Page 16 of His Treasured Mate

“Okay,” I lied wanting no further arguments. “I'll meet you back at the shelter.”

As I stepped outside, I scanned the area. When I realized I was closer to shelter three than I was to shelter one, I wondered if perhaps they had made their way there. The one thing I'd not thought to do was check with the other shelters first, though I didn't think that was something Cole would have overlooked.

I ran all the way to shelter three. At times it felt as if I was going nowhere, but I did make it there safely.

When I burst through the door, everyone jumped.

James ran to my side when he realized it was me. “Thomas? What the hell are you doing out in this? What's wrong?”

I took a moment to catch my breath, realizing there were others watching us now and I was causing a scene with my presence.

Smiling and forcing myself to relax, I made up some lame excuse about checking up on everyone. James didn't believe a word of it, but before I could really explain things, I made my way around the bunker, letting my presence soothe the worried wolves there.

As soon as they started to calm, Austin grabbed my arm and dragged me into the Alpha suite there. There was one in every shelter just in case I found myself in another part of my territory when an emergency arose. When I wasn't there, it fell to my next in charge—James or Luke. In this case, all of the Six Pack and their families were currently using this suite. The surprised looks on their faces told me they had not been expecting me.

“Are Lily and the girls okay?” Kate, Wyatt’s mate, blurted out.

“Hello to you too,” I responded. “They are all fine.”

“Then what in the blazes are you doing here?” Clay's mate, Winnie, asked.

I looked to James. “We have three people missing and I was kind of hoping they came here by mistake. We've already checked all three of their homes and still no sign of them.”

Emmett scowled. “Let me guess. Hewitt and his buddies.”

“Yup.”

“They arrived about fifteen minutes before you. I called over to your shelter to let them know.”

My whole body started to relax. “Thank God.”

“You risked your precious Alpha-ass for those morons?” Austin blurted out.

“What the hell are you thinking?” Clay argued.

“Enough,” I said, a bit sharper than I intended. “You don't get it. It doesn't matter that they are drunks and everyone sees them as worthless. They aren't worthless to me. Every Collier wolf has value and every single one of them are my responsibility. I take that very seriously.”

“Clearly,” Emmett said with a chuckle. “Lily doesn't know you're here, does she?”

“Probably not, and there's no reason to worry her about it.”

“She's gonna kick your ass for this stunt. What was Cole thinking letting you go out in this mess?” Wyatt asked.

“His displeasure about it was duly noted, but I am still the Alpha.”

“Oh. You pulled the Alpha card on Cole Anderson? That makes sense. I would have paid money to see that go down,” Austin teased.

“It wasn't like that. He argued. I shot it down. It was done.”

“He and Gage got back safely. Clara let us know.”

“So you already knew I was gone.”

“Of course we did. But we didn't know you'd be dumb enough to come all the way here,” Austin said.

“I was checking Hewitt's place and realized how close I was to this shelter,” I confessed.

“Makes sense, but you should never have been this far out to begin with,” James argued.