“She only went to Walker, and Hailey is a vault. Walker cares about Hailey too. She's helped his omega severaltimes. They’re practically family.”
The alpha didn’t look convinced. He was twitchy, grabbing a towel to wipe his face off as he grumbled.
I sighed, resting a hand on his shoulder. “Man, you've been keeping this all to yourself, but wearepack now. We need to share the burden. Especially, when it comes to something that could potentially endanger our omega.”
“Hailey isn’t in danger. I made sure of that.”
“You say that, but given where Preston is right now, that automatically puts her in a degree of danger.” I let out a breath, stepping back to fold my arms. “Even more so if she's not aware of what's going on. What if she accidentally put her foot in it somehow? She's a pregnant omega. Sometimes, her instincts are going to be overpowering. Hell, omega hormones are a thing, anyway.Pregnantomega? Yeah. What if she found herself at that convict camp trying to find him?”
Nolan's face turned a pasty gray at the idea. “I never thought of it that way. I was just so focused on trying to carry on with asmuch normalcy as possible. I don’t… I don’t do amazing when my life is thrown into stark change.”
“I get that man, I do. I don't blame you, but now it's time for everything to come into the open, at least in this pack. No one outside of us needs to know anything, but we can't function as a pack if we're not all on the same page.”
“I know. Realistically, I know, it's just been a bit…hard.”
“I get that you had no say in me joining the pack, but I did it because I wanted to protect Hailey, and we knew you weren't being entirely truthful.”
He laughed sharply. “You're a good guy. Under any other circumstances, I think I would have liked you from the start.”
“Of course you would. I'm amazing,” I said in a gruff tone, a smile sliding over my face.
Nolan relaxed some, sighing as he nodded. “Well, what did she find out?”
“It turns out that Walker and Preston knew each other back in the day. They both worked together briefly while Preston was a military firefighter. Walkerstronglysuspects that someone is sneaking drugs into the convict camp, and he needed someone on the inside.”
A wry laugh escaped Nolan. “I'm guessing Preston fucking volunteered, didn't he? He’s too damn good sometimes. So, he’s for sure not a criminal? He didn’t hurt anyone? I was fairly sure, but…”
I shook my head. “Nope. They made up his whole backstory so they could get him into that particular camp.”
Preston really had dropped the ball. What I couldn't understand was why he’d decided to go the route of secrecy. If he’d simply told his pack what he was doing, or at least the bare bones of what he was doing, then maybe we could have avoided a lot of this mess.
Nolan’s entire body sagged in relief. “So, Hailey…”
“He snuck out of the camp one night to meet a potential dealer to figure out where things were coming from. I guess that’s when he accidentally bumped into Hailey. The pair couldn't resist one another, and one thing led to another.”
Nolan shook his head, plopping down onto the weight bench. “Jesus Christ.”
“From what Walker told Hailey, your pack mate really is a good guy. He’s been doing something dangerous to help people. He just didn’t count on meeting Hailey.”
“He is. That’s why I knew there was more going on than we were aware of… Still, a small part of me was worried that he was in there forgenuinereasons.” Nolan admitted the last part quietly.
“I still reserve the right to punch that idiot for what he's done, but”—I chuckled, only partially kidding—“I understand how it can be when you find someone when you’re not planning on it.”
Nolan huffed. “I think you're going to have to get in line.”
“More than anything we’ll do, it’s Hailey that Preston is going to have to grovel to. She can have a vicious streak when she wants to.”
“You know what? I've got that impression a few times. Maybe Preston is safer at Camp Bower.” Nolan laughed, and I joined along, vivid memories of Hailey’s right hook in my mind.
Regardless, Preston was going to have to earn Hailey's trust. He would have to earnallof our trust.
But despite the chaos of our situation, it seemed like there was an end in sight.
“I suppose I should get back to work. My clients are pissed that I'm not in my office.” Nolan sighed.
That man needed a stiff drink and a break.
“Remember, everything stays between our pack and Walker, though. Like I said, the pack protects the pack. That includes blowing off steam occasionally.”
