“You weren’t even together then!” Kade’s Omega snarled, forgetting to keep his voice down. “You were fucking hiding from him!”
“That doesn’t mean I wasn’t pregnant!” the other Omega snapped back.
They were so embroiled in their argument that they ran directly into the back of the two men who had stopped in front of them, Kade and Chuck. One of the rabbits, an extremely large white snowshoe hair hopped over to join them, his pink nose twitching in a vexed manner.
“Would you two quit?” Kade huffed. “We have a job to do and if you keep your fighting up, they’ll know we’re coming long before we can do our job!”
The large hare thumped his hindfoot for emphasis and the two Omegas sighed as one.
“Sorry,” the little dark-hair Omega apologized, focusing puppy dog eyes on the hare. “I know, I promised to try and let it go if you brought me.”
One long ear dipped, stroking over the Omega’s cheek.
Kade quirked a brow at his husband and Jeremy rolled his eyes, huffing, “He started it!”
Chuck seemed to be trying to stifle a growl as he narrowed his eyes at Jeremy. “Do you really think that matters right now?”
Jeremy sighed and shook his head. “No, of course not.” He turned to the Omega he’d been arguing with and forced a smile. “I’m sorry I got upset, Tony. I do understand how traumatic that experience was.” Jeremy turned back to his husband with a put-upon glare. “Happy?”
Kade wrapped an arm around Jeremy’s waist and pulled him close before addressing the other Omega. “And, for approximately the millionth time, Tony, I’m sorry I attacked Sonny. I honestly thought he was a traditional rabbit.” When it looked like the Omega was going to argue, Kade offered him a small smile. “And you’re right that I shouldn’t have been hunting when there was no life or death need to. Chuck can tell you that I only hunt during survival training since that happened.”
Even though I’d heard every word, I had absolutely no idea what the hell was going on or why the two Omegas were fighting, so I took a step back and tried to fade into the bush so I could return to the trail when they had passed.
I didn’t think anyone had noticed me in the shadows by the bush but when the white wolf snorted his amusement at the overly dramatic interaction taking place in the clearing, I looked over and saw that his brilliant blue eyes were trained on me. Assuming he was about to out me, I drew in a deep breath and prepared myself to shift in front of the group, but the wolf drew no attention to me. Instead, he chuffed and tossed his head in the direction of the Hunter’s camp.
“Colby’s right,” Chuck said firmly. “If we want this to work, we need to get moving. Otherwise, there is no way for us to have the plan in place before dark, and if they see us out and about when they try to sneak in, they’re liable to become suspicious.”
Thatpiqued my curiosity. If what plan wasn’t in place? My plan to retreat back to the main building for a bath was promptly forgotten as my inherent nosiness caught up with me.
When the motley collection of shifters began to make their way down the trail again, the white wolf picked up the back and I fell in, trotting along behind him instead of bothering to hide in the shadows. Amazingly, other than the wolf who nodded a greeting when I fell in on his rear flank and then proceeded to ignore me, no one seemed to even notice that they’d picked up a hanger-on.
At what must have been a pre-determined location, the group splintered off, one bi-ped at a time teamed up with several rabbits and the groups wandered off in all different directions. Shrugging to myself, I sat down to watch as the wolf who trotted off toward a man that I hadn’t seen before with no bag or rabbits in sight.
ChapterTwenty-Three
Chuck
“Okay, we’re here,” Pete huffed and puffed, out of breath from the short hike. Pulling his ever-present flask from his pocket, he took a large slug.
I looked around at the heavy underbrush around us. “You’re sure we don’t want to lure them to the opposite side of the road, away from our property line?”
Pete gave me a cross look. “If you wanted to be in charge, maybe you should have spent a little less time playing hide the carrot with your boytoy during the planning meeting,” he snapped.
I opened my mouth to issue a retort and promptly snapped it closed, what exactly was I supposed to say to refute that? “Fine. What do you want me to do?”
“The Bunnies can scatter the balls more effectively in their shifted form, but if you can scatter a line of them for us to pick from, that would speed things up,” Pete instructed haughtily. Opening his own bag, he took several steps, scattering a line of what he called balls but actually looked like small cookies. “Watch.”
As he scattered, the rabbits on our team began to fling them about, their powerful hindlegs sending the treats flying into the center of bushes and under the low, creeping ground cover plants. After a few seconds I saw exactly what he was saying, since the rabbits didn’t have to waste time choosing a treat from a bag or pile and carrying it to a spot to place it, they were able to work much more quickly and in only a minute or so, the first line was completely redistributed.
“Impressive,” I complimented, opening my own bag. “Which direction do you want me to go?”
Pete gestured off to the North, where the tree line was thicker. “Try to keep the line even and consistent, yeah?”
“I will,” I agreed, trudging off, leaving a trail of tiny cookies shaped like… I picked one up and studied it, ignoring the rabbits scattering the trail I’d already poured. “Pete? Are these shaped like syringes?”
Behind me, Pete just cackled which I interpreted as a yes. Shaking my head, I picked up my pace, dropping a measured, consistent trail until I’d covered a fair distance and the bag I’d been given came up empty.
Leaving the rabbits to finish up, I started back, meeting up with Colby and Sylas en route. Obviously, I’d known Colby was coming but I’d been taken by surprise when Sylas’s vintage pickup had rumbled up the drive just before we’d left to spread out the hound bait. It had been so last minute, that I still didn’t know exactlywhyhe was at the compound, only that Colby had reached out to him and he’d broken several speed limits to lend us a hand.
