Except Tad was an Omega.
All the anger built up from feeling Missy’s fear of this man lifted Tad to the place where he would do anything to save her. He closed his eyes so he wouldn’t strain to use his vision, and he opened his mind to the ability that had hovered under the surface for so much of his life. Tad reached out with his new awareness and found the emotions of his enemy.
It was like wearing infrared goggles.
Doug came toward him on silent paws. Tad stroked his mind, calming. Cooling. Doug paused in his pacing, his head swinging from side to side like he was dislodging an annoying fly.
Tad’s heart rate increased. It was working. He pushed harder at his enemy, attempting to make Doug fall asleep. The wolf staggered in a circle, whining and snapping at the air. He clawed at the ground and snarled, obviously aware of what Tad was doing, but unable to overpower the Omega skills Tad appropriated from somewhere deep within.
Tad wanted the man out of Missy’s life forever, yet the thought of killing another in cold blood just wasn’t his way. Maybe there was too much human in him, but since Missy had mentioned the possibility of the wolf council or the human courts, it seemed there might be a better solution.
Doug rolled on the ground, his legs scrambling in the air as Tad continued to mentally overwhelm him. Suddenly Missy was there in Tad’s mind as well, supporting him, aiding him. Doug was no match against their two strengths, untrained and untried as they were.
The sensation of Missy’s presence grew stronger, and across the arena Tad saw a shimmer of silvery fur in the moonlight. He couldn’t believe his eyes as she bounded into the fight area. “What are you doing? Get out of here!”
She slowed to a walk, her wolf form so beautiful he couldn’t take his gaze off her. “I’m the cause of the fight. If he will deny the challenge, you don’t have to kill him.”
She knew. Somehow she knew that he didn’t want to kill, not if it could be avoided. His astonishment at the depth of the connection between them as mates rose again.
Tad turned to face Doug who lay twitching in the midst of the arena. “Do you yield? I’ll let you live if you stand down the challenge for Missy.”
Tad eased his control on Doug, enough to let him move slightly. The Alpha rolled to his belly and dropped his head to the ground.
“He yields!” The Whistler Beta had changed back to human and rushed out to the arena with Keil hard on his heels.
“Will he accept the council’s examination of his leadership as well as give up the challenge?” Tad demanded, keeping his eyes on Doug.
The Alpha’s gaze darted back and forth, and suddenly he gathered his legs under him and leapt at Missy. His body shifted to the left as his claws swung and his teeth reached to rip her throat open. Tad cried in disbelief, raised the gun and fired twice in quick succession before everything went silent.
Epilogue
Missy watched happily as her new brother-in-law hung up the phone and turned to give his wife a tender kiss. Now that was a neat sensation, to be able to think about a brother-in-law without getting nauseous at the same time.
“Whistler pack leadership has finally been reorganized by the council. They’re trying to avoid getting human authorities involved to deal with the illegal items Missy had documented,” Keil said. He wrapped his arm around Robyn, pulling her into his side. “You using a gun during a challenge has been forgiven in light of Doug’s double-cross. Plus the fact you turned down the position of Alpha for Whistler means there’s some archaic law in the code that gives you clemency.”
Missy tucked herself in tighter to Tad where they sat on the loveseat. She exchanged contented smiles with Robyn.
“I wasn’t going to let the bastard kill me because I couldn’t shift yet,” Tad pointed out. “I’m glad you were paying attention, Robyn, or I’d have been down there without a backup weapon. I felt like a fool waving my arms around signing like an idiot. And while the whole Omega thing is really cool, I need more practice before relying on it to save anyone’s life.”
“So, are you two official now?” TJ asked.
“Official what?” Tad asked, brushing a kiss against Missy’s cheek. She breathed in his scent happily, comfort and satisfaction pooling around her.
She felt little queasy, but that was to be expected.
TJ paced the room, his long legs constantly on the verge of tripping. “Omegas for the Granite Lake pack. I know you’re mates because, duh, I can smell that one a mile away. There’s also this other weird scent that I think means—”
“TJ, I need you to go and get my bag out of the car,” Missy ordered, flicking a glance at Tad to see if he’d caught that slip. How could TJ have known?
The young man sighed as he paced toward the door. “Fine. I’ll go. But I’ll have you know it’s not my fault I have a superior sense of smell. I think it’s pretty rotten you’re not letting me be around when you make the announce—”
“Go!” Missy rubbed her forehead. Okay, one of her new relatives still made her head spin.
“You are going to accept the position, aren’t you, Tad?” Keil asked. “It’s for both you and Missy. As well as being our Omegas, you can operate your pilot service out of Haines Junction or we can increase the bookings for Maximum Exposure and keep the family business roaring here in Alaska.”
Missy enjoyed the sensations washing over her as Tad twirled one of her curls in his fingers, tugging her close to kiss her again.
“Well, I suppose it depends on where Missy wants to have the baby,” Tad said as he squeezed his arm around her tighter.
She should have known she couldn’t keep it a secret for long. “You knew! I was trying to hide the scent.” She twisted around to face him, delight filling her.
Tad laughed. “It seems becoming mates with you has fixed my sense of smell. Plus, I’m an Omega. I know what’s happening, even this quickly, and I want to tell you I’m pleased as punch.”
Across the room Keil snorted. “You’re proud you’ve got super sperm. What did you do, knock her up the first day?”
Missy bit her lip and scrunched up her face to stop her enthusiastic nod. She caught Robyn’s eye and winked. Robyn’s shoulders shook with silent laughter.
“Of course, I think it would be great for the cousins to be raised close together, so living here in Haines might be the best,” Tad continued, staring at the ceiling as he rubbed at his chin.
A loud thunk rose from the corner of the room as Keil fell off the arm of the couch, his mouth gaping open. Robyn grinned at him, laid one arm on top of the other and rocked them back and forth.
“Shit,” Keil exclaimed. “Really? A baby? But I never smelt, I never…oh hell yeah.”
Tad’s hand slipped over Missy’s waist as he leaned closer to kiss her neck. Here was everything that she’d ever hoped for, longed for. A dream so long in the making had come true. She didn’t have to run away anymore, didn’t have to try to escape anything more dangerous than TJ.
She was home.