I picked up a pencil from the holder on my desk and started twirling it.“Something personal, and one other thing.”
“Need me to tail one of your guys?They misbehaving?Making pretty eyes at a beta in town?”
I wanted to groan, but Smith, a beta himself, really triggered my alpha nature, so I stayed calm.
“No, they aren’t.However, we found our mate the other day—a human.Before you ask, yes, he’s mate to all three of us, and yes, we are aware that’s on the unusual side of things.”
There was silence on the other end before he asked, “You pulling my leg or something?I can’t tell.You’re always so damn calm.”
“I’m serious.We’re not sure how it’s possible either, but Marcus is ours.No doubt about it.Anyway, he has an ex, bit of a red flag.A big red flag, actually.He’s the controlling type, sent revenge porn to Marcus’s email contacts post breakup.I wouldn’t put violence past him.He has keys to our mate’s apartment in Searsville.”
“One security lock and sweep for uninvited electronic devices, coming right up.Anything else the ex needs done?”
“Yes to the lock and the swipe, no to the extra.”I put the phone on speaker, opened a chat window on my desktop, and started typing.“I just texted you the address.”
“Yup, got it.I’ll get right on that.Your mate’s okay with me breaking in?”
“He’s okay with us taking care of things right now, so yeah, go right ahead.”
“Will do.Should I put in a security system as well?”
He meant cameras and an alarm system.My immediate reaction was to give him the go-ahead, but I knew I would need to discuss it with our mate first.I also had every hope that it wouldn’t be necessary.If Marcus decided he’d stay here with us, we’d be his security system.And so much more.
“Just the new lock and the swipe for now.Come out here after you’re done with that.We seem to have a hunter problem in the area.”
Another pause.“You’re shitting me.You find yourselves a mate, and there are hunters in your woods?”He paused again as if he wasn’t sure he should go on.“Quite a coincidence.”
“I get what you’re saying, I do.But Marcus isn’t a hunter, and he isn’t bait.He came here by himself and his car died.Sometimes there is such a thing as coincidence, and even if there weren’t, there’s no way to trick our mate instinct.”
“Boss, no shade, but we both know some of the hunters come with science degrees.I’m just saying that because three alphas mating to one human male, that’s…extraordinary.Did you look into him?Just as a precaution?”
I wanted to snap at Smith for that, but after the video, looking into Marcus had come as part of dealing with the fallout for him.
“Not a deep-dive, but some.”
Knowing Smith, he’d take that as an invitation to do more snooping.I considered warning him off, but he was the kind of guy who’d rather beg forgiveness than be underprepared.
“Right.Well, I’ll be there tonight.”
“Got it.Just so you know, I don’t want you staying at the house with us right now.”
“Understandable.Do you?—”
“I’ll find you a room.”
Another pause.“But I do get to look at him?”
I rolled my eyes but kept the annoyance from my voice as I said, “Sure, you may look at our mate.No touching though.”
He chuckled.“Yeah, like I’m stupid enough to do that.See you later, boss.”
“Drive safely,” I said, and hung up.
With that taken care of, I went downstairs to collect any stray dishes and mugs and turn on the dishwasher.I wouldn’t have minded a little run right then, but it smelled of Marcus in the house, and I didn’t want to leave that comfort.I wondered how Ell was doing.Maybe work made the longing less sharp.I doubted it.
When I got back to my office, Naja had sent an email with her response to Marcus’s address book.Apart from that, there were several other things at the company that needed taking care of.I got started, but my mind was only half in it, and not only because I was missing Marcus.
The nagging fear that hunters were in town had a hold of me.There were pack children, older wolves, people just going about their lives, and hunters could destroy that.They’d already done that to the real wolves out there.
