I did my best to keep my voice firm and demanding.
Every time we’d tried to talk about why Preston was at the convict camp, Nolan and Wilder shut down. I wasn't going to accept the lack of answers anymore.
Now that Sunny was going to talk to her alpha if I didn't get answers, who would be obligated to talk to Merrick, I needed to know.
“We can’t?—”
“No more of thiscan’tbullshit,” Merrick growled. “We are alla pack, and it's time we started fucking acting like it. If you don't tell us everything you know and stop being cagey, then I'm going to march my ass down to that convict camp myself, and I don't give a shit who finds out.”
“You can't do that,” Nolan rushed to say.
“Well, we will. If you don't explain why, I will go to the warden and let them know that one of their convicts broke out and bonded with me.”
Nolan's face dropped, and a sickly look took over. “Look, I just…”
“We need to tell them everything, Nolan,” Wilder said in a reasonable voice. “They are our pack. They've got a point. And, frankly, I’m over hiding things too.”
“Weneedto protect him,” Nolan countered.
“And you don't think they will? We’ve been with them. I trust these two. I trust our pack mates.” Wilder turned to us. “Prestonisn'ta convict. He works with several different government agencies.”
“Government agencies?” My voice sounded hollow.
“Convict and government employee aren’t mutually exclusive,” Merrick pointed out.
Nolan sighed, sinking into the couch. “It's not like that. Fuck.”
“Then explain it to us from the start,” I said.
“Preston joined the military right out of high school. He did several tours overseas, and then he got into computers and ended up working with multiple agencies.”
“I don't see how that led to him being a convict.” Merrick raised his brows.
“Honestly, neither do I. All we know is that, every now and then, he would accept a job that would take him out of state for a few months. He often helped companies at risk of going under. Helped them get back on their feet. He really was a bit of a jack-of-all-trades in the military.” Wilder nodded as he added, “Six months ago, he said he was going to take on another job. Didn't give us the details, but he left for work as normal. We all had our day jobs to focus on, anyway. It was only temporary, so we weren't concerned. Contact isn't exactly amazing while he's working, but he gets paid great, so we make do.”
“So what was thisjob?” I narrowed my eyes, unconvinced.
“Beats us.” Nolan shrugged. “All I know is, I got a phone call a few months into him doing thisjob,saying he accidentally bonded with an omega and was in deep shit. We came here to find you, only to discover our pack mate was at Camp Bower.Andhe's going by a different last name.”
I addressed Nolan, “It sounds like you think he's undercover or something?”
“That's what I'm hoping.” Nolan sighed.
“Then why didn't you just tell us that?” Merrick asked.
“In his limited communication with us, Preston said his identity had to remain a secret. He's my pack mate, and I want to keep him safe.”
I could appreciate that. All his grumpiness and arguing had been because he simply wanted to keep Preston out of harm’s way.
“Heswearsthis will all be over in a matter of weeks, and we just need to remain faithful. He’s adamant that he wants to come home. He feels like shit over what happened to you, Hailey.”
“Does he know about the baby?”
Nolan nodded. “He does. A few weeks after you and Merrick bonded, I managed to go to the camp under the guise of a lawyer visiting a client and spoke to him briefly. I told him about the baby, the separation sickness, and your bonding with Merrick.”
It was a lot to take in.
“This all feels very…wishy-washy,” I said, hating to be left with more questions than answers. “We needdefinitiveanswers.”