“It’s not much, but it’s a start,” I said to Harry as I led him into my bedroom in the new addition.

Our bedroom. I corrected myself.

I couldn’t help but feel slightly nervous as my mate looked around the sparse room. The addition itself wasn’t even finished yet. There was still a lot of work to be done on the outer walls, and the hardwood floors hadn’t been finished yet, but there was a bed, a beautiful side table Tate had made and a nice lamp Kyle, his mate, had picked out.

It pained me that I couldn’t offer Harry more right now, but I vowed to myself that I would make it everything I could for him. My mate would never want for anything as long as I was around.

“Are you kidding me?” Harry said, his back to me. I felt myself tense up.

He hates it…

But when he turned back to me, I realized I was being an idiot.

“It’s perfect.”

“Ah…” I sighed heavily, wrapping my arms around him and lifting him off his feet. We collapsed down on the bed and lay there together, still naked. I’d brought him in the back of the lodge and managed to avoid being seen by any of the rest of the pack. Most of them were already asleep. There were so many pups and parents here that early bedtime had become the norm.

The pheromone blocker had started to wear off, and Harry’s scent was coming back in full force. I wondered if a human would ever be able to fully appreciate what it was like to experience the scent of another, especially a fated mate.

There were plenty of other great smells in the world – one of Kyle and Chrissie’s home-cooked meals, the spice of fresh cut pine being planed for new furniture for the lodge, or the sweet fall air coming in the window in the morning – but nothing, nothing compared to the scent of my sweet omega.

Right then, I was the luckiest goddamn alpha in the world. There were others at the lodge who were happy, and I’d seen it firsthand, but only now was I able to fully understand what they were talking about.

“I – I didn’t think I’d ever see you again,” Harry said gently beside me.

“Come on,” I replied, running my fingers through his thick wavy hair. “There was no way I was letting you get away from me.”

“He was going to take me tonight…” Harry said. “Kade. My heat came tonight…for the first time ever.”

“Your first heat?” I replied, unable to believe it. “How old are you?”

“I’m eighteen,” he told me.

“And you’d never had a heat until tonight?”

Harry shook his head, obviously embarrassed. But I was thrilled. This meant he was mine.

“You know,” I told him. “I’ve heard others say that meeting a fated mate can activate an omega’s heat. Maybe that’s what happened here.”

Hearing my words, Harry quickly spun around in bed and brought himself to face me. His eyes looked up at me with the excitement of a child.

“Really!?” He asked. “Is that really true? You think it was meeting you that made me go into heat?”

“I’d bet my life on it,” I told him proudly. This was simply more confirmation, as if I needed it, that Harry was meant for me.

“I like that,” Harry said with a smile that melted me. I’d seen how happy the other members of the pack were with their mates, but it had never really hit me until now just what that really meant.

“So do I,” I told him, petting his cheek absentmindedly as I lost myself in the moment. “So do I.”

“I thought I was going to be there for the rest of my life,” Harry said softly. I could hear it in his voice – the recollection of his time with Kade.

“Was it that horrible?” I asked him, feeling the sadness of his situation tearing at my heart.

“I got used to it,” he said slowly. “But…yes. If you disobeyed him in any way, you’d be punished, either by him or one of his alphas.”

“Punished…” I repeated. I didn’t know what he meant, but I was pretty sure it was more than a time out.

“Yes,” he replied. “He’d beat me. Or Anthony would. He’d do it to all of us.”

“How many others are there? Omegas?”

“I don’t know,” he said, shaking his head. “A lot. He uses them for breeding…or slave labor like me.”

The cruelty of people never ceased to amaze me. Alpha pack leaders were meant to care for those under the leadership. Tate was the prime example of this, leading our pack with care and discretion, thinking before he acted, and earning the respect of those under him, not demanding it through violence.

“That man,” I went on. “Matias? What’s his deal?”

“He hates Kade,” Harry replied. “The pack would be a much better place with him in charge.”

“Why doesn’t he just take over?” I asked. “He seems strong enough.”

“Maybe…” Seth wondered. “It would take a rebellion, and I’m not sure he, or anyone else, is ready for that.”

“But if Kade was gone…” I thought. “Matias could take over?”

“Yes, maybe…”

I could feel Harry growing tense in my arms, and knew I should change the subject. He’d just gotten here, and I was taking him mentally back to the Hell from which he’d just escaped.

“I’m sorry, Harry,” I told him, pulling him tighter in my arms and kissing the back of his neck. “We don’t have to talk about it now. What’s important right now is that you’re safe, and you’re going to stay that way.”

Harry didn’t reply, he simply twisted in my arms and nuzzled his nose in my neck as I held him. Slowly, we both started to drift off. I felt his body jerk slightly, letting me know he was close to sleep, and I smiled as I felt myself dozing off.

This is the life, I thought. This is the life…