54. It’s all birthday fun until someone goes missing
54
IT’S ALL BIRTHDAY FUN UNTIL SOMEONE GOES MISSING
Ryder
If anyone asked me two weeks ago what I was going to be doing for my birthday, a very real possibility was that I’d have told them I would be sitting on my couch eating a bag of pretzels dipped in chocolate peanut butter ice cream and having a huge ass pity party because my heart was broken, my friends all thought the worst of me, and the year ahead showed no promise.
Having a day with my friends at Daire’s parents’ property with food and fun seemed beyond improbable. Spending the day with the man I loved by my side? I couldn’t even imagine it.
And yet here I was doing exactly that. Ivor and I weren’t in a relationship, not even close. But moving in together had already done a lot for us. He took the bedroom, just like I offered and I took the couch. And in that way we were only roommates, but in others, we acted like more. I made him breakfast and more than once he made me lunch. We watched television together and spent more than a few nights trying to defeat each other in old school pac man on my retro gaming system.
We even called each other when we were late. And maybe none of those were romantic or what have you, but they felt deeper than strangers passing in the night and I was holding onto them.
I was in a take what you can get frame of mind.
“Thank you for making all the sandwiches,” I said to Micah and Archer who were snuggling their Elune.
“It was easier than being the cake person,” Archer explained, giving Daire some serious side eye .
“Hey, I bought them,” Daire said about his over the top fancy cupcakes with enough frosting and filling to make your teeth cry knowing a cavity was inevitable. “I never said anything had to be homemade.”
“It was implied,” Micah backed his mate.
“I brought the chips knowing there would be no way anyone expected me to make anything.” I wished Ivor hadn’t felt the need to bring anything, but at the same time my stag was puffed up and proud because the omega who was carrying my baby remembered our favorite chip, onion circles, something none of our friends enjoyed. Ivor did that just for me.
“And I was the smartest of all,” Martin pipped in. “Paper products for the win.”
The only person not there from Sunshine Manor and Sunshine Manor Junior as I now referred to Micah and Archer’s place, was Seb. He was invited, but I understood why he declined. Who wanted to spend the day swimming at the lake and eating junk food with people you really didn’t know, and one of whom you gave a black eye.
Still, I wish he didn’t feel so isolated. Sure he had shit taste in friends. But I fell for Kellan too, so I had little room to talk.
“And who brought the drinks?” I pointed to myself. “That’s right. This guy and that’s why you have soda representing every color of the rainbow.”
I did too. Green, yellow, red, orange, blue… maybe not the entire rainbow, but I got a bunch of it. I also grabbed cola and of course ginger ale for Ivor’s belly. So far it hadn’t been awful, but just in case. I needed to make sure he was as comfortable as could be. I owed him that.
“I didn’t even know blue soda existed,” Toby told me, wearing a blue mustache. “It’s my new favorite.”
“Yeah, thanks, Ryder,” his father teased. “I’m so glad we discovered it.” His monotone reply had everyone laughing, even Toby.
“Can I go swim now?” Toby looked up at his dad.
We’d barely finished eating and I could already hear the answer in my head. I’d heard it plenty enough times growing up and Martin didn’t fail me.
“Sorry son, you need to wait until a half hour after you eat.”
I had doubts that was a real thing, but it had been so ingrained in everyone’s subconscious it was there to stay.
“Can I play with Patch? I brought my ball.” He held up “his” ball which had a dog paw on the side. He bought it for Patch which was so adorable. How his father hadn’t caved and gotten them a puppy yet amazed me.
“Yes, but play over there. I don’t want the ball going in the water.” Toby agreed and called Patch who followed him eagerly.
“Tell me, Ryder. Where did you find such odd soda colors?” Ivor asked and not gonna lie, if he had asked me what kind of wart cream was best, I’d have been over the moon excited he was asking me when there were so many people here he could be talking to. Things were still awkward between us and little questions like this meant a lot to me .
“I was in the new corner store by work and their ‘thing’ is all the sodas. They looked fun, but the red one is a never again I think. I still don’t know what that is supposed to taste like.”
“I bet Toby knows.” Ivor leaned around me and called out. “Toby what sort of soda is the red kind supposed to be.” It was called Red which gave zero hints.
No one answered.
“Toby answer—” Martin stopped mid yell and jumped to his feet. “Toby! Toby!”
Toby was nowhere to be seen.
Neil
Everything happened so fast. At first we were having a nice time talking and stuffing our faces and drinking odd sodas and next thing we knew Toby was gone. The only thing giving us any relief was that he had been nowhere near the water. That would’ve been an entirely different kind of panic.
As it was, I wanted to puke. Everyone but Ivor shifted to their animals and raced to find the boy. Ivor was holding Elune. He hadn’t been told if it was safe or not for him to be shifting pregnant and having the baby to watch was good for keeping his stress at bay.
Not that it was. It was rolling off him, just like mine was.
They told me to hang back in case Toby came back and I agreed, not wanting to slow everyone down. Toby came first. Full stop. But I couldn’t do nothing and besides, Ivor was here beside the food and the van.
“I’m going to look for him,” I said, already leaving.
“Don’t. They asked you… don’t make them look for two people,” Ivor told me. And wasn’t that it in a nutshell. I wasn’t like them—any of them. I was human.
“I have my phone and I won’t go far,” I promised, not stopping to see if he thought that was a good idea or not.
I stepped into the tree line unsure where to go from there. I wasn’t like the shifters. I couldn’t just scent him out. But then again if it was that easy, wouldn’t they have found him already?
Squatting down, I approximated Toby’s height. Maybe if I saw things at his level I could find something. I looked from side to side seeing if anything caught my eye as fun and exciting for a young boy. I didn’t, but what I did notice was where the ground sloped down.
The trees felt like they were creeping closer as I walked to where I hoped he would be. Had it not been for Toby, I’d have been back out on that blanket with Ivor and Elune. Had it not been for Toby this would’ve been too much for me to bear. Had it not been for Toby each step would most likely be my last .
But it was Toby and he needed to be found. That knowledge kept me going step by step, deeper and deeper into the woods based solely on a hunch that the ball would’ve gone down and with it the dog and then the boy. At least it was a slow incline. We’d be able to get back with no trouble. That was if I found him.
“Toby!” I called again and again until I heard a dog bark. Not just any dog, Patch’s bark.
I started to run towards it and found the dog standing by a bush… no Toby.
“Toby!” I cried out. This was not good. I assumed the two of them would at least be together.
“Neil?” His voice came from a clump of bushes. Toby.
“Toby, what are you doing in there?” Relief flooded me.
“The ball’s in here. I almost have it.” Because of course he hadn’t realized anything was wrong yet. To him this was just a trip to find his ball.
“Everyone’s looking for you Toby. We need to go back. I’ll buy you a new ball.” That worked because he came crawling out.
I texted Ivor to let him know I found him in case any of them checked in and we walked back together to find his father in the clearing along with Archer and Ivor.
“Go run to your dad. He’s been so worried.” The poor kid had no idea. He thought he was still close enough to hear everyone.
His father scooped him up and held him close. I was only half way there and I could tell he was crying.
“You did good.” Archer came up beside me, still buck ass naked. Shifters were weird. “How did you find him?”
And so I told him. “But how come you couldn’t scent him?” Because wasn’t that a thing shifters did?
“Daire’s parents are apparently having a party and had people spray for bugs. It's all my beast could scent. We were going with no direction. You were amazing.”
“You were.” Martin came over and threw his arms around me. “Thank you… I don’t know what I would’ve done. I can’t… I’ve already lost too much.”
We huddled together as he sobbed against me.