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Turning off the lights, Theodore walked to the bedroom window. Standing in the pitch of the cabin, he stared out.

A scattering of starlight fought its way through the mass of thick gray clouds ahead, painting the pockets of deciduous and fir trees in a faint silver glow. The grass glistened, almost as if it were sculpted from crystal instead of living, breathing matter. In the not-so-distant road, the same car sat in the same spot.

Narrowing his eyes, Theodore was careful to keep himself in shadow as he watched it.

Something shuffled along the side of the car. His eyes snapped to the movement. A moment later, a naked man appeared. He was tall and muscular—an alpha. His skin was pale, the kind that would turn golden in the summer. His hair fell in wavy caramel-blonde locks to his shoulders.

It couldn’t be … wasn’t that the alpha from the Town Hall?

He dropped to all fours then became a wolf. It shook out its great ruff of thick, sandy-colored fur.

When the shifter disappeared into the trees, Theodore ambled back to the sofa. He sat wrapped in the blankets and quilts he left piled on the sofa.

The living room had more escape routes than the bedroom. That and he’d already arranged everything into the perfect nest for him to burrow into. Mentally, he readied himself for another sleepless night, alone, watching the front door.

Logically, Theodore knew he couldn’t keep this up. He didn’t sleep much anymore. It was a combination of his anxiety and taking the alpha birth control for too long. All of it compounded into bigger issues the longer he took the meds and upped his doses. At this point, the only thing keeping him upright was his occasional absent snacking on dark chocolates. If he didn’t change something, his body was going to shut down. As his symptoms worsened, he worried that day was going to be sooner rather than later.

Saturday morning revealed the SUV hadn’t moved. However, no one had approached the cabin last night. Theodore wasn’t sure if that was a fluke or if the wolf shifter was simply there to confirm Theodore was the one inside. He would observe and report back to him, then when it was confirmed, the whole lot of them would show up in Elk Cove. After kicking down Theodore’s door, they’d kill him, or worse.

Theodore’s only hope was that he would be satisfied hurting only Theodore and leave everyone else alone, and that he wouldn’t find what was hidden in his chocolate tin. If that survived, if the investigation into the meek veterinarian’s death led to the right people finding it, it would be worth it. Who the ‘right people’ were to discover it, Theodore had no idea. If he did, he’d drive to their doorstep this instant.

He’d been hoping one of the head alphas in these backwoods towns would prove trustworthy. Thus far his instincts had begged him to avoid them all. Heck, one of the last ones he’d met was a shareholder in a ‘legal’ breeding clinic. He couldn’t trust any of them, so he continued to run.

Like every day, Theodore strapped on his hip bag before work; unlike the days prior, he stowed his .38 inside. If they really were coming for him, he wasn’t going to go easily, and he wasn’t about to let them hurt anyone else.

Chapter six

Royce

His nose snuffled in the cold weather as he finished his circuit around the veterinarian’s cabin.

Royce had called into work the previous day and again this morning, refusing to leave his vigil at the vet clinic. Something about Doc was wrong; why else would his wolf have perked up at his presence? Why else would an omega be mixing suppressors with alpha birth control?

And why couldn’t he smell him?!

Now that Royce had scouted the omega’s living space, he was positive the omega was taking magical suppressor in addition to the pills. The scent of the omega should have been thick in the air, permeated into the ground as he was the only one living here. Instead, a faint undertone of general omega musk lingered in the wind. It was as if the omega hadn’t spent any time there at all, his scent all but gone.

Royce didn’t like that one bit.

After the grocery incident, he’d done a bit of research on his smartphone. He didn’t like anything he’d found. Phrases like ‘eliminate their scent,’ ‘hide,’ ‘completely untraceable,’ and ‘long-term damage’ were repeated heavily in each article.

Why would an omega do such a thing? Obviously because he was hiding something, and himself. If he had secrets that important, then Doc must be dangerous; that’s why Royce’s wolf wanted to hunt down the omega. He’d sensed deception and danger.

Honestly, if Royce hadn’t been a wolf shifter, he doubted he would have picked up the scarce lingering of mint the omega left behind.

With the first light of orange and pink dawn, the omega scurried from the cabin to the clinic. Just like every other time Royce had seen him, large, round spectacles sat on his nose and sweaters were wrapped over a turtleneck. Royce bet his car and his life savings that the omega wore turtlenecks to help further hide his scent. He also wouldn’t put it past him to have a neck guard beneath the shirt.

Coureque was the most popular brand, their neck guards were stocked at every pharmacy in every settlement he’d been to. It was a stiff fabric laced with charcoal that tied around the neck and sat against the upper shoulders, covering the scent glands.

This omega was going to extremes to not be found. Royce should go to Argus about this. Whatever was going on, this omega had brought a litany of secrets and dangers to Elk Cove. The head alpha should be warned. Maybe that’s what he would do today … then again perhaps not.

For some unfathomable reason, Royce wanted to stay camped out at the omega’s home. Whenever the thought absently crossed his mind, the idea of another alpha, stronger and higher ranking than Royce, being here made his hackles raise and a growl rumble in his chest. He should stay and observe for longer, then he would confront the omega. No need to bring any other alphas into this mess.

With the doctor tucked away inside the clinic, Royce lumbered to his SUV, phased, and snuck into the back. Normally he would have done this before the omega had woken and the sun started to rise, but another storm had moved in, and the freezing rain was thick enough to obscure people’s vision.

He was just pulling his henley on when the back passenger and the driver’s side doors opened simultaneously. Scott slid in beside him while Amelia took the driver’s seat.

“Royce.” Scott sighed dramatically while Amelia fixed him with a glare from the rearview mirror. “I thought I told you to leave Doc alone.”