Alpha Malakai returned to the Hanover family hotel, the one his father built stone by stone to be neutral ground for mating and politics alike. He was supposed to meet the young Omega of the Langston family here to sort the mess of a bond out like adults. Quietly and cleanly.
But Boris, unfortunately, wasn't here. He had stepped out before the Alpha could step in.
As soon as he stepped through the glass doors that bore a big head of a wolf in carving, Old Solomon greeted him with a nervous dip of the head. "Alpha Malakai. Welcome back."
"Where is he?" Alpha Malakai asked, removing his gloves finger by finger.
"Gone, Alpha," Solomon replied. "Left early this morning."
"Left?" Malakai repeated, his voice fulfilling uninterested and flat. He was just asking for the sake of fulfilling all righteousness. "What kind of Omega leaves before his Alpha gives an order?"
Solomon hesitated. Then, as though summoning resolve from some long-forgotten place, he said quietly, "He arrived at dawn, exhausted. His eyes were red. He didn't say much. Then he left this morning for the Healing House."
Then old Solomon stopped talking. By then, Alpha Malakai had already read in Solomon's tone that he had something to say but was contemplating on it.
"Speak, Solomon."
Old Solomon bowed in appreciation that whatever he was going to say, the Alpha wouldn't react to it in a way that he as an old man would be at a big disadvantage or loss. "When he came in, he really seemed exhausted and tired. But… there was a mark on him. A mating bite."
Alpha Malakai went still. Too still for an uninterested wolf in the business of his unfortunate mate.
Solomon continued, voice turning lower now. "He walked so strangely, as the way a male who has been mated by another male would. I thought it best to say nothing then. But I swore loyalty to you. So I'm saying it now."
The Alpha said nothing for a long time.
Then he smiled. It was a cold, curved thing that had no warmth in it.
"A mating bite," he echoed. "A whore's mark. He couldn't even wait. We haven't even broken the bond and he's already been with someone else." His jaw clenched. "Disgusting. And it was a man, I assume? He was definitely the one underneath the other man. How typical of an Omega. Of course it was a man."
Solomon said nothing.
"I appreciate your loyalty," Malakai addressed him, smoothing the front of his coat. "You'll continue reporting directly to me. Now… I'd like to see the room."
"Yes, sir. Room 67."
Alpha Malakai took the key card and made his way down the hall.
The moment he entered the room, the stench of something lived-in hit him. It wasn't quite sweat. More like skin and salt and sleep — and shame. Clothes lay strewn across the floor, one boot was still half-tucked under the edge of the bed.
"Dirty for a healer who had just been here for a few hours."
He approached slowly, methodically, like a man entering a crime scene. With a curl of his two fingers, he pulled a damp shirt off the sheets.
Underneath it, there was… an underwear, wrinkled and left behind.
He stared at it for a beat.
Then he sighed, pulled out his phone, and dialed.
"Ralph," he said when the call connected. "I want you to look into someone."
There was a pause on the other end. "Boris Langston?"
"Yes. The so-called healer. Look at his movements from last night. Who he was with. What had happened and where it happened."
His beta gave a low whistle. "Didn't know you were so interested."
"I'm not," Alpha Malakai said coolly. "I just don't like being made a fool. And I hate surprises." No one told him his mate was a whore!
He nudged the underwear with the toe of his shoe, then sat heavily on the edge of the bed. He was disgusted thinking it reeked of betrayal.
Something was up. It was either his.. no, the omega was forcefully penetrated after being bullied, as a weakling that he was or he did it voluntarily. And that makes him… a whore omega. Disgraceful and shameful, and the end of him will be death after all.
But… what Malakai got worked up over was that the bond wasn't even broken yet. Couldn't his whorish ass wait?!
Utter disrespect!