Thorn, sickened and horrified, had to stand up and move around, pacing across the room.
“They just took you off the street? Didn’t anyone report you missing?”
“My family tried to, I think, but… I’m an omega. The police convinced them that I’d just run off with some alpha.”
“That’s how you ended up mated to Harrison?”
Daniel nodded wearily. “I didn’t find out for a month that I was his second mate. He already had Jaxon, but both of Jaxon’s babies had been girls. Harrison wanted a son, an alpha just like him. He wasn’t happy when I had Sammy, but he said it was a step in the right direction. Only I never went into heat, and I didn’t get pregnant again. He got more and more frustrated with me, and Jaxon hated me. Nothing I did was ever right. Not cooking or cleaning or in bed. Not looking after Sammy. I’m a bad mate, a bad omega.”
Thorn sat down heavily, leaning forward.
“Why did you leave?”
He knew, but he still had to hear it from Daniel.
“I tried to run before. Once I even got back to my family, but I was pregnant, and they didn’t want the responsibility. They called Harrison to take me back.”
Thorn closed his eyes at that, taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly. Daniel didn’t deserve to deal with his anger. He wouldn’t understand that Thorn’s fury wasn’t aimed at him.
“What made this time different?”
“He was using Sammy to get me to behave. I couldn’t let that happen. I had to get Sammy out of there.”
“And you did,” Thorn assured him. “Sammy’s safe, thanks to you.”
He desperately wanted to tell the omega that everything was going to be okay, that he’d get him out of there and take him home, and they’d live happily ever after. But this wasn’t a fairy tale, this was real life. And real life was never simple.
“Why did you stay with me?” he asked Daniel. “Why did you agree to mate with me? Because you found somewhere safe?”
Thorn had wanted to believe there’d been true love between them, but he could see now that was a fantasy. He’d never have what Brax and Cole had.
“At first, yes. But if all I wanted was safety, I’d have been better off letting Oliver find me a place in a shelter or a work program, somewhere so far away that Harrison would never find us.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“Because you were there. You were patient and kind. You were good with Sammy. And you liked my cooking. It got to the point where I… I couldn’t bear the thought of leaving you. So I guess I buried my head in the sand and tried to pretend Harrison had never existed.” The omega let out another sob. “I wish I’d never met him. I wish I’d met you instead.”
Thorn couldn’t just sit there any longer. He crossed the room and took Daniel into his arms again, letting the omega cry into his chest.
“Please, please,” Daniel begged. “Promise me you’ll take your babies. You won’t let Harrison have them. I don’t care if I have to stay locked up in here until they’re born, so long as I know they’ll be safe with you once they’re here.”
“Shh,” Thorn murmured, trying to hush the sobbing omega.
He was humbled and pained by the fact that Daniel was begging for his children and not for himself. He saw himself as past saving.
“I’ll do everything I can to see all of you safe. You have my word.”
This close to Daniel, he could get the sweet scent of the omega’s pregnancy, the telltale sign that had given him away to Harrison. Who knew what the alpha would do when Daniel was handed back to him? Thorn would do everything in his power to prevent that, whatever it took.
He found Brax and Oliver waiting for him outside.
“Well?” Brax asked.
“Harrison’s pack abducted him off the street almost four years ago, claimed him as theirs, and basically made his and Sammy’s life a living hell. That’s why he ran. He thinks he is Harrison’s mate, but he’s also pregnant.”
“Pregnant by you?” Oliver said.
“That seems likely. But if that’s true, then whose mate is he? Mine or Harrison’s?”
“Well, think about it,” Oliver said. “Given how his mating to Harrison came about, they probably never formed a real bond. Assuming Daniel never actually went into heat, and given his only pregnancy to a pack alpha resulted in a single birth and not multiples, he was never really mated to Harrison.”
It all made perfect, if horrible, sense.
The army coordinator moved toward them.
“You’ve finished your visit, good. I’ll show you out.”
“Daniel says he’s pregnant. I assume you’ve confirmed that?” Thorn asked him.
The coordinator glanced down at the clipboard in his hand, flipping through the pages. “Um… yes. Confirmed pregnancy, early first trimester, twins. He’s about ten days along.”
“Then it is a pack pregnancy?”
“He is a pack omega,” the coordinator said.
“But he’s not this pack’s omega,” Brax explained. “Ten days ago, he was living with us. Thorn is his alpha. He fathered the babies.”
The coordinator looked from Thorn to his clipboard and back. “According to our intake records, the alpha of this pack, Harrison, claims the omega as his.”
“They do have a child together, but there’s no bond. Daniel’s my mate,” Thorn asserted.
“I—” The coordinator looked confused. “I’ll have to run this by my supervisor. Excuse me.”
He hurried away.
“Now what?” Oliver asked.
“Now we wait for the slow wheels of bureaucracy to turn,” Brax said sagely. “Let’s find some seats.”
Thorn was too agitated to sit. He paced back and forth for the hour it took anyone to come back to them.
He was surprised to see Officer Greggs himself and knew it wouldn’t be good news.
“If I understand correctly, there’s a… dispute over which pack this pregnant omega belongs to.”
“There’s no dispute,” Thorn said hotly. “Ask him. He’s been living with us for months, we’re bonded, and he’s pregnant with my kids.”
“Be that as it may, Harrison claims that he and Daniel have been bonded for years, that they have a child together, and that you stole the omega from him. He said Daniel escaped and came home to him.”
“Daniel went back to Harrison because he thought the alpha would track him down and take back his son.”
“Harrison’s son? Sammy? You think it’s strange a father would want to be reunited with his own child?”
“I think you should get Daniel’s side of the story. Then you’ll understand. Harrison didn’t mate with him, he abducted him.”
“Funny, that’s exactly what Harrison is accusing you of doing.”
Greggs smiled pleasantly at him, and it was all Thorn could do not to wipe that smirk off of his face.
“Talk to Daniel. Hear his side.”
“That’s the thing. This is a dispute between two packs. Daniel doesn’t have a side, he doesn’t have a say. Your pack says Daniel is yours. Harrison’s pack claims he is his. The living child and the pregnancy don’t matter. Pack law applies.”
Thorn thumped a fist against the wall when he realized what Greggs was getting at. The officer kept talking.
“In a dispute over a mate, when talks fail, the two alphas involved engage in combat. The winner takes the spoils, so to speak. Either you forfeit your claim on Daniel and all his progeny and head on home, or you agree to this challenge. Harrison has already accepted.”
Thorn couldn’t walk away. It didn’t just mean turning his back on Daniel, it meant forfeiting his claim on his children and Sammy. But if he fought Harrison and won, all their problems would be solved. Daniel, Sammy, and their unborn children would be his, be part of his pack.
“I accept the challenge. I’ll fight for what’s mine.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Daniel watched Thorn walk away, knowing it would p
robably be the last time he saw the alpha. He hoped Thorn was able to keep his word and get his babies safely out of Harrison’s hands. He wished the same for Sammy, but he knew that was only a pipedream. Sammy was Harrison’s son. Who would deny an alpha his own child?
Hour after hour passed, another meal brought in and taken away, the lights switching off as night fell once more. This time, Daniel managed a few fitful hours of sleep, the cries of babies echoing through his dreams. He was woken by his door being opened, but it wasn’t breakfast. It was Oliver, carrying Sammy.
He cried out with joy even as he sobbed in fear, standing up and holding his arms out for his cub.
Sammy held on tightly as Daniel hugged him, desperately trying to muffle his sobs. He never wanted Sammy here, not so close to Harrison.
“Daniel?”
He looked up and met Oliver’s gaze.
“I thought he’d be safe with you.”
“With any luck, he will be. But they insisted we bring him here first.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I know,” the omega said kindly. “Sit down, and I’ll explain.”
He offered Daniel a pack of tissues, which he accepted gratefully, trying to smile at Sammy even as fresh tears sprang from his eyes.
“I should have let you send us to one of those shelters. Somewhere far away, where Harrison’s pack could never find us.”
“Love is a funny thing,” Oliver said. “It muddles your thoughts and turns your priorities on their head.”
“If I’d loved Sammy enough, I’d have done that for him.”
Oliver sighed. “I think it was because you loved Sammy that you stayed. You saw how he was with Thorn. How he turned from a scared little cub into a happy boy. You didn’t need the sanctuary of a shelter, because you found it in Thorn, for both of you.”
Daniel shook his head. That wasn’t how he saw it.
“I was selfish. And now Sammy will suffer the consequences.”
“Not if Thorn has anything to say about it. That’s why we’re here. We asked the military about letting you return to our pack. Harrison claims you’re his and, with Sammy, his claim has as much standing as ours, if not more. But given that you most recently resided with us, and you’re pregnant by Thorn, we have a claim on you too.”
“But they’ll need me as a bargaining chip for Harrison, won’t they? I can’t imagine he’s being all that cooperative.” He knew the alpha all too well, knew his opinion of the military and how they’d treated him in the past. There was no love lost there.
“The military has jurisdiction over Harrison’s pack, but it doesn’t give them the right to make decisions integral to the pack itself. In this case, pack law applies.”
Daniel knew a little about pack law. Just the rules that applied to him, according to Harrison. That a lot of those rules didn’t seem to exist in Thorn’s pack was something he’d wondered about.
“What does pack law say, then? Am I Harrison’s or Thorn’s?”
“Right now, they both have an equal claim on you. Because you were with Harrison’s pack when they were taken into custody, right now you’re his. But Thorn has challenged Harrison’s claim on you. It gives Harrison two options. Either he surrenders you to Thorn, and cedes his claim on you, or he fights Thorn to defend that claim.”
Daniel hugged Sammy to him when the cub whimpered, rocking him slowly.
“Harrison will never let me go.”
“No, it doesn’t look like he will. He’s accepted Thorn’s challenge. That’s why we had to bring Sammy here. Both you and he have to be present for the fight. Because both of you will go with whoever wins.”
Daniel felt like his thoughts were buried in mud, slow and dim. “Fight? But why would Thorn fight Harrison? He could just walk away.”
“Walk away? Daniel, you’re his mate. He couldn’t walk away from you any more than the moon can leave the Earth behind.”
It didn’t make sense. Thorn must hate him now, after what Daniel did, after all the lies, all the betrayal. Why would he fight to keep Daniel when he could forget this had ever happened?
There was a knock on the door, startling him. Oliver checked his watch with a frown. “It’s starting soon. You and Sammy will have to be there, it’s tradition. And the military is doing everything by the book.”
“Tell Thorn no,” Daniel begged. “Tell him not to do this. Take Sammy and get away from here.”
“Even if I was willing to tell him that, which I’m not, it wouldn’t be any use. His mind is made up, Daniel. You are his mate, those children growing inside you are his, and Sammy is his son. Not by blood, but by bond. Come on, time to go.”
Daniel let himself be herded to his feet and escorted outside. His legs felt wobbly and weak, the corridor outside far too bright and cold. He shivered and clung tighter to Sammy, hanging his head. This was his fault. He’d done this, taken a good man and forced him into a terrible situation. Thorn’s pack was never going to forgive him for this. Daniel had seen Harrison fight. He’d seen Harrison kill. Thorn might be strong and honorable, but Daniel didn’t know if the alpha was a match for Harrison.
“This way,” Oliver said, taking his arm and urging him along the corridor. “Thorn will want to see you both before the fight. Look, I know you’re scared, but don’t count him out, okay? I’ve heard all the stories Brax and the others tell. Thorn is a formidable fighter. He holds his own. He doesn’t flaunt it, doesn’t boast or make it obvious, but if I needed someone in my corner, he’d be it.”
Daniel tried to take solace from that, but it was hard to think over the pounding of his heart in his ears. He followed Oliver into a large, open gym. All the equipment had been stacked against the walls, leaving an empty circle in the center. On one side stood Harrison, with a handful of his pack mates behind him, Jaxon included. On the other side was Thorn, backed by Brax and Cole.
As soon as Thorn saw Daniel walk in, he strode forward. He cupped Sammy’s head and pressed a kiss to his forehead, murmuring something too soft for even Daniel to hear. Oliver scooped Sammy into his arms, giving Daniel a moment alone with the alpha.
“Don’t do this, please,” Daniel begged. “It’s not your fight.”
“You’re my mate,” Thorn said. His hand pressed gently against Daniel’s stomach. “You’re carrying my cubs. Whose fight is it, if not mine?”
“Harrison…” He leaned forward and lowered his voice to a whisper. “He always goes for the back legs, usually the third or fourth time he attacks.”
Daniel had seen it before. Harrison liked to hobble his opponents.
Thorn’s hands cupped his face, and he gazed into Daniel’s eyes.
“I love you.”
What could Daniel say to that? There was so much raw emotion in the alpha’s voice. He pressed his hands to Thorn’s and whispered his reply.
“I love you too.”
Thorn pressed a quick kiss to his lips and moved away. Daniel watched him, catching sight of Harrison in the background, Jaxon hovering next to him. But Harrison was watching Daniel, his anger obvious. He motioned Daniel toward him, but Daniel pretended not to see, taking Sammy back from Oliver and sticking close to the omega’s side.
Harrison stalked over, heading right for him, when Brax stepped into his path.
“Going somewhere?”
“To inspect my property. These bastards have had him locked up for days. I have a right to see my omega and my son.”
Daniel shrank back at the sharp words as Sammy whimpered and hid his face against his chest.
“You can look your fill from here,” Brax said. “He’s not yours, not until you win this fight. If you win.”
Harrison snorted. “Your guy’s no match for me. It’s an insult to have to fight someone so far down the totem pole. But hey, if you want to get rid of him, I’m happy to oblige. Daniel needs a reminder of what happens to people who betray our pack.”
“Are you going to talk all morning or actually fight? The day’s not getting
any younger,” Brax threw back, his arms folded.
To Daniel’s relief, Harrison backed off, returning to Jaxon, who started fussing over him. He winced when he saw the alpha grab Jaxon’s wrist in a tight grip before shoving him away.
“He’s a real piece of work,” Oliver murmured.
“He told me I was special. That he chose me for a reason. That I was destined to give him an alpha son who’d one day lead the pack.”
“You believed him?”
“Not at first. He locked me in the basement, no food, no water, no light. I think I’d have believed anything by the time he finally let me out. He told me he’d rescued me from my former life, and…” Daniel had been scared and stupid enough to go along with it.
“That’s some grade-A brainwashing. It’s no wonder the public think packs are a menace when you’ve got dangerous cults like his going around pretending that they’re really packs.”
“Aren’t they, though?”
Oliver regarded him curiously. “You’ve lived with our pack for a while, you’ve seen how life is there. What do you think?”
Life with Thorn and his pack revolved around harmony and cooperation. They lived, worked, ate, and played together. Raised their kids together. Had each other’s backs. Harrison’s pack had been a nightmare of struggling to follow all of Harrison’s ever-changing rules and dodging the other alphas, who could be cruel and vicious to anyone they felt deserved it. Not to mention the constant competition between the omegas. How many times had he gotten into trouble because of one of them? Jaxon was the worst, but the others were almost as bad, always trying to impress Jaxon and curry favor with the leader’s first mate. Daniel had been an easy target.
“Sometimes, it felt more like a boxing ring than a home. I never knew where the next blow was coming from.” He sighed heavily. He was so tired of it all, and the worst was still to come.
“It’s almost over, Daniel. Take heart,” Oliver encouraged. “Hold your head up high. Let Thorn see. He’s fighting for you, for your love, for your freedom. Don’t let it be in vain.”
Sentinel (The Lost Pack Book 3) Page 15
