Chapter Eight
Most of the drive was silent, both of them lost in their own thoughts. About two hours into their journey, James rang. Ben pulled over into a lay-by and got out to answer it, walking away from the car as he did. Adam watched him go torn between anger and fear. This was their son, he had every right to hear what James had to say. And it hurt to see Ben putting distance between them. Yet he was afraid to follow, afraid to hear James’ news.
Ben jogged back to the car and got in.
“They’re holed up in Gray Valley with all the ex-Eagle Creek wolves they’ve been able to entice in as well as a large group of Red Oaks' people. They’re not letting anyone in and Terrance isn’t coming out to talk.”
“Do we have enough support to take them on?”
Ben turned to him, his expression surprised. “No, Adam. Not yet. It would take a few days to muster that kind of force, not to mention the added support of the Pack Council.”
“But we need to be in there now. We need to know what they know.”
“We will, and soon, but not today.”
The finality of his words sent a flare of anger through Adam. He wasn’t even going to try.
“This would never have happened if you hadn’t been so set on retaking Gray Valley in the first place.” And once his tirade started, he couldn’t stop. “That’s why Terrance had to strike first, because he knew you were coming. If we hadn’t gone to Eagle Creek so you could have that stupid war council with James, they’d never have had a chance to take Noah. And now, when I need you to take the Valley, you can’t. What use are you, Ben, tell me that?”
Ben looked shocked then crushed. He reached out to touch Adam’s arm and Adam pulled back out of reach.
“Adam, please. This isn’t what I wanted.”
“If it was Xander, nothing would stand in the way of you finding him, your Alpha heir. But it’s only little Noah, and he’s just an Omega. Give it a year or two, I’m sure we’ll have another.”
Ben opened the door and climbed out of the car, disappearing off the road and into the dense forest surrounding them. Adam watched him go, his own harsh words echoing in his ears.
The sound, when it came, was more animal than human; tortured, anguished, desperate. A father torn from his son. It was a sound that told Adam how very close to the edge Ben really was. One foot over.
Instinct told him to go to his Alpha but caution held him back. He couldn’t undo this. Couldn’t take those words back.
Ben reappeared, striding towards the car. He got back in and Adam noticed his phone was in his hand. Had someone called?
“James is nearby. We need to meet him.” The Alpha started the car.
“Ben…”
“You’re not right, Adam, but you’re not wrong either. Noah is my son and I remember what it’s like to be pulled away from my parents, to be separated from the people who loved me.” Ben was only a boy when Terrance and the Porter clan had had his parents killed and taken over the Pack.
“I don’t,” he murmured in reply.
“What do you mean?” Ben frowned over at him.
“I don’t remember, even though someone, somewhere must have cared about me. But I was too young, maybe even Noah’s age and I don’t remember them. If it takes us years to find him, he’ll have long forgotten us. He won’t be that little boy we know. He’ll be someone else.”
Ben braked and put the car into park before reaching over, pulling Adam into a hug and whispering fierce words into his ear.
“We’ll find him, we will. I won’t stop until he’s back in our arms.”
“I know you won’t and I’m sorry I said all that.” His tears wet the fabric of Ben’s t-shirt but he couldn’t hold them back. “I can hear him crying for us, calling our names, not understanding why we’re not coming for him.”
“Me, too. Our little lost boy.”
Ben’s phone buzzed. “That’s James. We should get back on the road.”
James was leaning against the bonnet of his car when they pulled up.
“You have news?” Ben asked as he and Adam jumped out.
“We stopped a car belonging to Gray Valley an hour ago. A few people had reported its position to us earlier today, taking an unusual route through some back roads, so we thought we’d take a look.”
“And?”
“We think we might have the Omega Gray Valley traded for Noah.”
“You think?”
“No one’s talking just yet and they’ve spun a half-cocked tale about who they are and where they’re going. We’ve split them up and we’re going to talk to them separately. Adam, I thought you might speak to the young wolf. Ben, you and I can take the other two.”
Adam nodded, taking a deep breath, and wiping the last tears from his eyes. He needed to keep it together, for Noah’s sake.
They were stopped near one of Fenrir’s Warriors old safe houses. When they got there, Andrew led Adam upstairs while Ben and James went down to the basement.
There was a woman standing by a door in the landing. She glanced around as they reached the top of the stairs. “He’s like a frightened mouse. Hard to tell if he’s just a trafficking victim or an actual Omega.”
“Thanks, Susan. Go ahead,” Andrew said, gesturing Adam forward.
The boy—because that was what he was—was crouched in a corner, rocking back and forth. He cringed as Adam stepped closer so he took a seat at the end of the bed, instead.
“Hi, my name is Adam. What’s yours?”
There was no sign his words had been heard.
“Please don’t be scared, you’re safe here.” Still nothing.
There was shouting from downstairs, sudden and jolting and violent. It startled him and he stood, turning towards the landing. Out of the corner of his eye, he could still see the young wolf, his rhythmic movements shocked to stillness. A half-formed idea entered his mind and with careful steps, he stood in front of the wolf and sank to his knees, trying to look small and unthreatening.
This boy might know where Noah was, where Tobias had taken him.
Frightened, suspicious eyes met his and Adam got a better look now he was up close. His heart sank. This wolf couldn’t have been the one Terrance had spoken about on the phone. He was too young. Adam guessed fourteen or fifteen at most. Probably just another young wolf being trafficked, more likely for the brothels than the fighting rings, given his small stature. Like Adam, he was wearing shorts, but they were paired with a grubby vest, his thin arms and legs sticking out.
“Adam,” Andrew called to him from the door. “James wants you to check whether he’s an Omega.”
And how to do that without traumatizing him?
“I guess this might be one of those ‘I’ll show you mine if you show me yours’ things. Okay,” he shifted to balance on his feet, his knees bent, as he continued to talk, “so I’ve already said my name is Adam, but just in case you missed it, there it is again. And I’m an Omega, which you might know a lot about or know nothing, I guess. There’s a way to prove what I’m saying though, and that’s a mark on my thigh that I’m gonna show you.”
He looked up to find that Susan had stepped into the room and was standing by the door. He pulled up the hem of his shorts up until his mark was visible.
His actions got the wolf’s attention, his eyes taking in the Omega mark.
Once Adam was sure he’d seen in, he smoothed out his clothes.
“Do you have anything like that on your skin?”
Dull eyes met his before the wolf parted his legs, one hand pushing up the hem of his shorts and revealing the familiar brown mark.
Adam couldn’t quite believe it. How had Tobias got his hands on another Omega? Why had he and Luke never met him before?
“Do you know Tobias?”
That got a reaction, the Omega nodding, eyeing him cautiously.
“You know you can speak, right? It’s just you and me here.” He glanced over at Susan who nodded and stepped back out into the hallway.
“Can you take me back?” the Omega whispered.
“Back?”
“Home to Tobias. He wasn’t supposed to give me to my Alpha until I was ready to go into heat. But then he said it had to be now, and he took me and gave me to the men. Is one of them my Alpha?” The Omega’s wide, scared eyes watching him hopefully.
“You’re too young for an Alpha,” Adam said. “How long have you been with Tobias?”
The Omega shrugged. “Always. If I’m too young for an Alpha, then can I go back to my brother?”
“Your brother?”
“He’s smaller and he cries sometimes, when he has scary dreams. If I’m not there, there won’t be anyone to wake him up so his crying doesn’t make Tobias angry.”
“What’s your brother’s name?”
“Duncan.”
“And your name?”
“Casey.”
“Are you hungry, Casey?”
The boy nodded.
“Susan?” Adam called over his shoulder. She reappeared in the doorway.
“Any chance of something to eat for Casey here? And a blanket.”
Adam remembered being that thin. He was cold all the time and just couldn’t get warm.
“Casey, can you tell me about when Tobias gave you to the men?”
The Omega chewed on his chapped lips. “He was angry because I couldn’t stay still in the car and it made me sick to my stomach so he put me right in the back and it was all dark.”
“He put you in the trunk?”
Casey nodded, a hint of uncertainty in his reply, as if the word was unfamiliar to him.
“Then it was bright and there were lots of people and I was in another car, driving away.”
“Did you see anyone else with Tobias?”
Casey shook his head. “I heard his voice, and I called for him, but one of the men was holding me by the scruff of my neck and I couldn’t turn.”
Adam felt both worry and disappointment. It sounded like Noah hadn’t been there at all. So, where was he?
“But there was someone crying. They sounded young. Younger even than Duncan.”
Adam’s heart squeezed. “Did you hear what they were crying about?”
“He wanted his Dada.” Dark eyes glanced up at him. “What’s a Dada?”
Susan returned with a blanket, sparing Adam the pain of having to answer that question.
“Here, now. Let’s get this wrapped around you, warm you up.”
Casey seemed suspicious at first as Adam settled the blanket around his shoulders.
“It’s soft,” he said after a moment, stroking the finger of one hand across it.
“You know what might be nice? If we get off this cold floor and sit up on the bed.”
Casey looked from him to the bed as if weighing up the suggestion.
“Okay.” He stood slowly, wincing at the movement. Adam matched his slow pace, catching sight, as Casey turned, of red marks staining the back of his shirt before the blanket covered them.
“Casey, are you hurt?”
The younger Omega’s cheeks flushed, and he ducked his head. “We were supposed to hold form until Tobias came back. But he was gone such a long time, Duncan couldn’t manage it. I told Tobias it was me.”
And Adam was drawn back into the past, recalling the many times he’d tried his best to protect Luke, keep him from harm, give him extra food. The Omega’s mothering instinct flowering even in such darkness.
“You took a beating for him.”
“He’s only small. It’s not his fault he can’t hold it that long. I couldn’t when I was that small.”
“You’re very brave and a good big brother,” Adam said. Casey seemed surprised at the praise, blinking as he took in the words.
Andrew brought food a few minutes later. It was simple fare; long life bread and tinned soup. Casey wouldn’t touch it until Adam ate some, but he was clearly ravenous and once he started, it was hard to slow him down. Adam knew that feeling. The fear that the food would be taken away.
“Casey?” he said, as the Omega finished the last mouthful of soup. Those dark eyes met his again.
“We need your help to find Tobias.”
Casey nodded. “So I can go back to my brother.”
“No. So we can find your brother and bring the both of you somewhere safe. Somewhere where there’s lots of food and no beatings or having to hold your human form.”
Casey fell silent, that thoughtful look back on his face.
“And the other reason is to help find someone else. That wolf you heard crying, his name is Noah. He’s my son. He was stolen from me and Ben, my Alpha. I need your help to bring him home.”
“I can’t go back to Tobias? Back to live with my brother?”
“I was like you once. I grew up with Tobias. I lived with my brother Luke and I looked out for him too. Then Tobias gave me to my Alpha.”
“Ben?”
“No, another man. And he was cruel. Worse even than Tobias. But Ben rescued me. He is so very good to me. He’s never hurt me, or denied me food. He helped me learn to read and write and understand lots of things about the world that Tobias hadn’t taught me.”
“Omega aren’t supposed to read,” Casey replied.
“Omega are supposed to be cherished and protected. Not hurt or starved or sold to the highest bidder. Not given to an Alpha when they’re much too young to go into heat.”
“The men said it didn’t matter.”
Adam closed his eyes at the words before steeling himself. He needed to keep it together. For Noah’s sake and now, for Casey’s sake too.
“No one is laying a hand on you. There are three Alphas in this house and you are under their protection. They won’t let any harm come to you. I won’t let any harm come to you, either.”
“You’re brave,” Casey said. “I didn’t think Omegas were supposed to be brave.”
“And when you take a beating for your brother, what do you call that?”
Casey shrugged. “He’s my brother. I love him.”
He was right. Those little acts of defiance had always been more out of love than bravery.