CHAPTER ELEVEN – Silas
Out in the woods, we barked at each other all day. The tension caused by the Omega fucked our focus and kept us out longer than expected when a branch nearly fell on Kodiak. I hated this. Everything was good until Nicolette came into our lives. Now it was all screwed.
My campaign to drive her away only became more urgent, especially since I had wanted to sweep the food off the table last night and fuck her right there. Her fire was sexy and that scent, damn. No way was I going to let her into my head. I had to up my game. All the way back to the cabin, I planned on what I could do to scare her off and keep my distance from her.
“Honey, we’re home!” I threw all my dirty stuff on the floor as soon as I opened the front door and tracked mud into the house. The blustering wind blew snow in. Let her deal with that. Ezekiel and Kodiak gave me dirty looks, but too bad. I was saving them from the home-wrecking redhead.
No Omega greeted us. The dogs didn’t even come barreling to the door.
“Nicolette?” Ezekiel called, and then whistled for his dogs as he took off his boots by the door.
Kodiak pushed past us and marched in, mud and snow dirtying up the floor. “Hello?” He hurried down the hall to her room and came back even faster. His eyes looked wild as his jaw worked back and forth. “She’s not here. Where is she?”
“I don’t know.” Ezekiel was fast putting on his boots again and out the front door. His yelling made my heart start thumping, and to help ignore it, I went to the fridge and grabbed a beer. He ran back in, chest heaving. “She’s not outside. No fresh tracks.”
“Where the fuck is she?” Kodiak stormed down the hall again, checking all the rooms as Ezekiel rushed to the opposite side of the house. Each of them shouted the Omega’s name.
Something in me wound me up, making my stomach harden as if I’d been hit with a rockslide. Nicolette wasn’t here. So where was she?
I couldn’t piss her off and drive her away if she wasn’t here. The fact that my plans to make her furious were being squashed had to be why I was so anxious. She, those thoughts, had occupied my mind all day.
“Maybe she’s at Savva’s.” Ezekiel took out his cell and tapped the screen, calling Kodiak’s dad.
We all stood there. Listening to the phone ring on the other end. It seemed so loud, echoing in my ears.
All we got was Savva’s gruff bark on his voicemail: “Leave a message.”
“She’s not there.” Kodiak paced back and forth, tugging at his beard. “Where would she go? And another snowstorm is here. Fucking hell.”
Ezekiel jogged to the coat rack and nabbed his coat. “She could still be at Savva’s. He never answers his phone. He rarely remembers to charge the thing.”
True. The old man hated the thing. He came up the mountain to be alone. He didn’t want the world constantly calling him.
“I’m going to run over.” Ezekiel didn’t even wait for us to reply. He was out the door and tearing down the drive with snow swirling up around him and disappearing him from our sights.
Something yanked me, demanding that I follow. I dug my heels in and gritted my teeth.
“I’m going to go with him.” Kodiak hurried to the door.
“Wait.” Dammit. What was I doing? Let them chase after the Omega. Chances were she was gone, running back to her daddy. I hated it left a foul taste in my mouth to think it. “What if she didn’t go see Sav? She knows Shae too. She might have gone there or took a snow machine to town.”
“Fuck, right.” Kodiak grunted and fumbled with his phone. Shae answered on the first ring. “Hey, is Nicolette there? … She visit today? … I don’t know… Thanks.” He hung up and shook his head. “She isn’t there, but in town. Nicolette likes being around people. Could be she went to check out Petersburg. I’m taking the truck.”
He sped out as fast as Ezekiel had. I opened my mouth to protest and for him to go see if any of the snow machines were gone since the storm was going to get worse, but he was in the truck and revving it before the thought finished in my head. My stomach tightened further. The need to find the Omega, to make sure she was safe, churned in me.
I smashed a hand on the counter. Fuck this. I shouldn’t care that she was gone. It was what I wanted.
Growling at myself, I told myself to sit on the couch and watch something. Take my mind off this crap. Good-bye Nicolette. Take your sweet pretty little ass back home.
I didn’t even make it to the couch before I had turned myself around and headed to the door. I hated her. Hated her even more for making me feel this… This what? Shit. Stupid Alpha instincts. She wasn’t mine. I refused to let it happen.
“Turn around and sit down, you asshole.” My command came out as a snarl. I would not let the power of an Omega’s pheromones ruin my life again. With Sarah, it wasn’t even her own. And Nicolette wasn’t even mine. She was triggered by Ezekiel and Kodiak, filling the house with her sweet tropical perfume. Any Alpha would be affected, and that was why they were always escorted and kept away from Alphas, because they fucked things up.
I gripped the back of the couch, willing myself to jump over and sit, but my body refused to move. My heart hammered and sweat trickled down my back. Every muscle tensed as I fought against my instincts.
What if she hadn’t gone to town? No way she knows how to drive a snow machine. They were nothing like a jet ski. And if she went to Savva’s, he would have kicked her out and sent her home well before dark. There were too many dangers around here, especially for someone not from Alaska.
Damn this all. I walked to the door to fetch my coat and boots.
I hated myself for giving in. I hated Nicolette all the more for it.
Slamming the door behind me, I jogged over to the shed where we kept the recreational vehicles. When I opened it, none of the machines were gone. Wherever Nicolette went, she went on foot.
Into the Alaskan woods. While it was storming. Alone. None of the bear sprays were gone either.
Cursing, I snagged the keys to one of the snow machines and opened the sliding door. She was going to get herself killed. As much as I didn’t want her here, I didn’t want her dead.
The thought of her in the woods, mauled by a bear, a frozen corpsicle, or broken at the bottom of a ravine, stole the remainder of my common sense. I turned on the engine and didn’t even give it a chance to warm up. I rocketed out of the shed and down the drive.
Fucking Omega. Where would she have gone?
Not to Savva’s or Shae’s or to town. So just a walk. The dogs were gone. Maybe Nicolette thought she could go on a snowy adventure like some idiotic tourist. So many people went missing in Alaska every year because they had no idea just how dangerous it was.
The sun had set and the moon was hidden behind a thick layer of clouds. I turned on the headlights and slapped on a helmet. The motor purred and reverberated off the trees. I could shout for her, but the snow machine was a louder and more consistent noise than my voice.
I went down the drive and to the road. Kodiak had turned left to head into town, so I went right, leading deeper into the forest. Would Nicolette have stuck to the road? Probably not. Adventurous and full of herself, likely she did go walking in the woods. Mitkof had black and brown bears, and sometimes grizzlies came over from the mainland. She was like a bright headed little snack for them, and in heat, smelling as delicious as she did…
I cranked up the speed and turned the snow machine off the road and into the forest. The wind whipped around me, and the snow came down in near blinding sheets. She was going to get herself eaten. And I couldn’t stand the thought. I wanted to rip the world apart to find and protect her.
Growing up here, I knew these woods. They were a part of who I was, my soul. Even in a dark storm, I easily steered the snow machine. The big logs and rocks were clear in my head as if it were daylight.
Bears were crepuscular, being active the most at dusk and dawn. So the beasts would be out already hunting, smelling Nicolette miles away.
She better not be dead. Fuck everything if she was dead.
With the storm, I couldn’t track anything. I caught a glimpse of a trio of deer leaping away into the brush. There had been no sign they were there.
Back and forth, I zigzagged through the woods with the wind picking away at my sanity. My chest felt like it might explode. I wouldn’t be able to handle it if I found her body. Worse yet, if we never found it.
She had come to our home. We were the Alphas, and even though she wasn’t my Omega, what kind of bastard was I if I couldn’t help keep her safe?
How long had it been since I left the shed? Thirty minutes? An hour? It was too long.
Mini avalanches of snow slid off the boughs of pines. Shadows played havoc with my vision. I had less than a quarter tank of gas left. Damn me for not filling it up before I left. I wasn’t going to find her. The merciless state of Alaska had claimed another victim.
And then, just out of the corner of my eye, I saw it. Running to try to catch me.
A dog. Atka!
I slowed and turned in his direction. The husky barked, jumping up on me and licking every bit of exposed skin.
“Yeah boy, get down. Where’s Nicolette?” When he continued to lick me, I grabbed his head and looked him directly in the eyes. “Nicolette. Where is she? Kavik too. Show me.”
I didn’t know whether Atka knew the Omega’s name, but he knew his sister’s. He took off running and I followed on the snow machine, winding between the trees, almost losing him a half dozen times in the storm. Huskies had a whole shit ton of energy. I didn’t know how long he’d been out there, but Atka could run for days if we let him. Shae bred her dogs for endurance, and I never appreciated it as much as I did now.
My hands tightened on the handles. I dare not go faster than the dog, but he was maneuvering with more ease than I was. The fucker was fast but had no brains. He better not be taking me on a wild goose chase.
Then a flash of blue huddled against the base of a tree had me slamming the brakes. I left the light trained on her. Nicolette.
Her head lifted. Big shining green eyes met mine.
Kavik, sitting to her right, barked as I got off the snow machine and rushed forward.
“Nicolette.” I crouched down and didn’t even wait for her to respond as I scooped her up. She was small and light in my arms, shivering violently. She wore a big coat and a woolen hat, but just those thin jeans females wore these days. No good for Alaska. “I’ve got you.”
I squeezed her to me. She was cold and scared, but she wasn’t dead. The relief shocked me almost as much as the rightness of having her pressed against me.
“So cold,” she whispered and buried her face against my chest.
Fucking hell. I hated how good this felt.
Kodiak and Ezekiel were already fighting over her. I wasn’t going to add to that mess.
I sat her on the snow machine in front of me. The seat and the handles were heated, plus my body surrounded hers. It would be enough to get her back home, and then she needed to be submerged in warm water. If I thought I could get a signal, I’d call Ezekiel and tell him I found her and to get the sauna going. But a bath was going to have to do.
“I know. Just hold on and I’ll get you home.” My voice was raspy, I felt so raw. I drove the snow machine slowly at first, letting her get used to the feeling. The dogs ran alongside us. Atka looked like he had the greatest day ever.
We didn’t say anything as we drove through the woods and I took us onto the road. Once we hit that, the wind struck us like it was determined to blow us off the mountain. I sped up to get us home as fast as possible. Her curvy body fit snug against mine. I could hold her like this forever.
The huskies zoomed ahead as we approached the house. Kodiak’s truck wasn’t back yet, but Ezekiel came running outside and was upon us before I could fully stop the snow machine.
“Nicolette!” He picked her up as if she weighed no more than her down coat and nuzzled the top of her head. I bit back my growl that he had taken her from me. She mumbled something to him, limp in his arms.
Ezekiel brought her inside, ignoring his dogs as they followed him with excited yips. I was left alone outside with the howling wind. Everything in me pushed to follow them in. I had to make sure she wasn’t hurt, that she didn’t have frostbite, that she was comfortable in a warm bath, that she had everything she could ever want and need.
I had to make her mine.
But she wasn’t, was she? She was Kodiak’s and Ezekiel’s. I would never betray either of my friends for an Omega.
And I wouldn’t break the promise I made to myself to never let a woman into my heart again.
No matter how much my Alpha instincts roared, Nicolette was trouble. Tonight proved how much. The best thing to do for all of us was to drive her away from Alaska.
She may not have been dead, but a part of me already felt that way knowing she needed to go.