As I sat in the cab of the truck on the way back to camp, I want to scream.

I’d sent Dwayne on the tracking mission instead of going myself. I was the pack leader now, and couldn’t be running off and neglecting my responsibilities as a leader like that. It was my job to make sure everyone go back safely and the omegas were looked after. Dwayne was tough, and I had no doubt he’d be able to track Chase to wherever Buck was taking him, but I wanted to be there – with every fiber in my being I wanted to be hot on the trail.

“Well, boss,” Charles from beside me at the wheel. “You gonna tell me what’s going on here?”

“I told you, Charles,” I replied, trying to keep my voice from being too snippy. “He’s my fated mate.”

“Sure,” he nodded. “I heard you say that, but what’s it mean? How do you know?”

“You know…it’s hard to explain,” I said, mulling it over in my mind. “It’s just one of those things you know…you know?”

Charles looked at me, smiled, then shook his head.

“Nope.”

“It’s like – it’s like his scent was designed for me and me alone,” I said, replaying the moment we met in my mind. “Like somebody up there just knew what would drive me crazy, then made him smell like that.”

“That good, huh?”

“But it’s not just the smell—”

“Yeah, I saw the way you were looking at him,” he grinned.

“It’s not that either,” I replied. “I mean – he is gorgeous, but it’s like…it’s like there’s a chain between us, tying us together, and it’s been there all along but we both just finally realized it.”

“Wow,” Charles said, nodding slowly. “That’s deep, boss.”

“Shut up,” I grinned, leading my arm against the door. I didn’t expect him to understand, and I knew now why not everyone believed in things like fated mates. It was just too special and too incomprehensible to understand unless it had happened to you. I imagined it would be like explaining what it was like to hear to a person born deaf, or see to a person born blind. How would you describe that to them?

But Charles was right. He was good looking – beyond good looking.

Just thinking back now, to that moment on the sand, when he was bent over beside me, ass in the air like a present for me, made my cock jerk beneath my pants. He wasn’t even in heat and his body was driving me crazy. I couldn’t even imagine what it would be like to be around him when his heat was in full bloom.

Fuck…I thought, tugging at my pants to make room for my cock. The things I would do to him.

It wasn’t something I should be thinking about on the ride home, sitting next to Charles, but my mind was doing whatever the Hell it wanted right now.

Images of his body raced through my mind like a slideshow. The heavenly golden curls. The beautiful blue eyes the color of the warmest ocean. The sweet face contrasted by the jaw droppingly sexy body that made me want to do all kinds of dirty things to him. It was the ultimate juxtaposition – the sweetest boy that I wanted to absolutely own, defile and break in.

I was salivating at the thought of what he would look like bent over my bed, his mouth watering buttocks presented to me for me to take as I saw fit. Or maybe I’d lie him on his back while I fucked him, so I could stroke his cock with my hand and watch his face as I pleasured him until he exploded everywhere.

I wanted to taste him…

The ride back to camp felt instantaneous. I didn’t say another word to Charles. My mind was lost in thoughts of Chase and his beautiful body, his scent and the eyes that held me like a prisoner.

Has he found him yet? I thought, picturing Dwayne, shifted, hot on the trail of Chase’s scent. Portsmouth wasn’t that far, but it was a long run, and even if he had, it would be a while before he was back.

Charles parked the car at the end of the drive opposite the front door of the main building of the camp, and I kicked the door open and hopped out.

“Home again, home again,” Noah sang happily as I pulled open the back for them. “I’m starving.”

“Should I get ready for dinner?” Patrick asked me, stepping out of the truck. “I’ve got that roast that should be ready by now, and some of those carrots and spices Kyle brought down for us.”

“That sounds great,” I said with a nod as the omegas made their way inside. The Scarlet Mountain Pack had started really getting their gardens together this summer and Kyle had more carrots than he knew what to do with, so he’d come down with a care package last week. Carrots, thyme, rosemary and some lettuce.

But I wasn’t even hungry – at least not for food. My mouth salivated as I formed a mental image of Chase and his devastatingly good looks.

This isn’t how a leader should be behaving…I thought as I looked around the camp. Get your shit together!

The place was looking better, and I gazed approvingly at all the improvements we’d made. Fresh pine boards on the outsides of some of the buildings, a porch repair to the main building and a new door on my cabin.

My cabin…

I’d be sleeping alone tonight, which seemed like a terrible travesty, as there was this beautiful omega out there in the world that should be here with me now, in my arms, ready to bed down with me for the night.

Find him, Dwayne. Find him!