Chapter 11

Ryan

“What the hell is this…?”

I didn’t ask the question too loudly, just hissed it at Fen as soon as we walked into the town hall. I’d seen it set up for community meetings or as a command centre during bushfire season, but back then it was considerably less… blue. It felt like someone bought up every single blue decoration possible and vomited them over every surface. Blue balloons were stuck around the doorway, blue bunting pinned up on the walls, and right in the middle of the room was a table covered by a blue tablecloth, the surface mounded with cakes and gifts.

“Mum,” Colt growled as he crossed his arms. “This has her name written all over this.” He glanced at Fen. “You told her, right? You told her we aren’t coming back here? You?—”

“Spoke to our mother at length, spelling out the exact conditions of our return?” Fen snapped. “Of course I did. No need to thank me.”

“She’s just going overboard again.” Haze strolled over to the table and picked up a blue iced cupcake, ignoring the many looks he was getting from the ladies that had congregated here. Bloody hell, I think one got a little fluttery when he bit into the cake. “Mm… nice.”

He munched his bloody cake as I looked around, identifying exits, calculating how far the car was from the hall, right as our dads walked in.

“Well, doesn’t this look nice.” A heavy hand landed on my shoulder and gave it a squeeze, and how the hell did that have me feeling like I was five again? “We don’t usually get an invite to these kinds of things,” Dad said. “But your mother figured it was time to be a bit more progressive.” He stepped forward and smiled at the ladies, and that really got them twittering. God, I’m pretty sure Blanche was old enough to be my mother, but she blushed like a girl in the face of his attention. “Looking good, ladies. We appreciate all the work you’ve done.”

“All the work for what?” Blake’s deadpan delivery had everyone turning around, and he stood in the doorway, not taking a step forward and obviously considering if he would.

“The baby party thing,” another one of my dads said with a wave of his hand. “When the women get together and make cakes out of nappies and stuff.”

A baby shower. I felt like my stomach dropped through the floor, because while my father might not know what it was, I did. It was an opportunity for those women closest to the expectant mother to cluster around her, show support, and play some really weird games. Candy had explained some of them with way more animation than I thought was needed. I knew this because she, Janet, and all the mothers and carers of those we worked with had been planning a shower for a while now.

One that wouldn’t look like this.

It wasn’t just the over-the-top decorations that grated on my nerves, but the fact that the hall was filled with acquaintances, people I knew from years ago. Not the women Riley shared her life with. The last time she walked into this room, she was a teenager.

And she wasn’t right now.

My mate looked too pale with red spots burning in her cheeks as she looked around her, taking it all in. She tried to smile, that’s what had me moving forward, and failed. “Fuck this…” I muttered to myself, hearing my dads make a sound of protest, but it didn’t register. Nothing could when my mate was in the room. I moved as fast as I could, weaving between the clusters of women, barely restraining myself from picking them up bodily and moving them out of the way when someone stepped in my mate’s path.

“Riley…?” I knew that voice, that face, and I stared at the woman for just a second. Nikki, that came through eventually, right as she took Riley’s hands. “Oh my god, girl, look at you!” As I strode closer, I processed Nikki’s words, searching for indications she was being rude or snide, but didn’t find it.

“Nikki…?” Riley blinked like a woman surfacing after diving deep into the water, her hand gripping Nikki’s. “Holy crap, how have you been?”

“Oh, same old, same old.” Nikki pulled away for long enough to dismiss her life’s achievements with a flap of her hand, but I remembered now. She married a guy who now ran the garage and she ran the business side of it, making sure people actually paid their invoices. “But you…” She moved forward, her tone dropping low enough that no beta could hear what she was saying. “Is it true? You’re pregnant with the next alphas of the town.”

“Yes.” I appeared by Riley’s side, and her eyes whipped around to meet mine. “I mean no. Yes.” I frowned and shook my head.

“So, which is it, Ryan?” Nikki asked with a little giggle.

“Riley is our mate.” My arm went around my girl’s shoulders and it felt like I couldn’t take a full breath until her body was pressed against mine. “She carries our children.”

“Oh my god, so it is true?” Nikki’s look of shock was to be expected, but the hope that quickly followed. Yeah, that wasn’t so welcome. I’d seen it in the eyes of all the girls at school until the three omegas revealed themselves. Being mated to us elevated you instantly in the town hierarchy, and while we’d grown used to it, we didn’t want Riley to. “You're the mother of the new alphas.” As she reached out for Riley’s stomach, I stepped forward, knowing how much my mate hated being randomly touched by near strangers. “Maybe?—”

“Mummy!”

A little girl with brown hair pulled back by a satin bow threw herself at Nikki’s legs and the woman let out a theatrical oof in response.

“Well, hello to you, Missy Moo.” Nikki picked up her daughter and then put her on her hip. “This is my daughter, Belinda,” she explained. “Belle, this is Ryan, one of the Vanguard alphas?—”

“Taylor.” I felt like I was clinging to something that was slipping from my fingers as I said our last name. “Taylor alphas.”

Nikki blinked for a second but rallied fast.

“This is Ryan Taylor, and this is my old friend, Riley.”

“Inside Out!” Belinda exclaimed and suddenly we were all chuckling. We’d watched that Disney movie about human emotions so many times with our younger clients.

“That’s right.” Riley had these moments where she just seemed to soften, and she did that right now, smiling up at the little girl as she stepped closer. “Though I’m not as cool as Riley in the movie. I just do boring science stuff.”

“You stuck with that?” Nikki seemed somehow surprised by that, and I couldn’t work out why. Riley was always single-minded about pursuing a career in medicine. “Even after the alphas found you.”

“I had to.” Riley shrugged. “When they turned up, I discovered I was a latent and had to find a solution that didn’t involve going through an aborted shift every full moon.” She shook her head. “I discovered a whole lot about what it means to be an alpha or an omega as a result.”

“Baby!” Belinda cried, reaching forward to touch Riley’s belly, and this time my mate didn’t stiffen. She just chuckled, but it was Nikki’s reaction that caught my eye. Her focus sharpened exponentially, the much weaker scent of a beta taking on an avaricious tang.

“That’s right, sweetheart, babies. Riley is going to give birth to five healthy alpha babies soon, and one day they’ll find their fated mate.”

That was true of every alpha, but it was the way Nikki said that which had my hackles raising. Slow, in a sing-song kind of tone one might use with children, but it was more than that. We’d been forced to study Macbeth at school, and if you told me Nikki was trying out to play one of the witches, I’d have believed you.

“Maybe you’ll grow up to be their omega one day.”

Parents talked about their kids becoming teachers or doctors or firemen all the time, but none of those roles sent a cold shiver running through me, because it was only now that I realised what a mistake coming back here was. Cheryl’s bullshit, the Williams’ packs’ posturing, it was all part of a bigger problem.

Coming back here meant we were shoved right back into pack politics.

I looked around and saw that many of the older ladies had my dads pinned, speaking with some animation as they glanced back at us. Cheryl and the Williams pack had arrived, as was their right as ruling pack, but they watched the proceedings with a wary eye. Keith Williams and his brothers knew that he held his role not because they’d beat us in a dominance fight, but because we stepped down.

And in theory, we could step back up at any time.

I’d grown up being watched by the whole town, knew what it was like to always be in the public eye, but Riley didn’t. Her father was well respected as one of the dads’ enforcers, but no more than that. She was afforded the luxury of growing up as just another town member.

Until now.

“Oh…”

A little gasp had every muscle in my body locking down. I didn’t care what Nikki, the town, anyone was doing right now, only Riley.

“Riles…?” I sounded like a boy, not a man, and I felt like one as I curled my body around hers. Her hand slapped down on her stomach as her breath came in sharp pants. “Riles…?” Birth. Pool. Protect mate. Instincts I never knew I had tore through me, unable to be ignored. “Baby…?”

Her face fitted perfectly in my hands, fear plain in her gaze as she stared up at me.

“Ry— Ah!”

“Oh, it looks like someone or someones are coming early.”

I snarled at Nikki, feeling a flash of guilt as her daughter startled, then cried, but I couldn’t help it. I couldn’t care about someone else’s child, not when mine were threatening to make an appearance.

“Riley, we’ll get you home,” I promised, all the while wondering how the hell I would achieve that. We were a five-hour drive from home and I was beginning to think we wouldn’t have that long. Sure enough, fluid splattered the floor, much to Riley’s shame, and that seemed to trigger a response from the whole hall. I was only one man, so I couldn’t shield my mate from their eyes, but I tried, I really tried, right as my brothers stormed over.

“Now?”

Fen was too pale, his eyes gleaming bright silver.

“I think so.” I looked down and stared at the splatter on the floor. “I mean?—”

“Ry…!”

Riley clawed at my shirt, mutely begging me for something, but I didn’t know what, and I couldn’t ask. Her mouth worked as she breathed through the pain and that summoned my mother.

“Now?”

How could Mum look so damn happy? This was the worst possible timing. We had a whole team on standby back at Crowe Corp and this was too soon surely. Riley might be my omega, but she started life as a beta, and we weren’t sure if this would cause complications.

“Let’s get her to the birthing pools,” Mum said, pushing forward to take Riley’s arm.

“No.” I’d seen Colt pissed more times than I could count, but never more than now. He shoved himself between our mother and our mate, claws snicking out as he prepared himself to take her out if that’s what it took. The dads frowned, then surged forward, ready to protect their mate, when all I wanted to do was help mine.

“What do you want, baby?” I asked her that in a soft soothing voice, but the slight waver gave me away. “You tell me and I’ll make sure it happens. You just say?—”

“Home,” Riley croaked out before starting to pant again.

“She is home,” Mum insisted. “Riley was born here. This is her hometown.”

“But it's not her home anymore.” Blake shouldered forward, his bulk pushing everyone back as he brought out his phone. “Gideon?” He had a direct line to Gideon Crowe? “Yep, we need that helicopter now. Half an hour? We’ll be out in the town square waiting.”

He swept in as we all stared, collecting her up in his arms as he carried her out of the hall. No one said a damn thing, just staring the whole while.

“Well, this has been fun.” Haze grabbed a tray of blue cupcakes and then followed our brother towards the door. “Thanks for the cake. They’re amazing.”

No, Riley was amazing and so was my damn brother.

“Ready to be a daddy?” Fen asked, daring to smile, and that had the rest of us grinning like idiots.

“Ready as we’ll ever be,” I replied as we ran towards the door.