Two days later they finally let me leave the hospital. The stay wasn't terrible, and if it had been anyone else, I would have approved. But I knew myself, I knew my body, and I was ready to get the fuck out of there.

It didn't help that since my heat had passed, Jonah had refused to touch me in anything more than a platonic manner. I could feel the unrest of my wolf crawling beneath my skin. I'd found my mate. Why was I not mated? My instincts and my logic were both on the same page there. But Jonah left the room every time I pushed. He didn't go far—I could still scent him, lingering just outside in the hall. But he'd leave with flaring nostrils and clenching hands and come back calmer.

Even if my mate refused to claim me, it appeased my ego to know he wasn't unaffected by my pleas.

I couldn't even take advantage of him as we left the hospital. I may have entertained some ideas of using his attention on the road as a distraction while he was driving, when he'd be less able to tell me no, but it wasn't to be. Noah, Jonah's team leader, and Ray came to pick us up from the hospital and take us to Ray's house.

I guess they didn't trust us not to go straight to Jonah's place and screw like bunnies for the next twenty-four hours. Fair enough.

The Perkins’ home was quintessential suburbia on the outside, though not hemmed in by other cookie-cutter houses. They had a good yard and forest surrounding them—excellent for a shifter gathering place.

The living room was packed. I'd met all the alphas over the last two days as they took shifts guarding me. I smiled at all their freshly shaved heads, and couldn’t help but appreciate how not one of them had made me feel badly for the necessity of losing their hair. Of course I'd given Boomer shit about all the work he'd given the bureau with the messes we'd had to clean up over the last few years. Levi and I had talked guns for a while, though I was more a pistol guy than rifle, and the twins… the twins were just as entertaining as hell. I'd laughed so hard, I thought I'd cracked a rib, and Jonah had kicked them out until he was able to track down a doctor to make sure I hadn't injured myself further.

I was more surprised at the presence of the omegas and children. There were one, two, five—

I quickly gave up trying to count. They were running and jumping and crawling, and I was certain I'd counted one little boy three times in total.

Papa P met me with a one-armed hug and a kiss, a baby in his other arm. "Sorry for the craziness, but the first part of this gathering is definitely a 'Welcome to the Family' event. Jonah's the last of the team to get mated, so you get the full monty. I'll make introductions very quickly, just the adults—their dads can handle sorting out who belongs to who. Except for this little man." Papa P picked the child's tiny hand up and made him wave at me. "This is Isaac, my little boy."

"So he belongs to Noah?"

Laughter burst from the room from everyone except Noah. Papa P's smile was a little weary. "He's actually Noah's brother. Bit of a late-life surprise for Ray and me. But let's see… oh, there's too many of us to do this in a way you'll remember, but we've got Preston, Noah's mate, and then there's David."

A sandy-haired man waved. "I'm triple-tied to this group. Boomer's mate and the twins' brother."

"Do you ever get tired of being referred to as a singular being?" one of the twins said to the other—I hadn't figured out how to tell them apart yet.

The other shrugged. "Not really. It's way easier for us to get away with shit as individuals if people can't tell us apart."

The first twin snapped his fingers. "That's why Ma's always blamed me for cutting up her sweaters when we were seven!"

"Before we take off down memory lane,” Papa P continued with a smile, “Pax here manages Zeke, and Cain manages Ezra—but you’ll get to know him much better, since he’s your mate’s brother."

My eyes lingered on Cain for a moment, feeling like I'd met him before, but Papa P had already moved on.

The door opened behind us, but Papa P was still talking. "And last but not least, Cody is mated to Levi."

"Did we miss the name game?" a feminine voice asked from behind us.

We turned to greet three older women, laden with covered trays. The alphas quickly descended, and the clearly Italian mama wagged her finger at them. "You boys make sure you leave enough for the littles. We don't just bake for you anymore."

Papa P smiled and kissed each woman's cheek. "And this is the Mother Brigade. Rose Dempsey, Francesca Chiarelli, though everyone calls her Mama C, and Preston’s mom, Cindy."

"We're just here to watch the munchkins while y'all have your meeting," Cindy said. "It's a good thing Justin and Ray have such a large playroom from when Noah was a kid. We use every inch of it these days."

Moments later, the room was significantly less chaotic and quieter, leaving only the adults, minus the Mother Brigade.

"Okay, let's get to business, shall we?" Ray clapped his hands and sat on a couch. Justin curled up next to him, and Jonah guided me to the couch opposite them, sitting primly beside me while holding my hand. The others lounged in chairs or against walls.

"Why don't you tell everyone what your role was," Papa P suggested. "I think we've all heard it in some way or another, but best to start clearly, from the beginning."

I leaned forward and braced my elbows on my knees, grateful for swift shifter healing. "I'd been undercover in the cartel for several years as a low-level bodyguard. Not high up enough to draw attention to myself, but still high enough where I could pick up on important information that let us intercept deliveries or take down elements one by one."

"But someone turned you in?" Noah asked. Apparently his dads had briefed him.

I nodded, the shock and betrayal still bitter on my tongue. "A man named Chad Deamer. We trained together. He's a Special Agent in Charge, but he should have had nothing to do with this particular case. He was supposed to be focused on cyber crimes, which the cartel rarely, if ever, fell into. But all I can figure is he's working with them, because he saw me and outed me."

"If there's one bad apple, there's probably more,” an intense little omega with a shock of black hair and bright pink lips said. Pax, I was pretty sure. "We know we took out the heads of the organization, but there's surely peripherals we don't know about yet, like Deamer. Do you know of any other outside elements that we need to pursue?"

I nodded. "Several businessmen, but I'll need a few Google searches before I can be certain of their names. One guy I do remember is this hotel magnate who used to be a senator. He funded a lot of the cartel's ventures, using his businesses to launder the money. Patrick—"

"Tierney?" Noah's mate, Preston, asked, his face pale.

I nodded. "Was he already on your radar?"

Noah and Preston shared a look. "Kinda…" Noah drawled.

Preston turned to face me as Noah wrapped an arm around him. "My birth name is Preston Tierney."

Oh. Ohhh.

"I'm sorry," I stammered. "I didn't know—I wouldn't have broken it so bluntly—"

"My father is an asshole and a bad man. That's not news to me." Preston's eyes darted between the others in the room. "I just never thought his reach and greed extended that far. But… if what you say is true, and I don't doubt it is, that means—" He suddenly hiccupped a sob, and a single tear escaped down his cheek.

"Babe, it's okay," Noah said, rubbing his hands up and down Preston's arms.

Preston whirled to face him. "It's not okay! My dad isn't just bad, he's evil! I mean, yes, he was evil to me, but I thought that was it. That maybe, deep down, he was misguided in his quest for the best for me. But I was the misguided one. I fooled myself. And you let him go for my sake. I never wanted to see the bastard again, but I didn't want him dead. Now… now…"

Cody left his mate's side and tried to approach Preston. "You realize this isn't your fault, right?"

Preston buried his face in Noah's chest without turning around. "How is it not my fault? I could have pushed… Noah would have done it."

Noah's voice was ragged as he spoke. "If you're hating yourself for being related to that piece of shit, for hoping he was a decent person somewhere, you must hate me for letting him go when I could see he wasn't."

Preston gasped and looked up at him. "Of course not! It's not your fault. You were just thinking of me. I… I was thinking of me too. God, you all must hate me. I saw the pictures of what you found in that compound. To think that my own father…"

Cody laid a hand on Preston's back, and Preston shuddered. "It's not your fault."

"How can you say that?" Preston whispered. "You and thousands of others were in danger because of my father and his actions. How can you not hate me?"

"This is ridiculous," Pax said, grabbing a knife out from behind his mate and standing. Preston turned to face him, and yet no one seemed to be freaking out at this fierce omega approaching a crying man while wielding a knife. "Yep. We hate your guts. And we're going to make you pay."

Even though his words were serious, his tone wasn't. What the fuck was he playing at?

He tapped the flat of the blade against Preston's arm. "Okay. Revenged. Anyone else? Cody?"

Cody shook his head, while I stared openmouthed. This omega was crazy.

"Look," Cody said, pushing Pax's offered knife away. "I was fifteen when I was taken. You were a kid when your dad got into this. Is it my fault I was snatched? I've been through those thoughts. What if I'd been more careful? What if I'd called my parents to come get me? What if I'd just kept my head down, didn't draw attention to myself? No. It's not your fault you happened to be spawned by him. You clearly took after your mother. If we're going to start assigning blame…"

"Let's not," Cain said sharply. "I should have realized sooner. I didn't realize Senator Tierney was your father, Preston. I would have said something."

"We don't talk much about Preston's past," Noah said softly, pulling Preston into his embrace.

"I don't blame you," Cain said.

I was struck again by the fact that Cain looked familiar, but I still couldn't place him.

"Little bird, you've made your point. And if you don't stop stealing my knife, I'm going to have to stop carrying it." Zeke plucked the knife from Pax's fingers and guided his mate back to their seats. Everyone took a moment to snuggle close to their loved one. Even me.

Preston sniffed and wiped his face. "I feel a little better. Thanks, guys."

There was a moment of soft silence before Ray took charge of the gathering once more. "Okay, let's finish letting Matthew tell us what he knows, and then we'll call it a day. The team can go over everything tomorrow."

As I watched the couples lean in together, comfortable together in a way Jonah and I weren't yet, I could feel the hole inside me grow—the hole that wasn't there before I met him, and wouldn't go away until we were mated. I just wanted to grab him, pull him into a bathroom and get the job done.

Instead, I cleared my throat and began talking.