Page 94 of Feral Alphas

I stare at my young pack mate, trying to wrap my head around his admission. I suppose I need to give the cocky son-of-a-bitch bonus points for fronting up to me in the first place, but it’s all I can do to keep from slogging him.

“Let me see if I understand you. Against my advice, you took our omega out to dinner, and there you let her get cold, frightened, drunk,andsick, and then you were accosted by reporters?”

I scratch my head, trying to fit the pieces together and failing. I knew he had a certain level of fame, but to have reporters swarming him, that’s a big fucking deal.

Kye’s shoulders slump. “I’m sorry, this is on me. I didn’t think they’d hound me during a private meal, but unfortunately someone’s caught wind of a family secret that shouldn’t be out.” He frowns like he’s realized something. “Actually, it’s possible my father leaked it himself.”

I hold up one finger to tell him to wait, then tread quietly down the hallway to check on Rose. She’s fast asleep, wrapped in Luka’s arms in her gently-rocking nest after Kye got her showered and the vomit cleaned off her.

I can only imagine the guts it took to wait for a knot to go down while sitting next to puke in his fancy car. I remind myself the main thing is she’s safe now, and thankfully she could eventually express her needs to Kye. I’m happy to hear she knew to ask for his knot to soothe herself.

I click my fingers softly to summon Luka and he slides out from around her, tucking some pillows into her arms to fill the void.

“You need to come hear this,” I say as I shut the door quietly behind him.

He yawns and stretches like a lazy cat and pads after me. When he hooks one leg up underneath him on the dining chair, I take my jacket off and drape it over his bare shoulders. There’s a chill in the air with the seasons changing.

Tersely I outline everything Kye already confessed to. “If there’s something going on in your family and it’s likely to affect Rose, don’t you think we should know about it?”

Kye scrunches a hand over his face. “Yeah.” He sighs and straightens. “You’ve probably heard of the West family? Owns half of the east coast.”

“Yes.” I nod. Also known in the Bureau chatter for being insidiously good at skirting all the claims brought against them for corruption.

“My father tried to force me into a pack with the younger Wests. When I refused, he cut me off. Everything, all my money, any assets that were in his name, even my music manager.”

Our youngest packmate rolls his lips between his teeth. “I don’t care that much, no love lost really, except now he’s going after my Kazi City apartment. I was at my lawyer’s this morning, trying tofigure out how to keep it out of his clutches, because the rent from there is all I have to live off. That and my shows when I do them.”

Luka and I exchanged wide-eyed glances.

“Fuck,” Luka says, tracing a whirl in the wood we’ve fucked over more times than I can count. “No wonder a rich boy like you settled for living in this old house.”

“Yeah, I’m sorry. You probably were expecting me to buy some new digs that didn’t require renovations. Honestly, I’d love to, but I really can’t, and it shits me.” He slumps in his chair. “I learned tonight that I don’t know who I am without the big price tag attached. I’m sure that seems hollow from where you guys sit, but I just wanted to do something special for her.”

I clear my throat. Maybe I judged him a little harshly. “I’m sure the love you feel in your heart for our omega is pure, but I was serious when I said we can’t treat her like other omegas. She’s never had full bodied wine before which means she was probably drunk on a third of a glass. She’s never worn heels before or eaten a three-course meal at a restaurant.”

I get out of my seat and lean against the kitchen bench, too much dark energy running through my body to sit still. “I feel like punching the shit out of you right now, you know?”

He winces. “I bet.”

Luka’s seething too, but he’s letting me handle it.

“This may feel overbearing to you, but I would like for you to hear me out. I say this not because I’m older but because I’ve had years of experience in analyzing situations for even the tiniest detail. I’d like for us to do two things. The first is to agree that we don’t take Rose out of the house without two of us present, at least for the rest ofthe year. If there’s any chance of reporters sniffing around, she needs additional protection.”

He nods, hands gripping the edge of the table tightly. “I’m willing. I think I can learn from this, but at least until the press situation has died down, yes.”

I hum in agreement. He’s taking this better than I thought. “The second is something we do at work after a team member’s made a mistake, and that is group situational analysis. We go through the event step by step and look for the markers you missed.”

“Frick, sounds painful!” Kye groans. Then he straightens. “I’ll take my blows like a man. Lay it on me.”

Luka listens in quietly as I get paper and pen and we work through Kye’s evening, step by step. I point out that the fact Rose rode the elevator to twenty floors is an amazing feat.

I quote from the book-length statement she gave Liam after she arrived at the Omega Center. “The first and only time she rode in an elevator was when the boss of her kennels was taking her as a sacrificial lamb to and from the hotel. She was dressed up like a hooker and trying to figure out how she could escape without putting the feral alphas at risk before he took her unwilling during her first heat.”

Kye’s eyes shoot wide open, the whites contrasting with his black skin. “What?”

I order him to keep going, noting down the steps. Her sensitivity to smell, the cold, and the unfamiliar foods. From what he tells me about her posture she was scared about spilling on her dress and couldn’t even rest against the table after knocking her fork off.

“When I realized, I gave her my coat, but she was staring at the serving light in the kitchen and she kind of freaked out.”

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