Chapter Seventeen

Ryan

I hadn't realized how much things would change after marking my mate. Sure, it meant that we were committed, that it was not just a pull for us to be together. But it was also so much more than that.

A sense of calm and joy that enveloped me, a completeness that I didn't fully understand but embraced wholeheartedly. And I was ridiculously in love—something I never thought would be a part of my life. Best of all, when I looked in King's eyes, I saw that love shining right back at me.

Now that the kids knew he was going to be a part of our lives and that he was my mate, he officially moved in, as moved in as he could be in the small space. We were going to have to figure something out.

It had been fine when the kids were younger and I was single, but we'd already been outgrowing the place before I first scented King as mine. Adding that second adult put us over the top. I had it on my list of things to discuss at our next meeting. I wasn't sure what the options would be but wanted to explore them. No matter what, I wanted to stay here. I loved my work and it was a great environment for the kids.

When I asked King about staying, he told me he could do his job from anywhere. I understood full well that he didn't actually want to do his job at all. But they were between a rock and a hard place with that one. It probably wasn't going to change, at least not in the near future, though the getting-left-for-dead thing might've changed that. We hadn't discussed that yet.

The kids were enjoying the changes to their lives as well. They loved Papa King, and why wouldn't they? He was the playmate of all playmates. Of course, their favorite game was playing with his lion. They loved it when he let them climb on his back, and he went "running." They would laugh and laugh as he roared fiercely and raced through the garden. It was such a beautiful sight—one I didn't think I'd ever get tired of.

Today, my mate was helping Mav work on something to do with the circuit breaker at the warehouse. I wasn't sure if he was brute muscle or if he had skills in the area. We'd been eating breakfast when he got pulled away, and I'd still needed to get the kids to class, where they now were. It was a slow workday for me, and I had a few hours to spare.

I decided to take it as an opportunity to run to town to get Play-Doh for the afternoon's activity. We had ordered a whole box of it, but it came hard. It had obviously been stored in heat that made it useless. We could make our own, but the colors wouldn't be quite right for the activity we had planned, and it would require an awful lot of salt and flour and kneading. Grabbing it from the store was definitely the better option. Besides, there was a mocha latte at the new coffee shop with my name on it.

I peeked in to make sure our new guests were okay. They pretty much stayed in their room, and when I knocked on the door and they called me inside, I walked in to find the three toddlers jumping on the air mattress. It definitely wasn't the best for the mattress, but I'd never tell them that. If I needed to replace that mattress with my own money every day to hear them giggle like that, I was going to.

"I'm running to town to get some things for this afternoon's activities. Did you need anything?"

"You're leaving. Is that safe?"

I hated at how scared he sounded. I understood why. I would feel that way too if people wanted me dead because of something outside of my control, but still…I wanted this place to be the safe haven it was to me when I escaped.

"Yeah, why wouldn't it be?"

"Because I'm here." His voice quaked. I hated this for him…all of it.

"No, it's fine. They think King is dead, and they don't know where you are. We have a tech wiz here, and he did his little hacking thing. It's good."

He didn't seem to agree with my assessment, staring at me with enough worry on his face to have me second-guessing my decision.

"If King thought I wasn't safe, he'd let me know." And he'd be an annoying butt about it.

Before this conversation, I hadn't thought anything about leaving. It was just a normal day. Now? Now, it was at least giving me pause.

"So did you want anything from the store? Maybe something that the kids enjoy, that we don't have?"

He looked down at them. "Maybe those applesauce pouches. I know there's real applesauce here—the kind made with apples that actually taste good—but they love those pouches."

"Consider it done."

I shut the door behind me and went into town, where I parked at the general store. It was a small business, but they had a little bit of everything. I was able to get enough Play-Doh for everyone, and one box of the applesauce pouches. And of course some apples for myself. They were my favorite variety and locally grown. It wasn't like I could pass them up. I set them on the counter to pay, and, when the door opened, I caught a whiff of my mate. He was here.

If I were to guess, the omega had told him I'd gone to town and that he was worried. He didn't need to be, but I understood where he was coming from.

I paid, grabbed my bags, and went out to find my mate. Maybe we could grab lunch or ice cream. Only as I rounded the corner to drop the bags in my car, I realized, seconds too late—it wasn't my mate at all.

It was a trap.

Fuck.