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“Hey, Royce … If you weren’t an enforcer in Elk Cove, what would you want to do?”
Royce considered before answering. Was Theodore asking this because he wanted to leave Elk Cove, and was testing to see if he’d go with him? He’d follow this omega anywhere if he asked, well, probably if he didn’t ask too.
“I hadn’t given it much thought, but I’m not overtly attached to Elk Cove. I wouldn’t mind going somewhere else.”
“No, I mean, the other day when we were talking about having a purpose. It sounded like you didn’t care much for being an enforcer. I was just wondering is all.”
“I don’t dislike being an enforcer; it’s not a bad job. I get to be out and about, doing different things depending on what the town needs. I just don’t feel this profound pull to something like others seem to. Or at least I didn’t.”
“Oh.”
Theodore’s already sweaty skin flushed against Royce’s hold. He loved it when Theo blushed. The omega was typically so surly and pouty. When his olive skin turned pink and his eyes twinkled, it made him look utterly adorable.
“Theo?”
“Hmmm?”
“Why don’t you want to share the evidence your dad collected?”
Theo huffed derisively. “Is now really the best time to ask that?”
“I don’t want to start another fight. I just don’t understand. It’s the main thing that could dismantle the entire trafficking operation. You should be sending copies to every media outlet and enforcers’ office you can.”
“Because if it goes to the wrong person, then it’s gone, all of it.”
“Not if you make copies …” Royce frowned. “There’s more to it than that. What aren’t you telling me?”
“You wouldn’t understand.”
“Then help me to.”
“I don’t want to talk about this, especially not right now.”
“Okay.”
Royce let it go, and the pair fell into silence as they lay together in Theo’s nest. Royce’s eyes grew heavy, his insomnia ebbing at last now that he was curled safely around his mate.
“Royce?”
“Yeah?”
“Did you shred a pillow?”
“Sure did.”
“That explains the wads of cotton everywhere. I thought I was having a stroke.”
Chapter twenty-six
Royce
Mid-morning light peered in through the glass blocks along the ceiling. The scent of antiseptic mixed with the general aroma of pets. The first day he’d sat in the vet clinic while Theo worked, the stench had bothered his sensitive nose. By now he was used to it.
Today Royce wasn’t going to complain about a damn thing. He’d spent the night sleeping curled around his mate. He thought it couldn’t get any better than that until he’d awoken this morning to Theodore straddling him in the haze of his heat, seating himself atop Royce’s morning wood. The omega had bounced and bucked atop Royce’s knot for hours despite them going at it twice in the middle of the night. Not that Royce was complaining.
“Hey, Gerald,” Theodore said, hunched over a microscope. Royce had no idea how he could focus on his work in the middle of his heat, but Theo seemed determined to make all of his appointments that day. “Can you grab your friend real fast? I want to show her something.”
“Sure thing, Doc.” Gerald snagged his friend, Courtney, from the front where Margarette was showing her something else.
