Free Gifted with Hydrangea by Tigertalez Page B

and
probably believed he wasn’t coming back. Rudo originally hadn’t believed the alpha had anything to do with his abduction, but
now he wasn’t so sure. Who else could
have been involved? He would have had others do this for him. Suddenly
having his mate’s buddies here for protection didn’t feel so overkill, like he
had originally thought. Rudo sighed and moved further
into his home.
    He heard his mate gasp behind him, indicating he saw
the condition of the inside of his home. Now Rudo’s heart really hurt. He wanted to protect and provide for his mate, but how could
he when everything he had was taken? He wasn’t even able to prevent his own
home from being raided.
    “ Hey,” Ryker said in a hushed voice. “I know what
you’re feeling, but you were betrayed, Rudo , by your
alpha, no less. An alpha is someone everyone should be able to trust.”
    Gavin’s voice came from behind him in the form of a
very long line of expletives.
    “ Where’s Neto ?” He heard
Ryker ask him.
    “ He’s inspecting the perimeter,” Gavin responded.
    The group inspected the house in silence. It was a
solemn event that shook him to his core with each room he ventured into. His
furniture was gone, his cookware, and all his food was gone from the kitchen.
Many of his clothes were gone, with the rest piled in a heap on the floor. His
bookcases he’d built himself were gone, and his books were carelessly thrown in
a pile in a corner. Even his four poster bed, which he had built himself, was
gone. There wasn’t a chair or stool to sit on to allow himself to hang his head
in grief.
    Rudo walked up to a cheap
mirror, with a plain wooden frame he had built. He was hopeful as he saw it was
still in place. It was three feet wide, and over six and a half feet tall.
Grabbing one side, he pulled on it, opening it like a door. Behind it revealed
a large, upright safe.
    “ Wow, that’s awesome. Did anyone else have the
combination?” Ryker’s voice held awe, which helped ease the sting of being
robbed in front of his mate.
    The safe looked intact. “Sort of. I have a copy of the
combination in my will. Whether or not the alpha was able to take a look at the
will, I am uncertain.”
    “ Well, the alpha hadn’t been able to declare you dead
yet, so he shouldn’t have been able to get a hold of that will. Open it up.”
    Rudo didn’t want to open it in
front of Ryker. If the alpha had indeed been able to get a hold of the
combination and had cleaned him out, it would mean he had nothing to give his
mate, nothing to offer him. He didn’t want to look like a failure in front of
his mate, but whatever was done, was done, so with a knot in his stomach, and
almost shaky hands, Rudo began dialing in the
combination.
    Gavin and Neto joined them
as he dialed the last number. He pulled on the handles, swinging the heavy door
open. A breath whooshed out from him as he saw everything in his safe was there,
and intact.
    “ Holy Fort Knox, lover, you’re loaded.” Ryker laughed.
    Rudo was so relieved. He
grabbed up Ryker and held him in a tight embrace for several minutes. Ryker seemed to have known he
needed the comforting, so he didn’t argue, or struggle, or even complain. He
just held him back.
    Gavin interrupted their quiet moment. “Hey, Rudo , that had to have been a lot of work, finding a way to
build your safe into a wall. How’d you do it?”
    Rudo kept his hold on his mate,
but relaxed it a bit and leaned back. “I didn’t. It was a small closet, so I
found a safe that would fit it, and just placed the mirror over it.”
    “ That’s smart,” Neto said.
    Ryker reached out and opened a black velvet bag, and
poured some of its contents out into his hands. They were jewels he had
purchased to stand in for currency. He did have some piles of tightly bound
cash, but investing in jewels took up less space, and couldn’t be destroyed as
easily. Also, its value could increase.
    “ That’s some serious sparkly,” Ryker said.
    “