44. Meadow
Chapter 44
Meadow
December, Seattle
A fter thirty-five hours on the train, everything ached. I was too worried about flying this late in the game, and I didn’t want to drive while crying, so a car service to the train station had been the next best solution. I had arrived twenty minutes before the train was set to leave, a tourist route that went all the way from Los Angeles to Seattle.
Clover:
I’m here
Clover knew everything. I had cried for an hour on the phone, and she had promised to meet me at the station in Seattle. I’d had a lot of time to think over the last day and a half, but I just kept coming back to sorrow.
Was it fair to leave the others for something Hendrix had done? No, but the second I had seen those photos, the entire house had felt like it was closing in. I needed space to breathe air that wasn’t saturated in them. I needed my best friend, a lot of ice cream, and some time.
One of the train staff helped me stand, my bones creaky, and I tottered out to the station. I didn’t have more than my purse on me, so I was sweaty, rumpled, and more than ready for a proper bed.
“Meads!” Clover sprinted over to me, pulling me into a tight hug. “Oof, girl, we need to get you a shower.”
I sniffed myself experimentally. I smelled a bit like half of a flower shop had gone up in flames and the other half had fermented.
“Come on. I’ll run you a nice baby-safe-temperature bath, and then we’ll tuck you into my nest.”
“Thank you.”
“What are best friends for?” She cocked her head, examining me. “If your guys reached out to me, would you want me to tell you?”
“Not right now.”
“Fair enough.”
Clover took me back to our familiar dorm. I scrubbed down in the shower while she ordered us pizza, and then I settled into a slightly above lukewarm bath once I was squeaky clean.
Clover popped her head into the bathroom. “I bought you a couple of nightgowns and some undies, so you’d have something to change into. I’m not going to waste a laundry load on one outfit, so I’m gonna get your train clothes rinsed and soaking in the sink.”
Clover busied herself doing just that, and when the pizza arrived, she helped me haul myself out of the bath and change into what she had bought for me. The fabric was omega-approved softness, and I happily snuggled into the nest, wearing it, while Clover served us each a pair of pizza slices.
This momentary return to my old life was both a comforting balm on my soul and a stark reminder of how much had changed. Did I even really belong here anymore?
“Rom-com or action?” Clover asked as she flicked through streaming options.
“ Pride and Prejudice ?” I regretted the suggestion as soon as I said it, the title reminding me of my first meeting with Hendrix.
“You’ve got it. I am one hundred percent down to watch Pack Darcy woo our Lizzie.”
“Did you know Hendrix has actually read this book?”
“Shut up, really? That does not seem up his alley.”
I nodded, retreating back into myself. If I thought about him too much, I would start crying again, and it was hard to keep hydrated when Nugget was sitting on top of my bladder.
By the end of the movie, I was ready to pass out. I wasn’t entirely sure if my headache was due to being away from Arlo with the fresh bond or from all the crying I’d done recently. Clover bundled me up tightly in her nest, and I was out like a light almost as soon as I closed my eyes.
Clover, bless her, did her best to keep me distracted the whole next day. The guys had been texting me, trying to call, but I put my phone on silent and set it aside after a simple reply that I was safe.
“How’re you feeling?” Clover asked as we snuggled in with a movie.
“I miss them.” I sighed. “Kinda mad about it. Have they been bothering you?”
“Arlo has been up my ass for updates. That man is obsessed with you.”
“We just bonded.”
Clover paused, a spoonful of ice cream halfway to her mouth. “A brand new bond, and you’re here ? Girl, do you not remember how terrible you felt last time?”
“I know . I wasn’t thinking about that part when I left.”
Clover stared down at her phone, brow crinkled. “Pass me my laptop.”
“What are we watching?”
Clover didn’t answer until the livestream was filling the screen, my pack standing in front of a horde of reporters.
“First, we want to apologize to our fans,” said Beckett, “for the lack of communication surrounding the cancelation of the remainder of our tour. All tickets will be refunded.”
“So the tour is officially canceled?” one of the reporters asked.
Beckett nodded. “At this time, there is no way for us to safely continue. Our manager, Gary Williams, who has been with us since our early days, has been fired. He is currently under investigation for the extensive abuses against our pack and his misuse of power.”
A murmur moved through the crowd, and I watched in stunned silence. I’d known they were pissed at Gary, but I hadn’t been confident that anything would come from it.
“Is it true your pack has an omega?” another reporter asked.
I held my breath. I wanted them to claim me, but I knew it would probably damage their brand.
“Hell yeah, we do,” Arlo piped up. “We love her more than anything in the world, and we’re going to be parents soon.”
Holy shit. All of my omega instincts were preening over a public claiming.
“Is it the omega from the photos?”
“Absolutely not,” Hendrix said firmly. “That woman was someone we hired to help care for our omega on the road, and she betrayed all of us. The photo is misleading. I could tell you until I was blue in the face that I pushed her off the second she touched me, but I think, for anyone to believe that statement, they would need to see it.”
Beckett held up his phone to the camera that was streaming and played the security footage of inside the rehab facility Hendrix had been attending. I stared at it, watching Ellie throw herself at Hendrix and him push her away in an instant. Tears slipped over my cheeks, and Clover wrapped a comforting arm over my shoulders.
The reporters shouted a dozen questions, but they were a blur in my ears.
“The woman in the photos and video is under investigation for some serious crimes committed against our omega and against Hendrix,” said Beckett. “We will not be disclosing the specifics of those crimes until a conviction has been made, but in the meantime, we will be doing a thorough sweep of our teams to remove anyone found to have any connection to the crimes committed by our manager. Until it’s safe for all of us, there will be no future tours. I hope the fans understand. Our priority is our omega and the child we’ll be meeting very soon. Their safety comes first.”
Clover was surprisingly quiet while we watched the press conference, and she kept glancing over me, like she was waiting for my reaction before she gave hers.
“I never even gave them a chance to explain.” The words escaped in a sob.
“Stress and pregnancy hormones don’t really make for rational decisions. You ran. I probably would’ve punched someone if I was in your place.”
“You don’t think I should’ve just trusted them?”
“Girl, what has ever given you the impression that I would say to trust alphas over your own instincts? There’s only so much you can do to bury your head in the sand when there’s photographic evidence of something happening, even if it turned out to be skewed.”
“I should talk to them.”
“What you should do is take a nap. They’re going to be swarmed by the press for a while. I’m sure they’ll turn up here, sooner or later.”
“How long is the flight from LA?”
“They’re not in LA,” Clover replied. “They’re here. You didn’t recognize the background?”
“I was a little bit more focused on the alphas.” I pouted. “When did they get here?”
“Last night, but you were still in ‘ignoring the alphas’ mode, so I didn’t tell you. If you ask me nicely, I’ll stand guard dog outside the dorm, so they can come see you here without anyone bothering you and the pack. I have connections to the football team. We could blockade the entire hallway.”
I raised an eyebrow. “What kind of connection?”
“The pussy kind. Don’t ask too many questions.”
I laughed despite my tears. She was probably right about the nap. If I saw them anytime soon, I was just going to sob all over them.
Clover fetched me a juice and a water. “Rehydrate from those tears, and then get some rest. I’ll coordinate with your boys and wake you up when they’re here.”
I glanced down at myself, wearing only a nightgown she had purchased for me, my hair in a knotted bundle on top of my head. “I don’t want to meet them looking like this.”
“Your runaway clothes are all clean and dry. You can wear those and shower when you wake up, so you’re all squeaky clean. I think we both know they’ll wait as long as they need to.”
“Okay.” I snuggled into her nest, burying myself in a heap of blankets and dropping off in the warmth almost immediately.
I woke up to Clover shouting out the window. “Arlo, you weirdo! I wasn’t serious about the car!”
“Don’t tell me you want things if you don’t actually want them!” he yelled back, my entire body breaking out into goose bumps at the sound of his voice. I followed the compulsion to climb out of the nest and peek through the screen to see the whole pack down in the parking lot. I ducked away, heart pounding. Every instinct urged me to race down there and throw myself into their arms. Not that I could do that much racing with how pregnant I was.
“You go shower,” Clover instructed. “I’ll go with the football boys to bring them up.”
They were here.
My alphas had come for me.