There’s a dirty mug in the sink and a box of cereal has been left on the kitchen counter.
Adam checks the cupboards quickly and runs his fingers behind the back of the fridge.
He stops again in the doorway to Thomas’ bedroom and tells himself that he has a good reason for being there. He’s ruling Thomas out as suspect. The sooner he can do that, the sooner they can find the real person who betrayed the Warwicks.
There’s a glass of water beside the bed, and a library book with a bookmark halfway through.
He leans over and sniffs at the bed, knowing that this is definitely outside of his remit. Only one side has been slept in or has been slept in since the last time the sheets were washed. There’s no scent in the bedroom but Thomas with a fainter trace of Ivan, and then the stronger scent of Ronmin.
No other alphas. Lex was right. Or at least, Thomas has never brought one home.
Adam sighs and tells himself not to be such a creep. That’s not what he’s sneaking around Thomas’ apartment for, although he’s starting to wonder what the point actually is.
If Thomas was feeding information to Ronmin, what reason would he have to write it down?
Barbara sent him here and it seemed a good idea at the time, but he’s never been much of a detective. He’s not even sure what he’s looking for.
All he’s found is confirmation that Ronmin was here, but that doesn’t mean much.
Adam runs his hands through his hair and sits down on the bed, leaning his cane against the side.
Get this done and get out. Prove there’s nothing here. Go back to Barbara and tell her that. He doesn’t belong in Fort Gosford. He should be at home, protecting his pack.
He pushes himself to his feet and forces himself to check through the chest of drawers at the other end of the room, running his fingers through the back of each drawer, then pulling each out to feel underneath.
His skin turns cold as his fingertips touch paper at the bottom of the last drawer.
He feels around it carefully, pulling it away gently so it doesn’t rip.
The paper is an envelope, unsealed and yellowed. He takes it over to the window so he can see it in the light, then tips the contents into his hand.
It’s a single photo, soft and worn around the edges as if it’s been handled thousands of times over the years.
Adam feels his heart contract. Was he ever that young? His own face grins back at him from the picture. He’s leaning back against the sofa in the Van Zyle cabin, a glass of cheap whiskey in his hand. He remembers that whiskey. It had given him a nightmare of a hangover. Lex got it cheap off someone who hadn’t bothered to check his ID.
He remembers Thomas taking the photo. It had just been the two of them and there’d been a few firsts that night. The first time Adam had casually touched Thomas’ hand and been rewarded with a shy smile.
Later that night, there’d been their first kiss.
Adam blinks hard. He slips the photo back in the envelope, then back into its hiding place.
This is ridiculous. Investigating Thomas. He might as well investigate himself.
He finds a small suitcase in the closet in Thomas’ bedroom. He grabs handfuls of clothes at random, then takes it into Ivan’s room.
The bed is covered in plushies. He’s not going to fit them all in the suitcase so he takes the ones that look the most worn and dogeared, then fills the rest of the space with spare clothes.
The kid will want his stuff. His son will want it.
He takes the stairs carefully, unsteady on his feet with the weight of the suitcase in one hand and cane in the other.
He goes back via the storage stairs into the kitchen, then into the cellar so he can go out the way he came.
He leaves the staircase at the bottom of the ramp while he checks the cellar. It doesn’t take long. The place is filled with nothing but barrels and bottles.
Adam finds the phone in the last place he looks, tucked behind a row of small kegs on a waist-height shelf. He holds it up to his nose but it’s been sitting in the scent-blocked cellar for way too long. It smells of nothing at all.
The battery seems to be dead. Nothing happens when he presses the power button. He slips it in his pocket, grabs the suitcase and locks up behind him.
Back at the truck, he plugs the phone into the charger and is rewarded by the charging light coming on.
He pulls his own phone out of the glove compartment and checks the screen: seven missed calls and eight messages.
Two minutes later, Adam breaks the speed limit.
THOMAS
one hundred and ninety-three
One hundred and ninety-three. It’s a lot of people when you put them all together, but Thomas remembers all of them.
One hundred and ninety-three omegas and children of omegas have made their way through the Fort Gosford safehouse while Thomas has been there.
Thomas sits at the cabin window in the Aylewood mountains and counts them, sounding one name in his head after another as he watches the sun pass overhead with no news of Ivan.
Counting the omegas by name has become a habit that he is too superstitious to break.
He started counting after the twelfth to fifteenth came through the house. That was a mother and three young children, all under five.
His pregnancy was almost full term and when he hugged the mother goodbye, he remembers his enormous stomach getting in the way. She’d kissed her fingers and laid them against his belly.
Then he’d packed all four of them into the Warwick Taproom van, closed the door and sent them all off to whichever safehouse came next.
He has never known what became of any of the omegas or their children who have gone through his safehouse.
They might have all made it to a safe haven, or they may have all been sent back to the hells that they were trying to escape. That’s the nature of the thing.
After bundling the mother and children into the van, he’d closed the cellar door and listened to the van’s engine recede into the distance and sounded each of their names in his head. It sounded like a prayer, so he did it again.
It started to become a habit, and then a superstition. After each one left, he’d sound their name out, and then all the others that came before them, as if keeping their names alive in his own mind would keep them alive and safe out there in the real world too.
Thomas stares out at the twilight and adds Ivan’s name to the end of the list in his head, keeping him safe out there.
Jacob, Shannon and Cam are huddled in the second bedroom, still playing cards. By the tension in their hushed voices, they’re all fed up with the game, but there’s nothing else to do.
The cup of tea by Thomas’ side is ice cold. He had one sip after Jacob made it for him, but it made him nauseous and he hasn’t had anything since, not even water.
Gregor disappeared shortly after he came back with Jacob and Shannon, then left with strict instructions for them to stay inside the cabin.
Thomas shuts his eyes and recites the names in his head again. His eyes fly open again at the sound of an engine rumbling up the track.
He stays inside only long enough to check that the truck coming belongs to someone he knows, then he is out of the cabin so fast that his feet hardly hit the floor.
Gregor’s truck slows to a stop behind the parked car. In the dim light, Thomas can only make out two figures, both too big to be Ivan, but he might be ducked down in the middle. Or in the back. Or...
No. No Ivan.
Gregor and Luke Winterstoke climb out of each side of the truck. Luke has grown as tall as his brothers, but other than that, he hasn’t changed much since Thomas last saw him at sixteen. Still good-looking, still nerdy, still wearing those ridiculous woolly sweaters that Thomas would never be seen dead in but secretly thinks look really comfy.
Luke smiles at him. “Thomas. Good to see you.”
“Where’s Ivan? Have you found him?”
Luke gives him a sympathetic look
and shakes his head, even as Gregor says, “Not yet. He took part of the way down river, paddling we think. The wildlings are sniffing out where he got out but the rain hasn’t helped. We’ll find him soon. I promise.”
The river. Horrific images start flowing through Thomas’ head.
Gregor and Luke exchange glances.
“Thomas, stay here please,” Gregor says.
Stay here? Where do they think he is going to go? Wait. Where is Gregor going?
The big man is walking purposely towards the cabin. Thomas turns to Luke. The other Winterstoke brother is watching him, face serious.
“What is he doing?”
“Sorry, Thomas. Just wait please.”
“For what?”
Even from his place by the car and with his omega nose, Thomas picks up the scent of fear that suddenly arises when Gregor pushes open the door to the cabin and the omegas inside startle at his presence.
Moments later, Jacob, Shannon and Cam are all filing outside with Gregor behind them.
“What is going on?” Thomas asks again. He shivers. Something is very wrong. For the first time in his life, he’s looking at the Winterstoke brothers and seeing actual alphas. Not alphas he knows, but the tall, muscled creatures that send omegas running through his safehouse and away from danger.
All three other omegas appear to be feeling the same thing. They’re all shivering, and Thomas realizes that he is too. He tucks his hands into his armpits to stop them shaking.
Never trust an alpha. Not even the nice ones.
“We just need to search the cabin,” Gregor says. “It won’t take long. Stay with Luke.”
Why Luke? The others all know Gregor better. Other than Thomas, none of the other omegas have even seen Luke before.
Thomas realizes the answer at the same time that his mind asks the question.
It’s because they don’t know Luke. Luke is scarier, even in his nerdy sweater. The brothers want them on their toes.
Whatever Gregor is doing in the cabin, he’s doing it quietly. They wait in silence under the dripping trees. Luke stands with his arms folded. The omegas huddle together almost by unspoken agreement.
It’s not longer than ten minutes before the cabin door creaks open again and Gregor appears.
He trots down the steps and across the pine needle floor, heading straight for Luke.
“Found another phone,” he says.
Thomas’ gaze darts to the phone in Gregor’s hand, then to Gregor’s eyes. There’s not a trace of sympathy there. Nothing but determination to get his job done.
Thomas frowns. “What do you mean another one?”
A second thought hits. Someone had a phone and they let him wait, completely cut off from contact from the outside world. They let him sit there, terrified out of his wits all day when he could be calling Mom, Adam, Lex. He could have called every single alpha he has ever trusted to get out there and look for Ivan.
“Whose phone is that?” he demands, pointing. “Whose is it?”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Shannon says. “It could have been here when we got here.”
“Now that is ridiculous. Who leaves a phone in a cabin in the middle of nowhere? Is it yours?”
“Of course not.”
“Is it?” Thomas shouts.
“No!”
Shannon puts her hands on her hips. Her eyes narrow. Water is dripping off of her expensive haircut and rolling down the sides of her face. “I know you’re upset,” she says, an undercurrent of irritation to her voice. “No one blames you. We all know what you’re going through, but it’s not going to help anyone to point fingers that don’t need to be pointed.”
Gregor isn’t paying attention to any of them. He’s fiddling with the phone, frowning. “It’s got a PIN. Can’t get in.”
He looks up, stares right at Cam and says, “Want to put the number in for me, kid?”
The air suddenly reeks with fear. Cam shakes his head.
“It smells like you,” Gregor says. “No one’s going to hurt you. We’re not like that. Just unlock the phone.”
Cam whispers something, too low for Thomas to hear.
“Sorry, kid. Can’t hear you,” Gregor says. He doesn’t make a move to go any closer, and Thomas thinks that’s a good move.
Cam is pale and shaking. Thomas wouldn’t be at all surprised if he keels right over in a dead faint.
“I found it,” Cam whispers louder. “It’s not mine. I swear.”
“Where did you find it?”
“There. In the cabin. Behind the books. I put it back.”
“Why didn’t you tell anyone?”
“I was scared.”
Luke and Gregor exchange glances.
“It smell like anyone else?” Luke asks.
“Not really,” Gregor replies. “Bit of everyone, but that can be from the cabin.”
Gregor sighs and rubs his eyes. “Right everyone. You have five minutes to grab your stuff. Then we’re moving.”
“Where to?” Thomas asks. What if Ivan comes back?
Gregor just looks at him, and Thomas realizes that until they have proof as to who owned the phone, he’s not going to get any answers at all. He’s going to have no choice than to do what the alphas tell him.
ADAM
tinny speakers and crazy cults
Adam has the volume turned up all the way, but Barbara’s voice still comes out tinny through the speakers in Adam’s truck, and he has to strain his ears to hear her.
He’s not sure how much is the poor quality of his speakers and how much is the fact that she has lowered her voice to talk to him. It makes him wonder where Lex is.
“It’s not been easy but I’ve got some information on the two omegas with Thomas,” she says. “Shannon Mills: – not her real name by the way, I’m not going to give you that – her story checks out. Wealthy alpha, two kids, both alphas and both grown. She’s all over social media, does a lot of the type of charity work that looks good, but has never had a job that pays. You know the type.
She’s also had more hospital visits than you can shake a stick at. Either she’s one of the clumsiest people on earth or there’s a damn good reason she entered the chain. We see a lot of that kind of thing. Sometimes the more perfect a marriage is on the outside, the more hellish it is on the inside. Seems she was put onto us by someone she volunteered with. I can’t find any connections between her and Ronmin, or any of the big packs for that matter.”
“And her alpha?” Adam asks. He’s still on the highway. It feels like he has been for years. He’s still at least another half an hour from Aylewood. This road didn’t used to feel like it was this long.
“Not much there either. Seems like he pays good money to be part of a pack but also not part of it if you get my drift.”
Adam nods. He does. A lot of wealthy alphas did that: paid into a bigger pack so they could have the protection, but that money came with the expectation that it was the only contribution they were expected to make. They never had to get their hands dirty.
“That’s it for her. Cameron Roth is the complete opposite. Roth is his real name for one thing which wasn’t the brightest move on his part. Most of the omegas coming in give us a fake one. Guessing the boy just didn’t think of it.
He’s not from money. Grew up in an offshoot of one of the Lykos cults.”
Adam winces. That explains why the fellow doesn’t open his mouth and why he’s so terrified of alphas. The Lykos cults don’t believe in omega rights. At all. Everything an omega owns is owned directly by their alpha instead: money, property, even their lives.
“He got mated off young. No choice in the matter, of course. From what I can find out, his alpha was particularly nasty, even for a Lykos, but that’s it. That’s all I have on him. I don’t know how he found us. I don’t know why he got out in the first place. We don’t see a lot of Lykos omegas coming through. Most of ‘em aren’t even aware that escape is an option.”
Adam tightens his fi
ngers on the wheel. He’s been so busy congratulating himself for being one of more enlightened alphas that sometimes he forgets just how bad it is out there.
“Not much of use,” Barbara says over the speakers. “You had any luck with that phone?”
“No, still can’t get in.”
Adam had pulled over the first chance he had after the battery had charged enough to come back on, but the phone was PIN protected, same as the one that Gregor had found.
“I’ll call back if I hear anything new,” Barbara tells him, and disconnects.
Adam puts his foot down on the gas.
Twenty minutes later, he’s turning onto the Aylewood main street. His hip is shrieking at him for making it stay in position in over an hour. He wants nothing more than to pull over, get out of the car and give it a good stretch.
If only the damned thing was happy with one thing or another. He would gladly stand for long periods or sit for long periods, but it doesn’t seem to matter what he does.
Another streak of pain shoots up. It’s starting to hit his stomach, making him nauseous and headachey all at the same time.
He determinedly ignores it. There are more important things requiring attention. He still hasn’t decided what to do with Thomas and the other omegas, for one thing.
Gregor and Luke are moving them to another cabin: one of the few that is empty of summer vacationers. It’s still too close to the town for Adam’s liking.
It was clear that they couldn’t remain at the Van Zyle cabin, but there are limited other places to put them. He also doesn’t have unlimited alphas at his disposal, especially now they’re going to be guarding as well as protecting.
There are some town alphas that he can call on in an emergency, but this is Thomas who is at risk. He’s not going to trust anyone but family to keep him safe.
The answer to most of his questions is almost certainly inside the phone on the seat beside him.
Thomas and the others are safe with Gregor and Luke, and the wild wolves are out looking for Ivan. There’s not much a broken alpha with only one good leg can add.
He’s better served by getting into his office, making some calls and finding someone who can hack the phone.
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