Page 74 of His Reluctant Omega Mate

Mated

Kade

Mymindwhirredwith all that had happened in the last... day. I think it had been a full day since my dad had found me. Then I’d been taken. The man I thought had abandoned me appeared to save me and had killed Rincoln for Blake. He’d kept my mate safe. Had risked his life to do it.

“Dakota, son. Shift back and carry Roan here to the cars, would you?” Dakota looked at me and Blake before answering his father by shifting into his massive brown bear form. He truly was spectacular as his alter.

I shivered, though I wasn’t truly cold. Shock was setting in. “Anyone that can shift should, just until we get to the cars.” Blake said as he held me tighter.

“As you say, Alpha Blake,” the man I’d seen at the full moon run, Alpha Jason, nodded to his bears. “Bears, when we return home, I’m making our return to the Sweetwater pack official.” He walked forward and placed a hand on Blake’s shoulder, giving it a squeeze. “Son, you’ve shown me you are a new breed of alpha and my bear agrees that the other bears under my protection would thrive and be happy under your care.” My heart filled with joy at the validation that Blake had never had. He’d never had an elder come to him and express their feelings at how he ran his pack.

My brief visit with the bears had impressed upon me that Alpha Jason was firm but fair. He loved each of his shifters and each one had a place in the pack. They’d be an asset to Blake’s pack, to my pack. Yes, yours, mate. Blake’s voice was amused over the link.

Dakota was standing over Roan and made a grumbling sound. Blake and Axel carefully lifted Roan over Dakota’s back so the bear could carry him. “I’ll stay in this form, Alpha, and walk back to the cars so Roan doesn’t fall off.” Axel said as he stood by Dakota.

Deke limped to the other side of Dakota. “I’ll get this side.”

“Are you sure you’re okay?” I asked both of the enforcers. They both had a myriad of injuries littering their bodies. Each gave me a reassuring smile and spoke words of encouragement to Roan as he lay limp.

Blake gave me a nudge, and I shifted, the change coming over me as easy as breathing and I stretched out in my alter form, loving the feel of the breeze in my fur.

We’d get to the cars, find some clothes and call the council to clean all this up. Too many shifters had died today, but enough had been exiled that would need guidance from the council in their new lives.

I let out a joyous bark when I saw Dakota’s papa, James, waiting by the vehicles for us. “Oh, my gosh! Kade! Just look at you!” James exclaimed as he saw me. I ran a giddy circle around him. With a cooing noise, he ran his hand through my fur. “Your wolf is so pretty!” My wolf preened at the compliment. It was true, after all, they were. I let myself bask in the praise while the others caught up.

It took a little bit to get everyone shifted back, dressed in the spare clothes most shifters kept in their vehicles, and Roan safely in the bed of Deke’s truck where he could stretch out. Aldrin looked him over and pronounced he’d be fine, might not even be scarred, as his healing was working well.

My relief had me sagging against a car door until Blake picked me up and set me inside. “Let’s get you home,” he said in a warm rumble.

“No, please.” I shook my head. “I don’t want to go back there.”

“How about...” Blake sounded tentative as he stepped between my legs. “The pack house?”

I rested my head against his chest. “Yes, please. I know we’ve got things to sort, but I want this, Blake. I’m ready to make it official. Permanent.”

He stiffened fractionally, then softened and tightened his hold. “I’m so glad you’re safe, Kade. I was so scared. The thought that you’d be bonded to someone else made me sick. I love you.”

“I love you too, Blake.”

Despite the nap I’d had thanks to the sleep spell, I still zonked out in the truck as Deke drove us back to the pack compound. Adrenaline crash was brutal, and I felt shaky and weak when I woke up to Blake trying to lift me out of the car.

I saw Axel helping Roan from the truck bed. Axel had insisted on staying there with Roan as we made our way home.

“What’s going to happen to Roan?” I asked Blake as Axel helped him shuffle away.

“That’s up to him, but I’d like him to join the pack if you’d be okay with that?”

His words had me pausing. How would I feel if my ex was in the same pack as me? I’d be higher status than him as the Alpha Mate, but would it be awkward? I thought back to how it felt to have Roan there in the house. My wolf had trusted him implicitly. Roan had guarded me and protected my mate for me, even coming to harm himself.

“I think... I think that would be good, actually. Roan was really there for me. He killed my dad so you wouldn’t have to. He got hurt trying to help you. If you’re okay with it, then, yes, please.” It would be the start of a new chapter for us. He’d been my best friend growing up.

“The council had hired him to look after you.” We’d been walking into the pack house, but Blake’s words stopped me.

“What?”

“His sentence for trying to trap you, for looking the other way to the abuse, was to guard you. He literally has a house down the street from you. Been there for the last two years.”

I didn’t know what to make of that. Then I realized it didn’t matter. Roan had been my neighbor and nothing had happened. For the last two years, he had let me live my life as I had wanted and had only gotten involved when Rincoln had made his move. He’d given me years of freedom.

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