51. KATIE
Chapter fifty-one
KATIE
T hank God for hot showers and the time and space to think. The car ride back had been quiet, Loren rubbing soothing circles on my knee as I stared out the window. I had wrapped myself in a stony shield of silence.
What am I doing?
I need to call my sisters, but I also need to process everything Angus said. Sure, he could be lying, but everything about him screamed truth. And the cursory research I’ve already done this week underscores the same point: Travelers never go home. But the new excavation site could yield a new result. It was worth investigating.
I sigh, letting the hot water relax my tense muscles. I should be sore from how hard Max fucked me last night, and the second round with Loren today, but I’m not. I should also be totally satiated, but I’m not.
Damn Omega biology.
I hope this doesn’t stick with me if we return to Earth. I cannot imagine being this horny all the time and having to navigate dating. Ugh.
I don’t have any regrets about Loren or Max. No, I like them –more than like them. And if I try to examine all those feelings too closely I only find a tangled, snarling knot. So, no examining feelings today. Which is just fine because feelings are gross.
I wrap up in a fluffy white towel and flop on my bed. I need to tell my sisters what I learned from Angus. I know Maddie was hopeful there would be a way home. I think Molly Beth was also hoping we could go back soon. I close my eyes, my stomach twisting.
I’ve let them down.
Not that I can change the way that time-space works. But somehow, not being able to solve this puzzle or find a clear path forward feels like failure. I didn’t take care of them. I didn’t protect them from whatever this rift between worlds is. And I couldn’t even find a way back.
No, that’s not true. There’s still the Blowing Rock excavation site. But, it’s a long shot.
“Don’t be unreasonable,” I say to the empty room.
But it doesn't help. I want to curl into a ball and cry. But tears don’t solve problems, and the problem before us now is that there isn’t a way home. I need to focus on the mission objective, and forget about everything else. Including my stupid Alphas.
I grab the phone and call Layla’s number. Most calls here are automatically video chats. Layla’s screen winks on and I have an unflattering view of her nostrils.
“Katie, hey! One sec,” she grabs the phone and I watch the underside of her chin as she moves across a room. “Katie’s on the phone!” she hollers, and I hear Molly Beth’s voice close by.
“Hey!” Molly Beth says, her bright red curls bouncing into view over Layla’s shoulder as the phone is held up higher. “How are– Katie are you okay?”
I offer a weak smile, just seeing my sisters loosens the knot in my belly.
“Fine,” I say. “Bad news.”
“What?” Three voices ask, and Norah crowds the back.
“Where’s Maddie?” I ask. I want to tell them once, all together.
“Here bitch, what’s up?” Maddie pokes her head in the top corner, her hair pulled back in a tiny ponytail and her forehead slick with sweat. I raise an eyebrow.
“What have you been doing?”
“Kickboxing,” she says, and holds up what looks like a workout bag. “I fucking missed it, and they said that some of the Beta guards have trained in mixed martial arts. So we’ve done a little sparring –I hear your Alpha Max is the king of hand to hand .” She gives me a wicked grin.
“Yeah, he owns a high end gym.” I sigh, steeling myself for the news I have to deliver. Fuck, I don’t want to break their hearts.
“Mmm, I bet he’s stacked,” Maddie says and licks her lips.
Jesus . Does she ever stop thinking about sex?
Max is stacked, his body corded with muscle, his tan skin etched with faint scars. But I’m not thinking about Max right now. And his wicked tongue. And the way his… Nope . I shut that train of thought right down.
“You know that I have been researching the Travelers and all the documentation done on them?”
My sisters all nod, but Maddie interrupts. “Please tell me you haven't spent your whole first week with three hot Alphas doing research and not getting laid.”
“Mads!” I snap.
“Fuck, you’re not sleeping with them? Come on, you literally have access to on-demand dick and you’re not taking advantage?”
“I didn’t say that.”
“So you are? Good. Who’s the best in bed?”
The rest of my sisters giggle, and for a moment I feel like I’m back at a middle school slumber party and we’re all lying about who’s been French-kissed. Heat floods my cheeks and forehead. This is not what I want to talk about.
“My sex life is not the point of this call,” I snap.
Maddie holds up her hands, shrugging in mock defeat.
“Loren took me to see one of the Travelers that came from Earth,” I begin. “His name is Angus, and he’s been here over sixty years.”
Maddie whistles, and Molly Beth shakes her head.
“So he’s managed to integrate into society?” Layla asks. “Some of the Betas tell me that there are pockets of people who are very anti-Traveler. Most of them seem to be up North.”
“Yeah, Loren’s said the same thing. No, Angus seems –well he got married to another Beta and wrote children's books, and seems like he lived a full life.”
After ten years of searching for a way home .
My throat constricts and I struggle to swallow. There’s no way of softening the blow, so I just spit it out as fast as I can.
“He spent ten years searching for a way home –he had a girlfriend back in Scotland. He never found one. And, he Traveled here in 1889 – which means even if we found a way home, there’s no guarantee it would still be our original time and place.”
I sigh, letting my head sag back against the pillows.
My sisters stare at me in stunned silence.
“So, no going back. Definitely sure there’s no going back?” Maddie asks.
I shake my head. “Not definitely. There is one other thing.” It’s a leap, a massive one. I don’t want to get their hopes up. I don’t want to get my hopes up.
But it’s the last option that hasn’t been fully explored.
“There’s an excavation site outside of Halvassa— one where lots of Travelers have come through over the centuries. They’ve discovered a magnetic anomaly that could be the reason there’s a portal here.”
I pause, biting my lower lips and taking in my sisters’ anxious faces pressed together on my tiny screen.
“If they’ve uncovered something, we might have a chance. But the longer we’re here, the more impossible it will be to go home.”
I don’t have the heart to tell them if we stay we likely won’t be able to have children. No, I can’t do that to Molly Beth today. One harsh blow at a time.
“Are your Alphas going to let you go to the site?’ Norah asks. It’s an innocent enough question, but it rankles me. I’ve been on the edge of tears all afternoon, which is definitely not like me. Thanks Omega biology . But this is too much.
“No one lets me do anything. I am a fucking grown woman, and a Captain in the United States Army, for fucks sake. If I want to go, I will fucking go. I have a map, and I think the key will be to see if they’ve uncovered anything that could make a portal, rather than just waiting for one to be created.”
A plan begins to form at the edges of my thoughts.
“It’s a long shot. And it all might be for nothing, but I have to investigate it.”
“Katie, don’t do anything that can put you in harms way,” Molly Beth says, her voice a gentle pleading.
My plan solidifies, and I know exactly what needs to be done. I sit up, purpose and focus shutting out all my feelings until I can finally think clearly.
I have a clear mission and an objective.
“She’s got the Captain gleam,” Layla says. “It could be fixation. Katie, don’t do anything stupid.”
I shake my damp hair off my neck and smile at my sisters. “I’m the responsible one; I never do anything stupid.”
Layla pulls a face and Maddie laughs .
Let them laugh. We have one shot at a way home, and I am not going to miss it.