“If she doesn’t, we’ll give her ours.” Justice had a point. “One of ours. Whatever she wants.”
“What do we do now?” Archer had never sounded so vulnerable. I felt that way, too, down to my bones.
“When she comes back, we do what we can to keep in communication. Don’t scare her away but learn about her. Somehow find a way to have her come back. Something.”
Justice shook his head. “All this time. We looked everywhere and our omega comes in on a raggedy bike, looking like she’s been hiding from the world.”
“Hey, what did you two come in for?”
Archer chuckled. “I wanted to eat out, and Justice said that new Chinese buffet opened. We came to get you, and it turned out to be perfect timing.”
“Then let’s…” As I spoke, a group of ladies came in, already talking about the fresh eggs and homemade things for sale. “Nevermind. Bring me a sandwich if you get a chance.”
The rest of the afternoon was busy. A tour bus driver took a detour through our little town, and that meant our stuff was selling. In fact, by the time I closed, everything except some of my bigger items had sold out. What a great day. Mostly because of Bonnie.
Her items were a big hit. One woman offered to buy the whole lot for hundreds of dollars, but I told her they had a reserve on them, more than she was offering.
Kind of true? Didn’t matter. I wouldn’t sell them anyway.
While I locked up, my thoughts focused back on our omega. My bear was enraptured. A zip of desire burned through me when she came in, but it was quickly quelled by other needs. There were needs our omega clearly had that were far from mating needs. She had those, too, but they were suppressed by who knew what kind of omega meds she was on. Heavy ones, if I had to guess.
Bonnie didn’t have much scent at all.
Her work was spectacular. Such attention to detail. I hadn’t seen that kind of handy work in…well, ever.
I leaned on the counter. She was dressed like a grandmother instead of a young lady. Her bike had seen better days and that was being generous. She spoke softly, almost afraid to speak too loud.
No address.
No phone, hence no phone number.
Everyone had a phone. Everyone. Most used it too much as far as I was concerned, but I was in the minority.
My bear wanted to take her miniatures home. Display them in our living room. A living room which one day would be hers, if Fate still smiled on us.
But…I wanted to drum up business and attention for her work in case she had more to sell. If they sold for good money, she might make more and bring them in on a regular basis. That would give her the chance to make money and for us to get to know her.
Court her.
Somehow, by the luck of the gods, see if she would accept us as her sleuth. Her pack.
With a look up and down the road, I got into my truck and headed home. I had to keep my cool for the good of our sleuth. I was the alpha of our group and if there was any chance of making Bonnie ours, we had to keep our cool.
If I knew my bond brothers, I would bet they were pacing the floors, thinking about what to do next. Work forgotten. Chores forgotten. Archer probably hadn’t even cooked.
They weren’t alone. I wished, more than anything, I was returning home to Bonnie.
Chapter Nine
Bonnie
When I finally got home, my muscles ached and I was covered with dust from the road. Most of my exercise took place in wolf form, meaning, my human body did not get much. And all that biking after the night of missed sleep about did me in physically, while the experience of being out with all the people topped with meeting the three alphas took care of the rest of me.
I hadn’t been happy, exactly, before, but I had thought I knew who I was. I would have described myself as Marie’s daughter, an omega hidden away for her own safety. I’d have described all alphas as evil and dangerous. I’d have said I was willing to wait until Marie said it was safe before emerging into the world.
So, who did that make me now?
I walked the bike around the back of the cabin and left it in the shed, carrying the bag of treats into the kitchen area. Marie was not home, so I went back out again, to the river, where I submerged myself and used sand from the bottom to scrub my skin. I couldn’t afford to have my ex-mother come home and find me scenting of alphas. When my skin was all rosy and tingling, I shifted and let my wolf splash around for a while. She was delighted and kept telling me she wanted to go back and see the alphas again. Images of them flashed in my mind.
