16. Beau
Chapter sixteen
Beau
B eau Aged 19
We’re on the beach with a fire in front of us, and I’m staring up at a million stars.
“Do you think we have a scent match out there somewhere?” I ask.
Shale chokes. “I hope not. She’d be fucked if she got us.”
Keagan laughs, but I notice the way he looks away quickly.
“What if we got one, though? What would we do?”
“We’d take her and make her ours, of course,” Shale says like it’s a no-brainer.
“What if she’s got kids or is older than us?”
Shale snorts. “She’s our omega. We only get one.”
“What if she’s got a pack?”
“Then we’ll kill them.”
I finally smile at Shale’s increasingly irritated answers. “So, she’s ours, no matter what?”
“No matter what. I don’t care about anything but the fact that she’s ours.”
Keagan gets up and claps his hand into Shale’s palm. “She’s ours. And may the poor bitch hide forever.”
“And anyone who dares get in our way!” I shout and turn the music up.
We dance around the fire and laugh and drink until the early morning.
In the dawn light, I feel kind of sorry for the omega that belongs to our pack. But not enough to change my mind, and just thinking about the fight coming our way makes me smile.
P resent Day
I can still remember the vile things we said about our omega that night as we drank around the bonfire. Maybe it’s the universe hitting us with swift justice. Maybe it’s karma. But we thought we’d get an omega we’d terrorise.
Instead, we got one who’s spent years being terrorised. She needs us, and we had no choice. We became what she needed from us. Protectors, guardians, guides, the safe space from a violent and aggressive world.
I stand in the hotel lobby and look around. It’s like one of Silas Hastings’ elaborate hotels. The carpets are this slate gray, and they feel soft when you step on them. Everything is marble. It reeks of money and sophistication.
“Yeah, are our boards here?” Kelly pauses, glancing around as he talks into his phone. “I know. But they’re gone. Just get the spares here.”
I ignore them and the slightly startled and frightened looks some of the staff are delivering.
Shale and Keagan look like they want to start cracking skulls, but I’m trying to stay appearing like I’m relaxed. It’s a mask, but it’s keeping Aspyn calm as she clings to my hand and looks around with enormous eyes.
“You’ve never seen this place before?” I murmur to her.
She shakes her head. “This place would be more than my rent for a month, and I can’t even afford my rent.”
A woman who was walking past snorts and bursts into mean laughter, but I draw Aspyn into my arms and level the woman with such a glare that the sound dies almost instantly.
“Come on,” Ezy says with a smile.
I’ve noticed the three of our pack that were so uptight on our island have relaxed a lot now that we’re here. Ezy is smiling more, standing taller, and his whole demeanor is much happier. Kelly laughs at whoever is on the phone and wanders back over to us with this fucking grin that shows off his dimples.
Who even are they?
Aspyn doesn’t appear to like the change either because she is refusing to let go of me, not that I want her to. What are they up to now?
Gael comes back from talking to one of the girls in their tight black uniform skirt suits. He grins broadly.
“I have seven rooms.”
“No!” I say instantly.
“No?”
“No. Three rooms,” I say with no wiggle room at all.
Gael looks between us, and I think I see a moment of jealousy on his face before he locks it down.
“Nat has one. You three can have the other, and we’ll take the last one.”
“I’ll stay with Nat-”
“Out of the question!” Shale growls.
“Over my dead body!” Keagan snarls.
It’s perfectly synchronized and expected. Well, I expected it.
Aspyn looks up at me. “Truly, it’s all right. It’s Nat.”
“Aspyn, there is no chance of you sleeping anywhere but where we can make sure you are safe. No chance. So, unless you want us in the same room with you and Nat, you’re going to have to give in on this one.”
“You make it sound like there’s a choice there.” Aspyn’s tart tone is adorable, and I boop her nose.
“There is a choice. Her room or ours.”
She grumbles but subsides, and I decide that I think I won that argument.
“Let’s go and have dinner on the beach,” Kelly suggests with one of his stupid grins.
I’m seriously wondering if Aspyn will hate me if I rearrange his face for him. There is something about the arrogant happiness he has while surrounded by these riches that makes it almost untenable to continue being pleasant in his company.
“What would we be eating?”
“I don’t know, sandwiches or salads. Let’s just go and sit and eat. It will be nice. We can talk.”
“What’s there to talk about?” Aspyn asks suspiciously.
Kelly looks at me and smiles. It’s a threatening expression, and I realise that, for him, the war between us is far from over. In fact, I can feel the resolve of the Raines Pack steadily deepening. This is a long way from over, and part of me is worried the only one we’re going to hurt is Aspyn.
But the thought of fighting with them makes me happy, which leads me to believe that maybe I’m a bit more crazy than I thought I was.
We head out onto the beach that looks as good as the one back home and sit down. The sun is setting, and the view is going to be spectacular.
Kelly and Gael return with food and join us.
“Tomorrow, we’re going to go and ride the waves. You guys can stay here.”
I exchange a look with Shale. Did this guy really just give us a damn command like we’re dogs?
Shale shakes his head minutely and starts eating his sandwich.
“Don’t you want us to cheer from the sidelines?” Keagan asks with a smirk. “I can be your cheer bitch.”
Kelly throws his head back and laughs. “You’d look good in a skirt.”
His joke comes out just a little bit mean.
“I look good in everything.”
The sudden intense scent of Aspyn’s perfume startles all of us into turning and looking at her.
She shifts but refuses to take her eyes off her food. “This is a good sandwich.”
Kelly lays back in the sand.
“Why surfing?” Aspyn asks. “Why water?”
I exchange a look with Keagan. Yeah, we haven’t talked about that yet. These surfers need to know about this water problem of hers.
“Because it’s like flying and falling. The power of the ocean isn’t something you can harness or bend to your will. No, when you take a board out into the ocean, you are riding her moods. You don’t try to capture her, you let her take you where you’re supposed to be.”
“That sounds pretty.” Aspyn looks out at the ocean thoughtfully.
“The ocean is incredible. It’s life. Do you know how to swim?”
Yeah, right. I haven’t even been able to get her near a body of water in all these years, let alone teach her how to swim.
“Nope.”
“I’ll teach you-”
“No!” Aspyn says sharply. “No, I, just no.” She stands up and walks off. Keagan glances at us and follows after her. With him around, I have no worries. She will be safe.
I refocus my attention on the alphas in front of me. “Aspyn’s father and sister died in a flood when she was a child. It’s a major fear of hers.”
Kelly is frozen. He looks bruised. I decide it’s a good look for him.
“Of course, I’d heard the rumours, I just didn’t realise it was now a thing-”
I bristle, not liking his words one bit. “And then she was thrown into the waters where she was injured.”
Gael rubs his hand across his mouth. “Far out. She would have been so scared.”
“She panics in the rain,” Shale says. “Aspyn gets so scared that she will try to run, even though she can’t. She will forget and just try her hardest to get away.”
“When did it happen?” Gael asks. “She wasn’t very old when I crossed paths with her, and it had already happened.”
“She was young. Fourteen.”
“Why isn’t she in therapy?” Kelly asks.
I roll my eyes. Typical rich boy answer. “You have to have money for therapy and live in a place that isn’t an island of hate.”
Ezy looks away. “So from what you guys have told us, her father and sister died, she was gravely wounded, and her mother abandoned her on her birthday, leaving her homeless and almost dead?”
“Yes.” I look at Kelly. “She also met her scent match when she was sixteen, but he rejected her publicly.”
Kelly stiffens. “I had reasons for that.”
“Yeah, you might have, but imagine how it would have felt to a girl who had lost almost everything,” I snarl at him.
“I have thought about it!” Kelly hisses.
“Beau!” Shale says sharply, and I press my lips together. After a moment, I realise even that isn’t enough, so I stand up and walk away from the group before I say something I will regret. I wish I could erase her past or make her future better.
She spots me and waves. It’s enough to make me forget the anger and fall into a happy zone. She’s so lovely.
As soon as I approach, she hugs me and then points across the street. Nat is sitting on someone’s lap, her tongue halfway down their throat. I am impressed. We’ve been here two hours, and she’s already found someone. The beta moves fast.
“I guess we only need two rooms, then.”
Aspyn snickers and grabs at Keagan. He lifts her up and twirls her around. She’s excited, this childlike joy that is something new and intoxicating.
Ezy joins us, and I find his eyes follow her everywhere. There’s caution but a fiery attraction. He can’t resist her anymore than we can.
She reaches out to him without thinking, and they both freeze. Part of me wants to rip them apart, beat him black and blue. He doesn’t deserve her, but this is Shale’s plan.
She needs them.
They lock eyes and stare at each other. The seconds pass, and the tension between them grows. Ezy finally pulls free and looks away, clearing his throat. I’m not sure what he’s thinking about, but he better not be rejecting her.
“I wanted to say I’m sorry for the way I treated you. I know I apologized earlier, but I don’t really think I had an understanding of what was going on then. Aspyn, I have a better idea, and I can see how much my behaviour would have affected you.”
“What is your real name?”
“Ezekial.”
“Why is your name Ezy?”
His cheeks turn red. “My grandpa thought it was funny that all he needed to do to get me to do anything was offer me a piece of chocolate. In my defense, I was a pudgy kid because I was obsessed with sweets. I shouldn’t have been making those deals because I clearly had no ability to moderate my food.”
“So your grandpa gave you that name?”
“He did. He was my best friend when I was a kid, not at all like my parents. In fact, my dad and mother were both really ashamed of him. They didn’t enjoy associating with him much, but I loved him. He would get out his old map of all the places he’d been, and wherever I pointed, he could tell me the most amazing story. I guess that’s why I came out here, because I needed to have my own stories to add to his map, and I didn’t want to end up becoming my mother.”
“What happened to him?”
“Oh, he passed away in his sleep one night. It was the nicest way to go. I miss him a lot, although today is the first time I’ve thought about him in a long time.”
“I’m sorry for your loss.”
“I’m sorry for yours.”
They stare at each other, caught in a moment that no one else is welcome to. In the bond, I can feel the first stirrings of something warm and gentle in our boy Ezy.
I hate that I love it.