Page 34 of The Alpha's Mates

He huffed out a breath, but just stretched so that he was splayed over my lap. He didn’t seem too worried about being caught now that his objective was met.

Stretching my legs out straight to accommodate his weight, I called out, “Come in.”

“For fuck’s sake,” Calder grumbled when the door swung open. “Told you he’d be here.” He glared at the wolf. “This wasn’t what we agreed on.”

My whole body vibrated with the unhappy growl the wolf let out.

“We sort of need Soren back,” Atlas said. “There’s a lot to do before we leave tomorrow.”

The wolf lifted his head and looked up at me. It was a strange relationship we had with our wolves. They were a part of us. Many considered them our primal sides, wild and free, but one couldn’t live without the other. They weren’t given names because they were us. Our name was theirs technically, but we rarely addressed a wolf by a human name. Their spirits called to us and ours to them, we didn’t need names.

“It’s okay,” I promised him in a whisper. “We’ll meet again. But next time you can play with my wolf.”

He hopped off the bed, shooting me a piercing stare over his shoulder before he walked out the door. That look was full of heat. It wasn’t the way a wolf would look at a human. Soren was back in full control; he was just choosing not to shift until he was out of sight.

As much as I wanted to see him naked again, I was grateful for the fact that he waited. They were getting harder to resist. Each hour that ticked down seemed to wear at my defenses. I convinced myself I wanted to get to know them before I just gave in to the claiming. Now I wasn’t so sure. My dreams were haunting me, leaving me panting and wet when I woke.

“Breakfast will be served in thirty minutes,” Atlas reminded me.

Both men gave me scorching looks before they left. It was nice to know that it wasn’t just me that our proximity was affecting. Not that having them be just as jumbled up was going to help my mission of getting to know my mates before I jumpedinto bed with them. Sighing, I got up to prepare for the day. Today was going to be a busy one since we were leaving early the next morning.

“I can’t believeyou’re going,” Clover said, tone soft, eyes on the plate of food in front of her. All nine of the omegas were seated around the large wooden table.

Emma and I exchanged a worried glance as the mood dipped in the room. Omegas had different personalities, just like the rest of us, but most of them were a little more sensitive than betas, and certainly more than alphas. The males usually had a hard time adjusting their brash attitudes so as not to hurt their omega’s feelings. The girls were sad, thinking we were abandoning them.

“We’ll be back,” I told them in an upbeat voice, eyes scanning their faces. In some cases, like Clover’s, I was looking at the tops of their heads as they refused to look up. Getting them to maintain eye contact was a challenge on the best of days.

“Yeah,” Emma added, chirping the word. “It won’t be long and then we’ll be back here with all of you.”

Harper gave us an encouraging smile. We’d already spoken to her yesterday about taking over the leadership position of the pack until we got back. It was in theory only because whoever Soren left in charge would lead my pack as well. They would be in charge of safety, and the girls knew that, but they needed one of our own to go to for comfort while they adjusted to being in a new place.

It wasn’t hard to see that packs of alphas had already started taking notice of the women, but Soren had set out a decree yesterday. No one was to claim their mate until we got back fromthis quest. He’d spoken to my group first and told the women that his decree would allow everyone to get to know one another without pressure. It also meant that all four of us would be here to supervise how things were going with newly formed cadres.

We weren’t anticipating any trouble, but you never knew and a lot of these women had come from abusive situations. They needed time, like I did, more really. I’d advised Soren and the others that this would be the best step and they’d agreed. Warmth radiated over my skin at the thought that I was being helpful, not only to my pack and doing right by them, but to my mates as well. For a shifter who’d never fit in anywhere, I had hope that maybe this would be my place.

“We’ll miss you,” Clover said, finally meeting my eyes.

“I’ll miss you too, Little Dove.” Clover had fully entrenched herself into my heart. “But we have to do this.”

“You really think you can find out what happened to the Moon Goddess?” Cassie asked. She rarely spoke, so hearing her voice was a surprise and a treat.

“We do,” I told her. “And if we can figure out what’s going on, maybe we can help everyone. Maybe shifters will stop dying out.”

“Do you think she’s alive?” Delilah spoke up this time.

I frowned over at Emma before I answered. “I don’t know.” Pursing my lips, I thought about it. “I’m not even sure if a Goddess can be killed?”

“There are ways.”

We all jumped and I glared over my shoulder at Soren as he and my other two mates entered the room. The warm feelings his wolf had evoked this morning vanished thanks to him startling the crap out of my omegas. All except Harper were now staring at their plates.

“Good morning,” Soren said, reading the shift in the room.

There were murmurs in response to his greeting, but everyone was too busy eating or avoiding looking at the three powerful shifters to say anything else.

The men sat down, sandwiching me between Soren and Atlas, Calder sitting across from me next to Emma. Reaching over, I brushed my fingertips over Soren’s forearm. Our eyes clashed, his darkening to black. I sucked in a breath as desire swept over me. Just touching him had this effect on me now. I was in so much trouble.

“It healed nicely.”

---