CHAPTER FIVE – Silas
The second I heard the Omega’s door shut, I hopped off my bed and made for the front door. There was no way I was letting myself be confined to my room all day. I needed to work off this energy or I’d be punching holes in the few panels of drywall we did have up.
Ezekiel was spread out on the couch with his dogs when I came out. He sat up, turning toward me. “Hey Si, I just—”
“No, we aren’t talking about this shit right now. Everything is fucked.” Way beyond than I would ever admit to any of them. The scent of Nicolette… Damn. I grabbed my coat and stuffed my feet into my boots. “She was meant for Kodiak.”
And where was he?
Hearing the sound of wood being chopped outside, I grunted. I snatched Kodiak’s coat off the hook and opened the door as Ezekiel looked like he was going to say something else. I was out and slamming it shut before he did.
I wasn’t mad at him. He was only helping the girl when his dog jumped on her. It was the whole situation that made me furious. Kodiak had wanted an Omega and Ezekiel didn’t. Me, fuck, one sniff of her and I’d wanted to lick her from her cherry little butt to her slick slit. She hadn’t even been near me for a few seconds and I felt rabid for her.
The snow crunched under my feet as I walked across the bridge to woodpile. Kodiak lifted the ax and brought it down, splitting a thick log in two with one strike.
I chucked his coat down beside him. “Either put that on or go inside and talk to Eze. The Omega went to your room.”
“I’m fine,” Kodiak grumbled. His next chop went through the log and buried the blade deep into the stump we cut firewood on. Fine, my ass.
“Whatever,” I huffed and dug my truck keys out of my pocket. “I’m going to town. Don’t know if I’ll come back tonight. I’ll meet you at the boat in the morning.”
Kodiak heaved the ax free and spun to glare at me. “You leaving me alone with them? Thanks a fucking lot.”
“All this shit isn’t my problem, man. You wanted her here. Go deal with it. Eze had been supportive of you the whole time. You know the bastard must feel like crap right now. Probably whimpering and crying with his dogs in there.” I wasn’t going to mention that Ezekiel had looked like he was about to pounce on the Omega and fuck her right there. I’d never seen the guy so bewitched by a female before. It was unnerving. Women couldn’t be trusted.
“And what are you going to do? Drink the day away? Fuck, it’s only noon.” Kodiak shot back before leaning over for another piece of wood.
Anger bubbled up my throat. I might have had a drinking problem after the incident with Sarah, but I was better now. I only drank once or twice a week now, and then just a few beers. “Fuck you.”
He flipped me off and I returned the sentiment before climbing into my truck and revving the engine to life. Damn him. I had been planning on going to town and the bar, but I wasn’t going to do so now.
I put the truck into drive and sped away from the cabin. Instead of heading to the main road, I took a sharp turn at the fork in the driveway and went to Savva’s house. Naughty images of that hot little redhead flashed through my mind and everything pulled me back to our cabin. I brought down a fist onto my thigh and hissed with the pain. Women ruined everything.
Stopping beside Savva’s truck, I turned off the engine and huffed as I pushed open the door. The old man had been up and shoveled already with fresh salt on the ground.
I marched up to the rugged cabin and didn’t knock before going in. The rich scent of moose meat hit me and my stomach growled. The old man couldn’t cook for the life of him, but he had a special secret recipe for seasoning his meat that he never shared with any of us, and now I craved the moose far more than any drink.
Savva twisted in his beat up recliner to look at me. The hockey game was at half time and commercials ran on the TV. “What you doing here, boy? Don’t you all got a lady at the cabin to entertain?”
Kicking off my boots, I grunted. “Her being there has fucked up everything already. I needed to get away from the shit.” I went directly to the small kitchen which was open to the living room and got a bowl, filling it up with hot stew from the stove. “Might have to move back in here with you.”
“Like fuck you are.” Savva snorted, and it made me smirk. He took a bite from his own lunch and asked with a full mouth, “So you just whining or is there really trouble? Is the Omega okay? You bunch better be treating that lady right.”
I took my full bowl and flopped into the leather recliner next to him. Kodiak, Ezekiel, and I had bought the new chair for Savva for Christmas last year, but the stubborn bastard refused to sit in it. Never mind his old one was nearly falling apart. “I’m not fucking whining. Things are messed up. The Omega is compatible with Eze.”
Taking a bite, I savored the way the meat nearly melted in my mouth. There was too much salt and pepper in the broth, but the meat, damn, I didn’t care about the rest of the stew.
“Well, shit.” Savva exhaled loudly and leaned back, scratching at his gray beard. “Kodiak?”
“He’s pissed.” I took another bite and stood up to fetch a few slices of bread from the counter to cut back the salty broth. “Think we should just kick her back south.”
“Don’t be a fuckhead, Silas,” Savva grumbled and reached over to nab one of the slices from me. “The Omega will be good for Ezekiel.”
“What? You okay with it?” I gnashed my teeth as I chewed. The whole situation was a mess and she was at the center of it. Take her out of the equation and everything would go back to normal. I could forget her and her dimples as she smiled and her perfect tits. Fuck it all.
Savva chomped on some meat and bread and shrugged. “Ain’t nothing to do about it. If the Omega is compatible with Ezekiel, then she is. Good to know he’ll be sharing a bed with a woman rather than those dogs at night. Maybe she has some unclaimed friends to introduce to Kodiak.” He chased down his food with a swig from his coffee mug which he had tucked beside him in the chair. “That boy definitely needs a woman.”
I didn’t think any of us did. Enough pretty tourists came through town to wet our appetites. Who needed a woman in their life to mess it up? “So you okay with that? The deal with her father isn’t good if she isn’t with Kodiak. Take your land back and get rid of her.”
“You’re all my boys. I ain’t sending the Omega back if she and Ezekiel are compatible. Don’t be an ass.”
I huffed, but stuffed my mouth so I wouldn’t say anything stupid. I appreciated how Savva had always treated me like he did Kodiak. He took me in when my dad died and raised me as he did his own son. He did the same with Ezekiel too. The three of us had become inseparable, and damn it, I didn’t want a woman to come between us.
“You should get an Omega too,” Savva added as he looked back to the TV with the game coming back on.
What the fuck? “Are you crazy, old man? There’s not a chance in hell I’ll ever let myself get involved with another woman.”
He stuffed the rest of the bread into his mouth and waved a dismissive hand at me. “Don’t let that one idiot Beta sour you on all females. She was bad news, but not all of them are that way.”
Whatever. Every single female I’d known was either married or trouble. Sometimes both. “No thanks. Things are fine the way they are.” Before Nicolette came into our lives. Now it was a disaster. “Just give me an ax and the woods.”
“I was more a man of the wild than any of you boys.” He sighed and shook his head. “I loved my Clementine like nothing else in this world, and she treated me like I was the best thing that ever happened to her.” His gaze grew hazy and his shoulders sagged. “Truly, she was the best thing that ever happened to me.”
Hell, I hated seeing the old man like this. I’d always known him as a tough Alpha, nothing could ever tear him down. Yet on the rare occasions when he got lost in memories of Kodiak’s mom, he seemed like a broken man. I never wanted to end up that way, especially not after what Sarah did to me. The devious bitch had crushed me, and she hadn’t even truly been an Omega. Imagine if I claimed an Omega and then she screwed me over. There wouldn’t be enough alcohol in the world to drown in.
I’d just have to keep as far away as possible from Nicolette. She already had her claws into Ezekiel. The guy would roll over and show her his belly like a happy pup. He didn’t know what was good for him. Kodiak wouldn’t do a thing about it either.
It was up to me. I would have to make her life miserable and drive her back to her daddy. It didn’t matter that she was compatible with Ezekiel, that she smelled like sunshine on a tropical beach, or that the mere sound of her voice made my dick throb with want of her.
Nope. Nicolette was a threat to my happy existence, and I was going to make sure she was gone by the end of the week.