Desert Heat (Complete)

{Dorian’s P.O.V.}

My pulse accelerated as Allie continued to disclose the events surrounding the couple at the convention while in our bedroom. I clenched my fists until they were numb and white before I couldn’t hold back anymore. “ARE YOU f*****g SERIOUS!?” I roared at the top of my lungs.

“Yes,” Allie answered flatly.

“That woman was f*****g HEATHER? She f*****g bid on me!?” I was shocked and disgusted all at once. She was obviously cloaked the same way she was at Lacie’s wedding so, of course, I didn’t recognize her. Learning that she bid on me for a date made me want to vomit. I had to swallow the lump in my throat to prevent myself from gagging, and I have anything but a weak stomach. Allie was rolling over, laughing at me while I glared back at her. “It’s not funny, Allie!”

“Yes, babe, it is. The fact that you were being bid on by Heather and my cousin is hilarious to me. Heather did it because she was attempting to get back at me and Nari, unfortunately, had no idea we were cousins.”

“That’s f*****g gross. Wait, I thought Alexander’s wife’s name was Sarah?”

“It is; her Korean name is Nari, and her western name is Sarah. Also, let’s get one thing straight, it’s not as gross as when I had to hit on Heather’s date or whoever the f**k he was. Do you know how hard I had to try to keep the goosebumps from taking over my body? It was bad enough just being in the vicinity of that guy, it had my insides twisting in all sorts of directions. He even hit on me,” I grimaced.

“HE WHAT!?”

“He. Hit. On. Me. In front of Heather. What’s even worse is that he announced himself as single when he went up on stage. Whoever this evil son of a b***h is, Heather was really jealous that I started to bid on him. It also didn’t help that some other black-haired slut bid on him too.”

“Black-haired slut?” I raised an eyebrow.

“My god, Dorian. Were you that distracted by my cousin that you didn’t see the tail end of the auction?”

“Technically, the tail end should have happened with us still there. You were supposed to be bid on too, remember?”

“Oh s**t, I totally forgot!” she shouted in dismay. I just shook my head in response. “Dammit, now I feel bad.”

“It’s okay, Allie. I won’t lie; I’m relieved I didn’t have to witness any pervy old men bid on you,” I confessed and moved onto the bed to sit next to her. “Now tell me, why were you so engrossed in Heather’s date?”

“Something Heather said when I went to the bathroom. Sam and I had a run-in with her, and she said something interesting.

“What’s that?” I asked while making myself comfortable on the bed.

“She said she had a new mate, and that his name is Gideon. I assumed it was the guy she was with, and then, of course, his name was disclosed during the auction.”

“How can that be possible? Heather isn’t allowed to have a mate. Selene said so herself,” I replied, c*****g my head to the side.

“I know, but it wasn’t the fact that she has a new mate that had my brain on overdrive,” she continued, grabbing her hair.

“What is it then?”

“His name.”

“Huh? His name?”

“Dorian, doesn’t the name Gideon sound familiar to you? I feel like I’ve heard the name before but can’t remember where.”

“Gideon is a common name, Allie,” I pointed out and began to rub her shoulders.

“I guess,” she muttered.

“Try not to get too worked up about all of this. It’s not good for you or the pup,” I said as I finished massaging her neck. Allie readjusted herself and straddled me. I held her tight and laid down with her in my arms, drifting off to sleep while snuggled close to her.

The next week or so went by without any issues, and I was waiting to hear back from Mikey about Amos’ team. Vivienne returned to the pack since she was tired of being with her family in France. She was upset that Jed was still gone; it had been almost two weeks at this point. It wasn’t just Vivienne though, all of the mates and spouses of the team members on assignment were upset, wondering when they would be coming home.

Even I couldn’t answer them. The fact that they were after the nine-tailed werefox made this an extremely difficult job. Carter and the other bounty hunters weren’t having much luck either, and I was this close to sending Aries instead because I knew he would get the job done. And in the off chance he couldn’t pull it off either, then I would have sent Mikey as a last resort.

“Knock, knock.” I looked up from my desk, and Mikey was standing in the doorway of my office. “You busy?”

“Always. But what’s up?” I asked, signaling him to come in.

“Just wondering if you’ve heard back from Amos’ team yet?” he asked as he sat down and crossed his legs on the top of the corner of my desk.

“No, I haven’t,” I answered as I shoved his feet off of my desk. Just then, the satellite phone abruptly rang. “I guess that’s them now,” I said and picked up the phone. “Hello.”

—————–

“Holy f**k, are you serious?” Mikey exclaimed when I got him up to speed on everything Amy mentioned to me.

“I’m dead serious, and now I need to call Wyatt.” I picked up my cell to call my douche-of-a-cousin to explain the same thing I had just iterated to Mikey a moment ago. Wyatt was more than caught off guard by what I had to tell him, and he had every right to be. Knowing that this trafficking group he’s been investigating had a reputation for taking rare and special supernatural creatures made me go into full-on protection mode; Allie and the others could be at risk if they were ever found out.

When I hung up with him, I looked over at Mikey who was visibly upset. I watched his demeanor change when I mentioned that Allie and the others were possible targets to Wyatt. There was nothing Mikey wouldn’t do to protect Sin and Allen, especially now that Sin was pregnant again after three years of trying.

“I’m going,” he said immediately.

“We need to talk to the others when we get home,” I cautioned him.

“I don’t give a f**k, Dorian. You just said that my wife could be a potential target. Along with Gizmo, and Leah. That’s three very important women in my life, your life, hell everyone’s lives that could be sold off like some circus animal. We don’t need to have a meeting to know what Brandon and Andre are going to say,” Mikey snapped back. I hated it when he lost his cool with me, but he was right. Allie would always be the most important person in my life, but that didn’t mean that Leah and Sin were any less significant.

“Look, we have two hours left in the day, try to hold it together until we get home, huh?” I asked him while trying to keep myself calm.

“Fine. But my answer is the same. I’m going.”

“Good.”

{Mikey’s P.O.V.}

When we were all home that night, Dorian called for a round table that included all ranked members, high-ranked officers, and our parents. We even included Amber and Ronnie on the call via Skype. I thought that was overkill on Dorian’s part, but once he explained how Amber would probably kill all of us if we didn’t include her, I changed my tune.

Dorian finished explaining the situation to everyone and the first person to volunteer to help take down the traffickers was my dad. This caught all of us off guard, except for him and my mom.

“Ummm … Is there something the two of you would like to share?” I asked them. My dad looked stunned for a moment, but Uncle Ben nudged him and nodded his head.

“Son, you may not remember this because you were very young, but I’ve dealt with traffickers before. Not like this group that Dorian just talked about, but traffickers nonetheless,” my father answered.

“Okay?” I retorted and c****d a brow at him.

“Mikey, sweetheart, traffickers leave a very sour taste in our mouths,” my mom told me. “The reason being is because when you were about four, you were kidnapped by traffickers.”

“I WAS WHAT!?” I exclaimed and Sin’s jaw hung open.

“We never told you because you were just so young at the time. So young, in fact, that when we were reunited with you several days later, you had completely forgotten about the whole ordeal. To you, it was a figment of your imagination, so we decided to leave it at that. There was no reason to traumatize you,” she explained. I looked at her in utter disbelief.

“It’s true, son. As you know, I was a bounty hunter long before I met your mother. Because I’m older than both Ben and Joe, even though we met your mothers around the same time, I was already 22 by the time your mother and I met. And when you were born, I had already been in the business for almost five years, and in those five years, I made a lot of enemies.”

“Knock, knock.” I looked up from my desk, and Mikey was standing in the doorway of my office. “You busy?”

“Are you saying I was kidnapped because of a personal vendetta someone took upon you?” I asked.

“That’s exactly what happened.”

“Mikey, when you boys were little, the pack was attacked in an ambush, and it turned out that the target wasn’t us ranked members or your mothers. The target was you,” Ben told me.

“Back then, the bunkers and nurseries aren’t what they are today. They weren’t fortified or hidden. It was easy for a few enemy combatants to get by without being noticed and take a young pup,” Joe continued.

“Wait, I remember that day,” Amber said from the projector screen. “I was 15 or 16 at the time, and I clearly remember Uncle Ethan leaving for about a week without any word.”

“Amber, sweetheart, you are correct. That’s how long it took me to find Mikey. I left a good trail of bodies in my wake while doing so, but I found him nonetheless before he could be sold to the highest bidder. Back then, selling a werewolf pup wasn’t uncommon. Allison and Dorian learned that last year,” my father said.

“This is something straight out of the movie Taken,” Sin pointed out when everything had been explained.

“The point is, traffickers are the scum of the earth. Whether they’re from our world or the human world. And the fact that someone is out there taking children, torturing them, and then selling them for profit disgusts me to no end, and I will gladly come out of retirement to take them down.”

“Dorian, you take whoever you need to take, and you go help Wyatt and his pack. Leave everything here to me, Joe and your mothers,” Ben reassured him.

“Mikey.” I looked at my father. “Son, I know that this is a lot of information to take in, and I’m sorry that we never told you the truth until now. However, I don’t regret it. You not knowing is what made you the man you are today. One of the best in the world. I would like to think that you not having remembered the trauma you endured all those years ago helped in some way prevent you from being afraid to take risks.”

“Honestly, dad, I became a bounty hunter because I wanted to take after you,” I said to him and smiled. Did it suck finding out like this that I had once been kidnapped as a young boy? Hell yeah, it did, but my dad was right. Had I known back then, I don’t think I could do what I do today.

“I really hope that this doesn’t become the Rays family business. I would die if Allen decided to do what you guys do,” Sin declared.

“You’re in good company, darling,” my mother said to her. “I just about had a heart attack when Michael said he would forego college and do what his father did. As a mother, it’s the last thing you want to see your child do. Put their lives in danger, but Ethan’s mother was there to help me through it, and I’ll do the same for you if Allen chooses that path.” Sin’s face darkened one shade knowing that there was a possibility of Allen taking after me.

“Okay, now that that’s settled. All in favor of going to the Blue Lake pack, raise your hands,” Dorian said. Practically everyone raised their hands, even the girls. I was about to dispute Sin going, but she gave me one look that said I’d better not, so I didn’t.

“Dorian, I think we should bring a guard each for the girls, and of course, Derek will have to come for Dani,” Brandon suggested, and Dorian nodded. I was glad he brought that up. Knowing that Nick or Paxton would be with Sin at all times made me worry less.

“Then it’s settled, it looks like we’re going to Blue Lake,” Dorian announced.

“Hey, we’re going too!” Amber shouted from the screen. “Henry and Melanie can watch over the pack. I haven’t seen Wyatt in ages, and I think having another Alpha and Luna pair will strengthen everything.

“Fine, we’ll meet you at Wyatt’s pack Monday afternoon. I need to call him and make sure he can spare enough rooms in that damn castle of his.”

“CASTLE!?!” Dorian dropped his head. Regardless if this was for work, this trip was going to be epic.