Page 38 of Omega Hunted

Which made me think that whoever came for Soren wouldn’t come quietly.

And they would come. A post that size on the A/O hunter’s network would be shared across channels I couldn’t monitor, passed among trackers, bondsmen, and people who operated in the grey space between the two. Some would be amateurs, chasing the number without thinking it through. Those I could handle at the gate. But the ones who’d run this kind of search before, who’d know to pull DMV records and road camera feeds and work backward from the Center 14 location, would be here within days of the storms subsiding and the bridge opening, before, if they were brave enough to chance the terrain only the locals knew.

I thought about the road. The bridge. Then I thought about the perimeter, the cameras, the points of approach to the house that I’d mapped, the underground tunnel that only a handful of people knew about, and the omega in my bed who needed my help.

The snow was still falling—new inches overnight on top of what was already there, and there had been nothing from Decker about the bridge, but just in case anyone was out there wanting to get here, I would patrol east along the fence line once Soren was up and had eaten something.

Then I put the coffee on and started thinking about breakfast.

But my head kept taking me back upstairs and to the two names I’d heard, out of a locked room from a sleeping man who’d shouted in his sleep. Malachai. Emric. I had questions I needed to ask carefully because Soren didn’t owe me an explanation of his history, and I didn’t have the right to demand one. But I wanted to understand.

I heard Soren stir, the shower, the floorboards, the key in the lock, and was halfway through cooking when I heard him at the kitchen door. I didn’t turn immediately because wolves are fast, and he’d spent enough time around bad alphas that sudden movement might scare him. The scent was all around him—clean now instead of buried beneath blood, fear, and cold. I stood there longer than I should have before realizing I might not be looking at him, but I was breathing him in.

“Morning,” I said to the pan.

A pause, then, “Morning.”

He came in, went to the table, and pulled out the chair he’d taken yesterday—the one farthest from me.

“Eggs?” I asked.

“I have to leave,” he said.

“Soren, you can’t.”

“You said the bridge is out, but I need to see it for myself. How far is it? Can I walk? I don’t want to walk, but I can’t stay here and wait for someone to find me…” his panic stopped on a sob. Fuck.

Inspiration hit me and I reached for the mic on the small radio and connected to the sheriff’s dispatch. It wasn’t Sheriff Decker who answered but the eternally bright Delia, a beta who ran the entire back office and, according to Decker, most of the county along with it.

“Sheriff’s office, copy.”

“Copy, this is Cassian Raines.”

“Cassian, hey, you okay up there?”

“Good. Wanted an update on the bridge.”

“Still closed. They’ve got crews on it, but the ice overnight set them back. Sheriff’s saying three weeks at the earliest.” A pause, and he heard the familiar sound of her keyboard.

“Someone came through before the road closed.”

“Sheriff told me. Are they okay?”

“All good,” I lied, and glanced at him to see him tense with fear and panic. “Just a lost alpha tourist with bad directional sense. I’ve said I’ll give him a room until the bridge opens, but he’s worried I’m trying to keep him here,” I said and laughed as if it were all a joke, then shrugged as I met Soren’s steady gaze.

“Does he have family we need to tell?”

Soren put a hand over his mouth, shaking his head frantically. His eyes were wide with fear.

“Nah, he’s already done it; he’s happy to stay and get the break. Big-city alpha burnout—you know what I mean.”

“Sure, I get it. Listen, tell your guest not to worry. You know this happens every couple of years. Bridge crew knows what they’re doing. Nobody’s stuck; they’re just delayed. Big difference.”

“Appreciate it, Delia.” My gaze kept drifting back to the omega, one hand resting across the curve of his stomach without seeming aware he was doing it.

“You call if you need anything. As Sheriff said, we can maybe get a snowmobile up that road if it comes to it.”

“Copy that.”