“And we’re glad you’re here.” Julien claps him on the shoulder. “Even if the circumstances could be better.”
Before Luke has a chance to respond, Rachel pokes her head out the back door. “Breakfast is ready, guys.”
At Rachel's beckon, the three of us file inside. Julien leads Luke and I over to the dining room table, before detouring into the kitchen and returning with a stack of plates and silverware. He moves around the table setting each place as Keir pops into the room, a baby held on his hip. My shock at an Alpha doing something so menial must show on my face because Keir smirks at me.
“Alpha's need something to keep them humble,” he says. “Setting the table is always Julien's job. Rachel does all the cooking, so it's only fair.”
From the kitchen, Rachel calls out, “You wouldn’t want to eat anything Julien tried to cook anyway.”
Julien shoots an exaggerated scowl in the direction of her voice, and Keir throws back his head and laughs. Remy enters the room, a second baby in his arms, and he and Keir settle the twins into two high chairs near the head of the table.
Once every place is set, Julien takes a seat at the head of the table. Keir sits to his right nearest the high chairs and the younger Matisse takes the seat to his brother’s left. Rachel brings out a few platters filled with food and, after everyone fills their plates, we all dig in.
“So, how exactly are you going to try to find my pack when we know almost nothing about them?” I ask after a few minutes, glancing up at Remy.
Remy sets his fork down. “There are plenty of leads for me to follow. First, I’ll look into any records of male omegas, though I’m almost positive that will be a dead end. After everything withKeir, it’s pretty clear that packs don’t necessarily do what they’re supposed to as far as registering omegas.” He raises his brows. “Luke said your wolf form is completely white, right?”
“Yeah,” I say.
“That will be my next avenue of research. White wolves are rare and some packs will use the fact that there are some in their ‘gene pool’ when trying to negotiate mating alliances. I imagine that information will be a lot easier to track down. Even if your pack never registered you as a white wolf, we’ll know which packs have the gene, and from there, we can narrow it down at least to a particular region and maybe pinpoint the pack you came from.”
“Do you really think that will be enough information to work with?”
He shrugs. “It’s worth a try. Are there any other details you can think of that might help?”
I push the remains of my eggs around with my fork, frowning. The memories I’ve been able to recover haven’t been very clear and they still don’t quite fit together in my head, so I don’t know that what I have managed to piece together is going to be enough to be helpful.
“I…” I shake my head. “I can’t think of anything that might narrow things down except for the fact that I’m pretty sure I’m from somewhere rural.”
“Should you take into account the fact he ended up in Tennessee?” asks Luke.
Remy nods. “It’s a factor for sure, but if he was moved around then it might not matter much.”
“True,” says Luke.
Remy smiles at me again. “Don’t worry, Ollie, we’ll figure it out.”
Eighteen
Ollie
My plate is stillnearly half full when the doorbell rings, the sound echoing through the house. Everyone looks up from their food, and Julien’s gaze slides first to Luke then to me.
“That’s probably Doctor Benton,” he says. “When I talked to her last night, she said she was very excited to meet you. I guess she couldn’t hold out any longer.”
“Oh.” I give Julien a strained smile, not sure what else to say.
Even though I know the doctor is here to help, my stomach immediately twists with anxiety as all my fears catapult to the front of my mind. What if there really is something wrong with me? What if something the humans did permanently damaged me? What if I’ll never be normal?
Blind to my slowly growing panic, Keir hops up from the table and heads toward the front door. There’s the sound of some murmured greetings and then Keir returns to the kitchen with a female beta following him.
“This is Doctor Benton,” he says, gesturing at her.
The doctor is a tall woman with dark skin. Her face is narrow and her are features sharp, but her eyes are warm and friendly as she walks toward me with her hand held out. “You must be Ollie,” she says. “It’s a pleasure to meet you. I don’t get a chance to meet many male omegas.” My gaze darts to Keir and she chuckles. “Okay, so I’ve only ever met one other.”
The warmth of her manner puts me at ease, and I give her a genuine smile as I take her hand. I can’t say I was looking forward to being poked and prodded, but maybe this won’t be so bad.
She glances at Julien slightly tilting her head to the side as a gesture of respect. “Alpha Matisse, is there someplace private we can go for me to examine him?”
