7

When I left my house the next morning, I was already desperately missing the comfort of my bed. Instead of being wrapped in my blankets with the soft sounds of my sleeping omega playing in my ears, I was sitting at my desk with a mountain of paperwork suffocating me.

"How the hell did Alfie even manage to keep up with all these fucking wolves?" Alpha Emerson complained. "There's no order to this mess!"

While I normally ignored the other alpha's whining, for once I had to agree. The files we had received from the wolf fighting ring were a mess. While there were supposed to be folders for each wolf, most were completely mixed up. There could be a folder for one, but the names on the papers inside were completely different. Some didn't even have anything inside of them.

It seemed like we were spending more time trying to match the correct documents with the correct wolf than we were supposed to be.

"Not only that, but the shit in here is brutal," Alpha Bowen murmured.

He was right. The more files I read through, the more I began to feel bad for all the wolves. Between being tortured and forced to fight, it was a wonder that some of them still had fight left in them.

My mind goes to my mate and honestly, I was happy that they had such a stubborn personality. I know that when a lot of people thought of omegas, they thought of timid, shy, and compliant little wolves, but that was only one group of omegas. They weren't all the same and I was happy that my mate still had some stubbornness and fight within them. Especially knowing what these wolves went through, it made me feel a bit more relieved to see that my mate wasn't the worst off.

That, however, didn't stop other wolves from suffering. I knew from the many updates I had received that many were struggling to adjust. Many were too scared or too violent and would need more help than others. Those were the ones that I was the most worried about. Knowing that they had been held captive for so long, it was hard to figure out how they would handle adjusting to life outside of a cage. A life where they weren't controlled twenty-four-seven.

I picked up another file and opened it. The first thing I was met with was the picture of a grey wolf. My beautiful grey wolf. Clutching the file tighter, my eyes scan over the words and stop when I see printed in bold black letters a name.

Milo.

Milo was a male wolf who had come to the facility at the age of fifteen. He was now twenty and was an omega. Though he wasn't the best fighter, he had a quick and stubborn temper. In the five years that he had been at the facility, he had only been in four fights. Two of which he won, one which ended in a draw, and one which he lost that sent him to the hospital.

The more I read, the more my anger grew at the thought of my mate being forced to fight and sent to the hospital for it. Closing my eyes, I take a deep breath. At least now I knew his name and gender.

Milo. I'd remember it and protect him with my life.

"Slater, you okay?" Alpha Emerson called out to me. His eyebrow was raised as he stared at me questioningly.

I release my death grip on the file and nod at him.

"I'm good," I managed to force out. Now wasn't the time to get angry.

Alpha Emerson nodded, though the look on his face told me he didn't completely believe me. Alpha Bowen let out a little cough, catching both of our attention. He had the files he was sorting through sitting neatly in front of him.

"I think it's time we discuss how we plan to split—"

His words were cut off by the sound of the door opening. I didn't even have to turn my head to know who it was. The strong scent of raspberries flooded my nose and caused my mood to immediately drop.

"Yes?" I said, attempting to keep the annoyance out of my voice.

No words were said, but I heard the faint sound of his footsteps as he moved toward the wall and leaned against it. I glanced back over at Alphas Bowen and Emerson before standing.

"Please give me a minute."

I headed toward the door and exited the room, hearing the sound of his footsteps following me. No words were said as we walked, but the atmosphere had changed.

I stopped at a room down the hall and opened the door before stepping inside. The sound of the door closing shortly after told me that he had entered as well. Finally, I turned around and glanced at the dark brown-haired man in front of me.

"What do you want, Solomon?" I inquired, cutting straight to the chase.

Solomon's dark eyes examined me. His face remained blank and he stared at me as if he was searching for something.

"I heard you found your mate," he finally said, his tone was calm, but the underlying venom was not lost on me.

Solomon was my brother and at the age of twenty-one, he'd finally reached the age required to become alpha. Had I not found Milo recently, there was a high chance that he would've taken my role. Something I desperately wanted to prevent.

It didn't surprise me that he'd shown up — I knew that if given the chance, Solomon had no qualms about talking about my place as alpha. In fact, I would even go as far as to say that he hoped for it. He hoped that I wouldn't meet Milo so he could swoop in and take over, but now that was no longer an option. Even if Milo wasn't necessarily ready to rule, the fact that I had a mate meant that he couldn't get his way. It was most likely because of that, he had chosen to talk to me. He'd likely chosen to do so now because he knew I'd be meeting with the other alphas today. It gave him ample opportunity to attempt to make me look bad.

"I have," I told him. There was no use in denying it. "But you didn't come here just to ask about what you already knew, did you?"

Solomon walked around me, taking a seat in one of the chairs that had previously been pushed in against a dark desk. The chair squeaked ever-so-slightly.

"He came from that fighting ring you broke up recently, right," he said, rather than asked. "I've seen some of the wolves who came from there already. They're timid. Not to mention that they have a million-and-one health problem. You think he'd be a good candidate to be the second alpha of our pack?"

Anger coursed through me at his words, but I fought to keep my face blank. This was what he wanted — to provoke me into giving him a reaction. To give him another reason to try and argue that I wasn't a good alpha.

"While a lot of the wolves from the ring are on the more timid side, Milo is far from that," I told him. In the short time that Milo had been here, he hadn't attempted to hide from anyone. It was clear that he was a fighter. "As for health problems, he will have access to the best doctors in our pack and outside if needed. In time, he will be a great leader to our pack."

Solomon hummed. "Milo," the name rolled off his tongue in a way that unsettled me. "After he takes the time to get used to being here, I'll have to come and meet him."

Mentally, I scoffed at the idea but said nothing else. Instead, I stood up and glanced at my brother one last time.

"I have to return to Alpha Emerson and Alpha Bowen. If you have more that you wish to talk about, we can do so later."

Solomon said nothing more. He watched as I walked toward the door and exited. When it shut, I closed my eyes and took a deep breath before walking back toward the room where the other alphas waited. I forced the thoughts from my conversation with Solomon out of my head. As much as they bothered me, right now I needed to focus on the mission at hand.

So I glanced back down the hall in the direction of the room where Solomon had yet to leave, exhaled, and then turned back toward the room where Alpha Bowen and Alpha Emerson waited, and pushed the door open.

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