Page 9 of The Alpha Warrior's Mate

“I don’t know what you—”

He gave me that serious eye, calling my bluff.

“Fine. I have it, but I don’t fully understand it.” I pulled out the thumb drive and handed it to him, unsure why my resolve broke. Maybe it was the look in his eyes. Maybe it was the realization I was in way over my head. Maybe it was because I trusted him and, if he wasn’t the one who got it, who would be?

“I found this.”

He watched me, almost as if expecting more.

“I thought this was a legit job for just a regular old startup. And there’s nothing regular old startup-y about what’s on that drive. It’s a spreadsheet. It’s got a list of people…omegas. Many are underage, and all of them—”

“I know.” He put his hand over mine, his warmth traveling through me as he palmed the thumb drive. “I’ll make sure this gets into the right hands.”

“Please, don’t…” I didn’t know it was so important for him to realize that I wasn’t an awful person.

“I won’t let anything happen to you.” Which hadn’t been at all what I was worried about.

“I know.”

“Do you? Do you really? I will make sure that you’re safe. I swear to the goddess, I will protect you.”

“I believe you.” I closed my eyes and sucked in a breath. “Why? Why are you doing this for me? I’m just the office math nerd.”

“No, you’re not just anything.”

I opened my eyes again to find him looking at me with compassion and warmth.

“I don’t understand. Why are you like this? Why me?”

“Think about it, Clay. I think you know why you matter more than my next breath.” He put his ear up to the door. “I need to get out of here, but I’ll find you again, and we’ll figure this out.”

As quickly as he came, he was gone. And he’d left the thumb drive with me. Was it his way of telling me he trusted me or letting me know he’d be back?

Mate, my bear insisted.

“Mate.” I pressed my fingers, the ones that had just been held by Jeremy, to my lips.

Jeremy was my mate and, like me, he was here wanting to stop whatever breeding farm I’d uncovered. I didn’t know how he came to be here. Maybe he was just like me, hired for something unrelated to the horror I’d uncovered, or maybe he knew of the horror and came here to put a stop to it. I wasn’t sure which and I wasn’t sure it mattered.

What did matter was that the goddess put us on this earth to meet here and now. I had to believe it was more than just so we could fall in love and start a family. She put us here to help those omegas. It was the only thing that made sense.

Please let us be the right men for the job.

Chapter Nine

Jeremy

We didn’t intercept the shipment of vulnerable, kidnapped omegas as early as I thought we would. Since I let them know what was going on, there had been only a few one-way texts with information from me to them.

I expected news of a hijacked truck from the bosses or the other guards and kept my ears open for it. The sooner this was all over, the sooner I could leave this wretched place—preferably with my mate in my arms.

“You’ve got perimeter this morning, Jordan,” Amos said, holding that damned clipboard. No little shit like him should be given a clipboard. His chest was puffed out with his false sense of power.

“I know where I have to work. I can read,” I snapped back with the knowledge that all of this pretending to be a guard and working under slimeballs would soon be over. “I’m going now.”

I made sure to put my wallet and my phone in my pocket before going out to scope the area. The bosses said the shipment would be here in two or three days, and today was day three. I expected something any minute and had to be ready.

I had one main objective: Get Clay and the other omegas out of here.

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