a lick to his wrist, then dials the only person he knows who can fix what they didn’t know was broken.

“Gideon Carnell, what a pleasant surprise,” Logan Frost—Arlo’s mate and owner of Sentinel Security—answers in less than two rings.

“Hey, I’ve got a Code Bravo at the compound. Would you have time?”

Gideon swallows his pride by asking. The new place had been wired under his watch, despite Logan offering his expertise. Gideon had been so sure he could do a better job, keeping any outside risks to a minimum. Now, he blames himself that they’re in this mess—and that it could have been so much worse.

There’s silence on the other end, and for a second, he thinks his friend is going to decline.

“Fuck, of course. Everyone alright?” Logan shifts from amiable to professional in a blink.

Gideon sighs, grateful he can say yes.

Logan continues, “You probably need me ASAP, no? The reason I’m asking is that I’m the only one home with Arlo right now—”

Logan muffles the phone, but not before Gideon hears Arlo snap, “I can take care of myself, you dumbass.”

It’s a full minute before Logan comes back on the line. “Let me check in with the rest of my pack, and I’ll text you my ETA. Gotta go—I’ve pissed him off like you wouldn’t believe.”

“Sure. Thanks.”

Gideon looks around, thinking he’d feel better if everyone cleared out before they had more strange scents in the house. “I’ll clear everyone out. Would that work best?”

Hearing that, everyone in the puppy pile breaks apart, looking disgruntled.

“Really? That’d be great. See you soon,” Logan says before disconnecting.

“That was Arlo’s mate, right? I would have liked to see him again,” Nix says.

When Jay shakes his head, Nix’s face falls even further.

“What? Isn’t that okay? Arlo is my friend, right?”

Gideon hates that he’s so uncertain, so he answers as kindly as he can. “Kitten, you can have friends over. But we’ve invited Logan to come and look at the security system, and it’s inoperative. It makes us nervous that you are—”

With every word, Nix’s eyebrows rise higher and higher until they’re almost at his hairline.

Crossing his arms, he says, “You’re worried that I’m what? Arlo and his mate are hardly a threat, and you’re all here. And the intruders didn’t take anything anyway, right? So it’s not all that dangerous.”

Here goes nothing.

“Kitten, they waltzed in through the security system with the codes. They didn’t take anything because what they wanted wasn’t here.”

If Gideon had hoped they’d figured it out before, he was proven wrong when the silence fell so heavy you could hear a pin drop.

Jay gets it first; of course, he does. He is always oriented toward the safety of his pack, always trying to stay ten steps ahead.

“You’re saying they waited until we were gone—maybe even set Quest on fire to get you out—and then came here looking for Nix? That the only reason he didn’t get fucking abducted was because he left the house fifteen minutes before they arrived? By chance ?”

Nix sits down hard on his ass, between Grayson and Luca.

“Why would they want me? I’m just a nobody.”

Luca chitters like a startled squirrel.

“Shhh, baby. I know I’m not a nobody to you, but to everyone else, I’m just your beta mate, right? For now, anyway. Who would want me?”

Rowan starts pacing in the opposite direction of their pack leader, and if it all weren’t so damn fucked up, Gideon might find the mimicry amusing.

Ten paces one way—passing each other in the middle—and back again, identical furious expressions and long strides. No matter that Rowan is three inches taller; they’re two enigma-peas in a pod.

Gideon can only think of one person interested enough in Nix that he’d risk the wrath of Jay—and he’s already in prison with his days numbered.

“Gideon, you don’t think…?” Finn asks.

“No. These were professionals, and that scourge isn’t that well connected.”

Gideon had made sure. Every known associate of Dawson Ulysses Haversham Hayes had been investigated, every lead traced back to nothing. No pack. No family left—at least none that would claim him. Mother deceased. Father unknown. No siblings, no extended ties. Just a string of meaningless acquaintances, a side-piece, and a job he barely clung to.

And Nix.

The investigator’s report had been conclusive. There was nothing to worry about.

So if Hayes wasn’t behind this, then who the fuck was?

By all reports, he’d owned nothing and went nowhere except home, his mistress’s apartment, and Ripley Records.

Hayes was a nobody.

When Nix finally ends his miserable existence, no one will miss him, and no one will care.

No, there’s no way he’s got enough cash or clout to call in the professionals.

“Logan will be here in an hour, without his pregnant omega. Kitten, I can’t blame him. Arlo is capable, just as you are, but this house has had a serious breach of security in the past two hours, and if it were me…”

Gideon hears five other people hum in agreement.

“If it were me, I wouldn’t want to take any of my mates, either.”

“I don’t have to like it.” He stamps his foot, and it’s so fucking cute.

Rowan coos, and if looks could kill, he’d be flat on his back.

“Fuck you, Rowan,” Nix says, walking away with Luca scrambling after him.

“Baby! Wait for me! Let’s have a bath, and we can—”

“Luca, you be good!” Gideon calls after him.

“I’ll, uh…go apologize. Yup.” Rowan follows them, intent on getting between his two slippery mates in a hot bath.

“Oh, and don’t kill anyone without me, yeah? I can’t get their scents out of my head.”

Tsuki follows close behind, racing him up the stairs.

They hear a heavy body hit the floor and an “I’m okay! Tsuki, you shit, get back here.”

Grayson sighs. He may look better physically, but there’s a tightness around his eyes and mouth that has always signaled anger.

“ I’ll go make sure no one drowns, Rowan. He’s right, though. Don’t do anything big without us. You coming, Leo?”

“Nah, I’m sticking here. Neither of them is as tech-savvy on this end.”

It’s because Leo is worried someone is going to die today. Between Jay and himself, the urge to hunt and maim is so strong that, if left to their own devices, they might actually convince themselves they should be out for blood.

No one comes into their den and threatens their mate without consequences.

Gideon had said nothing to the others, but he hoped Logan’s recognition software could get them in the ballpark—so Gideon could do whatever needed to be done as soon as possible.

They’ll need all the help they can get because if Gideon is right, this is the beginning of a full-on assault—and Gideon plans to win this battle and the war.