Chapter SixWes
Chapter Six
Wes
“ A nyone home?” I called from the empty kitchen as I entered from the garage, putting my shoes on the rack. Jett and Brennan didn’t like shoes in the house. We had another rack by the front door, too.
My phone rang, and I ignored it. I didn’t want to talk to my sister. Whatever girl she found wasn’t my Grace. My Grace didn’t exist.
If she did, somehow, somewhere, my heart simply couldn’t take it.
“In here,” Evan called from the living room. “We have company.”
Company? We didn’t entertain much. Hopefully, it wasn’t my sister.
I stopped in my tracks as the scent of peaches hit me like a brick wall. My dick hardened instantly as my brain froze. A little blonde sat curled into Evan on the couch, with Jett on Evan’s other side. The remains of dinner lay on the coffee table.
Evan looked over at me. I ducked back into the kitchen. Emotions bombarded me as I put a hand on the wall trying to settle myself.
“Babe, are you okay?” Evan came up behind me.
Fucking shit, my sister was right.
Grace was here.
And real.
“Why is Grace Ellington in the living room?” I shook. Turning, I held onto my omega so I wouldn’t run to her.
What the fuck did I even do?
While I wasn’t a small alpha, Evan was bigger than me, and a little taller. Closing my eyes, I grounded myself in his lemonade scent, as my headache grew worse.
“Didn’t you see the group chat? Jane Doe ended up at the Center with amnesia and a concussion so I brought her home. Is your headache any better?” He rubbed the back of my skull. “Um, did you say that her name is Grace?”
“Yeah. Lexi called me about her, but I didn’t know it was actually her–or that Lexi dropped her off at your Center.
Fuck. I need a drink.” Stepping away from him, I walked straight to the bar cart, ignoring the confusion coming through our bond.
Grabbing a bottle of Brennan’s good bourbon, I poured myself a glass.
"Wait, why did you bring her home? Did my sister put you up to it?”
“No. The Center couldn’t keep her and she needed help. I thought we could help her. So, you know her? That’s great. I’ll take one of those. Shit afternoon at the Center,” he sighed. “Who is she?” He eyed the tent-pole in my pants. “Um, if Lexi knows who she is, why is Peaches still a Jane Doe?”
“Peaches?” I used to call her that. I downed my glass and poured another. “Lexi never actually met Grace.”
Hunching over the counter, I tried to block out the fear and hopelessness I’d had knowing that Grace was being hurt and I couldn’t do anything about it. I was an alpha. Her alpha.
I failed to protect her. Failed to find her.
I failed her as her alpha.
“Babe, what’s wrong? I feel that.” Evan wrapped his arms around me.
“Remember me telling you once that I dropped out of university and joined the military because a girl fucked me up? That’s her.” After I couldn’t find her, I wondered if perhaps Grace wasn’t even real, and I’d spent all those years invested in nothing. A dream.
“Really? That’s the girl? Wow. You never told me what actually happened. Will you tell me now? Please?” He held me tight, comforting me with his scent, his touch, and some alpha-calming pheromones.
“I was in love with her. Well, I thought I was. I was twelve when we first met. The last time that I saw her I was nineteen.” How did I say that for seven years I dreamt of her?
That I’d never met her unless asleep. The only pictures I had of her were sketches. She was the love of my literal dreams.
“I don’t care that she finally found me after all these years. I have you.” Turning my head, I stole a kiss from him.
Lies. I cared a lot. Why now? Was she okay? Who’d hurt her? Who was after her?
How the fuck did she even get here?
“Of course, you have me. Wow, she found you,” he breathed.
I looked into the eyes of the man who saved me. “That was a long time ago. Now I have you and a pack, and nothing will ever take me from you. I’m sorry I never talked much about her. The story is weird. I’m surprised Lexi even believed me.”
“Evan, do you have any more of that tea, I still feel awful,” a feminine voice said as someone entered the kitchen.
My body instantly went on edge at her scent, which wasn’t quite right, not that I’d ever smelled her outside my dreams. I looked over at her, hoping that it wasn’t actually my Grace.
I was happy. Successful. There was no room for a ghost.
“Fade.” Her grey-blue eyes went wide.
The pain in my head exploded. It actually was her.
My Grace.
She looked a lot like I remembered. Her hair was short, and Grace was older now. But so was I.
Had she always been so small? The bruises on her face and her neck made me want to hurt someone. My hands fisted as I stared at her. Her peachy scent went sour as she stood there, conflict raging on her face.
She wasn’t real. Otherwise, I would have found her and saved her from her awful mother. I would have been the alpha she needed–and deserved.
Grace looked awfully real despite being a dream. Despite her claims that we both existed, just in different worlds.
The alpha in me wanted to hold her, soothe her fears, protect her–and bury myself inside her.
But the man in me had been deeply hurt by her disappearance. I couldn’t do this again.
“No. No. It can’t be.” Tears streamed down her freckled face. “I…”
“Hey. Come here, Peaches. This is my mate, Wes. He isn’t going to hurt you. I promise.” Evan let go of me and bundled her into his arms with a gentle tenderness.
She buried her face in his chest. “I know. He’d never hurt me. Fade, they said you weren’t real. You don’t understand, they said you weren’t real .”
Every cry was a knife in the heart.
They’d told her that, repeatedly when they’d hurt her and tried to make her forget me. It had broken me to know she was being harmed and there was nothing that I could do about it.
After I stopped dreaming of her, I thought that meant she was dead. That she had died and I’d let them take her from me because I couldn’t get to her and save her like a good alpha.
“She told me that the only alpha she knew was named Fade . When were you Fade?” Evan’s voice grew quiet as he rubbed the base of my skull with one hand, the other still around her.
“Middle school. I was trying to be fierce after we moved here. It doesn’t matter. I have you,” I assured him. We’d only just gotten Evan over his insecurities. Grace was exactly the type of girl he’d always feared would take his place.
But I was over Grace. Way over her.
No. That was a big fat lie as I ached to hold the crying girl in my omega’s arms as she muttered Pi under her breath.
No doubt about it, that was my Grace.
But if she was actually from another world, like she told me in our dreams, how did she get here?
No. I knew that answer.
“This concussion is messing with me. All this talk of alphas and omegas and now you’re here? Why are you here, Fade? Why am I here? What’s going on?” She looked up at me, eyes tearing and pleading just like they had in those last few dreams.
Grace had been struggling to hang on, to keep coming to me in sleep, despite everything they were doing to take her from me.
“You have a concussion, Peaches, and now you can’t remember anything?” That, too, made sense. Somehow, coming here messed up her memories.
“You’re real, aren’t you?” Grace reached out from Evan’s arms and cupped my face with her soft, tiny hand. “You feel real.”
Fuck. I sent all my love through our bond, hoping her appearance didn’t make him slide back into a dark place like it had after Caroline.
At the same time, he was holding her. All I got back from my omega was love.
Shit, she was thin.
“I remember you. Why can’t I remember my name, but I remember you?
I’m not dreaming. No. I always knew they were dreams, before.
Of course, I also thought they were real.
” Her voice went wistful. “How silly of me. Dreams aren’t real.
I don’t feel well. But it’s so nice to see you again.
I… I missed you so much. It was like they took part of me away when I stopped seeing you in my dreams.” Grace just stared at me, her lower lip quivering.
While she didn’t come to me in my dreams every night, she visited a few times a week, for seven years. We shared our hopes, had adventures, and fell in love. We had an entire life together in our dreams that was just us.
She was my Dream Girl. My peaches. My love. My soulmate. Mine.
Until her mom got concerned about the boy in her teenage daughter’s dreams and sent her away to a place where they could make her forget me.
“It’s been a long time,” I told her, biting off It's nice to see you, too, who did this to you, stay with me forever. “I see you’ve met my mate, Evan. My husband.” I added that last part because I wasn’t sure if she remembered what mate meant. They didn’t have that where she lived.
Closing my eyes, I breathed in Evan’s scent, trying to avoid the smell of peaches. But all I got was a cocktail of the two of them that made me even harder.
You can have them both.
True. But could I do that to Evan? Not to mention, you didn’t just bring someone into a pack. I had the others to consider.
“I don’t even remember my name. I’m exhausted and achy, and my thoughts feel like sludge. Why am I here, Fade? Why? I’m so confused.” Her voice was pleading.
“Your name is Grace Cassidy Ellington,” I said, her words tugging at my soul.
“My name, oh. That is my name. But something’s not quite right,” she whispered, frowning.
“No?” Evan rubbed her back. “Is your last name different now?”
Maybe she was married. That would make this easier. Another growl ripped from my lips, the alpha in me not liking the thought of my Grace having another mate.
“Hey, I’ve got to go. Will whatever this is here be okay? Do I need to call someone?” Jett came into the kitchen and gave us a worried look.
“We’ll be fine,” Evan assured, letting go of her. Jett kissed him, put his shoes on, and went into the garage.