Page 13 of Dual Nature

“Thank you, Margaret, I will keep that in mind… Goodbye,” I said, closing my eyes as the line went dead.

There was no turning back now. Everything I’d ever known and once was… was now over. After I took a few moments to collect myself, I called the alpha again.

“Finley, is that you?” Colt asked, sounding much less upset than he had the last time we’d talked.

“Yes, alpha,” I answered immediately, feeling the need to keep him from getting upset with me again.

I could hear other voices in the background of the call as I waited for him to tell me where he wanted me to meet them.

“Do you have a vehicle?” Colt asked. “Some way to meet us somewhere? Or do we need to come get you from where you’re hiding out?”

“No, alpha, I have a dirtbike that I can use. I’m about three hours away from New York City. If it’s easier, I can come to you—”

“Absolutely not, Finley. You will not enter that city without us there with you, do you hear me? You might not be a full omega yet since you haven’t had your first shift, but that doesn’t mean that you won’t be taken like Cory was,” Colt snapped, causing me to let out a whine and hunch low.

I could hear someone else yelling at him not to be an ass, then the phone was taken from him once again. “Finley, it’s Lane. Are you alright? Did you get some rest like I told you to?”

“I did, alpha,” I said, answering his direct question even though I felt the need to tell him that I was most assuredly not ‘alright.’

Lane grunted his approval. “Good. Now, we’re going to drive out to meet you. Are you familiar enough with the area to know of somewhere quiet for us all to meet?”

Taking a moment to think about where I was and the maps I had looked at, I figured the small town an hour away might be the best place to meet. “There’s a small town called Merryville. It’s off the main highway and easy to find. There’s a diner I can meet you at if you think that’s best.”

“That sounds perfect. Give me a moment to see how long it will take us to get there…”

“An hour and fifteen minutes if you go the speed limit and the traffic isn’t too bad in the city. Since it’s a Sunday and there’s no work traffic, it might even be less than that,” I answered, feeling the uncontrollable need to ease his worries about the situation.

Silence greeted me on the other end before I heard a snort from someone trying to cover a laugh. “Who is this chick?”

“Fuck off, Zander,” Lane barked, making me yelp. Lane groaned, and I heard him walking away from whoever was still laughing. “I’m sorry, Finley. I didn’t mean to use my bark around you. We’ll meet you where you suggested in what sounds like two hours or less. Zander and Colt both have a lead foot, so I don’t think we’ll be going the speed limit.”

“Alright, I’ll meet you there. I only have MREs here, so I think I’ll leave soon. That way, I can eat and be ready to leave once you all arrive… unless you all need to eat as well. I am more than happy to wait for you to arrive if you want to eat,” I offered, feeling uneasy about assuming I could do that without their approval.

“No, Finley. If you’re hungry, you need to eat. A new wolf burns a lot of energy. It’s important that you don’t get too hungry because it can make you irritable and more likely to bite or scratch someone, and we can’t have that,” Lane instructed.

I didn’t want to disagree with the alpha, but I wondered if a normal wolf’s experience would apply to me since Margaret said I shouldn’t have even been changed by Cory’s bite. Before I could say anything, a new voice came over the phone.

“My, my, are we coming to get an omega?” the voice purred.

A shiver went down my back—not one of fear, but a feeling that I hadn’t felt in such a long time. We trained ourselves to be in control of our desires so that they couldn’t be used to sway us. On more than one occasion, I’d had to use my body to lure someone in close enough to kill them, and to allow yourself to get lost in the charade was dangerous. So when heat flared in my chest at the sound of his voice, it caught me off guard.

“I don’t know how to answer that, alpha. Are you coming with alphas Colt and Lane?” I asked, trying to keep my voice even.

A soft chuckle drifted along my ear. “Yes, I’ll be arriving with them to get you.”

“Then yes,” I said, going back to his original question, refusing to give in to the need to bare my neck to this man with a voice of velvet.

“These boys always seem to have a surprise up their sleeves. I’ll see you soon, my little dove,” he murmured before the line went dead.

Dropping the phone to my side, I slumped into one of the chairs, then leaned forward to rest my head on the table. What the hell had I gotten myself into? Now I wasn’t dealing with just one alpha, but three! How big was this pack of theirs to need so many men keeping it in line?

I had sealed my fate already. There was no turning back time to avoid facing the choices I’d made.

nine

I shoved the phone into Lane’s chest as he opened his mouth to say something, glaring at him. I pinned my gaze on Colt next, who was leaning against the blacked-out SUV I’d had ready and waiting for us. He had earned my trust and respect many times over during the past six years, but stealing an omega was asking for a whole new level of trust. When he told me it was an emergency, I thought one of his wolves had gotten into trouble with the big city wolves, but this situation was going to be way more challenging to manage.

“You didn’t think to tell me that we would be smuggling an omega out of the state?!” I snarled. With how rare omegas were these days, each one was guarded to the point where the Senate wouldn’t hesitate to kill those who dared to touch an omega that didn’t belong to them.