31. Sam
Chapter 31
T he food over in the union at the omega center is damned good. I’m just opening up my notes app to tell it to remind me to look up some of the recipes they have here to try back home, when Teddy says he’s gonna call Kelly and let her know we’re headed her way. I don’t expect all hell to break loose.
Sarah is walking between him and Garret, giving the alpha a massive case of stink eye. Hell, she’s been actin’ crazy ever since we got here. She and Teddy don’t touch. None of the casual gestures I associate with being friendly with someone. The guys at the station will walk up and slap you on the back in greeting for no reason at all, so maybe lack of casual contact is an omega thing.
I’ll ask Teddy later if I remember, but it’s just something I noticed in the dining hall, several of the omegas would sit together at a table, but always far enough apart to not touch. They seem friendly enough towards each other, but it seems like that sort of isolation could wear you down after a while. Especially with it being such a problem if one of ’em gets touch starved.
Teddy’s voice filters back to me as I speak quietly into my notes app, checking what I said to what it typed out. “Hey, Pixie. Are you free to talk? I didn’t catch you in class or driving right?”
It’ll be so damned good to get back home. I miss my house, and my bed, and my dog…and Kelly. I didn’t realize how fast I got used to having her around, but my chest aches with it.
Sarah is talking quietly to Garret, and I can’t make out the conversation, but she still looks angry. Teddy looks at them annoyed when they start getting loud, his voice ringing out above theirs. “Oh, Vee’s there too? Wait, is everything ok?” Sarah snatches at his phone, nearly hanging off his arm until she pries it out of his hand. “No…Fucking shit! Goddamnit Sarah give me my fucking phone. Son of a bitch!”
She takes off running across the green—she may be short, but that girl’s fast. When she slows down, her voice carries back to us. “You little son of a bitch! How dare you come close to Teddy again. If I could get my hands on you, I’d wring your fucking neck. He may be sweet enough to let you back in, but he’s obviously an idiot for doing so. ”
I snarl and chase after them—we don’t need this shit, we need to get on the fucking road. Teddy’s almost caught up, but the bigger omega is breathing hard and Garret is flagging behind, holding onto his head. She’s lowered the phone, and turns to look back at us, not expecting me to be closing in. I growl again, and she shudders, taking in a quick gasp of breath.
Teddy’s voice is loud behind me. “Sarah, goddamnit, give me back my fucking phone.” Of course she doesn’t.
She tries to dodge around me, raising the phone back to her ear, and yelling in Spanish. “Teo, tal vez yo me haya disculpado que sigues un Hijo de Perra. ?Si descubro que lo lastimaste, te voy arrancar tu pito y te lo metere en el culo! ?Si esta lastimado por tu culpa, te voy a matar Desgraciado! Si crees que saldrías con la tuya por lastimar a mis amigos, Yo voy destruir tu puta vida!”
Teddy stumbles, his hand wrapping around her wrist as she ducks under my outstretched arm. Garret’s feet stutter to a stop, his eyes wide with shock as they bounce between the two omegas, and then down to Teddy’s hand on her arm. All the color drains from his face and he buckles over, heaving into the grass.
Now that Teddy has her, I go back to retrieve our injured pack member. I help Garret stand up. He has drool running down his chin and is sweating like crazy, and I want to throttle Sarah for causing him to run while injured. Teddy’s voice is muffled in the background but we finally reach them. “Sorry about that…um, Sarah says hi. ”
She tries to grab the phone from him again, but he holds it closer to his face where she can’t reach it. It doesn’t stop her from jumping for it. “Fucking hell. So yeah. You all good?” He sounds embarrassed, and I want to hold him and purr, and tell Sarah her invitation to visit has been revoked if she’s going to do this shit. But Garret is making choking noises again.
I growl at the tiny omega who’s now walking towards him. She opens her mouth and starts to yell something else at him, but my snarl rips free before she can get more than a couple of words out. It’s Spanish, again, and I don’t know what the fuck she wants to say, but I am so fucking done with this shit.
Someone must be talking to Teddy, because his hand goes over his eyes, and he looks like he’s barely keeping his shit together. Sarah stalks closer to Garret, and he can already barely stand up, his whole body shaking. “That is fucking enough! Back the hell down, Sarah.” It’s not a bark, despite the temptation. While I enjoy submission, the idea of making someone do it against their will always leaves a foul taste in my mouth.
Her steely gaze turns to me. “You don’t know either, but would you like to? I bet you wouldn’t be so ready to defend this piece of shit if you knew what happened.” Her voice is menacing and even though she’s not yelling it carries clearly across the space between us.
Teddy stares over at us, his face a mask of horror, his phone conversation all but forgotten. “I’m sorry, Kelly, Vee…um…Spence, but we need to go. I just wanted to let you know we’re about to get on the road to head your way. It’s still a long ass drive, and Garret can’t take a turn, but hopefully we’ll make it back sometime late tomorrow. I miss you both so much. Just another day and we can have lots of snuggles. Love you.”
He hangs up the phone, turning and marching towards us across the lawn. Sarah’s voice isn’t much more than a whisper. “Ask him. Ask him about his tattoos, about his wrist cuffs, ask him what took him so long to come to the omega center after he presented. He won’t lie to you, and you need to know the truth.” Teddy lets out a choked sob. The look of betrayal on his face as he stares at his friend is heartbreaking.
Sarah has tears in her own eyes as she turns and walks off. Neither of them says goodbye, and it feels wrong. Pulling Teddy under one arm, and holding Garret up under the other, I purr as best I can in this fucked up situation. Eventually, Teddy relaxes enough that he stops shaking, and some of the color returns to Garret’s face. I’ll need to ask him later, once Teddy falls asleep, if he was sick from running or from what she said. Until then, let’s get all our shit loaded and get the fuck out of this crazy ass town.
Teddy still needs to tell me where the fuck he parked his damned motorcycle, because I’m not getting halfway across Texas only for him to realize he forgot the damned thing.
Teddy
I t feels good to be on the road again. That’s not something I would have thought three days ago, but now? Now I just want to get home, back to our bed, and Kelly and Vee. Fuck, I hope they haven’t burned the goddamned house down or anything while we've been gone. She’ll know better than to let him cook, right? Worst-case scenario, they can live on sandwiches for a few more days.
We’ve been on the road for hours. We have to stop and get gas before we go through the desert, but Sam’s trying to push to make it through tonight. Thank fuck this thing has good AC. Garret’s asleep on the backseat. I didn’t know that they made club cab moving trucks, but apparently that’s a thing. He curled up with his duffel bag as a pillow, one of Kelly’s sleep shirts pressed close to his face, and drifted off before we’d even left the city.
Sam looks like shit. He probably hasn’t had a good night’s sleep since we left. I can’t blame him, neither have I. Plus I’m sure that driving across the country in an oversized, unfamiliar truck, dragging your truck on a trailer, with a sick alpha and a shaky omega in the cab isn’t the most relaxing experience.
I wake up when my phone vibrates in my pocket. It’s Kelly texting to ask what size of mattress we need for the nest. It seems like a pretty random question, but I turn to Sam, who’s blinking behind the steering wheel. He shakes his head a few times before he notices me looking at him, then gives me a soft smile.
“You doin’ ok, Love? Sorry, I didn’t want to wake you, but we’re gonna have to stop soon for gas, and to give me a rest. Do you need us to find a hotel, or are you good just stretching out in here for the night once we find a truck-stop? I know it’s not ideal, but it would get us back on the road quicker after I get some shut-eye, and I figure you’re as eager to get home as I am.”
He’s not wrong. I just wish I could cuddle up with him to sleep. Hell, I’d even take the damned truck bed if there was a camper on it. Let Garret have the backseat here and then snuggle with my alpha. But no, it would feel selfish of me to ask him to find a hotel if he thinks he’s ok to just sleep in the cab.
He’s silent and I realize he’s waiting for me to reply. “Oh, no, um, I’m fine here. If I need to stretch out, I can kick Garret off the bench seat in the back or go stretch out in the back seat of your truck.” I’m only half joking, and his low growl lets me know that it wasn’t funny.
Heaving a sigh, I try to answer diplomatically. “I want to sleep. If I can do it here, then yes, let’s get some rest and get the fuck back home. But first, let’s hit the truck stop, wake up Garret for a bathroom and food break, and fuel up. The sooner we can get back on the road, the sooner we get home.”
He nods along, but it looks loose and uncoordinated, and I wonder if he’d let me take a turn at driving, just to get a break. Not that I have any experience driving anything bigger than my mom’s sedan, but the basics are probably the same .
“So, um…Kelly texted me. She and Vee haven’t killed each other yet, so that’s something.” She’s been sending us goodnight texts for the last few days, and I kind of want to ask for a selfie just so I can make sure she’s actually safe. But at least I got to hear her voice for a minute before we left today, so that’s something.
“Anyway, she was asking…they were asking what size mattress we need for the nest. I know you said you wanted to wait to order it, but my heat should be next week, and I think that I should go ahead and let her get it ordered for me, just in case delivery takes a while. Heck, I should probably ask her if my pillows ever came in.”
Sam’s eyes flick to me. “Well, it was supposed to be a surprise, but that makes sense. It’s gonna be a standard pack size bed frame. I got the measurements offline and started building it already. It’s out in the shop. Not gonna be super fancy, but lower than the one in our room, in case anybody falls out…Kelly. In case Kelly falls out. I swear that girl is the most accident-prone person I’ve ever met. Damn…I miss ’er.”
Sam sucks in a deep breath, turning his head from side to side until I hear a pop, and then shaking his arms out, one at a time. “After you let her know, can you look up how far it is to the next stop, I’m about to have to roll down this damned window and turn the radio up to keep myself awake, and I’d rather let Garret rest if possible.”
I type in a quick reply to Kelly and then pull up the information he’s asked for. “Looks like we’re about to run into one here in about sixteen miles, on the right. Are you going to be ok for that long? Do you need me to take over for a bit so you can get some rest?” His low rumble of annoyance is enough of an answer, and I laugh in response. “Ok, no. But let me know if I can do anything. Ok? I hate seeing you push yourself so hard when I’m sitting right here and would be happy to help.”
His big hand reaches over the space between us, taking mine and squeezing my fingers gently. “I know it, Love, but I’m the alpha. I’m supposed to be taking care of you, and I’ve been doin’ a piss-poor job of it so far. Thanks for bearin’ with me.”
I want to scoff at his reply, but Sam’s already so hard on himself, I don’t want him to ever think he isn’t good enough.