Alpha Lost

Overlooked

Selah tried not to meet the eyes of Alpha Commander James and the other Alphas from Malcolm's unit on the digital screen. She was afraid that if she did, all of the hurt from the last month would come spewing out of her like an erupting volcano. Selah was a counselor. She knew all about the stages of grief. She'd been through them all in the past month, but with James' impassive face on the monitor, she'd just slingshotted straight to anger.

They couldn't all meet in one location. Malcolm refused to let Selah leave their house. She was safe here for the moment, and he'd laid down a firm "No" when she'd suggested going to meet the team. The rest of the unit couldn't come to their house. If Malcolm's return hadn't yet been noticed by Christoph, the son of the original Omega serial killer, then having an entire unit of OSF Alphas descend on his house would be like a neon flashing sign.

On top of that, Selah's heat had only broken last night. While the safe-room contained her scent during her heat, now that the door was open, Malcolm could detect the lingering tempting scent in the air. That scent was his and his alone, he'd declared, and he wasn't sharing.

So they'd worked out a technological solution. Through their comm system, they were meeting remotely with the team. The few members at the safe house were gathered around James, and the Alphas on guard outside his house or the ones running down leads were using their phones to remote into the video conference.

Malcolm's team of Alphas and their Omegas were a tight-knit group. They lived and laughed together at parties and holidays. They mourned together. When one of their own was lost, they rallied around the remaining Alpha or Omega to support them. Unfortunately, most of the time, they also had to mourn the remaining mate. The Omegas had been trying to help Selah through her grief, but Ashlyn had noticed that Selah was slipping away from them.

That's why the thought that her fellow Omegas had known that Malcolm was alive had felt like such a betrayal. No doubt, she was upset at the Alpha's on the team, but the Omegas were hers. They were her friends. Her confidants. If they had known, she wasn't sure she'd ever forgiven them. As it was, she was so angry at James and the rest of the Alphas, that she'd been sitting quietly with a storm brewing inside of her while Malcolm debriefed with his team.

In her head, she understood why they had made the decisions they had, but in her heart, she relived the past month of tears and heartbreak. She'd given up. She had GIVEN up. If they had been within the time frame for the Kinreal ritual after Malcolm's "death," she would have asked for it. The ritual would have set her soul free to join Malcolm in the next world immediately, but it had to be performed within a few hours of death. Without the Kinreal, her only other choice was to just stop. Stop eating. Stop caring. Stop trying.

And she had. She had just...stopped. Quit.

She wasn't sure how she felt about that now. There was no shame in a mate following their bonded Alpha or Omega. In truth, for childless or older mated pairs, it was more unusual for the living mate to remain alive. Even some couples with children had life arrangements in place for their children should the unthinkable happen. Funerals were often delayed to wait for the remaining mate to join their loved one. The feeling of the missing bond was said to be a constant ache and reminder -

Wait.

Bond.

Selah searched inside herself for the place where her mate bond anchored in her chest. She found it glowing happily with contentment. It was exactly where it was supposed to be and burrowed deep into her soul as it always had been.

When was the last time, she'd taken a moment to examine their bond?

Ignoring the Alphas mapping out a plan for capturing Christoph, she sent her mind back over the last month. Why hadn't their bond let her know that Malcolm was alive? She remembered that her life had felt empty, and she had felt such black despair, but what about their bond? She should have known instinctively that Mal was alive.