by Stormy Glenn
“You will not touch him.”
Garret stopped several feet away. “You are defying your alpha’s orders?”
Rob growled as he tightened his arms. “I’d defy the devil himself if meant keeping my mate safe.”
“Your mate?” Raymond shouted. “You can’t mate a human.”
“Is that why you attacked Casey?” Rob snapped. “Because it’s easier to pick on a human than it is a bear?”
“I didn’t attack him,” Raymond shouted right back. “I don’t even know him.”
“You’re lying,” Casey cried out. “You attack me every chance you get.” Casey lifted his shirt, showing the bruises on his side that wrapped around to his belly button. “I haven’t even healed from the last time you beat me up and took my bike.”
Casey didn’t know why, but it felt like the tide of anger had suddenly turned when the alpha saw the bruises on his stomach. He walked forward at a steady pace, stopping directly in front of Casey and Rob.
When Rob growled, the alpha just started at him. After a moment, Rob quieted down as if they had come to some sort of silent agreement. The alpha looked down at Casey as his fingers gently trailed over his skin at the edge of the bruises.
“Do they hurt?” the large intimidating man asked.
“A little,” Casey whispered. He was kind of used to having bruises so he didn’t pay them that much attention unless he rubbed up against something.
“And you got them how?”
“Um…” Casey swallowed hard as his eyes flickered to Raymond. “Well, your son, sir, he took my bicycle and—”
The alpha’s eyebrow rose. “This is all over a bicycle?”
“This time,” Rob growled. “But this isn’t the first time Raymond has gone after Casey.” Rob nodded at Casey. “Look at those bruises, Alpha Barker. Those are more than a few days old. Raymond has been beating Casey up for a very long time and no one has done a damn thing to stop it.”
“Don’t take that tone with me, son,” the alpha snapped. “I was unaware that this was occurring.”
“You are unaware,” Rob said in a steel hard voice, “because everyone is too frightened to come to you when your son does something wrong.”
“Whatever my son has done, he is still next in line for alpha.” The alpha’s eyes narrowed to tiny little slits blazing with anger. “Attacking him is still punishable by death.”
“He attacked my mate.”
Casey felt like the very air still as everyone held their breath. When the alpha reached for him, Casey squeaked and turned into Rob’s chest.
“Calm yourself, Casey.” The alpha’s voice was surprisingly gentle as was his touch as he pulled the edge of Casey’s shirt back. Casey shuddered when he felt the man’s fingers trace over the bite mark Rob had given him. It felt wrong for anyone else to be touching him there.
Hell, it felt wrong for anyone else to be touching him period.
“Damn it.” The alpha’s eyes snapped to Rob. He nodded his head to the far side of the clearing away from everyone else. “Why wasn’t this reported to me?" he asked once they got there. "I should have been informed the moment you mated Casey.”
“Why?” Rob asked. “Because he’s human?”
“Casey’s not human!” the alpha spit out on a growl so low Casey almost missed it.
Another one of those heavy silences filled the small meadow. Casey stared at the alpha, knowing beyond a shadow of a doubt that the man never meant so say that. He wondered if he didn’t want others to know or if he didn’t want Casey to know.
“I’m not human?” Casey asked.
The alpha’s voice was just above a whisper when he spoke, as if he didn’t want anyone else to hear what he had to say. “You’re a bear shifter, Casey.”
“But I don’t shift.” He was pretty sure he would have remembered that.
“And you won’t.”
Casey’s forehead wrinkled as he frowned. “But, you just said—”
“You’re an omega,” the alpha said. “While you are a bear, you will never shift.”
Casey felt like he had been sucker punched. There was a growing ache in the pit of his stomach. “How come no one ever told me?”
“When your mother died, it was decided that it was best if you never knew of your bear heritage. It wasn’t like you were going to shift anyway so it was better if you grew up believing you were human. No one would be able to smell that you were a bear and you wouldn’t feel the needs that a real bear shifter goes through.”
“Who decided this?”
“I did,” the alpha replied. “I had you placed with bear foster families in case there was an issue. When one never developed, I decided to let you believe you were human.”
“Why?”
“Because you’re an omega, damn it.” The alpha’s voice was growing sharper but not louder. He was still speaking in a quiet tone. “If others learn what you are, it puts everyone in danger.”
“Why?” Casey felt like a parrot repeating his question over and over again. He just had so many questions and so few answers.
“Omegas are always gay and they always mate alpha bears.”
Casey blinked in bewilderment. “I’m sorry, did you just say omegas always mate alpha bears?” Casey felt like sticking his fingers in his ears to get out whatever had messed up his hearing because there was no way in hell he had heard the alpha right.
“I did.”
This man was just as insane as his son. “But Rob’s not an alpha.”
“He is now.” The alpha sighed, a resigned expression darkening his face. “You’re an omega, Casey. Now that you’ve mated, your scent is changing. Other bears are going to be able to tell what you are by your scent. They are going to want to mate with you. That’s why omegas are only mated to alpha bears. They need someone strong enough to fight off any challengers.”
“This is insane.” Casey shook his head. The man had to be feeding him a line of crap. He didn’t feel any different.
“Under the circumstances, Rob, I will rescind your punishment for attacking my son,” the man said. “But you will leave my territory by dawn.”
“But…that’s like in two hours,” Casey insisted.
“Then you had better hurry.” The alpha turned and walked back over to stand by his son, who was looking just about as confused as everyone else. “Go now before I change my mind.”
“You’re kicking Rob out of your clan because he defended me when Raymond attacked me?”
“I didn’t attack you!” Raymond shouted. “You threw yourself at me and then went crying to your boyfriend to get him to attack me when I wouldn’t go along with your little plan to mate with the next alpha.”
“Do you ever listen to yourself speak?” Rob asked. “Casey is my mate. He would never throw himself at you.”
“He can’t be your mate,” Raymond insisted. “He’s human. Bears don’t mate humans. It isn’t allowed.” He turned to his father, waving his good hand back toward Rob and Casey. “Tell them.”
“Shut up, Raymond.”
Raymond opened his mouth as if to argue until the alpha cocked an eyebrow and stared at him. A moment later Raymond snapped his mouth closed, but he continued to glare at Casey and Rob.
“Garret, escort Rob and Casey to the border of my territory. From this moment on, they are banished from this clan. They are not to return without my express permission. If they do, their lives will be forfeit.”
Rob’s father gasped.
Garret shook his head as if he didn’t fully agree with his alpha’s decision, but he answered affirmatively anyway. “Yes, alpha.”
“No.” Casey clutched at Rob’s arms when the man started moving them toward the trees. “He can’t really make us leave, can he?”
“I’m afraid he can, Casey.”
“This is wrong, Rob.” What part of that wasn’t he getting? What part of that wasn’t everyone getting? They were just letting this happen. Just like they had let things happen when Alpha
Barker decided not to tell Casey he was a bear. “How can one man decide our fate like this?”
“I’m sorry, cub. It’s just the way things are done.”
“It’s wrong,” Casey said again. “This is our home.”
“Not anymore,” Alpha Barker said.
“So we’re just supposed to leave?” Casey’s voice rose as panic set in. “Now?”
“It’ll be okay, cub.” Casey resisted for about one second when Rob wrapped arms around him. “Remember rule number two, Casey.”
Casey nodded even as he buried his face in Rob’s throat. Maybe being a bear explained why he found such comfort in Rob’s heady scent? It certainly explained why he had accepted Rob so easily. They were supposed to be together.
Rob’s head bent down close to Casey’s, his hot breath blowing across his ear. “Rule number five, cub. Mates always stick together, no matter what the situation. Wherever we’re headed, we’ll be heading there together.”
“It’s still wrong.”
Resigned, Casey lifted his head and turned to look at the man forcing him from his home. He just had one more question for the man. “You said you were the one to make the decision for me after my mother died. Is that correct?”
“It is.”
“Then you obviously knew her.”
The man nodded. “I did.”
“How well did you know her?”
“We were friends.” The alpha’s head cocked as if trying to see where Casey was going with his line of questioning. “Why do you want to know?”
Casey stared the alpha straight in the eyes, daring him to lie as he asked the one question that had been nagging him since he was a child. “Who’s my father?”
The alpha’s dark eyebrows shot up. “I’m afraid that is not for me to say.”
“But you know who he was.”
The alpha sighed again, a sound Casey was coming to hate. “Dawn is fast approaching. You need to go now if you hope to reach the border of my territory before then.”
“Why are you in such a hurry to get rid of us?” Casey asked. “We haven’t done anything wrong.”
“You are a problem I cannot afford to have.”
“But I haven’t done anything,” Casey insisted. Why wasn’t the insufferable man getting that? “Your son attacked me.”
“And that is exactly why you must leave. As I explained, now that you have mated, your scent is changing. It will draw others to you. The strong ones will want to mate with you so that they can become alpha bears. The weak ones will want to be with you because you bring them peace and calm.”
Casey blinked. “Okay, the whole alpha thing aside”—because yuck—“how can making people feel okay be a bad thing?”
Casey almost rolled his eyes when the alpha sighed again.
The man clasped his arms behind his back. “Are you my mate, Casey?”
“What?” Casey squeaked. “No!”
Another yuck.
Alpha Barker smirked as if he knew exactly what Casey was thinking. “As your mate, you will look to Rob for guidance and he may not always have this clan’s best interests at heart. As alpha here, I have to take in account every member of my clan when making decisions. If people started to look to you for comfort and guidance, and you looked toward your mate, my authority would be put into question and I would be forced to challenge Rob. I am hoping to avoid that.”
Casey wasn’t sure that was an answer, but the stubborn look that crossed the alpha’s face said he probably wasn’t going to get more of an answer than that.
“You’ll be a great mated pair,” the alpha finally said, “and I have no doubt that you’ll do great things. You just won’t be doing them here.”
Chapter Twelve
Casey was pouting, and it was probably the most adorable thing Rob had ever seen. His arms were tightly crossed over his chest and his lower lip was so far out of his mouth it could have doubled as a landing strip. His eyebrows were pulled down low over narrowed eyes.
Clearly a snit.
“Do I smell different to you?”
Rob was driving so he had just a second to look away from the front window but he wanted to meet Casey’s eyes so that the man knew he was telling the truth. “No, cub. You still smell like apples and cinnamon to me.”
He understood what Alpha Barker had told them before they left, and he even believed him to some extent. The man had never lied to Rob as far as he knew. But Rob really couldn’t smell anything different about Casey.
True, he smelled a little more like Rob, but that was normal when one mated. Rob knew he smelled a bit more like Casey as well. Their scents would continue to mingle as long as they were mated, which would be forever if Rob had anything to say about it.
“Why would he say that?”
“I don’t know, Casey,” Rob said as he looked back out the front window. He kind of always thought omegas were myths. He had never met one in his lifetime nor did he know anyone that had. It was a little odd to think an omega had lived in his hometown his entire life and he never knew about it. He got the impression that no one else knew either.
But maybe that was the point.
Alpha Barker had been very secretive, which told Rob he didn’t want the others to know Casey was an omega, even after he had been claimed by Rob. It seemed like he especially didn’t want his son to know, and that confused Rob. What did Raymond have to do with Casey being an omega and what did the alpha know about it?
Rob had so many questions and no time to get the answers. They had been hustled away by Garret so quickly, they couldn’t even stop to grab their personal property. Rob’s father had shoved a wad of cash into his hand as they were escorted out of the clearing and into the woods. That was all they had until they could find some place to be for awhile and wait for their stuff to be shipped to them.
It was going to make things interesting. They would have to be careful with their money, stopping here and there to get odd jobs. Rob hated the idea that until they could find something permanent, they would be living in motel rooms. That was no way for his sweet little mate to live.
God, he had fucked up as a mate and provider.
“Do you hate me?”
“What?” Rob shouted as he turned to look at Casey so quickly, the truck swerved.
Casey’s caramel eyes were big and luminous. “Do you hate me?”
“Of course not.” Rob frowned. “Why would you think that?”
“Because I got us kicked out of your clan.”
“Casey, you…” This was never going to work. Rob pulled over to the side of the road and turned the truck off, ignoring the vehicle that pulled up behind him. He unbuckled his seatbelt and the held out his arms. “Come here, cub.”
Casey didn’t even hesitate. He unbuckled and slid across the seat, right into Rob’s arms. Rob tucked Casey to his chest, holding him tight. “Now, you listen to me, Casey Newton. I don’t care what the reasons are that we have to leave. We were planning on finding a new place to live anyway. This just means we move a little farther away than we anticipated.”
“But where will we go?” Casey whispered. “Who will have us once they learn what I am?”
“Casey, if we can’t find a clan to take us in, we’ll make one of our own.”
Casey’s eyebrows were raised when he tiled his head back. “A clan with just the two of us?”
“No.” Rob grinned as he nodded to the back window to two trucks he could see coming up behind them on the road they had just come down. “We’ll be making a clan with them.”
Casey sat up and turned. “Who is that?”
The two trucks slowed, pulling off to the side of the road behind Garret. Rob was in no way surprised when Billy Ray, Jed, and Dwayne climbed out of the vehicles and started walking up to his truck. The surprise for him came when he saw his brother climb out of the passenger side of Dwayne’s truck.
“I suspect that is our new clan, cub.”
Rob watched as Garret climbed out of his c
ar and met up with the others as they walked toward the front of the convoy of vehicles. They all stopped to talk to Garret except Harvey, who simply nodded at the man and kept on walking until he reached the driver side window.
Rob kept one arm wrapped around Casey’s shoulders as he rolled the window down. “Harvey. I wasn’t expecting to see you here.”
Harvey leaned in and rested his arms on the window seal. “You really expect me to stay in a clan that kicks my baby brother out because of some demented idea about an omega creating chaos?”
“He could be right,” Rob insisted even though he didn’t believe it. Casey was too sweetly natured to cause the kind of trouble Alpha Barker had talked about.
“Bullshit.” There was something haunting in Harvey’s eyes, something dark. “I’ve seen chaos, brother, and Casey ain’t it. If anything, we should be rallying around him and keeping him safe from people that want to exploit him. He needs a safe haven, not a clan that won’t stand up for him.”
Wow.
Rob’s heart beat a little faster. He licked his lips, nervous and excited at the same time. “What did Mom and Dad say?”
Harvey chuckled as he reached into his pocket and held out a wad of cash. “When Mom heard what Alpha Barker did, she pulled a bunch of money out of her savings and told me to give it to you. She also told me that if you need more, contact her and she’ll get it to you somehow.”
Rob blinked back his tears. In everything important he had done in his life, his parents had always supported him. Even in this, they had shown once again how much they loved him and accepted the choices he made in his life.
“I’m going to miss them.”
“Not for long.”
Rob’s gaze snapped to his brother. “What do you mean?”
“Do you really think Mom and Dad would stay somewhere that their sons weren’t welcome?” Harvey snorted as he rolled his eyes. “Even now they are putting the house up for sale and Dad is making arrangements to have Alpha Barker buy him out of the construction business. Hell, Mom has already started packing.”
Casey cried out as he pushed himself out of Rob’s arms. Stunned by the misery he could hear in his mate’s voice, Rob didn’t realize what Casey was doing until the man had the door open and was sliding out of the truck.
