Pack Was Pack

Raphael let out a long sigh as he watched Damien try the door to the diner.

"I can smell the pups," grunted his enforcer as he rattled the clearly locked door.

"Maybe they left?" suggested Lucien from where he leaned against the brick wall beside Damien. "After all, the scent is only outside."

"That is probably because we aren't able to get inside," smirked Dominik as he stood beside Raphael.

An unsettling feeling flowed over Raphael, and he gripped his hand into a fist. "Jamie and I are going to have a long conversation when we get back," he growled, his eyes staring blankly at the door. "Just because he is the alpha of his group doesn't make him the alpha in truth. He has been disrespectful and disobeying orders."

Dominik grunted and nodded his head in agreement. However, before anyone could say anything else, they heard the sound of footsteps pounding toward them.

Dominik shifted in front of his Alpha, ready to protect him from any threat, when he got a whiff of the sweetest smell ever.

"Mate," growled Dominik, not sure if he should hunt down the scent or if he should protect Raphael like a good beta should always do.

Raphael looked startled for a moment before nodding his head. "Go find her; we'll be fine here."

Damien smiled in agreement while Lucien just nodded his head. Mates were the priority. They would protect Raphael.

Letting out a long sigh, Dominik smiled his thanks and ran in the opposite direction of the footsteps. The wind was blowing toward him, so his mate would have to be somewhere in this direction.

But the further he got away from the front doors of the restaurant, the weaker the scent was.

Turning around, he made his way back to Raphael. As the look on his face, Dominik could only shake his head. Maybe she had already left? Was that possible? Could she have smelled him and decided to run away?

It would make sense. He might be the beta to the most important pack in the western part of the world, but that didn't mean he would make a good mate. Most females thought that he was too quiet, not strong enough to be a good protector and provider.

And they would be right. He did fade into the background, especially amongst his friends.

He probably dodged a bullet.

He went to go to stand on the left side of his alpha as a pack of pups poured out of the alleyway, frantically looking around.

Jamie was the first one to see them and tried to stop dead. However, the wolves behind him didn't get the message, and they quickly bumped into his back, forcing him to go forward or risk falling on his face.

"And just what are you doing here?" asked Raphael, putting his right hand in his pants pocket. "I distinctly remember telling you not to show your face here again. Was I unclear?" he continued, cocking his head to the side.

But Dominik wasn't concentrating on what was going on. Raphael smelled like his mate. But that wasn't possible. Not only wasn't he attracted to his alpha like that (even though most females did joke about it), but even if he were his mate, he would have smelled it long before now.

Mates were customarily found when the shifter turned 18 years old. Dominik was 25. If Raphael was his mate… well, he was just glad and grateful that he wasn't.

However, that meant that Raphael had come into contact with his mate sometime today… but he had been with him the entire time.

"No, Alpha, you were very clear," said one of the males beside Jamie. He wasn't strong enough to really rank in the pack and tended to follow Jamie around simply for the boost in his status. In fact, Dominik couldn't really remember his name.

"Then what are you doing here?" replied Raphael, not moving so much as an inch. His posture wasn't threatening, but it was definitely intimidating, especially to a male who was only 18.

"We just wanted to speak to the waitress," answered a third child before Jamie swung his head around to glare at him.

"We weren't doing anything," Jamie said, sulking.

For someone who wanted to be an alpha so badly, he really didn't have the demeanor for it. But he was Raphael's younger brother, so if Raph had power, so too did the pup.

"It doesn't matter if you did or not; I told you that none of you were allowed to come here, and yet, you disobeyed. I cannot, I will not accept that."

"It's not like we managed to get her. She ran away before we could do anything more than scare her," shrugged a fourth kid trying to be a man.

How many pack members did Jamie bring with him for this 'conversation'? It was no wonder she ran away; she was probably terrified.

"What do you mean, she ran away?" asked Damien, and Dominik blinked, his eyes going wide. He had forgotten that Damien seemed to have something for the waitress. Fuck, he wasn't going to be impressed if she was hurt because of them.

The enforcer was probably going to take his pound of flesh no matter what the boys said from this point out. 

"She escaped through a small window," shrugged the first boy who spoke. "I don't know where it led to, but we ran around the back of the restaurant, and there was no one there. We thought she came out this way."

"No one has been here, especially not Adaline," argued Damien, taking a step forward until he was nose-to-nose with the younger male. 

"Then she must have slipped by you. There is no way for her to have gotten past us. She is just a human," argued Jamie. Dominik rolled his eyes. The pup probably assumed that since he was already in trouble then it didn't make a difference anymore.

With Damien, there was always a difference.

"Get home now, we'll look for her," grunted Lucien, trying to give the pups a way out. He might look scary, but he was a teddy bear when it came to those he felt the need to protect.

And at the end of the day, pack was pack. Nothing went before that, especially not a human who he had only met a few times.