Chapter 17

Ethan and I had spent the night together in his nest, just the two of us. The others gave us space until the morning when Jade came in and slid into the sheets we'd changed after our late-night shower. She pressed herself against our slumbering Omega's front and he let out a sleepy little moan before he buried his face into her t-shirt covered tits and sighed contentedly, then relaxed again. Jade and I held in our laughs so we wouldn't wake him, but I could feel where she tangled their legs together and pressed her cold toes into my shins.

Jade smirked at me when I sucked in a sharp breath then hissed, until Ethan shifted and our attention snapped down to him, both of us purring softly until he settled into sleep again. She reached up to run her finger along the stubble on my jaw and gently raked her nails along my skin with a soft look on her face. In our bond, she pushed toward me how happy she was for Ethan and for me, and how much she loved me. I closed my eyes, allowing myself to sink into those emotions and the feelings of her nails on my skin.

"Mmm. I'm not sure what you're doing with your hand, Jade, but based on how hard Theo is against my ass, I think he likes it."

We both chuckled as Ethan wrapped his arm around Jade's waist and pressed said ass back into my cock. The tiniest bit of disappointment from Ethan's bond pulled my attention to him.

"What's wrong, Ethan?"

He tipped his head back until his curls pressed into my chest and he was looking at both me and Jade.

"I'm instituting a no-clothes-in-the-nest rule."

The pout on his face was all Omega as he looked over at Jade's t-shirt like it had committed a grave offense against him. Jade purred and ran her hand down his chest, before kissing him to swallow the gasp that told me she'd gripped his length. Lust flooded me from both of them and I growled as I ground my cock into Ethan's plush cheeks and gripped his hip. We'd fucked well into the night and then again in the shower, but I needed him again.

"You two are going to kill me."

I gritted the words out and pressed my forehead to the back of Ethan's head. Jade pulled away from Ethan and started to stand, pulling a disappointed whine from our Omega.

"None of that, sweet Omega. Get up, now. Your Alpha is going to fuck the cum out of you against that wall and I'm going to swallow every drop."

At her words, Ethan made the kind of desperate noise of desire that I had only heard during his heat or a spike and scrambled to stand. I stood after him, grabbing the lube that was still near the bed, and Jade sank gracefully to her knees in front of the French doors. My lips tipped up in the corner as I realized her choice of "wall" would act more like a mirror and let me watch our Omega come apart while I took his ass. I loved this woman. I made sure to send that down the bond, along with just how hot this made me. Her eyes shot to mine, and she winked.

"Brace your hands on the door frame, Biscuit."

"Yes, Alpha."

Both Jade and I shivered at that. I coated my cock and tossed the bottle away before lining myself up with his hole. I couldn't quite see Jade from where Ethan was bent at the waist over her but the wet suction of her mouth and the sexy groaning sounds from him told me she'd begun to suck him. I reached my arm around until I could cup her jaw, not to guide her, but so the next time she took him into her throat, I could match her pace and sheath myself inside him. Aaand there.

"Holy shit, oh fuck, that's…ohmygod."

Ethan's knees nearly buckled and I wrapped an arm around his waist to help hold him up. Jade's amusement down our bond echoed my own.

"I'm not going to last. I can't, you two are too—fuck!"

Jade redoubled her efforts as I slammed into Ethan and sucked hard on his bite. The force of his orgasm and the pleasure reverberating in the bond set off my own release and I growled as I slapped one hand over his on the door and tightened my hold on his waist to keep him from collapsing onto Jade. She continued to suck on him and clean him up as he shook and mewled until he finally begged her to stop.

"So sensitive, please."

The clenching of his tight channel around me reinforced what he was saying but, even though I hadn't knotted him, I wasn't ready to pull out of his heat. Jade stood and her tongue darted out to lick up the line of Ethan's cum that had escaped her mouth. I reached out to slide my hand around her neck and bring her mouth to mine so I could suck the taste of him off her tongue. Fucking heaven.

"Next time, I need our Omega to fill your pussy and then I'm going to eat his cum out of you before I fill you back up."

Pure lust fired down my bonds and Ethan whimpered.

"How do bonded people not just fuck all day, every day?"

Jade and I laughed and she leaned over to kiss Ethan as I pulled out of him.

"You probably want to hop into the shower, Ethan. Miles is going to drive you into campus today for your finals. I need Theo at the office for a few things, but we'll see you tonight for dinner, okay?"

Ethan walked over to the bathroom like his legs were jello and I couldn't help the grin on my face. Jade placed a hand on my stomach and when I turned my attention back to her, I could see that she was all business. My senses went on alert. I focused on muting my bond with Ethan so I wouldn't alarm him.

"What's up?"

"Trevor narrowed down who the mole was yesterday before Ethan spiked. He'd tried to leave the area but one of the teams brought him in last night. I want you to be with Trev and I while we interrogate him."

I nodded once and gave her a quick kiss.

"I'll meet you downstairs in fifteen."

She left the nest and I headed into the bathroom to wash up quickly and, heroically, deny myself the pleasure of giving my Omega another orgasm before I left.

The lower levels of Drake House were home to storage and a secure armory but there were also holding cells and interrogation rooms, although these were rarely used. My teams hadn't needed them since I'd joined the organization. From what Jade had told me, when her dad, Miles' dad, and her uncle founded Drake House, they were more into the mercenary side of the business. Decades later, we did that type of work infrequently and never as openly as they had. They'd been a group of ex-soldiers that grew up around bikers and ex-cons, who'd wanted to make a name for themselves and a better life for their packs, but they'd made sure Drake House had all the facilities on hand that might be useful. I walked into the interrogation room that held the piece of shit who'd led us around in circles for days, and a dark grin split my face as I took my place along the wall that faced our guest. Seeing him tied to a chair, staring at the drain in the floor, made me want to go buy my father-in-law and the rest of the original Board a beer.

Trevor was leaning against the back wall, opposite me, tattoo-covered arms crossed in front of his chest. He was staring daggers at the man he'd worked with almost daily since he'd taken over the BullPen operations. From what I knew, they hadn't been friends or particularly close, not like Cole, who had grown on all of us. But any of the people that Trev had asked to work on finding Shae were people that he trusted. I could tell my big brother was beating himself up for this as much as he was seething.

"Hello, Derek."

Jade's voice held the same calm but authoritative tone that she used every day with Drake House employees and for front-of-house business. The rat's eyes shot to her and he opened his mouth, the look in his eyes telling us that he was about to start pleading. Jade raised a hand, signaling he shouldn't speak, then crouched in front of him.

"I'm going to stop you before you even start because I do not want to hear any lies. We know it was you who diverted Cole and Ethan's search for Shae."

I couldn't see Jade's face from where I stood, mirroring Trev's pose against the wall behind her. Based on Trevor's smirk, the way the rat got pale, and how his weak, Beta scent began to sour with fear, my girl had given up the corporate facade and let the killer show.

"Trevor tells me that you were abnormally resistant to an Alpha's command. Can't say I'm upset about it. Gives me a reason to make sure you go through a little of what my Beta suffered while you fucked with our ability to find them."

Derek began to shake his head and open his mouth to speak but Jade silenced him by grabbing his jaw with one hand to hold him still as the other hand pressed the blade she'd pulled from her boot into the soft skin beneath his chin.

"I need you to understand something, Derek. The only thing keeping you alive is what you can tell us about the people you helped. I cannot kill you outright because the law governing Alpha's seeking retribution only lets me kill people who have directly harmed my bonded mates. The lawyers have informed me that you do not qualify."

Something like hope flickered in his eyes until Jade spoke again.

"However, there is nothing that would penalize me for taking my pound of flesh and dropping you off at one of the Jackal's clubs for them to decide what to do with you."

"You wouldn't do that. It would risk them finding out about you all and everything here."

Fucker. I couldn't let that threat stand.

"Bold of you to assume you'd have a tongue to speak with or hands to write with when we throw you to the wolves."

The sour notes of fear in his scent now flooded the room and satisfaction thrummed through the bond from Jade and, more distantly, Trevor.

"Or… you can tell us what you know, everything you know. I'll still take my pound of flesh but then we'll turn you over to police custody. There you would have the chance to get a deal for protection."

I shook my head and played into the very real desire I had to just see this man suffer.

"What if he lies or withholds information? Better to just hand him over to the Jackals. We can find what we need, now that he won't be able to fuck it up for us."

"I won't lie. I'll tell you whatever I know, I swear."

Jade sucked her teeth as if she were considering it and stood, walking around Derek to stand next to Trevor. The rat tried to turn to see them but the restraints would only let him turn his head half-way, either side. I could see his chest heaving with panic as Jade and Trevor started to discuss him like they were speaking casually over coffee in the break room.

"Even people who can resist an Alpha's bark, under normal circumstances, can't do it while their brain is overstimulated or concentration is broken and when the Alpha is especially dominant."

"Pain sure makes it hard to concentrate."

"That is very true. And, one way or the other, he's going to be in a lot of pain."

"Plus, our Beta happens to also be bonded to one of the most dominant Alphas I've ever met."

Miles. I didn't think they'd told him about finding a mole, or much else that wasn't need-to-know. He didn't like being involved in Drake business but, for Shae, he'd burn the world down.

"Please. I didn't have a choice. They threatened me and I owed them money from their clubs."

The echoes of the conversation between Shae and Dayton, the Beta who'd been forced to help with the Jackals' experiments, rang in my ears. He'd been threatened and beaten as much as the others had, yet still helped the other victims as much as he could. I moved, without consciously deciding to, and struck Derek on the side of his face. The impact of my fist against his cheek was loud in the mostly silent room. The screech of his chair as it tipped back on two legs was accompanied by Derek's wail before Jade, unbothered, stretched a foot out to steady it back on all four.

"There's always a fucking choice, you piece of shit. You could have come to Trevor. You chose to betray him and betray Drake House: that was your choice."

He moaned in pain, while tears and snot started to run down his face. Jade's mild reprimand came through in the bond. I'd let my anger cloud my judgment for a moment. I knew better than to hit someone's face that hard when we needed them to talk, especially that close to the jaw. If I'd broken his jaw, it would set us back.

"Talk, Derek. What did they tell you to do?"

"T-they told me to make sure you didn't get close to finding the warehouse. I didn't know w-where it was for sure, just a g-general area."

"So when Ethan and Cole found something you, what, hid the trail?"

"Or planted a false one."

"But then you got sick and we sent you home that last day."

His whimpering and crying was pathetic as he nodded, then kept going.

"When you found your Beta, they had someone break into my apartment. I told them I'd help keep you off their backs if they'd let me live."

"That's why you came in that night? Why you stopped Cole's search?"

He nodded again.

"Who contacted you?"

"I don't know his name."

Three growls rumbled to life and he began to cry harder and thrash in his restraints.

"I never heard his name! The Alpha who spoke to me at the casino; he was in an office. They pulled me from the floor and brought me to him. He had red hair and there was an Anubis tattoo on his forearm. He seemed to be in charge or something, but they never said his name. He just knew about me and about your pack. Told me they'd forgive my debt if I kept the heat off them and the warehouse."

Trevor's eyes narrowed and his arms dropped to fists at his sides.

"How much debt and which casino?"

"Twenty grand. They pulled me from the floor at Senet."

Anubis and Senet, the Jackals were really leaning into the whole Egyptian theme. Trevor looked at Jade and they had a wordless conversation before he strode from the room. Jade moved around until she was standing in front of Derek again.

"Why stop Cole's search?

"He was looking for connections between the Jackals and other packs. They told me to keep you all away from the area of the warehouse and… anything that had to do with their pack."

"The pack? Not their businesses?"

"They didn't seem to care about the business. They just said away from the South side of the city and their pack."

Jade backed away from Derek and tilted her head to the side, indicating I should follow her to the hall. Once we were out of the room, she closed the door but still spoke in hushed tones.

"We need to have Cole run that search again. And find out who that Alpha was at Senet. Everything we can find about their pack. Everyone investigating this—us and the police—have been focused on the Jackals as an organization but not them as a pack. There's something there."

I nodded and leaned in to kiss her softly and quickly. She smiled at me and sent thanks for the simple reminder that she wasn't alone through the bond.

"Think you can run up to the BullPen and let Trevor know?"

I nodded and tipped my head back to the door.

"You going to be in there for a while?"

"Shouldn't take too long. I don't think he has any more information for us, but I don't want to fuck him up too badly if we do want to question him more."

"Makes sense."

I leaned in to kiss her again and she opened the door to go back into the room and dole out her version of justice for the wrongs done to Shae, to our pack.

"Start with the hands."

A cruel smirk curled along her perfect lips and I fought the urge to adjust myself as my cock started to get hard. She just winked and stepped inside, closing the door behind her. By the time I reached the elevator, Derek's muffled screams were filling the halls.