Chapter 3

I appreciated the quietness that day in Ralf and Lewis's bakery.

The ambience wasn't usually quiet in the bakery. The bakery was really the heart and soul of their pack lands. Based on numbers, there was no need to have an entire bakery for such a small pride. But make no mistake about it, this bakery was needed for so many reasons.

It seemed that many more members of Steelwork were out on missions or other tasks than normal. Not that I spent enough time here to know what "normal" looked like. But whatever the case was, it was peaceful today, and for that, I was thankful. I needed the calm. The baked goods didn't hurt either.

I'd given my initial report to Armand over the phone, and he had me come here. He hadn't said as much, but he didn't want me on pride lands with someone knowing where I was. And fair enough. The safety of my pride came first. I had no idea how he found me, but he was not going to win this time. I refused to allow that to happen.

Now that I was here, I wasn't sure who Arman decided I'd be meeting with to go over the details. I only knew it wasn't going to be him. He was in the middle of another huge mission and said I needed more attention than he could give.

I hated that I was going to have to rehash what had happened at my former pride. I preferred to pretend it never happened and live my happy life in denial. It might've been really unhealthy, but so far, it had worked for me. But there was no pretending anymore. Not with that asshole discovering my location.

My account was rough. There was no denying that, but I was prepared for it. It wouldn't be the first time I relived those memories and not even the first time I did it with someone else.

The investigation years ago, when I had first arrived at Asilo, had resulted in a dead end. I had wanted my former Alpha to get the punishment he deserved for what he had done to my friend. It wasn't meant to be. It took me a long time to accept that. Vengeance had fueled me for far too long. And now that I was finally in a place where he didn't have control of at least some parts of my life? Now he decided to pull this bullshit.

This was new evidence, though—proof that the old alpha was still at large. Which meant he could be caught and brought to justice. In theory. He'd stayed away so long, with zero detection. The only reason we were aware of him now was because he allowed us to be.

What had he been doing all these years? More than anything, I wanted to believe he was alone and in hiding. That was the safest option. Being free meant he could have hurt a lot of omegas in the past five years. The thought had my blood running cold.

Licking the frosting from my lip, I reached for my coffee. I didn't pretend to have restraint when it came to these baked goods. I was working on my third cinnamon roll. I wasn't sure how it was possible for them to be this good. Even with my nerves, they tasted like nirvana. If there had been a fourth one left, it'd be on my plate also.

I didn't bother to look up from my table, even when the chime on the door sounded. But when the breeze blew and a familiar scent hit me, I looked up and met the eyes of an old friend. I sucked in a breath.

"Benjamin?" It couldn't be. But also, it was. But also, it couldn't be.

The man looked at me, his eyes narrowed. Sorrow flashed over his features. It wasn't Benjamin after all.

"Who are you?" he asked, then inhaled deeply. His eyes widened to the point where I could see the whites of them from across the room.

Realization hit him at the same time as it sucker punched me. Not being Benjamin was difficult to take in, but this was… this brought it to a whole new level.

I shook my head. "You're not… you're…"

"Benjamin? No, I am not him. He's dead," he said. "That was my brother's name. How do you know him?"

Dead. Benjamin was dead. I blinked back the tears. He didn't need to tell me how.

"Beckett," I said, the name coming to my lips from the recesses of my memory.

I'd spent so much of today trying to push back the memories that were haunting me, trying to forget long enough that I could hold myself together. And now that I had to go back there, to remember this alpha's name… so much of the emotions that came with it flooded back.

Beckett nodded and came closer to me. His scent slammed into me, and I nearly rushed into his arms. I longed for his embrace, his comfort. I didn't even know him, but that didn't matter. My beast recognized him immediately.

Mate, my cat purred. It was so not the time for that. Or maybe it was the exact time for it. Everything was happening all at once, and I couldn't make heads nor tails of it.

I had always imagined that when I found my mate, it would result in a feeling of safety and security that I had never felt before—not from another person. It was exactly as I imagined it to be.

Safety. Peace. Desire.

"Are you...?" He trailed off. His gaze roved over me, and his cat came to the surface. He sucked in a breath, and it made a hissing noise.

"I'm Thomas," I said. "From Asilo."

"I was assigned to your case." He looked at me with a mix of confusion and surprise.

"Can you...?" I trailed off again, unsure of what I wanted to say, but I knew that this encounter was going to change everything.

What if he couldn't tell I was his mate? What if I was wrong, and this was all just wishful thinking? What if my connection to his brother was too hard for him to handle? There were so many possibilities and only a few of them were good.

"We're mates," he said. "I think… I know… I feel it."

"Yes." I let out a long breath. "Thank the goddess you can sense it too—unless you don't want that." I wouldn't blame him. Not under these circumstances. But also, it would crush me into a thousand pieces.

"I do sense it… want it." He sat down at the table and reached a hand across to grip mine. "I've always wanted to find my mate."

In any other circumstance, we'd probably have left to be alone and figure all the mate stuff out. And by figuring it out, I meant exploring each other's bodies and telling each other our favorite colors and types of cookies. Shifting would be top on that list, too. But we didn't have that luxury now. We met with purpose, and that didn't go away just because fate drew us together.

"Let's start at the beginning." He sat across from me. It was too far away for my liking. "You're one of the members of Asilo?"

I nodded. "Yeah, I've been there for about five years."

"Okay." He closed his eyes and inhaled deeply. "I'm Beckett, which you already know. I haven't been with the enforcer pack for too long."

It felt like he was going to say more, but he didn't, and the silence grew a tad awkward.

"Benjamin told me about you." We'd been really close back then. He'd told me about everything, and I did the same back. "You were his alpha father's oldest, right? You didn't live with him, though. Instead, you lived with your mom."

It wasn't common among shifters, but when you settled instead of waiting to see if you had a true mate, it'd been known to happen. That was what happened in this case. Benjamin wasn't even mad at his father. Falling in love with his brother's mom was a good thing, even if its season ended quickly.

Beckett nodded. "Unfortunately. I didn't know what was happening in Baxburg until it was too late."

A chill ran through me, and I had to look away. Even though he didn't say the words, I knew exactly what had happened to his brother. It would have happened to me, too, had I not run. If I had stayed behind… If Easton had chosen me and not Benjamin, perhaps Beckett's brother would still be alive.

"I'm so sorry." My voice cracked, the emotion thick. How could something I had been dreaming of be paired with something so heartbreaking?

The sorrow returned to his features, but he blinked it away. "Thank you. Easton is who we're looking for, then?" he asked. He was being brave. I didn't know if it was for me or for himself. It didn't really matter which. He didn't have to be. He was my mate just as he was.

I nodded. "He was the Alpha of the pride. He… He was very cruel. He's in hiding, though. We haven't been able to find him." Although to be fair, we hadn't been putting our best effort toward the cause for the past few years. At a certain point, we felt safe and assumed he was probably with the goddess. How wrong we had been.

"Except now he's sending you letters?"

I nodded.

"Has this happened before?"

I shook my head. "No, this is the first time."

"Everything's going to be okay," he said, and I couldn't help the tears that came to my eye. "I promise you. We'll take care of Easton. We'll make sure justice is finally served."

"Thomas, you have to try this latte we put together. It has all the flavors of a German chocolate cake!" Ralf came out the swinging door that led to the kitchen. He plopped his tray with several cups of coffee on the table. A bit sloshed over. "Whoops. Guess I got too excited." He looked between the two of us. "Sorry, was I interrupting something?"

"Actually, my… no, it's fine," I said. I accidentally spoke of my mate, and I shot him an apologetic look. "I love German chocolate cake." I wasn't actually sure how it was different than any other chocolate cake, but I loved cake, so by default it was amazing.

"Great. Try each one. I numbered them. I want to know which is best. They each have a different ratio of the syrups, and at this point I've had so much coconut, I barely remember what the actual cake tastes like." He laughed.

Coconut and chocolate? Sounded good to me. He was bouncing on the balls of his feet, and I couldn't help but wonder if perhaps he had too much sugar in general, based on how he was talking.

"Thanks, Ralf. I appreciate it." I grabbed the cup closest to me and took a sip. Flavor exploded on my tongue, and I moaned. "Oh wow. That is good."

Suddenly, I wasn't just scenting the chocolate and coconut sugary goodness from the lattes. There was a heavier, more tantalizing scent coming from my mate. My gaze flew to his. He looked away quickly.

"Sorry," he said. "That—" He cleared his throat. "That was inappropriate of me."

"I'm going to leave you two alone… Let me know which ones are the best."

"Thanks, Ralf." I was only half paying attention to his words. With Beckett in the room and knowing where his mind had just been wandering, there was not a chance I could focus on anything else.

If this were a dream, we'd be finding a place to be alone, marking each other, and planning our future. But this wasn't a dream. We couldn't just wander off and live our happy ever after.