Page 30 of The Alpha's Mates

It was understandable. He was responsible for not only our cadre but this whole pack. Now, I was realizing he was preparing for all-out war. With or without the Moon Goddess present he was fighting to bring shifters rallying under her. It was impressive and…respectable. That didn’t mean I was ready to give myself over to these males. Not yet.

If I had to tell the truth, it was because I was terrified. I’d never thought to have mates, and now these three hulking shifters had been dropped into my lap. Most would be thankingtheir lucky stars. Me? I was deflecting. Good thing I wasn’t being forced to tell the truth.

“That’s fine,” Atlas said, shooting Soren a dark look for taking too long to agree. “We’ll set you up in the guest bedroom. It’s directly between Soren’s and my room. If you need anything, just call out and we’ll get it for you.”

“Thank you,” I said, hesitantly. “I’m… I’ll get there. I just-”

“You don’t know us yet,” Soren snapped. He cleared his throat and softened his tone. “We’ll all get there in time.”

Calder nodded, but didn’t say anything else.

“Come on,” Atlas said, standing. “I’ll go get you settled. You must be exhausted.”

Pausing at the door, I turned and looked at the other two males who were going to be my mates.Weremy mates. “Thank you.”

“For what?”

“Telling me all that. Letting me come along. Giving us a safe place to stay.” I gave Soren a weak smile. “Pick one.” With that I turned and followed Atlas. He was so massive his shoulders almost spanned the width of the hallway.

He pushed open a door and gave me a charming smile. “Breakfast is at eight.”

I placed a hand on a bicep the circumference of a redwood’s trunk and smiled up at him. “I have you to thank the most.”

One brow arched up in answer. These men were humble. My father would have been gloating about all he’d done before I ever had a chance to thank him, if he were here. Of course, things would be very different if he were here.

“You allowed me to choose this on my own. I’ll never forget that, Atlas.”

A dull red flush edged up his neck toward his face. I had to bite back the grin because he’d think I was laughing at him. Inreality, I just found it cute. He was embarrassed about the praise I’d just given him.

“Anyone would've done the same,” he muttered. He stalked off down the hallway, muttering to himself.

“Not anyone,” I whispered. “Just you.” Shaking my head, I shut the door, closing the world out. I surveyed the room, my eyes going from the bathroom to the bed. Shower or sleep? It was an impossible decision.

My wolf let out a small whine inside my mind. Sleep it was. I flopped backward onto the bed and closed my eyes.

“What kind of prophecy?”Emma asked, hands on her hips while she stared suspiciously at me.

I relayed everything that we spoke about last night in Soren’s office. We were walking the perimeter of the village as we talked. My hair was still wet from the scorching shower I’d taken this morning. I could have stayed in there forever, but I wanted to catch Emma up to speed on things before breakfast.

We stopped in the middle of the village by the time I was finished. Her eyes were wide and her brows were nearly in her hairline. “Do you think this quest will help us find the Moon Goddess?”

“It’s our best hope,” I admitted. “Even if Soren can pull together as many of the remaining shifter packs as he can, what are we supposed to do? We’re dying.”

She huffed out a sigh. “I know. We have to do something.”

“Ladies!” Vera called out, waving to us as she hurried over. She was loaded down with a huge stack of clothing.

We met her in the middle, taking her burden from her. “What is all this, Vera?” I asked.

“Oh! Beatrice has been working through the night,” she told me, beaming. “She had enough clothes for all the omegas and even Emma here, but you and Clover needed some custom made things. Yours is on top there. I have to go meet with Eralius about something, but I wanted to give these to you. Bye!”

She was gone before I could speak. I just goggled at the amount of clothes that filled our hands. “They made us clothes?”

“These people,” Emma said, her voice husky with unshed tears. “Hasn’t anyone told them that unknown shifters are supposed to be enemies?”

I chuckled and shook my head. “Apparently they never got that memo.”

“Could you imagine being raised that way?” Her voice was wistful as she stared off after Vera.

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