by Nora Phoenix
If he’d had any doubts left about the depths of Bray’s insecurity, the alpha’s first reaction sealed it. “They don’t?”
How was it possible that a man his size could look like a puppy that had just been kicked? Kean’s heart filled with love.
He got up from the table, rinsed his coffee cup, and placed it in the dishwasher. When he turned around, Bray was still sitting at the table, following his every move with anxious eyes. Kean walked over, and before the alpha could react, he leaned in and kissed him softly on his cheek. He forced himself to leave it at that, though every fiber of his being was calling out for more.
“No, alpha, we really don’t.”
22
Palani sat down with Sando about once a week to stay up-to-date on his progress. Granted, that progress was slow, much slower than they had hoped. Sando was working his way through the boxes of medical records from Dr. Baig’s patients that Kaila Kelley had unearthed for them, but so far nothing had stood out to him to further investigate. They had debated bringing in another genetics expert to help him, but had decided against it for security reasons. Instead, Lucan had offered to go through the medical records first to see if there was anything he thought was of interest.
The beta was not an expert, but he had a good head on his shoulders and Sando had taught him some things to look out for. When he walked into Sando’s office in the clinic, Palani had no trouble distinguishing between Sando’s notes and Lucan’s. The first were illegible scribbles full of formulas and medical jargon. The latter were neatly written, some even color-coded. Palani decided he liked Lucan more and more every day.
The two of them were hard at work, two heads bowed together, so concentrated they hadn’t even noticed him walking in. Their elbows were touching, Palani noticed, and he smiled. Was there something going on between the two of them? Lucan hadn’t approached him yet for permission, but maybe he would soon enough. Then again, he would have to either break things off with the alpha he was seeing—seeing being a euphemism for rather passionate encounters—or the three of them would have to find a match together.
Palani considered those three, decided they had potential, then shook his head. No, they would have to figure it out themselves. He was not getting involved. He was leading a pack, not moonlighting as a matchmaker.
“Hey boys,” he said. “How are we doing? Any news?”
Two heads turned around at the same time, and Palani only had to see their expressions to ascertain that yes, they did have something to tell him. He found a seat, after carefully removing a stack of papers and handing them to Lucan, who accepted them with a smile.
“Talk to me,” Palani said, leaning forward.
Sando looked at Lucan, and that simple gesture told Palani a lot about their relationship. He suppressed a smile, not wanting to alert them he was onto them.
“Do you want to tell him?” Sando asked shyly.
Lucan shook his head. “No. This is your show. I’m only assisting you.”
Oh yes, Palani really did like him.
“Remember that I took blood from every gene carrier who volunteered for this research?” Sando started.
Palani nodded. Of course he did. His blog post had brought almost a hundred omegas out of the woodwork, almost all from the city where they lived. Not all of them had tested positive, but Sando had found seventy omegas willing to come in for regular tests so he could research the gene further.
“When comparing all the test results, I found something…interesting, I guess it would be the right word. Disturbing? I'm not sure.”
Palani picked up on the omega’s stress. What had he found that had him so worried? “What did you discover?” he asked.
Sando and Lucan exchanged another long look, with the beta nodding at him for encouragement.
“One of the omegas I tested was Sven. As we all know, he was adopted, and he doesn’t know who his birth parents are. Enar tried to discover who they were, but Sven's adoption records were sealed at the request of his birth mother.”
Palani’s stomach swirled. Oh my god. Had Sando found Sven’s biological family?
“He’s a genetic match with another omega I tested,” Sando said quietly. “And it’s someone you know.”
“Who?” Palani asked, his mind rapidly considering every option.
He didn’t know that many omegas with the gene personally. There was Vieno, but that seems unlikely as they have grown up together. Was it Ruari? Or Sando himself? That seemed even more far-fetched, considering they weren’t even sure who Sando’s biological parents were. His father had been a beta, so either his other parent had been a mother, or he had been adopted, somehow. Still, a biological connection between him and Sven didn’t seem logical. What other omega had he met?
Then it hit him. He hadn't met them, but he'd written about them. There was only one other option, and it fit with what he had learned about them, keeping things from their husbands.
“Sven is a McCain?” he asked softly.
Sando nodded, a look of relief on his face that Palani had figured it out himself. “The two moms you talked about, two of their sons volunteered for the research, Michael and Matthew McCain.”
“Abby McCain’s son’s,” Palani remembered.
“Yes. They're a partial genetic match to Sven, leading me to believe he’s their cousin.”
Palani tried to process that information. “Abby and Rosalind were two sisters who had married two brothers or cousins, I can’t remember. That’s why they both had the last name McCain, but they were sisters. The third McCain woman wasn’t, she was their sister-in-law. Would that help you determine whose son Sven would be?”
“Yes. I saw that in the files, and that helped me determine that Sven is in all likelihood a son of Gillian McCain, their sister-in-law.”
“Oh my god,” Palani said. “She’s the one who lost two sons, Colton and Adam.”
He remembered their stories. Hell, how could he forget? They had been the ones who started the whole research into the gene. Colton had been a stripper, a former patient of Enar’s, who had committed suicide caused by a major depression. And Adam, his younger brother, had shot himself after three alphas had sexually assaulted him at the nursing home where he worked, then proceeded to blame him for it. They had been the ones who had started it all. Palani couldn’t believe there was a surviving brother after all, a surviving son.
“We need to tell him,” he decided.
“Palani, don’t forget that Sven is pregnant. Is this the right time to tell him?” Lucan spoke up.
Palani blew out a slow breath. “Good point. Let me think about this. I could tell Grayson, but I'd hate to put him in a position where he has to hide something from his boys. Maybe I’d better ask Enar for advice here.”
He considered that, then decided that was the best option. “But thank you for telling me, Sando. That’s something I never even expected.”
“Imagine the reaction of that woman,” Lucan said softly. “She lost two sons and may be getting one son back. And not just that, but she’ll be a grandmother. Isn’t that something? After everything she has lost, to bring her a message of life?”
The beta sounded emotional, and Palani couldn’t blame him. He was feeling it himself, and even though he had never met her, he couldn’t wait to tell her the good news. But first, he and Enar had to decide whether this was the right time to tell Sven.
“That’s not everything,” Sando said. “We’ve had a breakthrough in the actual research as well.”
Palani leaned forward again. “Tell me.”
“As I told you, my father’s last notes let me to believe that the alpha-beta-omega relationship was crucial to the shifting process. I wasn’t able to prove that theory until Lidon had shifted. I compared the tests I did on the four of you before and after Hakon was born, and then again after Lidon had shifted a few times. There are definite changes in your genetic sequences. The scientific explanation would bore you to tears, or so Lucan assured me,
but the gist of it is that the proteins in all four of your bodies have changed. Lidon’s most of all, but Vieno is a close second, with you and Enar following behind. I'm now confident in stating that an alpha-beta-omega relationship is crucial to shifting, though I can’t tell you exactly how. All I can say is that the four of you are influencing each other, and both your blood work and your genetic code shows it. Your codes have become more alike, and what’s most amazing, is that one spot where gene carriers have a bit of DNA in common with the wolves, is now present in all four of you. It’s like it’s contagious, somehow, like Vieno is transferring it to the three of you.”
Palani forced a deep breath into his lungs, which were tight with tension after that explanation. He didn’t need Sando to explain to him what the results would be. All three of them were moving toward being able to shift. Not merely Lidon, but the three of them as his mates. The longer they stayed together, the more their codes would become similar and would ultimately allow them to shift as well. It was mind-boggling and amazing and terrifying at the same time.
“What about Hakon?” he asked. “What does his genetic makeup look like?”
The look on Sando’s face was pure wonder. “This is where it gets really interesting,” he said.
Palani couldn’t suppress a laugh. “Oh, because what you just said was normal? Holy fuck, man, you told me I’ll be able to turn into a wolf!”
It took a second for Sando to realize Palani wasn’t actually upset with him, and then he smiled. “Okay, I get your point. Those results were in line with what I was expecting, but Hakon is where I was stunned. In a good way,” he added quickly when he saw Palani freeze with worry.
“Spit it out,” Lucan said, bumping Sando’s shoulder with his own. “You’re scaring the crap out of him.”
“Right, right, sorry. Erm, my guess is that you all expected Hakon to be Lidon’s son biologically, right? He is the alpha heir, after all.”
Palani’s head got light and dizzy. “He is Enar’s son?” he asked, jumping to the only other option.
Sando slowly shook his head. “No. He’s all of yours.”
Palani blinked, then blinked again, still not following. “I don’t understand. What do you mean, all of ours?”
“I compared his DNA to all of yours, and like you, I expected it to be a mix of Lidon and Vieno. It is, for the most part, but there is DNA of you and Enar in there as well. It shouldn’t be possible, and I’ve never, ever seen this or even heard of this, but I’ve checked my results five times, and there’s no denying the truth. He has about ten percent of your DNA and ten percent of Enar’s. Don’t ask me how, but it’s there.”
Palani tried to process it, tried to force his brain to make sense of it, but he couldn’t. “How is this even possible? I'm a beta. We can’t produce children with omegas.”
“You couldn’t,” Sando corrected him. “Not in our modern genetic makeup. But something is changing in your bodies that is causing more than the shifting. Don’t you remember what my father told you, that in the old days, betas were able to produce children with omegas?”
He was right. Oh my god, he was right. Melloni had mentioned that, the first time he and Enar had visited him. And the man had been all excited about their foursome that second time. Had he known this? Had he not only anticipated the shifting, but this as well?
He couldn’t wrap his head around the consequences. It would mean…it would mean he could have a child of his own with Vieno. No, not of his own, because that was not how it worked anymore. But like Lidon had donated most of the parental DNA with Hakon, Palani might be able to do it for a second child, or maybe a third, after Enar. Time would tell, but the idea that he could have biological offspring, it was… No, he corrected himself. Hakon was his biologically speaking. Ten percent was still ten percent. That baby had his blood, his DNA in him. God, his head was a mess.
“I don’t know what to say. My mind is blown. Can I tell the others about this?”
Sando nodded. “Of course. I would never ask you to keep secrets from your mates, but a word of caution. I have no idea how this works, or if it only works for the four of you because of Lidon’s blood and heritage, or if it’s applicable to others.”
Palani considered that. “We can test the theory with Sven’s baby,” he said. “Grayson, Lars, and Sven are in a similar relationship, so when their baby is born, we can see if he shows mixed DNA.”
“It’s a lot to take in,” Lucan said, and Palani realized that they were in a similar position. As a beta, Lucan always had the disadvantage of not being able to have kids with an omega, but this could change that. He would need an alpha to make the alpha-beta-omega connection complete, but then it could be possible. Man, this changed everything. It meant Lucan and Kean could be dads too. How amazing was that?
“One more thing,” Lucan said. “We’re dumping a lot on you, but this is important.”
Palani chuckled. “More? Have mercy, man. My brain can't take much more.”
“This is of a different caliber,” Lucan assured him. “Remember that I helped Sando apply for some research grants? Well, one of them was granted.”
“That’s great news! How much?”
Grayson’s initial grand had helped Sando get started, but they were nowhere near done yet, and the omega needed continuous funding to keep going with his crucial research. Now that the news about the gene was public, they had decided he might as well go public with his research grant requests.
“It’s for a hundred grand,” Lucan said. “And before you get all excited about it, I think you should check it out. I looked up the foundation behind the money, and my alarm bells are going off. They're an unknown, completely new, barely any presence on the internet. I think you should look into it before we accept.”
Man, Palani thought, they really had chosen their pack well. Or the pack had chosen itself, he wasn’t sure. But even that chance encounter with Lucan, meeting Lidon during an arrest of all things, had proven to be so crucial to their pack. He couldn’t even imagine them functioning without Lucan, without Grayson and Bray. They were such an integral part of their pack, of their family. And now Lucan proved he had the smarts to look out for the pack first.
“Thank you,” Palani said. “Send me the info and I’ll look into it.”
Both men nodded and Palani rose. “Thank you so much for your hard work, you especially, Sando. I am in awe of what you have discovered so far, and your father would be so proud of you.”
It killed him not to be able to say anything about Watkins’s findings, but they still hadn’t heard back from him, and Palani was fearing the worst by now. Before Sando could even react or say anything, Lucan’s hand came down on his shoulder, another telling gesture.
“You get back to your research, Sando,” Palani said. “Lucan, walk me out, would you please?”
His eyes met Lucan’s, and he was pretty sure the beta had an idea what this would be about. He nodded and followed Palani to the hallway of the clinic.
“I meant what I said in there,” Palani said. “The two of you are doing phenomenal work, and we're not only proud, but super grateful. That being said, I trust you'll come find me if you need to ask my permission for anything.”
Lucan blushed, a pretty red glow that stained his cheeks and made him even cuter than he already was. “We’re not there yet. He needs closure about his father first.”
Palani cocked his head, studied him. “I also trust that when the time is there, you will either end things with the alpha you’ve been seeing or bring the three of you together.”
The blush on the beta’s face intensified. “You heard?” he mumbled, shuffling his feet.
“Here’s a tip, Lucan. There’s very little happening in this pack without me being aware. For your sake, in the future, assume that whatever you’re doing, I'm aware of it. That will save us both a lot of trouble, don’t you agree?”
Lucan only nodded, and Palani smiled as he walked out. His guess was he would see the
beta again soon, asking for permission to woo a certain omega. He almost rubbed his hands. Maybe he should consider a career as a matchmaker after all.
23
Bray was doing his daily security briefing with Palani, going over every bit of news they could think of. He appreciated the daily briefing, learning as much information as he gave himself. Between him and Palani, he doubted there was anything happening on the ranch they were unaware of. And fuck knew they had to stay on top of things with this new threat looming over their heads.
He was content with how the security updates were functioning. He’d spent a lot of time developing a new security system for the whole ranch, letting Palani and Lidon chime in every step of the way, as well as his men. It was an approach he wasn’t used to, as he usually decided things on his own, but this job was more complex than anything he’d done so far.
Part of it was also because Palani kept insisting things work differently in a pack. Getting everyone’s input was of crucial importance not just to get them to accept the final outcome, he’d explained to Bray, but also because different people offered different views and together, they were smarter.
Bray had thought that a little idealistic, until a few of the men he’d consulted had pointed out flaws in his plan that he hadn’t thought of. After that, he’d come to appreciate the input of the different men, even if they had no security background. Palani being a prime example, though the beta had studied up, as he did with everything.
“The front gate guard house is fully operational as of this morning,” he told Palani. “There will be two guards on duty there twenty-four/seven, but as agreed, they won’t be pack.”
Palani blew out a slow breath. “Yeah, Lidon still isn’t happy with that, but I don’t think we have much of a choice.”
