And Thomas has a kid. It shouldn’t be that much of a surprise. He’s an omega in the prime of his life and he has been gone for a decade.
Still.
Thomas with a kid. Huh.
He wonders whose it is. The kid’s old enough that whoever the father is, he can’t have come along long after Thomas and Adam broke up. For a second there, Adam even wondered if he was his.
The kid couldn’t be. Thomas would have told him. Whatever else happened with them, Thomas would have told him that.
The bigger question is if the alpha is still around, whoever he is. That seems unlikely. He’d be here if he was.
Get a grip, you dolt. You can think about playing boyfriends later. There are bigger things to worry about.
He rolls the window down and takes a deep breath of mountain air, trying to clear his head of the addictive scent of Thomas.
He uses the wake word on his phone and tells it to call Luke. The sound of ringing sounds over the speakers, followed by an unexpected wailing sound when the call is answered.
“Hey bro,” Luke says, and even with the din in the background, Adam can hear how exhausted he is. “Can you hear me okay? Marta just won’t sleep. We’re going crazy here. This teething thing is a bitch.”
“Aw, but she’s so cute.”
Luke snorts. In the background Adam hears Cal making soothing noises at the baby. It doesn’t seem to be working.
“So, everything okay over there?” Luke asks. “You don’t usually call me on vacation.”
Adam explains the situation, then adds, “You ever get any inkling of this?”
“No, not a thing,” Luke replies, then he adds with a smirk in his voice, “So, Thomas is back huh? You kiss him yet?”
“Just get your ass back here,” Adam says irritably, then hangs up.
And the answer to that question would be a ‘no’ but only because he doesn’t know if Thomas wants to kiss him. He probably doesn’t.
Stop thinking about kissing Thomas, idiot. Damn Luke.
He pulls into the drive of the packhouse, thinking about the feel of Thomas’ lips on his with a mixture of annoyance, arousal and nostalgia.
He parks, then heads straight towards his office.
He hasn’t even been inside thirty seconds when Jax pokes his head around the door.
“I hear Thomas Warwick is back.”
You must be kidding. “For the love of Pete. Was there a newsletter?”
“Very funny. Gregor called. I hear Thomas has a kid too.”
“Do you even remember Thomas?”
“I remember you crying like a baby and not leaving your room for a month.”
Adam doesn’t know what to say to that. Jax is right. He had done that. He also doesn’t want it brought up.
Jax waddles in uninvited. Adam’s littlest brother is enormous. The twins are due in a month but it looks like he’s going to pop at any minute.
“Do you think the kid’s yours?” Jax asks. He leans against the desk in Adam’s office at the packhouse, and stares at Adam with an intensity that is frankly a little annoying.
“Of course not,” Adam says with more irritation than he should. “Is this really the thing we need to talk about right now?”
Ronmin is going to be back in Aylewood and causing trouble, and all his brothers want to do is gossip about Adam’s old boyfriend.
Besides, he put his phone down half a minute ago and now he can’t find it. He has a thousand things to do and a dozen people to call and he doesn’t have time for this nonsense.
“You sure? The kid’s the right age. And from Gregor’s description, he looks like you.”
“No, he doesn’t,” Adam says, and it’s the truth. The boy is the spitting image of Thomas. He should have seen it the moment he got into the car.
Besides, Gregor should not be speculating on that kind of thing, and he certainly shouldn’t be sharing it with Jax. The two of them are going to have words the next time he sees him.
“Still, these things happen,” Jax says.
Adam grits his teeth. “Yes, they do, but not this time. Thomas would have told me.”
“But—”
“Give it a rest. We’ve got other things to worry about.” He finally locates his phone on top of the filing cabinet. “If you want to be helpful, give Luke a call for me and see if he’s got an ETA. Ask Gray to talk to the wild wolves and make sure they let us know if they scent anything unusual. We’ve got trouble coming, even if I don’t know the shape of it yet.”
Jax pushes off from the desk, waddles over and envelopes Adam in a hug. “Okay, big brother. Just... if you need to talk about anything, just say so.”
“I will,” Adam replies, even as they both know that he’ll never take Jax up on the offer.
Finally, he’s left alone in the office. He sinks into the chair behind the desk and rubs at his leg. The rubbing helps a bit, but not as much as he’d like it to.
To add to the chaos, he has a surgeon’s letter burning a hole in his pocket.
He needs to make a decision on that, and soon. The stakes have become a lot sharper in the last few hours. This whole mess with Thomas has clarified that. He can’t have surgery. Not now.
He can’t afford to be off his feet for weeks. A leader who is unsteady on his feet is better than a leader who is not on his feet at all.
He tucks the letter into the top drawer of his desk and gets started on the phone calls.
Two hours later, he’s a little more confused and a lot more angry.
The Foster pack in Button Oak have almost certainly taken in omegas at the behest of the Warwicks, but when Adam pressed Max Foster for the details, all the Foster pack leader would say was “You’d better ask Barbara about that.”
A quick google has also revealed that the Warwick Taproom franchise has temporarily closed multiple branches citing ‘family business’ as the reason.
When he calls the Taproom in Fort Gosford, a pre-recorded voice tells him that it is closed until further notice.
Out of all the people for the Warwicks to cross, Aidan Ronmin is one of the worst. He’s been sniffing around Aylewood for months and for no good reason that Adam can even discern.
Ronmin has been hoovering up territory for miles around Fort Gosford, but all his previous targets made sense. They had money, or resources, or were strategically located.
The Aylewood packs aren’t anything other than a bunch of small mountain packs without anything other than a lot of wilderness, cabins, territorial wild wolves, and a handful of apple farms.
Even the larger town of Button Oak doesn’t have much to distinguish it unless you live there.
Adam gets to his feet to open the filing cabinet. It doesn’t take him long to find what he’s looking for.
Decades worth of alliance agreements are bundled together in a single folder, with the second-latest one right at the top. That was signed six months ago. The oldest is over a hundred and fifty years old.
Each has been signed by an Adam Winterstoke, six generations of them. One after the other.
Adam takes the folder back to his desk and pulls out the latest agreement. For the most part, it’s a carbon copy of the others. He’s had a lawyer look over each one before he signs it but that’s always been because he’s naturally cautious and it seemed the sensible thing to do.
He’s never had any real concern about any of their allied packs or suspected that any of them might break the agreement.
They’ve gone a hundred and fifty years without any real trouble. He’d assumed that another hundred and fifty was in the offing, but now he’s starting to wonder if he has been naive.
He’s read it multiple times over the years, but now he reads it again. It’s written in legalese but it seems clear enough.
The packs agree to back each other up if any of the others are threatened or need substantial help. They agree to not act in any way that will endanger the others.
They agree to notify the others of any impending threats. The
n there are pages of detail around territory and respecting those territories.
The latter is the reason that Adam hasn’t set foot on a Warwick farm or property in a decade. After everything that happened with Thomas, Barbara Warwick forbade it and Adam respected that for the sake of the alliance.
Now it turns out that the respect only went one way.
Adam gets to his feet and grabs his phone again. He takes a deep breath before he dials Barbara’s number.
It goes to voicemail the first time, so he hangs up and tries again.
Barbara answers on the second round, sounding out of breath. “Can’t talk now.”
There’s a crash on the other end of the line, and Barbara swears. “What did you fuckers have to do that for?”
“Barbara?”
The line goes dead.
Adam calls Barbara’s number again twice but it goes to voicemail.
He hesitates. He was banned from Warwick land after he bit Thomas and he has always respected that.
However, it seems that the rules regarding Thomas are a lot more flexible than he thought. He’s not unaware that Barbara could have sent Thomas to Button Oak instead.
She could have continued to keep Thomas away from him, but when it came to the crunch, she chose Adam because she knows he’ll protect Thomas with his life.
Thomas might be the one bearing the scar, but the bite claimed Adam too, even if he doesn’t have any physical marks to show for it.
He shoves the phone in his jeans pocket and grabs his keys.
THOMAS
buckets of water and an overgrown beard
Thomas watches Adam leave, and tries to ignore a sinking feeling of abandonment.
His hand reaches up unconsciously to the scar on his neck. It took months after the bite before the worst of the withdrawal began to fade, and even then it never did completely.
There is still a part of him that sleepily reaches for Adam every night and is heartsick when he isn’t there.
He blinks. He can’t think about that now. There’s a strange alpha walking towards him, or rather an alpha who has grown completely out of the boy he was and into unfamiliar manhood.
The sixteen-year-old Gregor he knew didn’t have an enormous beard, although the shock of blond hair hasn’t changed. Nor have his eyes.
Thomas is aware of watching eyes from the cabin. Whatever misgivings he has, can’t be public. He needs to reassure them, whatever he might be feeling.
Thomas puts a smile on his face as Gregor draws closer. Suddenly he’s enveloped in a great bear hug, and then pushed away with big alpha hands so that Gregor can get a good look at him.
“Thomas Warwick,” Gregor says breaking into a grin. “It has been a long, long time. Look at you. Your hair got long. What happened to that awful buzzcut your mama gave you?”
“My mother doesn’t cut my hair anymore,” Thomas says, laughing “and it seems you don’t cut it at all. Or ever. You got hairy, man.”
Gregor grins again. “It’s easier this way. Now, are you going to tell me what’s going on here? Sounds like I’m going to be playing security guard for you and your friends.”
He’s grinning as he says it, but there’s a concerned look in his eyes that makes the worries that Thomas had about him melt away. He’s bigger and there’s a lot less visible skin, but this is still the Gregor he knew.
“Something like that,” Thomas replies.
Gregor gives his hand a squeeze. “Don’t worry. I’ll bite anyone who comes close.” He gives Thomas a wink. “Want to give me a hand with the stuff?”
Adam was in such a hurry to leave; he didn’t even bother to help bring in the supplies that Gregor brought. He just unloaded them from the truck and left them by the car.
Or maybe he’s used to getting his brothers to do all the drudge work, Thomas thinks.
He says, “Sure.”
He turns back to the cabin and sees Ivan’s small face peering out of the cabin window. Thomas beckons. This is a perfect job to keep his son occupied.
“Did Adam say anything about the other omegas?” Adam had had a hurried conversation, glancing over his shoulder at the cabin before he took Gregor’s keys and drove off.
Gregor gives him an appraising look. “Not a lot,” he says. “That they’re nervous. Don’t worry, I’ll keep a good distance. Oh. Who’s this?”
Ivan jumps from the porch to the pine-scented ground and races over.
“Hello,” he says.
“Hello young man,” Gregor replies with a smile. “Nice to meet you.”
“Ivan, this is my friend Gregor. You want to give us a hand getting this stuff inside?”
Ivan nods and races over to the pile of stuff by the car. Thomas follows with Gregor at his side.
“I wasn’t sure what you needed so I just got the basics,” Gregor says. “Just let me know what else you’ll need and I’ll call Adam.”
“A phone maybe. We had to leave them all behind when we left Fort Gosford. Too easily tracked, you know?”
Gregor nods. “I’ll ask Adam.”
Thomas looks at the stuff lying on the ground. There are four sleeping bags and pillows, a stack of blankets, a camping stove, and several boxes and bags of groceries. There’s also a suitcase. He gives Gregor a quizzical look.
“Clothes,” Gregor says. “I had no idea what sizes you’d need but some of it should fit. Maybe not the kid. We’ll have to bring something for him.”
“We’ll manage for now,” Thomas says. It wouldn’t be the first time he’d rolled sleeves up on Ivan. “But yeah, if you could add some clothes to the list. Age nine to ten should do it.”
“Right you are,” Gregor says, grabbing the suitcase in one hand and hefting one of the boxes under the other arm.
Ivan takes two of the rolled up sleeping bags and follows him.
Thomas bends for a box and hears Gregor say, “So how old are you, Ivan?”
Nine to ten. I just said, Thomas thinks, but clothing isn’t the reason that Gregor is asking.
Ivan drops the sleeping bags on the pine-needle covered porch and answers, “I’m nine.”
“And when’s your birthday?”
“May Eighteenth.”
There’s a moment of silence, then Gregor says, “Oh, mine’s in May too.”
“Except not the same year,” Ivan says.
“Nope. I’ve got a lot more years on you, kid.”
“Yes, lots.”
Gregor laughs. “Gee thanks.”
Thomas puts two bags of groceries down on the porch.
“I’ll grab the rest of it,” Gregor says. “They’re heavy. There’s cleaning products in that one.” He nods towards one of the bags that Thomas just put down.
Thomas shoves the door open with his shoulder again.
“Everything okay?” Shannon asks. She and Cam are just standing against one of the far walls, seemingly not doing anything, but then Thomas realizes that they have a direct view of the front of the cabin from their location. They’ve been watching everything going on outside.
“It’s fine. The new alpha is Gregor, Adam’s brother. He’s a good one.”
Cam and Shannon exchange looks, then Shannon says, “Okay.”
Thomas can see what she’s thinking. Never trust alphas. Not even the nice ones. Maybe it won’t be those exact words but it will be something similar.
Thomas shakes the thought away. Whether any of them like it or not, they’re going to have to trust the Winterstoke brothers.
Gregor’s voice calls in from the porch. “I’m just going to have a sniff around. Familiarize myself with the place. I’ll be close enough if you call.”
Ivan comes moping in a second later. “He said I couldn’t go with.”
“See if you can find some rags so we can give the floor a wash,” Thomas says, and the boy darts away to look for them.
He’s been lucky with Ivan in some ways. The boy is always keen to help out, although Thomas has never been sure if that was due
to his parenting skill or some natural instinct on Ivan’s part. He certainly didn’t get it from Thomas.
The next few hours are occupied with taking down the stinking drapes, scrubbing down the surfaces, and going down to the stream for bucket after bucket of ice-cold water.
They salvage some of the furniture, and dump the rest, along with disintegrating curtains, cushions and bedding out the back of the cabin.
Thomas catches a glimpse of Gregor every now and then from the open windows of the cabin, or as he empties out yet another bucket of now-filthy water out of the back.
Gregor spends the time in wolf mode, circling scenting the air and staying moving, circling back to the cabin every few minutes, but not coming in.
Cleaning the cabin takes the better part of the afternoon, and even then there is only so much they can do to make it habitable. The place has been abandoned for years.
They separate the bedrooms into one for Cam and Shannon, and one for Thomas and Ivan, making make-shift beds and rolling out sleeping bags onto the now-clean floors. If it rains and water starts coming in through the roof, Thomas and his son are going to have to share in the smaller bedroom. In the meantime, Thomas quite likes the idea of going to bed and getting to watch the stars as he goes to sleep.
By sunset, Shannon is busy heating up cans of chili on the gas stove in the kitchen, while Cam cuts and butters bread beside her.
Thomas is worried about the young omega. Shannon has taken him under her wing like a big mother hen, and he sticks by her side, but she’s whispered to Thomas that Cam hardly talks to her either.
Both of them have seen the scars on Cam’s legs: bright red lines that are replicated on his arms, and against his shoulders where his neck meets his collar.
Thomas doesn’t know where the omegas he looks after come from. He’s not supposed to ask, and he doesn’t, but Cam isn’t the first like this that he’s seen.
They eat mostly in silence, or the omegas do. Ivan keeps the conversation going well enough for all of them.
While Cam and Shannon wash the dishes, and Ivan goes to wash up and brush his teeth, Thomas piles a plate high and takes it to Gregor outside.
The alpha has kept his distance throughout the afternoon. Occasionally, he’s disappeared: to check out scents from further afield, Thomas assumes.
Winterstoke Wolves Collection : An MM Mpreg Shifter Romance Bundle Page 42
