Chapter 18
Vee
I'm sitting at the kitchen table with my phone in front of me, staring at Jess's contact like it might bite.
Alex walks in with a yogurt and a spoon, sitting down the chair across from me. He doesn't ask what I'm doing, just peels back the foil lid and starts eating.
I take a breath and hit the call button.
It rings twice.
"Vee?" Jess's voice comes through sharp with surprise. "Holy shit, is that really you?"
"It's me," I say, smiling despite myself.
"Hold on, I'm adding Noah." There's a beep, some shuffling. "Noah! Pick up your phone!"
Another beep.
"What?" Noah's voice is breathless. "I'm in the middle of—is this a three-way? Oh my god, is that Vee?"
"Hi," I say.
"VEE!" Noah practically shrieks. "Where have you been? We've been waiting for you to call and I was starting to think you got abducted by aliens or joined a cult or—"
"Noah, breathe," Jess cuts in. "Let the woman talk."
"I'm okay," I say quickly. "I'm sorry it took me so long to call, things got complicated."
"Complicated how?" Jess asks.
"Long story, I'll tell you later. How are you guys? What's happening at class?"
Noah launches into it immediately. "Oh my god, so much. First of all, the instructor added this new routine and it's completely impossible. Like, I'm pretty sure she's trying to kill us. Jess fell into the mirror last week."
"I didn't fall into it," Jess protests. "I gracefully stumbled in its general direction."
"You left a forehead print."
"It was artistic."
I laugh. Actually laugh.
"And then," Noah continues, "this new beta guy joined and he's terrible. Like, worse than I was on day one. He keeps going the wrong direction and crashing into people. Last class he took out three people in a domino effect. It was spectacular."
"The instructor made him stand in the back," Jess adds. "For everyone's safety."
"We miss you though," Noah says, his voice softening. "It's not the same without you."
I swallow hard. "I miss you guys too. I wish I could see you."
"We could—" Jess starts.
Alex speaks up from across the table. "Are you guys doing anything for lunch?"
I stare at him.
"Who's that?" Noah asks immediately.
"That's Alex," I say. "He's—"
"Lunch?" Jess interrupts. "Like, today?"
"If you're free," Alex says. "There's a town not far from where we're staying. Has a decent bistro."
My eyes widen. "Is that safe?"
Alex shrugs, scooping another bite of yogurt. "It's a town where no one knows us. Ragon hasn't reported you missing for obvious reasons. No one's looking for you besides him, and he has no reason to check a random small town forty minutes from where you used to live."
"Wait, you're only forty minutes away?" Noah's voice pitches up. "We can totally drive over!"
"YES!" Jess shouts so loud I have to pull the phone away from my ear. "We're willing! So willing! When?"
"Noon?" Alex suggests.
"I need to check with my pack," Noah says. "Hold on."
The line goes muffled. I can hear Noah's voice in the background, high and excited, and then a deeper rumble that’s probably Jonah.
"I can drive myself," Jess says. "Perks of being a beta. No overprotective alphas required."
Noah comes back on. "Jonah says yes! He's going to drive me. What's the address?"
Alex rattles off the name of the bistro and the town.
"See you at noon!" Jess says.
"I'm so excited I might actually combust," Noah adds. "Okay, I have to go get ready. Bye!"
The call ends.
I set my phone down and look at Alex. "Thank you."
He finishes his yogurt and stands. "Go get ready. We'll leave in an hour."
The hour does not go smoothly.
I'm upstairs changing when I hear the voices start up below. Not arguing, exactly, but the sound of words being carefully chosen.
I come back downstairs to find Rhys standing in the middle of the living room, arms crossed, taking up a considerable amount of the available space.
Alex is across from him and Malcolm is leaning against the doorframe with the expression of someone who has decided to observe rather than participate.
Finn, wisely, has relocated to the kitchen.
"I'll stay back," Rhys is saying. There's something underneath it that I recognize now. The tension that lives in him when something is wrong and he's working to keep it managed. "I won't be seen. I just want to be there."
"I know," Alex says. Same calm register he always uses. "And I understand why you want to be. But you drawing attention to yourself in a public space with unknown alphas around is a risk I'm not willing to take."
Rhys's hands clench. "I'll manage it."
"You'll try to manage it," Alex says. "That's not the same thing. One unexpected encounter with a strange alpha and we have a situation that brings every eye in that town onto us." He pauses. "That's not a risk to Vee I'm willing to accept. Not while Ragon is actively looking for her."
The silence that follows has weight to it.
I look between them. At Rhys, who is objectively larger than Alex in every measurable way—taller, broader, more muscle than any one person should reasonably have. And at Alex, who is standing in front of him like the size difference is irrelevant, which apparently to both of them it is.
Ragon would have used his alpha bark by now. I've heard him use it too many times to count.
Alex hasn't raised his voice once.
"You know I'm right," Alex says, quiet and direct.
Rhys stares at him.
Something changes in his face. The tension doesn’t dissolve—just rearranges. It’s the look of a man who already knew the answer and was hoping he was wrong.
His arms drop.
He doesn't say anything, just turns away from Alex and looks out the window with the expression of a man who has conceded a point he didn't want to concede.
Alex turns to me. "Ready when you are."
I look at Rhys's back.
He's still facing the window. The set of his shoulders is tight. He knew this was the right call the moment Alex made it, I think. That doesn't make it easier.
I cross the room.
He hears me coming and turns slightly. Just enough that I can see his face.
I don't say anything about the conversation, I just step into him, wrapping my arms around him as far as they'll go, which is approximately… not far.
He goes still, how he always does when I touch him first, like his body needs a moment to register that this is real and allowed. Then his arms come around me easy. Complete.
"I'll be back," I say into his chest. "In a few hours."
He doesn't respond, just holds on.
I tilt my head back to look up at him. The angle is significant, he really is very tall.
"Alex will watch over me," I say. "You know that."
His jaw works in reluctant acknowledgment.
I go up on my toes. He helps pull me up with his arms.
I press a kiss to the scar that crosses his cheekbone. The raised, pale skin warm under my lips.
When I pull back he's very still. His ears have gone pink. Not slightly. Deeply pink. The color climbing up from his jaw in a way that looks deeply incongruous on a face full of that much scar tissue and severity.
He blinks once.
I press my lips together to keep from laughing. I fail. A giggle escapes before I can catch it and his brow furrows and somehow that makes it worse.
"I'll be back soon," I say, still fighting the smile.
He makes a sound that might be acknowledgment.
I step back and cross to Alex.
From behind me I hear Malcolm make a sound that is definitely a suppressed laugh. I don't look back to confirm this.
"Ready," I tell Alex.
The car smells like leather and the faint lingering smell of coffee from the cup holder. I breathe it in. Juniper moves around the air. Alex's scent. I’m glad it’s not really pine. The reminder helped once, when I needed it. I don’t need it anymore.
I watch the trees blur past the window, my hands folded in my lap.
"Can I ask you something?" I say finally.
"Sure."
"Am I messing up your job? You and Malcolm being away?"
Alex glances at me, one eyebrow raised. "What makes you think that?"
"I know Finn can work from his laptop but you guys work for a security company. Don't you need to be there for installations and consultations and—"
"Vee, I own the company."
"Oh."
"Malcolm and I started it years ago. We have enough employees to handle things when we're not there, it's perfectly fine."
I feel something loosen in my chest. "Okay. Good."
"You're not a burden, Vee."
The words sit between us.
"Okay," I say.
We drive in comfortable silence for a while.
"The flag," I say eventually.
He glances at me.
"You told me you got it for beating an alpha at a bar. The one hurting his omega." I pause. "But I've been thinking about it and something doesn't fit. The version of you I know and the version of you in that story don't line up the same way."
Alex is quiet.
"It wasn't you," I say. Not accusing, just stating what my gut has been sitting on.
He exhales slowly and his hands adjust on the steering wheel.
"No," he says. "It wasn't me."
I wait.
"I'm the one who confronted him," Alex says. "An alpha behind a bar with his omega. He'd been hurting her for a while, I think but that night it escalated and I stepped in." He pauses. "But I didn't start the fight."
"Rhys was there."
"Rhys was there." He says it quietly. Careful. "He was young. Already damaged in ways I didn't fully understand yet. When that alpha swung at me, Rhys was on him before any of us could process what was happening."
I think about what I know of Rhys. The fact that he still can't be around strange alphas without anger rising up.
"He couldn't stop," I say.
"No, he couldn't. Once it started—" Alex stops. "By the time Malcolm and I got him off the man, too much damage was done. The police were already coming, the omega had called them. There was no version of what happened next that was good."
"But you saw one that was less bad."