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The conference room is empty, and I walk around the table, too nervous to sit. My foot taps when I stand in one place. The old clock hanging on the wall ticks off the seconds like the countdown to a bomb. I chew my lip until the skin is raw.
Officer Cliff walks in, closing the door behind him with a sharp tap. He’s in uniform, looking like the devil’s enforcer. His lips are twisted into a happy snarl.
“Where’s Ben? I want to see my son,” I say, sounding braver than I feel.
The beefy alpha’s nose flares. Officer Cliff stalks toward me and I back up, rounding the table and wishing I had waited for my guys to arrive before coming inside. Officer Slick’s gunmetal scent is sharp with the stench of sulfur. He tosses a file onto the table and takes another step toward me.
I hold my ground against his scent's pressing weight and his narrowed eyes. “Where is my son?”
He jerks me to him with a heavy arm around my waist, then presses me into the conference table. My body freezes even though my mind tells me to scream. The wood digs into my thighs, and his bulky weight behind me in this position makes me want to puke.
“I’m not opposed to sloppy seconds, but damn, you smell like a bitch fucked in heat, Crawley girl. Seems they marked that pussy good.” The hot stench of his breath on my neck makes my skin crawl. “But they left the neck.” Officer Cliff laughs, the sound full of dark delight. “I told that man of yours he better make it official.”
He tsks. The sound is anything but disappointed. He reaches around me, boxing me in, and opens the file on the table. Just as quickly as he pushed me into the table, he lets me go. I stumble at his harsh movements, bracing myself against the wood.
I know he’s trying to taunt me, make me feel weak or less than. Maybe before it would have worked. But he doesn’t know shit about my mates or me.
“I don’t need a bond to see my son. I’m his mother.” With as much confidence as I can muster, I slip past him toward the door.
“Stay and listen to this fun little lesson in pack law, Crawley girl,” Cliff barks.
The power of his alpha command rolls through me, and my muscles lock. The force of his dominance compels me to obey.
Out of the corner of my eye, I see him lift a paper from the file and read it over.
“Wanna read it, or can I give you the Cliff’s notes?” He cackles at his joke, rubbing his chin and looking at me expectantly.
It’s all pretense. We both know I can’t speak until I’ve obeyed his command. I’m forced to listen until this awful scene plays out.
“Cliff's notes it is,” he says, his face full of a condescending satisfaction that twists his features until all that’s left is his pride and cruelty. “See, when a child’s secondary gender presents as alpha and an officer is called and deems that child potentially feral, the child must be released into the custody of the pack Prime or alpha mate. Or if the parent is a single beta without an alpha mate or pack, the state takes the child into custody. It appoints them an alpha mentor until the court has determined the child is not at risk for turning feral.”
My mind races as I try to decipher what he said. Obviously, he means Ben, but I don’t understand the connection.
“Did you like my lesson, Cammie? Tell me, what did you learn?” he asks with another bark, the sound guttural and sharp as a whip.
“I don’t understand,” I answer, turning to look at him now that the command to stay has been lifted.
“Ben presented as an alpha.” His grin is the sliver of a dark moon, all shadows and no light. “And you’re not a bonded beta.”
Chapter 29
Cammie
His words feel like the reverb off a canyon, echoing in my mind as I try to make sense of Officer Slick’s gleeful expression. Ben presented as an alpha?
Triple and quadruple shit.
Betas rarely have children who aren’t betas. I never even thought about preparing for this, even after Finn brought up the possibility. My mind can’t wrap around it. I curse myself for not asking Finn more questions. But I honestly never thought my kids would be anything but betas.
The door opens again, and my ex stomps into the room. Trent's bulky figure is stiff, his jaw locked tight. The patchouli of his scent is spiced with anger, mixing with Officer Cliff’s stinking gunmetal to produce a noxious cloud that is enough to send my stomach rolling.
“Where the fuck have you been?” he growls at me. “Off fucking your new alpha while our son is going feral?”
Officer Cliff’s chuckle sounds like sharpening knives. “Smells like.”
He reaches out to my ex, and the two of them shake hands.
“I was at work. Ben was at school,” I defend, though it’s obvious. I’m in my diner uniform. Trent’s just being a dick. It doesn’t stop my cheeks from heating though, or the flare of embarrassment I feel at basically being called a slut and a bad mother. I force myself to lock it away and keep my cool. “I’d like to see Ben please.”
