Chapter 22

After waiting on Trevor's knot, we snuck up to the nest, not wanting to wake Miles and Shae. People often accused Omegas of being selfish and I could admit that, right then, I was being selfish. I wasn't ready to break the bubble that Trevor and I had been existing in since we'd got home.

We stopped at Trevor's door, and he ran inside quickly to get some sweatpants to sleep in. Once we got to my nest, I showered first and worried over the placement of every pillow and blanket in my nest while I waited on Trevor to finish his own shower. Theo sent me a wave of something in the bond that helped me feel more calm. I was so new to having a bond that most of the time it startled me to feel him reaching out, but I loved it. Panicking while waiting for a text that everything was fine wasn't a problem I had anymore.

The shower turned off and I gave up on my nest and ran to the light switches to put them on one of the settings that made me think of the night sky. Trevor came out of the bathroom, shirtless, black sweats riding low on his hips, and scrunching the water from his hair with a towel. The sight made my mouth water and I had to remind my body that I wasn't in heat, and it could go without a knot until tomorrow. Trevor was looking up at the ceiling with a wistful sort of smile and I took the extra minute to look over the art on his skin.

"It's beautiful in here; peaceful."

I swallowed thickly as I looked back at him. He seemed different somehow. I'd noticed that he had been changing slowly from the angry and sometimes cruel Alpha I'd met, but after the events of the night, it seemed like a final weight lifted from him.

"Can't take credit for any of it. Miles said it was his courting gift."

I smiled over at him but my smile fell when I saw him looking at his feet and shifting his weight from one foot to the other. Walking up to him, I tentatively put my hands on his hips and swiveled my head until I caught his eyes.

"What is it?"

He sighed before wrapping his towel around his neck and pulling me into his chest, pressing his mouth into the top of my head.

"I did this all so wrong. I know you said it's all in the past, but I want to be a good Alpha to you."

I started to protest but he silenced me with a shake of his head.

"I want to get to know you. Bring you little things that will make you smile or make your day better?—"

"But you already do that. You bring me snacks and treats and coffee!"

He smiled down at me and pressed an achingly sweet kiss against my lips.

"I'll keep doing that too but… did Theo tell you that I drew all of the pieces that made up his sleeves?"

I shook my head and looked down at Trevor's torso with new eyes.

"Did you draw any of these?"

"Most of them."

"That's—Trevor that's incredible."

I could see a blush tinting his cheeks as he mumbled his thanks before hugging me to his chest again.

"Theo said something tonight about me choosing a piece from the gala for your nest and I think he was trying to remind me what art used to mean to me. I haven't drawn or gone to a gallery or to the spaces at Riverview to see what those artists are creating in so long. Would you want to come with me sometime?"

"Yes."

"Cool."

We stood there holding on to each other for a few more moments until I tugged him over to the blankets and pillows. Finally having him in them, getting his scent in my nest the same way the others had, settled something in my soul. We lay there talking about everything and nothing at all. Favorite colors, foods, all of that. And then, when I asked what his favorite movie was, his cheeks tinted with a blush, and he said some older action movie I had never heard of.

"He's lying."

Theo's deep voice pulled my attention to him, and I sprang from my spot to jump into his arms. He smelled like he'd showered downstairs in his room, and I focused on sending him feelings of gratitude in the bond. Thankful for him not bringing the scent of that random Alpha who'd been with Poppy into my nest. He leaned down and kissed me before pulling away and turning me back to the mattress. When we'd lain down and I was nestled between the two of them, trying very hard not to picture being spit-roasted by them, Theo decided to break the silence.

"Beauty and the Beasts. Used to make our sister watch it all the time and blame it on her when our parents complained."

"Dude, shut up."

Trevor hit Theo with a pillow and I whined softly at it being out of place, then got annoyed with myself for caring about the placement of pillows.

"Don't worry about it, Biscuit. We know your heat is coming, so we'll do our best not to move anything from its spot."

"Sorry, Omega. Where does it belong?"

Trevor handed me the pillow and I gave him a quick peck on the cheek before putting it back where it had come from. Theo tugged me back down into the space between them and wrapped his arm around my waist. He kissed his bondmark and laughed at how it made me squirm before molding himself to my back and drifting quickly off to sleep.

Facing Theo and I, Trevor had one arm tucked under the pillow his head laid on and the other resting on his stomach. I reached over to take that hand and thread our fingers together. He scooted a little closer as I brought our joined hands to my chest. Making sure I wouldn't wake Theo but also that Trevor could hear me, I whispered.

"I loved Beauty and the Beasts too."

I was starting to feel like one of those conspiracy theorists in a crime show as I stared at the not-murder-murder-board Cole, Trevor and I had put together on one of the dry erase boards in the BullPen—all that was missing was the red string.

Now that we weren't worried about the mole, we'd moved out of the conference room that Cole and I had previously appropriated. Not that I'd known there had been someone working against us from the inside. I was all prepared to rip into Cole when I got into the BullPen until I saw how absolutely wrecked he was. I'd told Trevor to send him home and he went, reluctantly, but only after I promised to update him if we found anything.

Amy and I were going over our information again while we ran an algorithm to search for any hidden actions taken within the system by Derek or Trevor, since he'd been using a duped access card. So far, we didn't have anything new. Jade had come in earlier and given me a kiss before going straight to Trevor's office and closing herself inside with him. Theo had explained this morning that she'd been in questioning most of the night and had decided to stay in her room rather than risk disturbing us. We'd all let her sleep in, but I knew she wanted to check on Trevor after last night's events.

Poppy's taunts came back to the surface of my mind. I clenched my jaw, wishing I could have spared Trevor that confrontation but also savoring the memory of Aubs decking her. I hadn't heard of Poppy Cabot before finding her pictured with the Jackals. Cabot Pharma was one of the most well-known pharmaceutical and research companies in the country, but we didn't find any links between the company and the Jackals.

Everything I found suggested that Poppy Cabot had been quietly expelled from her social circles after she attacked Trevor and that her parents had stopped paying for anything beyond her trust fund. Even after a fall from grace from her social strata, she would still be welcomed into the wealthy circles my parents and their peers traveled in. She knew enough about me to know that my fathers had tried to match me with the Rothchild pack and how that had failed. I suddenly stilled. Oh. How could I have been so dumb?

"Amy, did you run any checks on our search for connections between Poppy Cabot and other rich packs?"

"No, not since trying to find out how she ended up with the Jackals in the first place. We set that line of questioning aside when we started looking for Shae."

"Motherfucker."

"What?"

"Run it again, please? Look specifically for links between Poppy Cabot and Gavin Rothchild? I think we were on to something, and that's why they took Shae. I think Derek told the Jackals and they moved in on Shae to distract us."

Her face paled and she whirled back to the closest machine to hunt for the needle in the haystack. There had to be something there. Something that made them want to up the stakes and scare us off.

It made sense that a socialite would have connections to resources and money to fund the shit that the Jackals were doing. But we still weren't sure how she'd got tangled up with them. If they were a scent match then it stood to reason that she would have been tied to the whole pack, if not bonded, but the Alpha last night made it clear that he didn't care about her. Turning my attention back to the board, my gaze snagged on the photo of Clint's pack.

There were so many unanswered questions. I walked up to the wall where our board was and cleared some space so I could write on the dry erase area. I started by listing the things I needed to focus my searches on. How had Poppy become tied to the Jackals? How did Clint's pack find the Jackals? How did they know what the formula could do? Clint said it was only him and his assistant who knew but how was that possible? He'd been using Foundation resources and... fuck.

I spun around and moved over to my computer. After I'd visited Clint, Cole and I were working on finding a link between the Foundation and the Jackals, but nothing had come up. Now that I knew Derek had been going through and scrubbing our searches that produced results, I was willing to bet a link existed. After an hour, the report had been populated but nothing in the Foundation's record of donations matched the legal holdings from pack Jackal or Poppy's family.

Even more frustrating was that the donations scheme Clint seemed so convinced was happening didn't add up either. There were a lot of donations from happily matched packs after they found their Omegas, but the amounts were wildly varied and none more than ten thousand dollars. Certainly not enough to risk losing their reputation or potentially their business as a whole if it came out that they were, as Clint had said, selling Omegas.

Not trusting an algorithm this time, I resolved to sift through the information again. There had been a statement from Clint's boss about my kidnapping, but I couldn't remember the man's name. A hand rested on my shoulder, making me jump until Shae's blackberry floral scent made its way through my hyper-focused state.

I blinked at them a few times while my eyes adjusted from staring at the screen for so long without looking away. They were in their new Drake House EMT uniform and my mouth watered at the sight. I liked knowing that almost all of my pack was here each day. They smiled at me and ran their short fingernails through my hair, making my eyes close from the pleasure. There weren't many things better than having someone run their fingers through your hair and scratch your scalp.

"I came to see if you were ready to go home but it looks like you are working hard?"

I nodded and blew out a frustrated breath.

"We're looking back at places we thought would lead to links between all these dangling threads, in case Derek tampered with them, but I haven't found any yet. Was just about to look into Clint's boss because of something Clint said about donations."

"Can I help?"

I twisted the sleeve on my hoodie between my hands. Going home and having everyone in my nest for the first time sounded heavenly, but there were too many loose ends here.

"You don't mind?"

They shook their head and leaned in to kiss me. It was too brief, and when they started to pull away, I held the back of their neck, pressing my forehead to theirs.

"Thanks. Love you, Shae."

"Love you, too. How about I see if everyone will eat here? Miles would bring food in."

I nodded enthusiastically and turned back to my desk as they went to coordinate a working pack dinner. The article was up on the screen and I quickly found his name, Justin Grant, then dipped into the man's digital footprint. He was high enough up the ladder at the Foundation to make money, but little red flags started popping up here and there. His car was far too nice, not setting off an alarm on its own, but paired with the fact that his wife, a proclaimed stay-at-home-mom based on her socials, had an identical car in a different color—alarm bells went off. They also managed to live in a neighborhood that was a reach for his listed annual salary. Their taxes didn't indicate any additional income or financial windfalls that would explain away their spending.

I was trolling through his wife's social media accounts when my chair was spun around, and I came face-to-face with a grinning Theo.

"Time to eat, Biscuit."

I looked around. Amy and the others must have left while I was working. They understood what it was like to go down a rabbit hole like this, though. Hopefully they wouldn't think I was being rude. The blinds were open in Trevor's office, and I could see Miles and Shae setting up take out containers, plates, and more. This was what life could be like, too. Not just hot sex and dates and bonding, but lazy nights on the couch and dinners around the office when one of us had to work late. I could hardly believe it was real. Theo's finger slid along his bondmark and lit a fire in my veins.

"I don't want to be hard while looking at Mary Grant's Casino Night posts, Theo. That's weird."

He laughed and looked over at my screen for a second before he stilled, and all of the emotion slid from his face. Leaning closer to the screen, he poked at the picture I'd been looking at.

"When was this taken?"

I spun back to the screen to see what had captured his attention, but it was just a photo of the couple standing with some other Foundation employees in front of a casino floor. I'd just scrolled to this photo and hadn't checked any of the details yet.

"It was posted two months ago at the, fucking hell, Senet Casino… Theo?"

He stood suddenly and I felt a tugging in the bond, like he was calling me to him but I was right there.

The beep that indicated someone gaining entrance to the area went off a moment later and Jade nearly ran into the BullPen from the short hallway, looking around wildly.

"Jade!"

Theo's shout pulled the attention of the others who began filing out of Trevor's office and moving toward us. Jade got there first, her face a mix of confusion and alarm, like she'd been prepared for a fight but found no threat.

"Why'd you call to me like that? Fuck, Theo, I thought something was wrong."

He'd called Jade though the bond? How could I learn to do that tugging thing? Theo stabbed his finger into the screen, pointing to the sort of blurry image of two men in the background.

"It's him, isn't it? That Alpha fucker from the warehouse."

Jade squinted at the screen and I watched her expression cycle from mild annoyance to recognition and then, finally, rage.

"Yes."

"Ethan, can you find any other pictures of that night or pictures of that man?"

I nodded and began pulling up any other photos from that night at that location. Dinner was mostly forgotten as we all crowded around the screen. Finally, I found an image that had a clearer view of the Alpha who'd tortured and sold human beings, hurt my Beta, and turned my Alpha. A sharp intake of breath behind me had me whirling. Shae was staring at the screen as their scent became a suffocating mixture of rotten berries as they grappled with their fear and anger. Jade and Miles surrounded them and Trevor reached out to hold one of their hands. I started to stand, to go to them until they shook their head. A broken little whimper slipped out of my mouth, before Shae moved to me and cupped my face.

"I wasn't rejecting you, baby. I just meant to keep working. I am fine but that man has been elusive for too long. Find him for us."

I kissed them quickly and spun around, tapping into a facial recognition program and running it through the state's driver's license database as well as through a criminal one. While that was running in the background, I continued to look through the photos of that night, with Theo lurking behind me. One in particular caught my eye and I could not fucking believe it.

"Son of a bitch!"

"What?"

Theo leaned in to see what had set me off and his growl rumbled to life as he pulled me from my chair and into his lap. The others, who'd been sitting nearby, came back over to see what was happening. I twisted around on Theo's lap until I could see his face.

"Hey." I booped his nose and his scowl deepened. "It's a picture. You don't have to protect me from a picture, and I need to work."

He kicked my chair away and rolled his chair, with us both on it, a foot or so to the left until we were in front of my monitor. My knees hit the edge of the desk and I huffed, ready to protest, when the chair's sudden drop had me gripping the arms like they were oh shit handles in a car. I shot a glare over my shoulder at Theo who just arched his brows at me, as if to say, problem solved.

"Will someone please explain, for the rest of the class? Who is that other guy with our mystery soon-to-be-dead psychopath?"

Trevor's frustration made me want to soothe him but Theo's arms around my waist were like iron bars. I threw my arms up as I turned as much as I could toward the others.

"That is one of the Rothchild Alphas. He was at my parents' house with Gavin Rothchild the night Jade and Theo brought me home."

Growls erupted around me and I whined a little. Even knowing they weren't angry with me; it was still something to be surrounded by four angry Alphas. Jade tipped her chin and came closer to the screen.

"Are you sure that's not Gavin standing with him? The picture isn't great."

"No, it's definitely the mystery Alpha, he's wearing the same thing in all the pictures."

Her eyes narrowed and she threaded her fingers through the hair on the back of my head while she kept looking at the screen.

"Can you pull up a picture of Gavin Rothchild?"

It took less than a minute and once the two images were side by side, I could see why Jade would have made that leap. They looked like family. Gavin's hair was a few shades lighter, and their eyes were different colors, but they had the same shape, and their noses were too similar to be a coincidence. The mystery Alpha had to be related to Gavin Rothchild somehow.

"Trevor, will you call in Cole? I hate to bring him in when he needs rest, but I promised I'd tell him if we found anything, and I could use his help."

He nodded and pulled out his cell. I'd make it up to my friend somehow.

"I'm setting him up with a dedicated space in the barracks, like we have. He's putting in more work than just about any other employee. We can call it the BullPen's employee space if it makes him feel weird."

I looked up at Jade, turning my head until I could kiss her wrist.

"Thank you, Alpha."

Once again, I allowed myself to get lost in the puzzle before me, but this time I did a deep dive into Pack Rothchild while I waited for Cole to help me. By the time he arrived, I'd pulled all public records about their holdings, financials, and properties. I'd trolled through all three Alphas' social media and anything else I could find.

The comforting scent of warm linens wrapped around me and I looked for Cole. He was walking over with Trevor and looked like he'd been able to rest and shower at least, which unwound some of the guilt I felt about dragging him back in. Theo tapped my thighs and I stood from his lap. I'd offered several times to move back to my own chair, but he wouldn't allow it.

"Alright, Biscuit. Now that your bestie is here, we can move to Trevor's office with all this shit you've been printing off and you can explain everything while you eat something."

Nodding, I moved toward the office, tipping my head to the other two to follow. The food had been packed away into a fridge in the breakroom, so I wasn't surprised when Miles and Shae came in with all the reheated food. None of them would let me go through what I'd found until I had eaten so I huffed and shoveled food into my mouth as fast as possible. Then I held up my empty plate like a child asking for permission to leave the table. Theo had already handed out the papers I'd printed, and they'd been passed around the group so I could jump in.

"About five years ago, Gavin Rothchild inherited the estate of Joseph Markham, his last living parent. Basically, he was a trust fund baby, and when he joined Pack Rothchild they started up a consulting firm of some kind that did alright but not enough to support their country club lifestyle. I'm guessing he expected a big windfall with the inheritance, but based on everything I could find from the paper trail and tax filings, Joseph Markham was basically broke. They could have sold the family estate but there was a stipulation in the will that the heirs had to agree to sell."

"More than one? Did Gavin have any siblings or did it mean his pack?"

My nose scrunched at Cole's words and the prospect of it meaning Gavin's pack because I hadn't considered that. Typically when people agreed to officially become a pack and file with the government for all the rights and protections associated with it, they chose one name and all assets became shared. Dissolving a pack was a very messy process and didn't happen often. It was entirely possible that Markham meant his son's pack when he implied more than one heir in his will, but my gut said otherwise.

"I think it means our mystery Alpha. It could mean the pack, though. Maybe I just want my theory to be right, but I think they are half-brothers."

"Why?"

"I looked into Joseph Markham's finances, and he made monthly payments of five thousand dollars to an account registered to a woman named Violet Rayne for eighteen years beginning thirty-three years ago. He didn't join his pack until a few years after that first payment so…"

"So Papa Markham had a bastard and he, what, wanted him to inherit?"

I shrugged, not having a real answer for Theo.

"I haven't been able to find Violet Rayne. It sounds like a stage name, but there might be a trail somewhere."

I pointed to the papers in Miles" hands before I continued.

"I followed the Pack Rothchild finances and, not long after his father died, Gavin did sell the family estate and reported the profits as being invested in a company named Horus."

I looked around the room waiting for the clamor of understanding and… crickets.

"Well, that was anticlimactic. Since it appears I was the only one here who read books with Egyptian mythology when I was a kid, let me try again: Horus and Anubis were half-brothers."

"Seriously?"

I nodded emphatically as the others gave me the reaction that I'd expected in the beginning. Jade jumped in then, bringing everyone away from criticizing the bad guy's apparent theme.

"So it's a dummy corporation?"

"Exactly and it's been giving the Rothchild pack big returns on that initial investment ever since."

Cole pulled his laptop over and began typing away as Trevor chimed in.

"So how does this connect to the Jackals?"

Spinning his laptop around, Cole had opened public records for the casino that had been in the pictures and one of the clubs that Haven had been watching.

"The Jackals pack members began purchasing businesses immediately after the Rothchilds ‘invested' in Horus."

"Do we take it to the police?"

"I think we need to but, something else is weird. We've been looking through all of their socials and a few weeks ago, all three Alphas from Pack Rothchild stopped posting or engaging in any way. There has been minimal activity on their credit cards as well. It seems like they're hiding out in their house."

"If there are charges on their cards then we can probably assume they aren't dead. Did they find an Omega?"

An involuntary shudder ran through me remembering the things Gavin Rothchild had said to me about being his Omega. Rough fingers threaded through mine and I was surprised to see the hand holding mine was Miles". I smiled at him and squeezed his hand.

"I can check the Foundation's records but I feel like they would be showing off if they found a match. They certainly seemed the type when they were at my parents' house."

"What if… they had to hide the Omega?"

Shae's voice was soft and Jade turned to them, wrapping her arm around their shoulders.

"What do you mean, Sunshine?"

They shook their head as if to shake something off and turned to Theo.

"Dayton told us there was another turned Omega, one that came before Cat and the others. He made it seem like whoever it was had been sold."

Their last word broke off on a whisper, and the room quieted, processing that possibility and the horror associated with it.

"Bodhi has a family friend who is a cop, he tipped us off about the kidnappings and the drug. Could we call in a tip? If we claim there is an Omega in immediate danger, they are supposed to investigate without delay. Might be faster than going through the official channels that we used to turn over Derek?"

"And we wouldn't have to own up to any less than legal means of collecting information Ethan might have used."

"Those cops probably wouldn't be the most accommodating anyway. They weren't thrilled with the state I delivered their witness."

I felt the blood rush from my face when my mind provided an image of what Derek may have looked like when Jade was through with him. I wasn't completely in the dark about what my Alphas were capable of, but I'd also known Derek. It was unsettling but I pushed it from my mind. I had other things to focus on and my Alphas would always do what it took to keep us safe.

"He couldn't give them any real information anyway. Played dumb about everything except knowing they took Shae and that he was blackmailed into hiding the warehouse from us. We'd basically locked everyone else out of the search after Cole's suspicions."

Jade pulled Shae closer to her chest and turned her hard gaze on Theo before nodding once. Theo stood, leaving the room to call Bodhi and let him in on what we knew while the rest of us began to clean up. I apologized to Cole for pulling him back in when we weren't doing much more tonight but he just rolled his eyes and ruffled my hair. Trevor let him know about the new BullPen exclusive room in the barracks and he said he'd go crash there in case any new information came in overnight.

I went to shut down my computers and began packing up my things when Miles" scent grew stronger and I noticed him leaning against the wall near my station. He was sort of pinching his thick bottom lip between his thumb and the knuckle of his pointer finger, looking like he was muddling something over.

"Are you alright, Miles?"

His eyes lifted to me and he ran a hand down his face.

"I want to ask you a question but I don't know if it's crossing a line."

I was officially nervous but also had to know what had been making him stew in his thoughts. I made a go on kind of gesture.

"Are you attracted to Cole?"

I spluttered and choked out a laugh because that was the farthest thing from any of my guesses as to what he might have wanted to talk about. Miles" brow furrowed and he seemed embarrassed, so I quickly composed myself and moved to stand in front of him.

"No, I am not attracted to Cole. He feels like… not quite like pack but closer to that than family. He's quickly become my best friend and was there for me, for all of us really, through everything that has happened. It's not sexual at all for me or even romantic but he's… important."

Miles tilted his head considering my words and he reached out, taking my hand and slowly tugging me into his chest, giving me plenty of time to resist. Silly Alpha. I would do anything to be in his arms, in any of their arms, every minute of every day. I wrapped my arms around his thick waist and rested my forehead against the side of his neck.

"I think that's how Cat must view Shae. Someday, if she packs up, I imagine they'll end up living somewhere close to us. Maybe be our neighbors. Does that bother you?"

Actively trying to think with my hindbrain was a weird thing, since I spent most of my time trying to suppress it. I let it run with visions of Shae and Cat spending time together or Cat living so close. Nothing, no jealousy or possessiveness came to urge me to claw Cat's eyes out. The opposite actually, that felt right.

"No. Cat feels like Cole to me but a bit more removed. She's part of Shae's life. So intertwined that it would hurt Shae to lose her and I would never want that."

Miles hummed a noise that felt like approval and my chest warmed. I was so comfortable in his arms that my body decided it was time to let me really feel the exhaustion that I'd been pushing off. I yawned into his chest and Miles chuckled, taking my hand to pull me back to the others and let them take me home.