Page 28 of The Coyote's Veterinarian Omega

I let my gaze slide over my shoulder again, and my heart nearly stopped as I spied not a coyote but a fuckingwolfstanding at the top of the knoll, watching me with golden eyes.

“I!” I cried, and the beast’s eyes widened. Then it turned tail, darting back down the hill.

I waited for a second or two, then raced up the knoll. It was stupid, because there was awolfon the other side of it, I knew, and God knew what would happen, but when I crested the hill, all I saw was the creature loping off across the barren earth of what was likely a corn field. It didn’t so much as glance back, instead hightailing it toward a stand of trees near the fence line.

“Wyatt!”

I took a deep breath, closed my eyes. I clutched the kit and the towels, then turned back to the barn. “On my way!”

Cam

The house was quiet when i stepped in. i could hear the refrigerator, followed by the fan on the furnace. downstairs, the water heater was humming through a cycle.

Other than that, there wasn’t a sound. I cocked an ear, listening, wondering if I could pick up the soft sound of breathing over the other noise.

When I couldn’t, I tiptoed through the back door, whirling around to close it as quietly as I could. I didn’t want to have this confrontation with Cal, although I knew it was coming. I would only be able to avoid it for so long.

But the longer, the better in my expert opinion. He was already pissed that I’d revealed the existence of shifters to Wyatt. He was going to be even more pissed that I’d trotted off and spent the night with Wyatt, even after Cal had done everything in hispower to remove Wyatt from my presence.

I knew why he’d done it. I’d been acting like a nutcase, spouting bullshit about Wyatt not being able to leave. Cal was a good alpha, with a good head on his shoulders. He knew alphas lost their heads in the presence of omegas—especially omegas in heat—and he knew that was when bad things happened to omegas.

So he’d just been trying to protect Wyatt.

I bristled at the thought that my mate needed to be protected from me. Then I gritted my teeth and dug my nails into my palm.Thatwas precisely the problem. Wyatt wasn’t my mate. He was some human who had just so happened to smell like an omega, and my lizard brain had sent my alpha instincts into overdrive as a result.

Cal had every right to be pissed at me. I clearly didn’t have a handle on myself—if the incident with Bobby Lam hadn’t proven that, then this certainly did.

The house was, thankfully, deserted. I exhaled deeply, then trotted upstairs to grab a shower and a change of clothes. Despite showering this morning at Vern’s, I could still smell Wyatt on me. I didn’twantto take the scent of him off me, but I knew it would be better if I didn’t stink like Wyatt when Cal finally gave me my dressing down.

I was just toweling off my hair when I heard the crunch of tires on gravel. My heart leapt into my throat. Maybe Wyatt and Vern had finished up early. Maybe Wyatt was coming to check on me—my shoulder still wasn’t fully healed up, although I definitely didn’t need the sling now.

I pitched the towel back into the bathroom and headed downstairs again. As I drew closer, I could hear voices.

Multiple male voices and a couple of female voices, if I wasn’t mistaken. My heart sank, and I peered out the window, confirming my suspicions.

Cal rounded the truck, hauling two big suitcases with him. My youngest brothers, Connor and Cody, were milling about on the driveway, and there was Aunt Caroline in her pretty dress, and her wife, Aunt Karla, who was as big and muscular as Caroline was dainty. Karla was hefting suitcases out of a small sedan—likely a rental—and Caroline was watching appreciatively.

I’d never seen whatever Aunt Caroline saw in Karla, but then, Aunt Caroline was an omega. She probably saw the same thing a lot of omegas looked for in an alpha—big and strong, a good provider.

Karla was that—as far as I knew, Aunt Caroline had never had to work a day in her life. Now, maybe that was because of the family money Aunt Caroline had brought to the marriage, or maybe Aunt Caroline’s “hobbies” brought in more money than I knew. She had won the blue ribbon at the county fair’s pie baking contest nearly every year since I could remember.

At any rate, Aunt Caroline and Karla had been married for ages, and their union seemed to be both as strong and full of love as it had ever been as Karla nudged Aunt Caroline’s shoulder, and the two of them turned toward the house.

And both of them spotted me in the window, their eyes widening. I winced, then slunk to the door and opened it. “Howdy,” I called.

Connor and Cody both turned to look at me. Despite being twins, it was easy to tell the two of them apart—Cody had blue eyes, while Connor joined me in the majority with the amber-tinted irises so common to our wild brethren.

Cal nearly dropped the suitcases he was carrying. “About goddamn time you dragged your sorry butt home, Cameron,” he huffed, tightening his grip on the luggage, then stalking past me. “We’re gonna have a talk, you and me.”

Connor and Cody’s faces lit up with delight. Brats, the both of them. They thought it was funny Cal was gonna give me hell.

Karla and Caroline shared a look. Caroline cleared her throat. “About that,” she said, her gaze darting to me.

I lifted a brow, then flattened myself against the door as Cal stomped back outside. “About?”

“Calvin filled us in on what was going on,” Caroline said, and Karla grinned wolfishly.

“We might have an explanation,” Karla said, clapping me on the shoulder and nearly knocking me over. Despite both of us being alphas, despite Karla being female and me male, she had a good three inches and probably fifty pounds on me. I was pretty sure she could bench press me for a set of a hundred without breaking a sweat.