3. Jake
Jake
“ J ake?”
I bolt upright in bed, pressing the phone to my ear as my body tenses. “Hey. They’re going again?”
Nia sniffles. “I’m sorry. I didn’t want to wake you – but it’s bad. Will you come and get him?”
I’m already half-out of bed, swiping my hand over my eyes to rub the sleep away as I try to pull myself together. “I’m coming, Nee. Is Oscar there?”
Her muffled breathing is my only response. And then I catch the shouting in the background, the rise and fall of angry voices. “Yeah. He said to call you.”
Because he can’t get out from between them.
Shit . “I’m on my way. Five minutes, ‘kay?”
“’kay.” Another sob. “Thank you.”
“All good. I was awake anyway. Stay in your room, and I’ll let myself in.” Yanking my jeans up, I grab a sweatshirt from the folded pile and tug it over my head before I swipe my keys from the bowl in the living room.
If I didn’t already know what was happening, the bellowing from the house would tell me. I can hear it from my truck as I park up outside, leaving the keys in the ignition as I jog up the path and take the steps two at a time. Every window is ablaze with light.
Nia stands at the door, her face ashen. “Thanks for coming.”
Ducking past her, I ruffle her hair and force a smile. “We’ll get this sorted. Why don’t you go on to your room?”
She’s only two years younger than us, but she still looks like a kid to me with her hair braided back. Only the dark circles under her eyes give away the stress. “Why bother? They don’t hide anything from me.”
My head jerks at the sound of smashing, but I force myself to stay where I am, giving Nia my full attention. “Where’s your mom?”
“In bed.” She looks down. “She had a headache.”
My heart fucking breaks for her. She doesn’t resist when I tug her into a hug, burrowing her face against my chest. I can feel her shoulders shaking, and I sigh. “It’s going to be alright.”
Neither of us believe the hollow words.
“Theo can’t stay here anymore.” Nia’s words are muffled. “He’s trying to please everyone, and it’s killing him, Jake.”
Everyone except one person, and we both know it’s the one shouting the loudest. Stepping back, I tip up her chin. “Go on. It won’t help if they see you there.”
Not when the tension in the room hovers on a knife edge. I can almost feel it as I watch Nia head upstairs, her head bowed, before I head to the dining room.
Oscar turns his face to me, his deep frown lightening in relief. But he doesn’t move from where he’s positioned between the two furious-looking alphas.
“You are wasting your life.” Charles hisses the words. His ruddy-on-a-good-day face is almost purple, broken veins decorating the space around his eyes as he pushes forward, ignoring Oscar’s hand on his chest. “I forbid you to delay any more.”
“It’s one year,” Theo snaps back. He runs both hands over his hair, tugging at the ends before he throws his hands up. “Give me a fucking break. I need to be here for Mom and Nia—,”
Charles’s color deepens again. “Are you suggesting that I can’t look after my family—,”
“ You’re fucking failing this family !”
Theo doesn’t shout the words. He roars them, shoving past a grimacing Oscar and squaring up to his father. “Mom is upstairs, practically in a fucking coma from the medication you started her on, and Nia’s a damn ghost. They’re falling apart and you couldn’t give a shit.”
“They’re grieving.” Charles doesn’t back down. He looks down his nose at Theo, even though there’s barely an inch between them. But Theo is bigger – broader, and I see the moment that Charles realizes it. His lips press together, before he shakes his head. “This is something you can do. Give us something to be proud of. Go to college, Theo.”
“ No .” Theo’s nostrils flare. “It’s done. I’m here for another year. I talked it over with the pack. We can make it work. It’s my inheritance paying for it – you don’t get to tell me how or when I use it.”
Oscar shifts, moving to stand beside me. Neither of the fighting alphas pay us any attention as I dip my head to listen to his murmured words. “He can’t stay here anymore.”
Glad to see we’re all in agreement. “Someone needs to tell him that.”
We both look at Theo again. I can count the lines of strain on his face that weren’t there six months ago. He glances at us before facing Charles again, but his dad is already ready, his words a verbal whip against Theo’s face. “ Brett would have done the right thing for this family.”
Both Oscar and I step forward without a thought, our shoulders tensing. Theo’s face darkens. “I think we can all agree that he was a far better son than me. But my answer is the same, regardless of how you try to use my dead brother against me.”
Shit. I can hear the pain beneath his words, but as I look at Charles, all I see is disappointment and anger.
Bracing, I lift my hands in an attempt to restore some sort of calm. “Nia called me. You’re scaring her.”
“Stay out of this.” Charles snaps the words at me without looking, his lip curling in the familiar sneer he wears whenever he’s forced to be around me at all. “This is family business.”
“Jake is family.” Theo steps back, shaking his head. He looks as though he’s been sucker-punched. “And did you not hear that? You’re scaring your daughter. I’m scaring her.”
I step up next to him. Oscar does the same on his other side, the three of us facing Charles. He eyes us with clear derision. “Do you realize the opportunities you’re throwing away to align yourself with a small-town pack? This isn’t the future I wanted for you, son.”
Ouch.
Oscar flinches at that. Charles sees it, too, but he keeps his eyes on Theo. “College brings opportunities you’ll never have here. And you act as though I’m forcing it on you, when we both know that law school is all you ever wanted. This was your plan, not mine.”
“My plans changed.” Theo’s words are hoarse. Tired. “They changed when Brett died and my family fell apart. I reassessed my priorities, because that is what you do for the people you give a fuck about.”
He shakes his head before glancing at Oscar. Oz nods, already moving for the door. “I’ll pack a bag.”
He’s probably had one packed for weeks for both of them. He’s only here for Theo and Nia.
“You can’t leave.” Charles begins to protest again. “Your mother needs you.”
“No. You just don’t want to lose your grip on me.” I can hear the frustration, the anger, edging every word as Theo enunciates them, trying to get Charles to understand. “I chose my pack. I choose my own path. I’ll stay here for another year to help mom, to help Nee. Hell, to help you too. But I am not Brett. I’m not going to step into his shoes.”
Charles stiffens. “And what about the girl?”
If we were tense before, it’s nothing to the coiled violence that rolls through the dining room at his words. Theo’s face pales, and I can feel my spine lock straight. “What about her? She’s gone, hasn’t she? And good fucking riddance.”
I agree with every word, but they still make my heart twist inside my chest. It twists and flips and squeezes until the pain is almost all I can feel.
Kennedy Traylor is gone. Taking the answers we need with her and leaving a fucking train wreck in her wake.
Not that she’d give a shit. She made that perfectly clear when she abandoned us. When she killed Brett.
“Fine,” Charles says finally. His expression flickers, but it clears before I can work it out. “Go, then. But remember your obligations. Your mother and sister deserve better than to be forgotten.”
Theo’s jaw tightens. “They are not obligations to me. This isn’t good for any of us. It was always the plan that we’d come back and build the pack after I finished college. We’re just moving the steps around.”
Oscar steps back inside, two duffel bags in his hands. His expression is blank, carefully measured as always. Charles glances at him. “You too? After everything we’ve done for you?”
I can almost hear the blow land. Oscar’s face tightens. “I’m very grateful, sir.”
Charles huffs a small, disbelieving laugh. “Clearly.”
Oscar wears his pain more stoically than Theo ever has, but Charle’s derision clearly pains him. “I’m sorry if you feel that I don’t appreciate everything you and May have done for me—,”
Charles dismisses him with barely a glance. “So that’s it, then.”
“For now.” Theo holds his father’s gaze. “But I’ll be here often, checking on them.”
There’s a quiet warning in his words.
The glower spreads across Charle’s face, but Theo has already turned away. Charles offers his anger to me instead as Theo picks up the duffels at Oscar’s feet and strides out.
“You’re ruining his life.” Charle’s mutter has both Oscar and I pausing. “He could be brilliant, if he tried.”
“He’s already brilliant,” Oscar says shortly. “He always has been.”
It’s the closest tone to rude that I’ve ever heard him use with Charles, but the older alpha only rolls his eyes in response.
As we step back into the hall, I pause at the sight of Nia on the stairs. Her arms are wrapped around her knees as Theo kneels in front of her, his tone quiet and apologetic.
She glances up with a tear-stained face as we approach, eyes moving between me and Oscar. “Don’t forget about me.”
The small words have my throat closing. I drop down to one knee beside Theo, nudging her chin. “You’ll come for breakfast tomorrow like always. Pancakes with kiwi. Your favorite.”
“Disgusting combination,” Oscar mutters behind me. But Nia almost smiles, and he steps forward to murmur something in her ear before we leave.
“I don’t like leaving her there.” Theo’s face is stark as he looks back over his shoulder. “Nor my mother, but at least she chose him as a mate.”
“Nia’s still a juvenile,” Oscar reminds him. He pushes his glasses up his shoulder, onyx eyes gleaming in the light from the streetlamp opposite us. “Once she’s of age, she can leave, but not before.”
The words sound almost sharp, but he hesitates before getting into the back of the truck. Theo slides into the front seat, his jaw clenched. “Where’s Max?”
I grimace. “I let him sleep. He’s been working himself to the bone.”
And he’ll be furious when he wakes up, but he needs the rest.
All of us are pushing ourselves in ways we never used to. I set my hands on the wheel, but I still wait for Theo. He stares up at the house, before pulling his gaze forward. “Go.”
Oscar leans forward between us as I pull off. “Why did Charles mention Kennedy?”
My eyes flick to Theo, enough to see the fury cross his face. “I don’t care. He was spoiling for a fight.”
And so was Theo, but neither of us call him on it. Instead, I put the window down, letting crisp night air spill into the truck. “Well, the house is all set up.”
We should have done this months ago. Max moved in as soon as he turned eighteen and his parents took off to travel.
Theo runs a hand over his face. “Sorry. I know I’ve been all over the place—,”
“Not a problem.” Fuck knows he deserves some understanding. All of us are struggling, but he’s breaking apart and thinks we can’t see it. “I had the pack paperwork through earlier, by the way.”
The forms that declare us an official, government-registered pack. Four of us, instead of five, but Pack Rivers nevertheless. All that’s left to confirm is our pack leader, but with Brett dead, it’s something we’ve left alone for too long.
It hurts, almost as much as the thought of us all together sings to something in my soul. It’s not natural for an alpha to be alone. I’ve never understood Charle’s decision never to seek a pack, to remain on his own. To not give May the security of a pack life.
Pack is family. Pack is everything.
And god knows that we all need something to hold onto right now.
My thoughts threaten to drift elsewhere, but I slam that door closed. “You know – if you did change your mind – either of you – we can still make it work. If you did want to go to college, instead of putting it off for a year. Max and I will watch over Nia and May. That was the plan anyway.”
Charles didn’t even mention that Oscar delayed his scholarship. We don’t even know if they’ll accept a delay yet, or if he’ll lose it altogether.
“ No ,” he says immediately from the back. “We need to be here.”
Theo doesn’t say anything. He stares out of the window as I drive through town, none of us mentioning the statue as we pass by.
“Then that’s where we’ll be.” I pull up in front of my – our – house. Our official pack house, thanks to my mom. That’ll take some getting used to. “Should we wake Max?”
Theo snorts. “No need.”
I wince at the tall figure waiting in the doorway. Max runs his eyes over us as we approach, but he doesn’t say anything.
“Are you pouting ?” Theo’s lips tilt up at the edges, amusement creeping into his tired face. “And why aren’t you wearing any fucking clothes?”
Max shrugs where he leans against the door in his underwear. “I thought Jake’d been kidnapped. Came running out to find him driving off without a thought in the world. Abandoning me.”
Slapping him on the shoulder, I move past him, the others following. “You seem to have survived.”
“Turned out it was a gang of feral raccoons in the trash. I barely escaped with my life.” He yawns, scratching his hand over his stubble as he follows us into the kitchen. “Despite my ordeal, I did manage to make coffee.”
Oscar brings him up to speed as we all slide into a seat. Max tilts his head to listen before bringing the cups over. “Is Nia alright?”
“Coming for breakfast tomorrow.” I take a sip, and then a bigger one, hoping the caffeine might chase my exhaustion away in time for me to get up for work. It’s no fun wrangling a chainsaw on an hour’s sleep, but it wouldn’t be the first time.
Theo doesn’t touch his. His brows are furrowed as he stares blankly at the wall opposite. The three of us exchange glances before Max taps his finger on the table. “Penny for your thoughts?”
It takes him a minute to respond. And when he does, I almost wish he hadn’t. “We need to speak to Kennedy.”
Max nearly spits out his coffee. Oscar stiffens, his lips pressing together.
I can feel the frown pulling at my face. “I’m not sure that’s a good idea.”
None of us bother to ask why. Not when the answer has defined a significant amount of our time over the last six months. Max taps his fingers on the table, the casual movement contrasting to the tightness in his jaw. “She left town, Theo. Went to college.”
She left us behind without looking back.
“So we’ll track her down.” Theo’s eyes glitter. “It’s not like we don’t know where she went. She knows what happened. She knows more than she let on.”
“Theo—,”
“She’s the reason he’s dead.” He almost snarls the words. “She left him there, and nobody seemed to give a fuck.”
“Theo is right.” Oscar leans back, but the anger on his face belies his casual posture. “Why does she get to go on and live her life without any consequences after what she did?”
“While the rest of us drown.” Theo turns his phone over in his hands. It’s a familiar move, but the sight of it still makes my stomach flip.
Max and I swap looks. He sighs. “You still have the voicemail.”
Theo’s shoulders jerk. “Obviously. Why the fuck would I get rid of it? It’s evidence.”
“You already shared it with the cops.” I eye the phone as his fingers tap across the screen. “If there was anything to be done, they would have done it.”
Theo snorts. “Would they?”
“And what will you do, that they didn’t?” Max’s eyes are keen as they watch him. “Brett’s gone, Theo. We can’t change it.”
Theo stiffens. “Don’t give me that time is a healer bullshit. I’m not going to hurt her. I just want to know the truth. She owes us the truth, if nothing else.”
I look to Oscar, watching us silently. “You agree with him?”
He lifts one shoulder. “Why wouldn’t I? We have the messages. We know what happened. But he’s dead, and she’s not.”
Theo flinches. “More’s the pity.”
My own shoulders stiffen at that, but I don’t say anything.
What the hell can I say?
Instead, we stay silent as the voice comes out of his phone, tinny and familiar in a way that sinks into my bones like a warm bath.
I fucking hate that her voice still has that effect on me. I shove it down, forcing myself to listen, to remember what she did.
And when it’s over, silence lingers in the air. Theo stares down at the darkened screen, his face twisted. “I can’t let this go. He deserved better than that. Can you?”
“Then we’ll find her.” Oscar’s face is dark. “We’ll get the answers.”
Max presses his lips together, but he nods.
When they look at me, I hesitate. “I still don’t think this is healthy. But I’ll stand with you.”
Because it’s clear that this is eating Theo up. He’ll never move on while he’s drowning in the unknown of Brett’s death.
Maybe we’ll be able to finally move on, to focus on our pack, on our future.
A future that no longer includes Kennedy Traylor.