Page 61 of Alpha Awakened

“Let me put this stuff away and I’ll walk with you,” Hazard said.

He went into his room and filed the folder of documents he’d returned with away in his desk. When he came back out to the common area, Ice wasn’t there.

“Where’d the captain go?” he asked Ortiz.

“He left.”

“Okay. See you at HQ.” Assuming Ice was outside waiting for him, Hazard left the barracks. But Ice wasn’t waiting for him out front. He looked around but the captain was nowhere to be seen. Ice wouldn’t walk off and leave him. Maybe the alpha had beencaught up in his thoughts and hadn’t heard him say he’d walk with him. Not too bothered, he set off for HQ on his own.

He expected to find Ice waiting in the briefing room. But when he arrived, there was no one there. Now Hazard wondered if Ice was avoiding him. Ice had been quiet since returning from his lunch with Major General Walsh yesterday. They’d barely spoken a work to each other. But quiet was the usual setting for the captain. There was no reason to assume Ice was avoiding him. He probably had something he had to attend to. Or he’d received news he needed to process.

Hazard leaned back in his chair. He relaxed, letting his eyes drift shut while he waited for the others to arrive. Jax and Ortiz showed up first. They sat down, looking no happier to be there than he was. A few seconds later, Ice came in and took his usual seat. He didn’t so much as look at Hazard when he did. Gibbs and his aide arrived last. Everyone stood at attention, retaking their seats once he gave them a wave of permission.

“We continue to receive intel on Cortez. And we’ve verified that Mr. Vaughn is a secret financial backer of Cortez, along with several others.”

“Are we going to bring Vaughn in for questioning?” Ortiz asked.

“Not yet. I don’t want to tip Cortez off that we know who is financing him.”

They all grumbled but understood Gibbs’s reasoning.

“So, we know his backers,” Jax said. “Does that also mean we finally have an idea on his plans to shake up shifter society?”

“Yes. Going by the organizations these backers belong to, I’ve parsed that Cortez is interested in a return to traditional shifter society.”

“And by that you mean...”

“Less involvement in our world. The human world.” He corrected himself since he was a human but the members of the448 were not. “Stricter borders between the major packs. And rolling back some of the rights gained by omegas.”

Hazard, the only omega in the room, leaned back in his chair and groaned. “How original. Traditional groups have been trying to take back omega rights since the moment we won ‘em.”

“Any information on his current location?” Ortiz asked.

“Not quite. He hasn’t gone far from his home ground in Arizona. We’ve been tracking him into Colorado. He’s smart enough not to use credit cards and he’s staying in out of the way places. But we’ll find him.”

“Hopefully soon,” Hazard said. “Captain Anderson and I are extremely excited to chat with him, seeing as how he nearly roasted us alive.”

Gibbs laughed. “I’m sure you are.”

Hazard looked at Ice, expecting him to chime in or at least look his way. He did neither. Hazard frowned. Maybe hehaddone something to make the captain avoid him.

As soon as Gibbs concluded the meeting Hazard was up, moving around the table. Ice was up too, and was out the door before Hazard made it to his side. “Captain!” he called out.

Ice stopped and turned around, waiting until he reached him. They moved off to the side of the hallway so they didn’t block the flow of people going about their business.

“Yes, Corporal Mitchell?”

“Do you have a minute?”

“No. I’ve got paperwork to complete and submit.”

Hazard was taken aback at Ice’s cooly impersonal tone. Something was wrong. “Do you want some company while you work?” He had his own reports to fill out and they’d worked together in companiable silence a few times before. And maybe if they spent some time together, Ice would ‘fess up to whatever was bothering him.

“I don’t.”

Hazard blinked. The rejection stung. It stung enough that this time when Ice walked away, Hazard didn’t try to follow after him.

* * *