Chapter 13

All the evidence was in front of me. Every clue, every interview, and every bit of known information we had about the Baxburg pride and the Alpha, Easton, was sitting there like a huge-ass puzzle. One that I couldn't put together.

How could there be so many facts sitting there, taunting me, and yet have none of it giving us a single answer? I was missing something. The question was… what? But the longer I stared at the information, the less it made sense.

It was a good thing we hadn't been eating dinner at home because I had the entire kitchen table covered with paperwork, along with my laptop, my tablet, and my phone—all displaying different pieces of evidence. I grabbed a pile of papers and flipped through them as if that would miraculously make the answers pop out for me.

It couldn't work any less well than the other things I'd tried.

This wasn't the first time I had reviewed all of it in the month I had been here in the Asilo pride. It was a regular occurrence for me to attempt to decipher all of the information, spending hours poring over the data. I didn't do it every day. My logic was that my brain needed a break or else it would keep seeing the same things. I wasn't sure how strong that logic was, especially given how I felt like I was no further along than I had been on day one.

Thomas came in through the back door, a pair of jeans slung low on his hips, with his tiny baby bump resting over the waistband. He wasn't wearing a shirt, likely because he had just returned from a run with his omega group that he was working with. Maybe I should've done my work outside. To see a glimpse of him running as he looked like that… yes, please.

"Dear goddess," he said when he saw me. "Put that away. Reviewing the information isn't going to help."

It wasn't the first time we'd had this conversation. My mate thought it was harming my mental health. And he probably wasn't wrong on that front. But that didn't mean it wasn't important enough to take the risk.

"It's been at least a week since I last looked at it." Or close to a week, anyway. "Something new might come to me." My protest sounded weak even to my ears. But I refused to give up, and if this was the only information we could get, I was going to make sure I took full advantage of all that it had to offer.

"Sweetheart, you're doing everything you can," he said, putting a hand on my shoulder. He began rubbing the muscles in my back, which had tensed as I hunched over the table.

"I don't like not having this taken care of." More accurately, I hated it with a burning passion. Until I figured this out, Easton was roaming around. His freedom not only made my mate unsafe, it did the same to countless others. He needed to be stopped.

"I trust that the answer will come to you, mate. Why don't we go outside, go for a walk? You could take me to town and get ice cream." He batted his lashes, my weakness.

Who was I kidding? Thomas was my weakness, full stop. If he wanted something, I'd move mountains to find it. If he craved it? I was driving to the best place to retrieve it. If he needed it? I'd get it for him, no matter the cost. This was my mate, and there was nothing I wouldn't do for him.

He batted them again, and I grinned. It should've been no surprise that this conversation led to ice cream or cake. They pretty much all did recently.

Ice cream—and every other sweet that existed in this world—had become a constant craving of my mate's. I was tempted to take him back to Steelwick just so he could experience the bakery again. Perhaps we could stay for a few days while he enjoyed everything that Ralf and Lewis put together and then bring a bunch home and freeze it for later. It wouldn't be the same, but it was a lot closer than anything I could make for him.

I was about to suggest a long weekend with my old pack when a knock sounded at the door.

"Are you expecting anyone?" I asked.

Thomas shook his head. Then, from the other side of the door, we heard a familiar voice, "Knock, knock. We come bearing gifts." It was Ralf and Baxter. They were here— the exact people we needed.

"Speak of the devil," I said. "I was just thinking of the bakery."

I went to open the door to discover that two of my favorite people had already walked inside. We weren't what you'd call close to Steelwick. Close enough, sure, but not a quick stop-by because you knew someone was craving your cookies. They had gone out of their way just to see us, and that meant everything to me

Ralf's voice echoed through the house. "Hello!"

"You can't just walk into people's homes," Baxter admonished, though he grinned as the two walked in. Our house was their house, and if they walked in and saw something they didn't want to see, that was on them.

"Well, looky here! To what do we owe this pleasure?" Thomas beamed.

"Baxter took me on a motorcycle ride, and we came bearing gifts. We had the sidecar filled with stuff." I'd helped pack that sidecar before. It was deceptively large. They probably had enough baked foods in there for a week.

I chuckled. Sure enough, he had a handful of baked goods that he set on the counter. "A little birdie told me that sweets were a craving. Welcome to the club." Ralf put a hand over his flat tummy.

"You two, again?" I asked.

"Yes," Baxter said. "Us two again. But luckily, it's not twins."

"And Lewis is expecting also," Ralf said.

They might not have been having twins, but the twins were both pregnant, which was equally special in my book.

"No shit? I'm happy for you guys." Thomas hugged Ralf. "Congratulations!"

"Come on in. I just need a couple of minutes to get this mess cleaned up, and then we can use the table. I make a mean cup of ginger tea," I said. I had learned how for Thomas and found I quite liked it myself.

Baxter glanced at the paperwork I had on the table. "This case still plaguing you?"

I couldn't even look at the paperwork anymore. I knew it all by heart. "Yeah, we've heard nothing from Easton, and we have no leads."

He was too good at hiding.

"You'll drive yourself bonkers agonizing over every detail. Just let it sit, man." Baxter was right. My brain knew this. Sadly, the rest of me didn't care.

"That's what I told him," Thomas said. "Are you two staying for supper?"

"We'd love to," Baxter said. "I heard you guys have a chef."

Thomas chuckled. "We do. He's pretty good. I think tonight it's pork chops and some sort of vegetable that I didn't understand. He uses some unusual seasonings and a whole bunch of stuff I've never even heard of."

"Shallots." At least that was what I could recall from what Dean had been talking about the day before. There had to be more to it than that, but shallots was all I could remember.

"Ooh. I bet I have some desserts that'll pair nicely with that."

I loved the way Ralf lit up when he talked about his creations. He was excited and proud of each and every one of them. Thomas took Ralf and linked their arms together.

"Come on. Let me show you around." Thomas took a stack of cookies with them.

I couldn't help but laugh. He wasn't even going to let me have a taste of the treats. I didn't mind, it just amused me. I wondered if his cravings would remain for sweets or if he was going to switch mid pregnancy and all of a sudden want cottage cheese and pickles or something. Only time would tell.

"Mated life looks good on you, Beckett." Baxter took a seat on the couch, and I sat in one of the chairs.

"Thanks," I said. "I've never been happier. I was just thinking that Thomas and I ought to take a long weekend and visit Steelwick when you arrived."

"You should. You know you're always welcome. Even though it seems like you'll probably make Asilo your permanent home." He was hinting as to my plans, and really, it wasn't fair that I hadn't been keeping them in the loop on how I'd been feeling.

I nodded. "We haven't decided anything definitively, but it's looking more and more like it." I couldn't imagine taking my mate away from the job that he loved so much. And then there were the people. He was so loved here. This was where he needed to be. How that looked? That was going to be where decisions needed to be made.

"You'll always be a member of the pride. Don't forget that."

My heart warmed. I had only been with the pride for a short amount of time, but I was still involved in all of their communications and called into the pack meetings. Thankfully, human technology made it possible for us to be involved even long-distance.

But also, Steelwick was connected to their jobs as enforcers. The expectation was that every member worked toward that goal. No one said it had to be on the premises, but that wasn't my worry.

My concern was more focused on the fact that I'd yet managed to successfully complete a mission. First I took Silas into custody, and now? Now I was going in circles and getting absolutely nowhere. Was I even the right alpha for the job? Once upon a time I was sure that I was. That was no longer the case.

"Thanks, Baxter. I do appreciate that, more than you know."

He patted my shoulder. "Seriously, though, put this information away. You can't beat yourself up over this."

"I don't like that there's someone out there threatening my mate." Just because he hadn't acted yet, didn't mean that he wouldn't. That knowledge kept me on edge.

"That's understandable. There was a time when my own mate was in trouble and involved in a case. It's hard, and it sucks. It'll play out how it's going to play out," Baxter said.

It was easy for him to say now that everything had worked out wonderfully for his mate. But what if… what if that wasn't the case for us? Then what?

"Agonizing over the facts, trying to find answers where there are none will only burn you out—just trust your instincts. Sometimes the answers will come to you when you least expect it." Baxter leaned back on the couch.

I groaned. "Why does your advice have to make sense?" I hated his advice, but I knew it was true. I began putting everything away. I would close it all up in a file and put it back in the office. Maybe if I went another week without looking at it, that would help.

"We do have two other cases for you," Baxter said. "I brought the information along since I was here."

"Awesome. I appreciate that. I'm glad that I'm able to work from here." Armand hadn't said that it could be an always kind of situation, but also, he didn't put a time limit on it. As long as they allowed it, I planned to keep working for them remotely. But if the time came that I needed to decide whether to move and keep my job or to quit and stay with my mate… my mate would win every single time.