My Mate Is An Omega
Chapter 44

Caitlyn

POV

For the next couple of days, I was mostly focused on helping my mate organize the basics to get the company running as fast as we could without actually rushing it. Watching Lance work on this project made me realize how much of a perfectionist he was. He wanted to make sure we would have the best possible start to prevent us from facing unnecessary problems in the future, which made perfect sense. Whether it was a natural instinct or a leadership skill he learned from James, I was definitely impressed. On Wednesday, we spent the entire day working on the final details, which included calculating startup costs and setting up a launch date. Since we didn't have a lot of money to spend due to our pack's current financial situation, we decided to turn one of the vacant houses close to the main building into a temporary workspace until we could actually rent a proper floor on a commercial property. Although our objective was to eventually expand the company to provide services for human clients, our initial goal was to work within the supernatural world. We hoped to use the business as a means to form new alliances to solve our biggest problem - the bear attacks.

"Am I forgetting anything?" my mate asked me without taking his eyes off the papers.

"I don't think so. I couldn't replace anything wrong with these documents after checking them twice, and you have been re-reading them for the past two hours." A small smile lit up my face when he turned around to look through the window behind him. His eyes widened as he noticed the sun had already set. I captured his attention by cupping his cheek with my hand, melting when his vivid green eyes met mine. "Nothing will go wrong," I reassured him, kissing his lips softly.

My intention was to pull away soon after, but I often forgot how alluring his taste was. He leaned forward while one of his hands slid under my midi dress, sending sparks of electricity as it traveled up my thigh. I too couldn't resist the urge to feel his muscular chest through the thin fabric of his button up shirt. We would have gotten rid of our clothes in the blink of an eye had we not been forced to stop by loud knocks on the door.

I was still trying to catch my breath when Lance yelled, "Come in!"

A few seconds later, our new Delta walked in holding a clipboard under her arm. She nodded at us before placing the paper on the desk.

"These are all of the wolves who have shown interest in working for the company," she clarified, pointing at the list. "More than three fourths of the pack members you personally picked have accepted the offer."

"This is amazing!" A huge smile lit up Lance's face as he ran his eyes over the clipboard. "Thank you, Sasha."

"No problem. Is there anything else you need me to do?"

"Actually, yes." He glanced at me before turning to her again. "We have the documents for the company ready. Can you have them sent to the Elders?"

"Of course."

"But not today," I said. They both looked at me with quizzical expressions. "You have been working really hard. We all have." I smiled as I calmly rose from my seat. "Megan and I are going to the hot spring right now, and we're planning on watching a movie later. You should come with us."

She hesitated for a moment, waiting for her Alpha's approval. As soon as he nodded, she went on. "What about Lance and Luke?"

"It's a girl's night apparently. No boys invited." My mate rolled his eyes, making me laugh.

"Alright, I'm in!"

"Great! I'm gonna get changed. Meet us by the entrance in ten," I instructed her, waving at Lance as I walked out of the office with the Delta by my side.

"Have fun the two of you!" he wished us, before turning his attention to the beautiful night view behind him; he was just waiting for his Beta and Gamma so he could leave too.

I went back to my room to put on my brand new turquoise blue bikini and a matching robe. It was starting to get cold, especially once the sun was gone, but thanks to our naturally warm bodies, the night wind wouldn't bother us too much; it was only a ten minute walk to the recreation area anyway. I decided to take one last look at my reflection in the mirror before finally going downstairs to meet with the girls.

"You shouldn't have invited her," Faye's voice was serious.

"I know." I sighed. "But after everything she went through, I didn't want her to think we were leaving her out."

"It might be worse if she replaces out the truth."

"She won't," I affirmed as I headed to the door. With one deep breath, I got rid of my nervousness so that my worried expression wouldn't give myself away.

Sasha was already there when I made it to the first floor of the pack house, but as expected, my best friend was nowhere to be found. She had recently moved to a different pack and changed positions, but she still wasn't the least punctual - unless it came to her favorite activity, which was training. Thankfully, she didn't make us wait long.

As soon as we made it to the artificial hot spring, we removed our robes and slowly stepped into the warm water, eager to let it wash our stress away. The sky was clear and there wasn't any source of illumination in the area except for the light of the moon, which allowed us a perfect view of the thousands of stars. It would be wonderful to spend some time outside, enjoying this lovely night in good company while the boys took care of the work.

"So this is the place you and Lance mated and marked each other," Megan stated point-blank, making me choke on my own saliva.

"What a way to break the silence," Faye huffed, as surprised as I was.

"What?!" Sasha's eyes widened.

"I didn't..." I started, but soon realized there would be no point in lying. Instead, I just rolled my eyes at my best friend. "It happened once, almost three months ago!"

"Oh wow. I did not need that information." The Delta facepalmed, but I could still see the smirk on her face. I could instantly feel my cheeks getting red, and it wasn't due to the warm water. "Thank the Goddess I don't come here often." "Well, I can see the appeal. I might just start coming here more frequently... If you know what I mean." The Beta Female winked at us.

"Gross!" Sasha and I said in unison.

"Goddess, you two are such saints!" She scoffed, laying back against the edge of the hot spring. "You are wolves, too. You shouldn't be ashamed of your animalistic desires."

"I'm not. I just don't think it's necessary to be explicit about it," I argued.

"Agreed."

"I wasn't explicit, but if you want me to, I can tell you all about what Luke and I-"

"No, thanks!" Sasha immediately cut her off. "I grew up with these boys; I'd rather not know about what they do with their mates in the bedroom."

"Really?" Megan raised one of her eyebrows in a gesture I understood too well - she had dirty thoughts on her mind, and poor Sasha was her target. "From what I heard, it seems you're quite interested about the things Mr. Stray can do on the mattress." "Who told you that?!" The black-haired woman immediately glared at me.

"I'm sorry! She can be quite determined when she wants to know something." I smiled apologetically.

"I thought you didn't like gossip?" The Delta crossed her arms, frowning at the Beta Female.

"Things change." My best friend shrugged casually.

In the end, Sasha smiled. "I guess I won't be able to keep secrets from the two of you anyway. It seems we're a trio now."

"Don't worry girl, nothing we talk about will ever leave my mouth." Megan slid her hands over her lips as if she was zipping them. "Oh, I know what we can do to prove none of us will tell our secrets to outsiders! We should share our deepest secrets; this way, we'll all have dirt on each other," she suggested excitedly. Before any of us could agree or disagree, she went on, "I'll go first! When Caitlyn was twelve, she ran away from her school crush after he confessed his feelings for her!" "What the hell, Meg!" I shot daggers at her. "Weren't you supposed to say something about yourself?"

"I never specified that." She winked at me, and I was unable to hold my laughter any longer.

For the next hour, I could feel the three of us becoming closer as we chatted the night away. It was nice to see Sasha warming up to my best friend after their awkward start; they even discussed a few issues regarding female warrior training. It gave me hope that she would finally loosen up by the end of the night, and things would go back to how they were.

At around 7pm, we returned to the main building to shower so we could watch a movie. Once we were properly dressed, we met again on the first floor and headed together towards the cinema room. As we made our way there, a loud noise of shattering glass caught our attention. My eyes widened the second I noticed Lance standing in front of Jasper a few feet away from us; there was a fallen cardboard box with broken bottles on the floor between them.

"Goddess, are they okay?!" Sasha's voice was full of concern. "Maybe we should help-"

"Nah, I'm sure they're fine!" I laughed nervously, trying to push her away.

"What were they even carrying anyway?" she continued.

"Who knows! Maybe they're having a boys night as well. We shouldn't interrupt them." Megan chimed in to help me. Thankfully, she was a much better liar than me. "Anyway, what movie should we watch?"

Thankfully, Sasha got distracted by her question and decided to drop the subject. After the little incident, we finally made it to the cinema room, where we picked a random comedy movie from the online catalog. Everything went well for about an hour, until Luke barged into the room. He stared at the two girls thoughtfully before his gaze eventually fell on me.

"Uh... can you help me with something, Cait?" the Beta asked, very suspiciously.

"Couldn't you have linked me?" I scolded him, trying to fix the situation.

"I thought it would be better to speak to you personally," he insisted.

I sighed, hoping Megan would be able to handle the situation on her own. "Fine. You girls just stay here, I'll come back as soon as I can."

"Uh... okay?" Sasha replied, utterly confused. She was smart; it wouldn't take long for her to figure everything out, which is why I needed to leave fast.

"I told you! None of this would have happened if she had just stayed in her room like we initially planned!" Faye scolded me.

"She doesn't know yet! We just have to come back before she replaces out!" I replied frantically.

For the first time, I could actually understand why it was important for a Luna to study party organization; these men had no idea what they were doing. In around half an hour, I fixed the minor problem Luke was facing before leaving them behind to return to the cinema room. It seemed the movie had just ended when I walked in with a smile. Sasha asked me what was wrong, but I successfully dodged her question with a very vague answer. I convinced her that Lance had asked me to get him something from the private dining room, and as expected, she offered to help.

Her face as I opened the door was priceless.

"Surprise!" The boys yelled in unison, jumping from behind the long dining table.

At first, the Delta was too confused to reply. Her eyes scanned the room, which had been decorated with blue balloons. There was a full course gourmet meal on the table, as well as luxurious golden tableware. She switched her gaze from the male ranked members to us a few times before she finally processed what was going on.

"It's not my birthday though." She arched an eyebrow.

"We know. But you weren't Delta yet when we had our ceremony, and after seeing how hard you've been working, we felt like you deserved your own party," Lance explained.

The next second, the black-haired woman wrapped her arms around both mine and Megan's necks. "Aw, you guys are so cute! There was no need for this."

"Yes, there was," Luke insisted, approaching us. There was guilt in his golden eyes as he looked straight at her. "We have been really shitty friends to you lately. Especially me," he confessed, his voice barely a whisper. "I hope this proves how important you are to us." With a smile, Sasha briefly hugged him. "Thank you. You are all awesome."

"No, you are," Jasper chimed in, holding a circular silver serving tray. He didn't hesitate to pull the lid, revealing what was under it - a chocolate cake with the words "Sorry, we messed up. Can you forgive us?" and a happy face. This was definitely not what we had agreed to write on her surprise cake, but I guess it sent the message, because she burst out laughing.

It was amazing to watch our friend having the time of her life after suffering so much in silence. This was our attempt at fixing everything, and it seemed to have worked. As we partied together at her own Delta Ceremony, we all put our past behind. From now on, we could finally focus on the future.

***

Lancaster POV

I was truly happy to see Sasha smiling brighter again, like she used to before all of this happened. Considering none of us had any experience at organizing events, we had to work really hard to put everything together while the girls distracted her, but our efforts had definitely paid off. However, the surprise party wasn't the only secret I had been hiding tonight.

It was around midnight when everyone returned to their rooms. We all would have to wake up early in the morning, so we couldn't go to sleep too late. I took Caitlyn to the Alpha suite before telling her there was something else I needed to take care of in my office. She just nodded at me. She didn't suspect anything, she didn't question me. She truly trusted me, which is why my heart was breaking to withhold such an important information to her. But I knew it was necessary; she would never allow me to do this if she knew. As soon as I made it to my office, my Beta, my Gamma, and Cordelia were waiting for me there. I thanked them for coming past their working hours before gathering the security reports Jasper had given me two nights ago.

"It's been just over two weeks since the last attack, but our Sentinels are already coming across traces of bears near our borders," I revealed, walking from side to side. The subject made me extremely angry; it was easier to keep Atlas under control by pacing around. "We still don't know what they want, or where they live. I want to at least figure out the latter."

"What do you have in mind?" the witch asked.

"I was reading about enchanted traps the other day, and I came across a simple tracking spell," Jasper clarified. "My suggestion is we spread a few of them around the spots where we have been replaceing paws and fur. We should eventually be able to get one of them, and they'll lead us straight to their hideout."

"Can you do that?" I looked into Cordelia's uncommon red eyes.

"Sure. It's a simple spell." She shrugged, but she clearly still couldn't understand my goal. "Once we replace them, what's the plan?"

I finally stopped, taking a deep breath. "We attack them first."

"How? Even if we know where they are, we don't have the numbers," my Beta chimed in.

"I'm hoping to use the building company to form alliances with other packs and get them to send us warriors," I replied, sighing. "It's still just an idea, and it has many variables. However, I wanted to let you all know so we can act fast when we are ready." I made a brief pause, waiting to see if they had any questions. After a long silence, I went on. "Anyway, that will be all. Make sure to rest well." I headed to the door to open it for them, but stopped as soon as my fingers wrapped around the cold doorknob. "One last thing... Caitlyn mustn't know about any of this."