Dread crawled up my spine. “What?”
“We were talking about Scarlet Ridge, Gunner’s army, the shock collars, everything… Nothing about any other pack. The bird must have flown back to Scarlet Ridge after spying on us,” Mason muttered, his voice becoming increasingly panicked.
“Easy,” I told him, putting my hands on his shoulders in an attempt to calm him down. “Don’t freak out. We’re going to get through this together.”
Suddenly Mason stood up and glared at me, his eyes burning with fear and anger. “How am I supposed to not freak out? I’m two months pregnant, I have two unborn babies, and now I’m getting weird messages after some fucking bird spies on me? Tell me how I’m supposed to keep calm about this, Jericho!”
I didn’t rise to meet him. I looked him in the eye and blinked slowly while touching the space next to me on the couch. I felt the protective aura of my alpha energy reaching out to Mason and enveloping him. A moment later, the fight left his body. He sighed and sat back down.
“Sorry,” he muttered.
“It’s okay,” I said. “I know you’re upset. You have every right to be. But we need to try and keep calm. We don’t know anything about this situation. Whatever it is, I’m right here by your side. I won’t let anything hurt you or the pups. I swear it on my life.”
Some of the tension left Mason’s shoulders as he leaned on me. “Thanks. I know that. I just can’t help the anxiety…”
I stroked his hair and growled softly, “I know. I’m here for you and I love you.”
Mason blinked up at me with big doe eyes. “I… I love you, too.”
I kissed him softly on the lips.
“Starting tomorrow, we’re going to get to the bottom of this,” I promised him. “So don’t you worry your pretty little head, alright?”
He smiled. “Alright.”
***
The next morning, both of us were significantly less stressed out about the strange note. A good night’s sleep had helped a lot. Mason was feeling well and decided to go to work, despite the note.
“I’m not letting some weird note and some weird bird dictate my life,” he had growled while getting dressed.
While walking him to work, I pulled him aside and said, “Listen. If anything strange happens today - anything at all - call for me. I’ll come running as fast as I can.”
“I will,” he promised. He paused, then gave me a tight hug. “I’ll see you later.”
“Bye, my little omega. Have a good day at work.”
He smiled, then disappeared into the building.
Then it was time for me to get to work, too. I rounded up the guys and told them to meet me at the guild building, just like when we went hunting.
“What’s this all about?” Flint asked, already on alert. He was my close friend and knew me well enough to know when I was serious. I’d asked him to bring Charlie along, too, because of the topic - I was hoping he knew something about this bird.
“Where’s Casey?” I asked, somewhat disappointed not to see the little spitfire. I’d been so busy lately that I missed her on hunts, which she was now regularly joining.
“She’s with Tyson upstairs,” Charlie said, pointing up to the loft.
“So what’s happening?” Ken asked. “You sounded like you were in a rush on the phone.”
Around the table, Flint, Charlie, Ken, David, and Shadow had gathered. We would fill in Tyson on the details later; right now babysitting was more important for him.
“I’ll get straight to the point,” I said, and threw the note down on the table. The guys all squinted at it.
“What’s this?” Charlie asked, gingerly picking up the note and reading it out loud. “Be wary. There is a traitor amongst you… What?” He dropped the note, almost in revulsion.
Everyone looked at each other in confusion.
“What traitor?” Ken asked.
