Jules threw open the door as I walked up the drive. I had my laptop in hand, while Liam carried my heavier bag with the rest of my precious equipment. After showing us to the dining area where I could set up with a regular phone line, Jules cocked an eyebrow in Liam's direction with a questioning look to me.

With a sigh, I blushed and explained. "You know that whole bullshit omega business that I've always forbidden you to speak of in my presence?"

Jules grinned. The alpha had always loved to tease me about my designation. Seriously. I'm the last person that you'd peg for being omega. "Go on, I'm listening."

"Yeah, well. Apparently I'm omega enough to have a fated-mate. I almost ran him over on my way here."

The jaguar shifter’s eyebrows shot straight up on his forehead. "Wait, Frankie. You've just found your mate, and you dragged him here to watch us work instead of working out your claim?" He looked back and forth between the two of us. "You realize that you two could be in a bed over at Liam's lovely B&B instead of standing here, right? Can you even work in these conditions, Fingers?"

I nodded. "That's why the internet gods created dial-up," I said as I held up a phone cord. "I'm doing it old school tonight."

Jules shook his head. "I still think that you’re nuts. Yvonne's not going anywhere if you've found a way to track her ass. I think you should go claim your mate and worry about this shit tomorrow."

Liam chuckled. "There's time for that, Jules. I'm actually a little excited to see what Frankie has done here. I can't believe that he has found the Alpha's sister when nobody else could."

I looked over at the man that would become my mate, awed by the sheer beauty of him. He was taller than me, but not by much. He was probably 6'5 to my 6'2. I had muscles, but where I was built, Liam was ripped. I'm pretty sure he had an eight-pack of abs smuggled under the tight t-shirt he wore. And here I'd thought my mere six pack was impressive.

I liked the size of his arms and legs. For once, I wasn't one of the larger men in the room. Next to my alpha, I almost felt like an omega. Almost. I still didn't see myself being the little homemaker. Seriously? Just no. Although, there were a lot of things that I might be talked into doing for a taste of that sweet caramel and bourbon scent of his.

I was looking forward to snuggle time, though. Not just for sex. I wanted to play with his thick, chestnut brown hair that waved and curled across his head. His hair was made to be played with, and I wondered if he had a thick patch of hair across his chest to match the thick hair on his head.

After a moment, I realized that the room was silent and both alphas were standing there watching me drool over my mate. Liam had a hint of laughter in his eyes, as if he were happy to have caught me looking. I didn't understand that at all, because surely an alpha as beautiful as mine must get stared at an awful lot.

Jules gave a polite cough and I was startled out of my lust-filled trance. I quickly got back in gear and got everything set up. Once I'd plugged the phone cord into the piece of ancient modem crap I kept for situations like this, we were good to go.

I looked at Jules. "Do you even remember how loud dial-up internet is, man? You might want to go close the bedroom doors upstairs. I'm not taking care of crying cubs if this wakes them. I don't care how cute they are."

With a soft chuckle, Jules replied: "I'm not worried about the cub. I'm more worried about Sean. My alpha mate is a little bitch when he's awakened." His wink told us that he was joking, as he turned and went upstairs to check on his family.

Liam went over and started poking around the kitchen, putting on a pot of coffee to brew. It made me feel good that my alpha was thinking of my needs. Of course, as soon as I thought that, my next thought was to be pissed at myself for such regressive omega thinking. I mean, seriously? Like we omegas need an alpha to be happy. Although, I kind of had to admit that when those emerald green eyes turned on me, there was nowhere else that I'd want to be.

"Sugar?" I shook off my trance and looked up to see Liam holding up the sugar bowl with a questioning glance. Nodding my head, I focused on the task at hand while Liam kept moving about. "Cream?" I nodded silently again, not really paying attention to the room around me.

When I smelled coffee under my nose, I blinked to see a cup of steaming coffee sitting in front of me. Liam and Jules were engrossed in conversation about some other wolf shifter that was staying at Liam's B&B.

I took a deep drink of coffee, pleased to see that it tasted just the way that I liked it. I saw Liam's small smile as he watched me out of the corner of his eye. Okay, getting me coffee? Sweet as hell. Taking pleasure because I was enjoying the coffee? Holy shit. I mean, I always said that I didn't need an alpha. But maybe it wasn’t about filling a need. Maybe having an alpha was more about these everyday simple pleasures and having someone to love you unconditionally.

I worked for another hour, then I had her. There it was, blinking in the center of the map on my monitor. Yvonne's location. I looked up to see the two alphas playing a hand of cards and drinking coffee.

"Jules. I have her. She's less than two hours away."

Jules jumped up and came over to look. "Son of a fucking bitch. Those soulless piece of shit wolves!"

"Excuse me, I don't understand," Liam interrupted. "Aren't the wolves at the lodge our friends? And isn't Yvonne's ex in that pack now? Surely they wouldn't harbor her ass."

Jules shook his head. "No, not the guys at the lodge. Those are all good people. There's another pack a little over an hour past them. Mikael told me that he doesn't have a good relationship with them. I don't know why, but it doesn't really matter all that much. The fact is she's there. But I guess that it would make sense that they'd harbor her if they don't like Mikael." Jules was about to say more, when there was a knock at the back door. He stepped over to answer, his whole body on the alert. I mean, it was almost two in the morning, not exactly the time for a neighbor to come get a cup of tea.

Two naked men stood there. The larger one had alpha power swirling around him in waves so thick you could almost taste them. The other one was a smaller man, obviously a beta. I smiled as I realized who they were.

Jules waved them in, closing the door behind them and pulling the blinds on the windows in the room. He glanced at the two men and grinned. "I'm going to go find you both some towels and something to put on. I have a feeling you're going to be here a bit." He glanced over at me and said: "I'll just leave you guys to get acquainted.”

Since I was a lone wolf, not used to living among my people, I'd forgotten how casual shifters were with nudity. I felt more than a little awkward with the huge Alpha just standing there all naked and buffed, and well, pretty much hung like a horse. He had long hair, dripping wet and laying over his shoulder in a sodden coil.

As if he knew what I was thinking, Liam stepped over with the welcoming distraction of offering them coffee. Although, when the Alpha turned to talk to him, I was now treated with the sight of his magnificent ass. Fuck. I felt like such a creeper! And with my mate standing right there too. Shaking my head, I focused on my computer screen while I spoke in as offhand a manner as I could.

"You must be Peter and Alpha Mikael. I'm Frankie, although I would appreciate it if that bit of information didn't leave this room. I had no idea you gentlemen were coming, but I'm happy to see you, er, meet you."

Jules came bustling back in then, handing each man a towel and a bathrobe. Peter quickly slipped into the robe, rubbing at his short hair with the towel as he came over and pulled out a chair beside me. Alpha Mikael stood there rubbing his hair and talking to Liam as he made fresh coffee.

Peter spoke quietly. "I was certain that you would have arrived here by now and have further information for us, yes? Jules ran over earlier to tell us that you were traveling here to meet with us. Thank you for coming. This storm did not choose the best time to cut off our communication abilities."

I quickly tapped a few keys, then looked over at him with a smile. "I knew that it was important for me to come. As long as my identity, what I do, or what I've enabled you to do to find Yvonne never leaves this circle of people, then I am fine with it. I'm just glad that I could help."

Mikael finally pulled on the robe that Jules had loaned him, and came over to sit at the table. Jules pulled up a seat beside him, while Liam fussed with the coffee. "And you have definitely found my sister?" The Alpha spoke in a grave, almost sorrowful voice.

I turned the laptop to show him the map I had pulled up. "This is her. When she moves, we'll see it. As long as she has her phone with her. And who doesn't keep their phone at hand, you know? If we had better internet capability and clear skies right now, I'd ping off a satellite and see the place where she's staying."

All four men looked at me with surprise, but I shrugged. "How do you think that I verified the safe-house locations and rogue hubs? Never mind, it's best that you don't know too much anyway."

Liam brought over cups of coffee for our guests first, before taking my cup to refill. Once he had cups in front of all five of us, he pulled out the chair beside mine and took a seat. Alpha Mikael looked over at us with a smirk.

"Ah. This explains things a bit clearer for me. I was wondering why one of my alphas who doesn't want to be too involved in den affairs was sitting in this meeting. Are you two mates then?"

Liam smiled proudly at me. "Yes, Alpha. We just discovered each other tonight when my new mate here almost ran me over on these wet roads."

The Alpha took a sip of his drink before saying with a wry grin: "Well, that wouldn't have happened if you'd stayed over when you came to see young Dylan. But then, you would not have met your mate maybe. I guess fate has funny ways of working these things out."

Liam looked embarrassed. He started to apologize for something, but the Alpha held up a hand and stopped him short. "Please do not ask me to forgive something that is not an offense. I understand your need to be here in town at the B&B, and I also get that having your cousin staying at the den must be worrisome. I'm sure that you feel as though he needs your protection. And I get that, yeah? But from now, stick around and visit. Your people miss you, my friend."

It was adorable to see my alpha blush, but he turned bright red as he nodded at his Alpha. "You got it, Alpha. And thank you, for understanding."

The Alpha nodded and then turned his attention back to me. "Well then. Since Liam here is your mate, obviously he can be in our circle of trust. Does this mean that you will be sticking around longer than one night?"

I nodded. "Originally, I'd intended to stay until you captured your sister. It may not go as quickly or smoothly as you'd like for it to happen. But yeah, I believe my mate and I have some talking to do after our meeting here. You'll be able to reach me at the B&B, if we can figure out a good way for you to do it without anyone clueing in."

Peter looked to Liam. "Tommy, the former rogue wolf, he works for you, yes? Perhaps he could be our liaison."

Liam shook his head. "No. I'm sorry. You may trust him, and want to give him a second chance. But me? I'm only trusting him to push a broom and replace light bulbs. And especially now that my mate is at risk if the wrong people find out about him? No. I can't risk it. I know that you've all forgiven him for his earlier misdeeds. That's generous of you. But I don't know. He's just too fucking nice, you know? It bugs me for some reason. Can't explain it, it's just there, gnawing at me."

Not one of us argued with that, because we all knew what he meant. Jules spoke up confidently. "In that case, why don't we just keep it here between us? I would include my mates, or yours, but a small circle is a tight circle. Not to mention the fact that none of us would want to risk our mates. My Sean would be a good help, but he's filling the gap with the cubs since I've been busier with our soldiers lately. No. I'll run back and forth as part of my daily patrols. If we need to contact each other, pass the message through me. As a newly mated couple, it won't be odd for Liam to take time away to spend with Frankie. We can use that as a cover too. Does that work?"

The Alpha nodded. "Yes, that is fine. I assume that Jules is in the habit of stopping by your B&B regularly on his way to and from the den? This would be a perfect cover."

Jules nodded. "Yeah, I stop by there often when I know my mates aren't home yet. It's a good place for me to swing by since it's not only close to the woods like our house here, but it's also a shifter safe business here in town. My mates Colin and Liam are old friends from the den, and we've all become friendly. His staff is used to seeing me drop by. It will be fine, Alpha. Trust me."

Alpha grinned at Jules. "Well, I'm the last person to question your judgment. Hell, you probably know thirty-six different way to kill me right now if I piss you off."

"Thirty-nine," I commented dryly. "At least, those are the ones quiet enough to not wake the sleeping cubs."

The three alphas laughed, but Peter looked a little concerned. I smiled at him. "Don't worry, Peter. We learned to joke about death during our military years. Your Alpha is safe, I promise."

I turned my attention back to the Alpha and Jules. "So here's what I can tell you. As you see from the red dot, she isn't far. Jules says that this is a local wolf territory? This is why it may be tricky getting to her right away, if they are harboring her. But I can track her, and hopefully establish a pattern over a few days of her routines. Once this storm clears and the wifi and cells are back in service, it will be even easier. But we can do it, Alpha. I promise you that."

The Alpha nodded seriously. "She went to the one place that she knew I couldn't get to her. That's okay though. I trust you, Frankie. Thank you for doing this, it will be a relief to bring this to an end."

I bit my lip and examined my screen. “I agree, Alpha. Let's all work together and see if we can't make it happen. Your people deserve to live without fear.”