Page 19 of The Alpha: Part One
Okay. I text him back.
We aren't going. Neither is Desie.
The reply comes quick.
Good, good. I'll check in with you later. I have a thing tonight.
A thing. It shouldn't, but a dark feeling creeps over me.
Do you need us?
The reply comes much slower this time.
No, but thank you. It's just something I need to look into while I'm here. I'm good.
The dark feeling doesn't fade, but I don't know what to do about it. If he says he's good, I'm not in a position to tell him he isn't.
"What?"Michael asks, turning into the parking lot.
"Nothing," I say, looking down at the text again. "Just a weird feeling. He says he'll check in with us later."
"What kind of weird feeling?" He parks the truck next to the door and looks at me as he pulls the keys from the ignition.
"I don't know. He said he has a thing he needs to look into tonight. I just have a weird, heavy feeling. I don't know."
He pulls in a breath and rubs his chest. "It's fine. Let's just get tonight done. We'll check in on him later."
Chapter ten
Seth
"I don't know, Kaleb. It's not like we thought it would be. I don't think Minos is what we thought he was. I'm obviously still watching him, but he's not trying to hide anything. His whole operation has been an open book for me. He took me on a tour of the offices and showed me everything. I think he's introduced me to everyone he knows. He's answered every single question with complete truth, even offering more information. It's like hewantsme to see how thingsreallywork over here."
I can almost hear Kaleb nodding across the distance. "Right, good. Just keep on him. Nathan has another name he wants you to listen for. Lopez. I'm not sure of the first name, but that name has been circulating. We think they might be working together."
"I actually just met an asshole named Lopez the other night. I wouldn't be surprised at all if he’s connected to the omega trafficking. He seems like the type of asshole my father would have gotten along with. I'll see what I can see. How is Talia? How are the —"
I have to stop myself from saying babies. Not only are they not babies, they're toddlers now; but we don't talk about them in a plural sense outside of the manor. It’s too risky. If the wrong person found out about the girls, it could put them in danger. Birthing multiples isn’t exactly unheard of, but having three babies and two of them being twin omegasis.Our hope is that we will be able to take them places soon. Parks. Playgrounds. Libraries. I’m just glad the manor is huge and they have plenty of opportunity for development and enrichment between all the adults they have wrapped around their grubby, little fingers. "How is Dutch? Has he made it past the barricade Trent built?"
Kaleb laughs. A good, hard laugh. "It kept him off the stairs for a day. I saw a gray streak in Trent's hair last week. Talia… and the others… are doing well. She's starting to really progress. I don't know if she's going to kill Corso first or Trent. They're both driving her crazy. Devon took her to the range yesterday to get her out of the house and away from the hovering for a while. I don't know how much shooting she actually did, though."
"They just took the one… gun… though? Right?" Before I left, she was three weeks out of her heat and had scheduled an appointment with Obi for an ultrasound. Trent and Devon were pretty sick with worrying about how many babies she might be carrying despite her assurance that this was going to be a much more typical pregnancy since it was an alpha-omega pairing. Personally, I'm with Trent. It's not my baby and she's not my omega, but I'm still worried shitless. And now that I'm not in a facility fighting for my fucking life, I have plenty of energy to feed that worry. I might not climb the literal walls like Trent does, but that doesn't mean I don't feel the urge to do it.
"Yes," Kaleb says, relief evident, "she just took one gun with her. It's in good shape, too. Corso is intolerable." I love that we're using firearms as code for baby talk. I really do.
"Good. Okay. So, keep on Minos. See about Lopez. Anything else?"
He's quiet for a moment, then I hear muffled talking, then Dutch is screaming in my ear. "Hang on, buddy," Kaleb says, "let me put it on speaker and you can say hi. Okay. There you go, now you can say hello to Seth."
Dutch has two volumes, asleep and evacuation siren. We have all learned to hold the phone away from our ears when we talk to him. Now is no different. "Come home!" he yells.
"I'll be back before you know it, buddy. Are you being good for your mama?"
"Yes!" he yells. I don't believe him.
"Good. Keep being good. Take care of everybody while I'm gone, okay? Want me to bring you something when I come home?"
His squeal rings in my ear well after it stops coming out of his mouth.
