Aww, hell. The moment I’d caught the scent of this poor, wounded man, I'd known he was my mate—my pregnant mate, at that. I sincerely doubted whether Cody had any idea who the sire was, not that I cared. As far as I was concerned, the baby would be mine anyway. But first, I needed to be patient and build a rapport with Cody before any talk of mating could happen.

None of that mattered at the moment, anyway. Right now, the only thing that mattered was making Cody feel safe. If the past six years of his life had been anything like that brief scene I'd witnessed in that dingy motel room through my scope, my mate would need a lot of TLC.

Yeah, I didn't want to think about the things he'd gone through, or how many people I would have to kill now for having hurt him.

Right now, it was enough to just hold him in my arms and savor his sweet scent. It reminded me of the heady fragrance of the magnolia blossoms back home. Funny, I'd always hated those damn magnolias. But now I was pretty sure I could sit and smell that scent all day when it was wrapped around my precious mate.

He’d shivered in my arms as we walked into the bossman's house, obviously worried about where we were going and who we'd be meeting. I’d followed Noah into the house and gone to set Cody down—until he'd frantically told me to stop.

Immediately, I’d pulled him back up against my chest and looked around for a place to sit with him. The couch didn't seem like the best idea. I felt like Cody needed to be separate from everybody at first, so I’d chosen the wingback chair in the corner of the room where he could watch the room and interact at his own tempo.

Cody showed signs of life when Preston came in, and I couldn't help but notice how avidly he'd watched Preston and Noah kissing. My heart ached as I realized that he'd probably never seen sensual passion. Mechanical, if not brutal, acts of sex were likely all he knew.

Just the thought of that gutted me in ways I never would've imagined. No boy should ever have to finish growing up the way this one had. As he started to relax against me while Papa P chatted with him, I made a vow to myself that I would do anything it took from this moment on to always make him feel cherished and safe.

I watched Cody eyeing little Amy with interest, relieved to finally see him engaging in the world around him. It was only natural to ask Preston if Cody could hold her, especially since Preston was always happy to let any of us fawn over his precious little girl.

I smiled at Preston, conveying my gratitude silently. I liked that he was treating Cody like he would anybody else—this was a good first step toward helping Cody feel like a regular person again.

When Amy started getting squirmy, I chuckled. "You'd probably make a friend for life if you got down on the floor with her. But she's just started crawling recently, so watch out. You'd be amazed at how fast this little bugger can go."

Cody tipped his head and looked up at me shyly from the corner of his eye. "You don't think your friends would mind?"

Preston overheard us and came bouncing over. "Mind? Heck, I'd love it. Go ahead and wear her out, please! This little one has decided she hates sleep lately. I’ve found the more playtime she gets during the day, the better she sleeps at night. Here, why don't you let me give you a hand."

Cody immediately handed Amy over into Preston's waiting hands and watched with rapt attention as Preston sat down on the floor with her and set her down on her stomach. She immediately got up on her hands and knees and began to rock back and forth, before taking off in a beeline for the basket of toys that her grandfathers kept there for her.

"See? She's fast as anything, isn't she?" Preston asked proudly as he scurried after the baby girl. Preston picked up the basket and brought it back where he set it in the middle of the floor, before proceeding to dump it out. Big, brightly colored rubber blocks fell out in a pile, along with various squishy toys that I knew from experience would squeak when squeezed. Amy crawled right over and climbed up onto her daddy's lap.

"Why don't you come join us, Cody? That's what Levi said your name is, right? I'm Preston, and you've already met Amy here—come on down and make friends. We won't bite, although Amy might gum you a little. I'm not gonna lie, she's totally teething, so might wanna guard your fingers," Preston said lightly.

Cody hesitated for a moment, poised as though he wanted to get down, yet afraid to leave me. "Go ahead, you're safe here. I promise I won’t go out of your sight," I said quietly with just a touch of alpha persuasion in my voice. There was no way in hell I wanted to be a dominant alpha with my mate after all he’d been through—but right now he needed that little bit of a nudge to help him find his courage.

He turned and looked at me sharply, gazing into my eyes as if trying to read a lie in their depths. After a moment, he gave a decisive nod as he apparently decided to trust me on my word. Slowly and ever so cautiously, Cody eased off my lap and down onto the floor.

Crawling over to sit at the edge of the round, colorful rug that decorated the middle of the floor where Amy played, Cody perched on his knees, catty corner, but just a few feet away from me. He watched for a few minutes while Preston showed Amy how to stack her blocks. Once he got the tower a few blocks high, Amy would push it over and then clap her pudgy little hands together and chortle gleefully.

The third time she did it, Cody giggled along with her. Amy reached her hands toward Cody, wiggling her fingers in the classic baby motion for him to come play. Preston grinned easily at Cody.

"Come on, Cody. You can’t turn down an invitation like that, I know I never can," Preston said. He leaned over and kissed the top of his daughter’s halo of curls, then began stacking the blocks again.

Cody crawled closer and sat opposite Preston with his legs crossed where he could also reach the blocks. The two of them stacked towers much faster, which thrilled Amy to no end. She knocked over the tower and crawled over the blocks to get to Cody.

She climbed into his lap this time. We all watched with smiles on our faces as Cody settled her between his legs and quietly began building the tower again with Preston. I watched his profile, enjoying the chance to observe him from the side without making him nervous.

While I watched them play, my mind was racing to think of an excuse to leave the room for a minute. I needed to catch my breath and talk to the team, but I didn't want to go away from Cody—I'd made him a promise and I'd damn well keep it.

Papa P must have picked up on my agitation, because he flashed me a wink as he lowered himself to the floor across from me, forming a triangle with Cody and Preston. He glanced over at me with an easy smile.

"Levi, honey, why don't you go check in with my son and the rest of the team while Preston and I keep Cody safe. The guys are all out on the front porch, you can see them right through the window if you look, which means Cody will be able to see you too, if you go out there. I'm sure you boys have some shop to talk, yeah?"

Cody stiffened, looking as though he wanted to follow me when I stood. I shook my head and spoke gently. "No, Cody. Don't bother getting up—I'll be right outside that door if you need me. I won't go anywhere but the front porch, and like Papa P just said, you'll be able to see me right through the window the whole time I'm out there."

He seemed to think about that for a moment, then he looked up at me with an imperious look on his face as he stretched out a hand. "Give me your jacket," he demanded in a strangely dominant tone as he looked up at me.

"Are you cold?" It seemed warm in here to me, but he'd been through a lot—and if he was still in shock, that would definitely make him feel cold.

Cody shook his head but didn't answer. Instead, he just continued to hold out that hand in a silent demand for me to comply. I quickly shucked off my jacket, thrilled that my mate was being so bossy about taking the comfort he needed, even if it was just my old flight jacket that had definitely seen better days. If he needed to hold it as collateral on my return, that was just fine with me. I passed him the jacket, my pulse racing as he nodded with approval and slipped it on.

He was swimming in the jacket, which was way too huge on him given our size difference, but damned if he didn't look adorable in it. Not to mention that my wolf and I liked knowing that our scent was wrapped around our mate.

I watched him for a moment, but he seemed to have already mentally dismissed me and had turned his attention back to Amy. Papa P shot me another wink and tipped his head toward the door as if telling me to get going. When I nearly stumbled over my feet as I went, Preston and Papa P both grinned—whether at my stumble or the accompanying blush, I couldn't tell you.

When I slipped out onto the porch, I found the team was huddled around Noah at the end of the porch, looking at something on the screen on his phone. Bossman Ray was sitting against the railing closer to the door. He looked over at me, as if taking my measure before he spoke.

"I've been running over the different options in my mind, Levi. And the best I can come up with is that maybe you should plan to stay here for Cody's peace of mind until Justin can get him a bed in the omega shelter. He's been working on it, but there hasn't been an opening just yet—he'll stay here in the meantime."

Without thinking, I blurted out the first words that came to mind. "Fuck that. He's not staying here or going anywhere—unless it's home with me."

Ray looked at me steadily for a long moment, then quietly nodded with an almost amused twinkle in his eyes. "Ah, so that's how it is, huh? Well, if that boy’s your mate, I hope you know you have a long road ahead of you."

I shrugged. "Yes, Cody is my mate. Whatever it takes, and however long the process, I’ll be there for him. But, we do need to get him to a doctor—he's pregnant."

Noah looked up from his phone with a nod. "Yeah, we'd scented that too. But, first things first… How much do you want to be involved when we take out the organization that held them? We’re going to be unraveling some threads from the IDs we took off the men guarding him that the twins killed during the rescue today."

I looked over at Ezra and Zeke. "You killed some of his captors?"

Ezra looked offended that I’d even needed to ask. "Of course, we did. Those fuckers needed to die. They're just lucky we made it quick."

"Yeah, I wish I'd had time for a little knife play after the way they treated those boys—but the omegas were top priority today," Zeke said sadly.

I smiled coldly. "Good. Those are a few less men that I’ll have to take out later. But the next kill is mine. Just like that fat piece of filth that thought he was going to lay with my mate died, so will every other person I can find who ever laid a hand on my mate or forced him to be used like that. You guys can help, or I'll go do it myself—but every single one of those fuckers are simply dead men walking."

"Easy, son. First things first—your mate needs to be taken care of, and we need to find the men in question before you can take them out. Listen, why don’t you go ahead and take Cody home now and let him get comfortable. Justin will take care of getting him an appointment with a therapist and—"

I started to interrupt, but the bossman just shook his head and kept talking. "He'll need therapy, Levi. And yes, we’ll also get him a doctor appointment to see about the baby. In the meantime, I'm going to give you a leave of absence."

Noah's head jerked over to look at his father, chewing his lip as if he wanted to argue, yet also seeming to agree that his father was right. Noah and his father shared a long look before Noah nodded and looked at me.

"Dad is right, take some time and be with your mate. The team will get by without you for as long as you need. Cody needs to come first right now, and hell—you're on salary anyway. If my dad is telling you to sit your ass at home with your mate, and get paid? Go for it... the old man never gave me that kind of offer," Noah said with a teasing grin.

The bossman smiled sadly. "That's because you didn't have a traumatized mate like our Levi does." He stood and rested a hand on my shoulder. "If you need someone to talk to while you're helping your mate through this time, you call me day or night, you hear me?"

"Yes, sir," I said automatically.

"No, none of that bullshit. We both know that you don't mean it—but I do. I have a better idea of what you two are facing than you realize. I mean it, if you need a sounding board, you come to me, Levi."

This time I answered more honestly. "Thank you, Bossman. I'll do that."

The bossman clapped me on the shoulder with a broad grin. "Good man, now let's get back inside before that skittish little mate of yours gets himself all worked up from you being out here too long."

"Good luck, Levi," Boomer said quietly. "The rest of us may not know what it's like to have mates yet, or how to deal with one that's been traumatized—but we're here for you too."

My eyes watered then, probably from my allergies or some shit. The rest of my team were all standing there smiling supportively at me.

"I'm gonna miss you guys while I’m not working—y'all better not have too much fun without me," I said in a strangely thick voice.

Ezra shook his head with a playful grin. "All right, I'm out of here. If the big guy's gonna start getting all emotional on us—that's my cue to leave."

"I'm right there with you, bro," his twin, Zeke, agreed.

"That's because you fuckers have no heart," Boomer said as the three of them stepped off the porch and began walking down the driveway. Noah looked like he was fighting a laugh as he shoved his phone into his pocket and stepped toward us.

My hand was on the doorknob as I said one last thing to them both. "Thank you for being such good bosses, I'll try not to take advantage of the off time—but I sure do appreciate it."