Caine let Lycan’s face fall downward as it wanted. Caine brushed the hair off of Lycan’s face with a gentle hand.
“We are friends here, Lycan. I hope you will see me as one. But, you have nothing to fear, not with this Pack.” Caine said in a voice that almost compelled belief. “I forget myself when I speak, as Seath is sure to tell you.”
Seath gave a snort that could have been laughter. “Quite true, I assure you.” He muttered.
“Yes, Caine,” Lycan said.
Seath came close to both of them. “Let’s take this to the library, Caine,” he said, and to Lycan’s surprise clasped the shoulder of the vampire with a sure familiarity.
“Are you okay, Lycan?” Seath asked.
“Yes, Alpha,” Lycan responded.
Seath wanted to say more, but Trav knocked on the door, tray of fruit in hand and a smile for Lycan and a quick hug to Caine. The omegas had already started creating a bond, and sure enough, another omega, Van, followed Trav into the room, and then yet another named Uri. Lycan was working his way into a true omega nest.
“We will check on you later, Lycan. Enjoy some omega-bonding.” Seath gave him a smile and Lycan forced his gaze not to linger on Seath’s lips. There was something about them, the fullness of what appeared to be soft lips on such a masculine face that held Lycan’s attention.
Once out of the room, Caine laughed all the way to Seath’s office.
“Does he ever tell you something other than ‘yes, Alpha?’” Caine asked as they entered and Seath immediately went to get them a drink.
“No, and that was a struggle. I think he would prefer to talk to anyone but me.”
“Well, he has been treated horribly by his own kind, if the rumors of your Little Wolf are true, and that’s not going to heal like a broken bone,” Caine said pointedly, but Seath just raised an eyebrow.
“You know how some of your fellow Alphas conduct business in their packs, surely I’m not shocking you that I am not surprised? A beautiful omega in distress?” Caine asked. “Shifters don’t have a monopoly on sex and power games. And none of those games are new. I’d say they have been around as long as I have. He’s been hurt, yes, but he’s not shattered like glass.”
Seath motioned for Luke to join them, sensing him at the door.
“Sex and power games?” Seath asked.
Caine smiled wide enough to show his sharp teeth. “A beautiful omega like that? Held by someone? Does your first thought not go to some sort of sex-trafficking? An attempt to auction him off to the highest bidder? Or perhaps his next large heat? Surely, you can imagine what a price that would bring.”
Seath felt a chill ripple through him, as if he were shifted and snow slid down his fur. Omegas had small heats every month, lasting 24 or maybe 48 hours. They were mild as heats went, and then, every two years or so, a much more intense heat. One that was difficult for an omega to get through without an Alpha. The smaller heats were generally tolerated by toys or heat suppressants, or an Alpha if the omega so chose. Or in some places, with heat-mates, other omegas that were on the same heat cycle. A large heat would require an Alpha, or be suffered through alone with nothing that would ever satisfy. Given Lycan’s youth, he probably never had gone through a large heat before.
“No,” Seath confessed. “I have thought about why someone would do to Lycan what has been done . . .but, no. Not that.” It made him irrationally angry. Go storm the fortress and burn the enemy to the ground sort of anger.
“Do you ever show up here without looking smug?” Luke asked upon entering the study and giving a crushing hug to Caine, who despite the general idea that vampires didn’t care for such things, seemed to give it back with equal measure, just as he had with Trav.
“I’m just here for the Little Wolf, although,” Caine positively smirked as he sat on the couch in the library, across from Luke and Seath, “I think I’ll wait a while to claim my rights to my smugness.”
“Appropriately vague,” Seath said, expecting nothing more from Caine. At least the feel of Luke and Caine’s warm humor eased his anger at Lycan’s situation. He had wanted Caine here days ago, but he had been away, and Seath tried not to force his desires to have Caine around as much as possible on the vampire’s tendencies to see time much differently than shifters did.
“I think I’ll just see how it plays out. If I’m right, I think it will be entertaining at the very least.”
“So, you came for the wolf,” Luke said, ready to move on from Caine’s vagueness.
Caine smiled, “I did, at the Legate’s request.”
“All this way so quickly, you better hope that doesn’t get out and ruin your reputation,” Luke said, clearly teasing Caine.
Caine brushed the words away with an absent sweep of his hand. “I came the minute I could, actually. At my age, anything that hasn’t been seen before is worth getting up for. It’s a rarity you don’t appreciate as much as you should.”
Seath smiled at Caine. Almost a decade ago, Seath had sought out the vampire’s help and found in Caine as good a friend as he had in Luke.
It was a feather in the cap of the Pack, said those who approved of the rare addition of a vampire and knew what it meant for notoriously un-pack like vampires to become Pack members. History was full of stories of great Packs, noble kingdoms, and they all had a vampire in them. Whether causation or correlation, the historians would disagree, but the point remained that a Pack with a vampire in its ranks was rare, and often remembered. Those who did not approve said nothing, but tread lightly around the vampire.
“I was hoping there was something Caine’s senses might pick up that we can’t,” Seath said. “He knows all the relevant details.”
