It was a cover. Preston Manville was a low-level drug dealer who did some firefighting in the military before being arrested.
The perfect candidate for a program that served to help low-level offenders turn their lives around and make them useful to the community.
I walked over to the warden, who was standing by the door to the cabin. Visitation was monitored but also far more private than any other prison I’d seen. Not that I had seen a great deal of prisons.
But in my line of work, you heard plenty.
We were allowed to meet any visitors on wooden benches outside, where we could get a modicum of privacy, but also, we were being watched by security guards at all times.
When I stepped outside and noticed a familiar alpha standing next to one of the benches, my heart went into overdrive.
Nolan.
Though I had sent him to town to find Hailey, I didn’t expect him to attempt to track me down, given he knew I had done undercover work once or twice. I even had a fake name in Camp Bower.
“What are you doing here?” I asked in a low voice as I approached the bench, glancing around to see if any of the security guards could overhear us. “You can’t be here.”
“I'm just a lawyer visiting a potential client,” he said in a clipped voice, but I could see by the tightness in his jaw and the rage in his eyes that he wasnothappy with me.
I didn't blame him one bit, of course. I’d also be extremely pissed off in his place, especially since I knew he didn’t have all the details. My stomach churned as I walked up to the bench.
“Go,” I hissed, sitting down and attempting to keep my body language casual. I didn’t want anyone to see my stress, to let on that anything was amiss. The warden, Edward Haskins, was a nasty man, and I didn’t want to get on his bad side, especially when he was the one I needed to be sucking up to.
“No can do,Manville.” He hissed my fake name, glaring at me with a look I was rarely on this end of. “Whateverthe hellis going on in here, you need to end it.”
“I can’t,” I said with a shake of my head.
Nolan growled, running a hand through his hair. “Look, everythinghas gone to hell. I don't know all the details as to whyyou’re in this fucking prison, but you’reneededout there. Please tell me you’re not in here for real criminal reasons.”
“Of course not!” I leaned forward. “Did you find her?”
He nodded. “Yeah, asshole, and she's doing way worse than you are.”
My stomach sank, regret pinging in my head. “A-are you sure?”
His stoic look told me everything I needed to know. Nolan might have looked calm to everyone else, but I knew him, knew how his rage simmered in the background.
Sagging, I kept my voice especially quiet. “I…I really fucked up, huh?”
Nolan nodded, eyes cutting through me. “You did. We found her. She’s pregnant, Pres.”
If my heart had dropped into my stomach when I heard she wasn’t doing well, it was fully out of my body now.
Pregnant. My mate’s pregnant.
All rational thought temporarily escaped me. Prisons and work were irrelevant. If my mate was pregnant and she needed me, I had to be there.
Only, there was no out.
“Fuck. I can't get out of here for several more weeks,” I said in a strangled voice. There was no way I could explain how deep I was.
Nolan shrugged, cocking his head as his sarcastic sympathy smacked me. “I assumed as much. But I thought you deserved to know, and… Well, she's doing a bit better now.”
“Better?”
Nolan tilted his head to the side, sighing so hard it was almost funny. Almost. “She found another alpha to bond.”
“Wait. What?!” I silently cursed, knowing that had been too loud.