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The tin didn’t have truffles in it, but no one would suspect that. Omegas were known for keeping their places packed with their favorite snacks. That flippant and nonchalant attitude toward omega snacking was why Theodore hid it there. In the wrong hands, he would be killed for it, in the right hands, his life could go back to normal. He didn’t know where to take it, he didn’t know who to trust.

Until he knew who to give it to, he was going to keep that empty tin with him. Well, it wasn’t empty per se. What was inside was far more valuable than truffles. But sadly, the contents of the tin did nothing to comfort Theodore in his moments of loneliness-induced sugar cravings.

He forced his sorry self to get up from the sofa and turn some lights on. Then he shuffled into the bedroom and grabbed the quilt and some pillows and shuffled his butt back to the sofa where his hot tea and uneaten noodles were waiting for him. He piled the bedding onto the sofa and burrowed.

Staring at the cabin front door from a hole in his blanket nest, his thoughts wandered to the darkest recesses of his subconscious. What he saw, the resulting chase, running for his life, everything he’d left behind. And now here he sat, alive but cold and alone while monsters haunted the shadows. Tears fell down his cold cheeks as he waited in vain for sleep to find him.

If only he could rest. Let his eyes slip closed while his brain drifted into blissful unconsciousness … He had an early day tomorrow where he had to pretend to be a chipper omega without the burden of isolation the truth brought his soul, slowly drowning him. And still he knew sleep would evade him as it had for weeks.

Chapter four

Royce

His paws padded against the wet grass, his nose to the ground. It smelled of rotting leaves, rain, mud, and old vegetables with an undertone of omega. This was his third night running circles around the omega house, and he hadn’t caught a single trail of mint to track. It was as if the omega had vanished.

Sure, the first day he’d loitered, Royce scented the same mint from the Town Hall, but it was faint. The new veterinarian had been here, but it had been a while ago. When a group of omegas lived together, it was harder to identify individual scents within the dwelling, unless you were in their room sniffing their pillow. That and Royce knew some omega houses were warded to keep the inhabitants hidden.

Was that why the mint omega had disappeared?

Leaving the tree line, he lumbered to his car and phased. Slinking into the back seat, he dressed quickly and then tied his hair into a ponytail at the nape of his neck. Technically, he was parked within the two-hundred-yard limit of alphas approaching the omega house uninvited, but he didn’t want to be caught naked down the road from them. That would be impossible to explain in a manner that didn’t make him look like an unhinged creep.

It was bad enough that he was starting to feel like an unhinged creep. His urge to circle the omega house hadn’t abated since his wolf’s command to find the new doctor. After that last growled sentence, his wolf had been quiet no matter how many questions Royce had asked. The furry bastard was stubbornly mute, and it was starting to piss Royce off.

Actually, this entire situation was pissing him off. Why was the mint scent making him crazy? Why couldn’t he get it out of his head? It was so bad he was losing sleep, and his teeth kept itching. Seriously, teeth were not supposed to itch.

He settled into the back seat of his car, eyes fixed on the pink front door, and waited for that face to exit. Wide brown eyes set in a cool olive complexion … He should know it well enough by now, he’d been obsessing over it since that strange meet in the Town Hall parking lot. Now all Royce had to do was be patient; but what he’d originally thought would be a one-day stakeout had soon turned into two. The veterinarian had to leave at some point.

Wasn’t he supposed to be working?

Royce’s head fell to his hands, a searing pang shot through his head and settled behind his left eye. He’d been getting bad headaches. He’d never gotten headaches before …

Looking up, he blinked hard. Where was he?

He was supposed to be finding the omega.

He couldn’t scent the omega. It was imperative that he scent him … He was inside the omega house, why the hell hadn’t he left? Was something keeping him inside?

A low growl rumbled in his chest.

The passenger side back door opened, and Scott slid into the seat next to Royce and let out an exasperated huff.

“So,” Scott said, letting the o linger. “What the fuck are you doing?”

“Nothing.”

“Really? Is that why you’ve been parked outside the omega house for two nights?”

“I’m not—”

“I don’t give a fuck, and neither will Michelle or Argus. So what if you’re technically not less than two hundred yards away, you’re lurking and stalking, Royce. And the omegas have started to notice.” His fellow wolf shifter fixed him with a hard glare.

“Who?”

“Freddy. He still has friends that live here, and they know I’m an enforcer; they asked him to bring it to my attention. I didn’t mention it to Argus because I wanted to give you the benefit of the doubt.”

Scott turned in his seat to face Royce, the collar of his shirt pulled down to reveal his mate mark on the side of his neck. It wasn’t common for omegas to bite their alpha-fated mates back, but not unheard of. Some alphas liked it, most didn’t. But there wasn’t much conventional about Scott and Freddy because Freddy was an exceptionally rare omega shifter.

Less than one in three million omegas were shifters; as if Scott needed an excuse to think his fated mate was special and deserving of never-ending praise. The two of them could be found romping around the woods in their animal forms most evenings and holidays, a wolf and a raccoon having the times of their lives.