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I was officially nervous but also had to know what had been making him stew in his thoughts. I made a go on kind of gesture.
“Are you attracted to Cole?”
I spluttered and choked out a laugh because that was the farthest thing from any of my guesses as to what he might have wanted to talk about. Miles' brow furrowed and he seemed embarrassed, so I quickly composed myself and moved to stand in front of him.
“No, I am not attracted to Cole. He feels like… not quite like pack but closer to that than family. He’s quickly become my best friend and was there for me, for all of us really, through everything that has happened. It’s not sexual at all for me or even romantic but he’s… important.”
Miles tilted his head considering my words and he reached out, taking my hand and slowly tugging me into his chest, giving me plenty of time to resist. Silly Alpha. I would do anything to be in his arms, in any of their arms, every minute of every day. I wrapped my arms around his thick waist and rested my forehead against the side of his neck.
“I think that’s how Cat must view Shae. Someday, if she packs up, I imagine they’ll end up living somewhere close to us. Maybe be our neighbors. Does that bother you?”
Actively trying to think with my hindbrain was a weird thing, since I spent most of my time trying to suppress it. I let it run with visions of Shae and Cat spending time together or Cat living so close. Nothing, no jealousy or possessiveness came to urge me to claw Cat’s eyes out. The opposite actually, that felt right.
“No. Cat feels like Cole to me but a bit more removed. She’s part of Shae’s life. So intertwined that it would hurt Shae to lose her and I would never want that.”
Miles hummed a noise that felt like approval and my chest warmed. I was so comfortable in his arms that my body decided it was time to let me really feel the exhaustion that I’d been pushing off. I yawned into his chest and Miles chuckled, taking my hand to pull me back to the others and let them take me home.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
JADE
We got Ethan and Shae home and, though my Omega wanted us in the nest, I just couldn’t go up. We’d decided as a group to reach out to Bodhi’s friend to see if the trafficked Omega was at the Rothchild house, but I couldn’t let it go. Couldn’t take the chance that they’d botch something and the only lead we had to find the deranged Alpha who’d hurt Shae, hurt Theo, and destroyed so many lives, could slip through my fingers again. I was opening my safe to get out some of my knives and a side arm when the scent of bayberry and oak announced Theo’s arrival.
“Not going to bring me along for the fun?”
I shrugged noncommittally.
“Come if you want to, but our Omega might need his bonded Alpha here tonight.”
Theo moved to press his chest to my back and put his hands on my hips. He leaned down so his chin rested on the top of my shoulder.
“Our Omega wanted me to come with you. None of us go out alone right now, remember, babe?”
Letting my head fall back against his chest, I breathed out slowly.
“I can’t let him get away again?—”
“Technically, I let him get away.”
I growled then, whirling on him and gripping his chin before crowding him back into the wall opposite my safe.
“You didn’t lose him. He nearly killed you with a fucking experimental drug they cooked up in a warehouse. He took Shae. He almost took you. I want his head.”
“I hear you, gorgeous. But what are you going to do? The chances of him hiding out at Pack Rothchild’s house are next to none. As much as I would love to go in and watch you carve them up until you get answers, that won’t do us any good in the long run.”
My frustrated groan was loud in the quiet space of my closet and I struggled to rein in my need for retribution.
“Can’t go into the nest when I’m like this. I can barely keep it out of the bond with Shae. I need to do something, Theo.”
“Then let's go. We’ll drive by the Rothchild pack house and see if the cops followed up. If they did, we will go into the station and explain what Ethan found to Bodhi’s friend.”
“And if the cops didn’t take them in?”
His grin was cold and all the answer I needed. If the cops did nothing, then we would handle it ourselves.
The pack that my Omega’s fathers had tried to sell him off to lived further out of the city, in one of those gated neighborhoods where people loved to flaunt their money and pretend, they had picture perfect lives. The man working the gate didn’t seem all that concerned when we rattled off an address, pretending to be guests, and he let us in without checking our story at all. Idiot.
As we approached the house we were looking for, it was obvious that the cops had actually taken Theo’s tip seriously. There were multiple cruisers and an ambulance on scene with paramedics trying to comfort a barefoot, crying woman and cops blocking three snarling Alphas from her. But the scene playing out before us wasn’t what we’d expected. At first glance, I’d assumed the woman, wearing a t-shirt several sizes too large, was crying because she was afraid. That was until she broke away from the EMT who was walking her to the back of the ambulance and ran straight into Gavin Rothchild’s open arms.
