The interior of the house is dusty, the air stale like the place has been empty for a while. We all file into the living room and Doc gestures for me to sit on the couch, then takes a seat beside me. Francis and the other two take positions at various entry points: one by the front door, one by the doorway leading toward the back of the house, and one at the bottom of the stairs.
And we wait.
The room is dead silent, the quiet only sharpening the edge of my apprehension. My stomach chooses that moment to let out an embarrassingly loud gurgle, and Doc’s gaze goes to my abdomen. He frowns.
“I didn’t get a chance to eat dinner. Too busy being drugged and kidnapped,” I say, my mind drifting back to the smell of Rachel’s lasagna. My stomach grumbles again as another pang of hunger hits, followed quickly by a hint of nausea.
Earlier, Doc was at least semi-worried about my physicalcondition, so maybe that also extends to my physicalcomfort. Maybe I can use that as a distraction?
I look to the shifter who’s standing near the doorway that leads toward the back of the house and possibly the kitchen. “You guys got any crackers or anything?”
The shifter scowls at me. “We aren’t here to—”
“Go check the pantry,” snaps Doc.
Grumbling, the other shifter shuffles off to do as he’s told as I eyeball Doc.
Doc is not an alpha, at least not that I can tell and, regardless of who he’s related to, I wouldn’t expect any of these other guys to listen to him unless there’s something I’m missing.
In the pack pecking order, Doc is the last person I would expect to be in charge of this group. Of course, Remy isn’t the most physically imposing shifter either, and Julien’s guys respect him. There’s no respect for Doc, though. These guys just kind of reluctantly listen to him. It’s a little strange, but also not my problem. There are enough things for me to worry about without trying to figure out the dynamics between these guys.
Speaking of problems, while we wait for the other shifter to rustle around in the kitchen, I might as well attempt to get some information about things that actually do concern me.
Like what the hell Zachariah evenwantswith me after all these years.
“So…” I start. “Care to explain exactly what’s going on here? Because if your brother is who I’m thinking of, then he wouldn’t piss on me if I was on fire, much less go through all this crap to get me.”
“You do remember him then.” Doc gives me an appraising look. “When you didn’t say anything before I wasn’t sure.”
Well, that confirms my suspicions about the identity of Doc’s brother.
“Remember him?” I shoot Doc a droll look. “The asshole starting grooming me at thirteen and then almost got me killed. I think that would make him a little hard to forget.”
“Zachariah is… impulsive,” says Doc, unsurprised at my revelation of his brother’s predatory past. “But he only does what’s best for the pack.”
“How does kidnapping me fall under ‘what’s best for the pack’? Is your brother getting laid that vital?”
“No,” says Doc. “But he needs a mate.”
“Zachariah already has a mate,” I say. “I remember her too, since she tried awfully hard to disembowel me for supposedly seducing her man.”
“Petra was unable to provide an alpha heir,” says Doc in that same bland voice. “After the third beta child, Zachariah lost his temper and, like I said, he’s impulsive.”
“I don’t understand.” But on some horrifying level, I do. I simply don’t want to admit that even to myself. As much as I disliked Petra, she didn’t deserve to—
“He killed her.”
Yup. That’s exactly what I thought he meant.
I swallow. “I still don’t get what that has to do with me.”
“Zachariah’s two other matings also proved unsuccessful, leaving the pack vulnerable to a take over from an outsider. My brother needs an alpha heir to avoid that,” Doc explains. His gaze darts down to my abdomen again. “And we’ve been assured you can provide one.”
Well, shit. I guess a male omega’s biology isn’t quite as much of a secret as Ben thought.
Fifty-Seven
Julien
