24. Cyrus
Chapter twenty-four
"I'm not just going to let her get sick!" I snarl, dodging Simon as he tries to stop me from leaving. "They turned down dinner with us, which means they're both too stubborn for their own good. I'm doing something about it."
He doesn't get it. He didn't see her trying to hide her hurt at her office. He thinks Jordan is this impenetrable barrier, but she's not. She's still Jordan, and she is putting on a brave, stubborn face.
Simon is smaller than me, not as muscular or broad, but somehow, he manages to take up a ton of space as I'm trying to get out of the house. When he and Rafe came home last night and told us about meeting Icarus and learning about scent sickness, I almost lost my mind.
My Omega is out there, potentially getting sick, because of a stubborn grudge she's holding.
That is not going to fly. Her stubborn ass is going to be bright fucking red if she doesn't start seeing reason.
"You don't even know where she lives!" he snaps, pushing against my chest. "What are you planning, to show up and yell at her to spend time with you?"
"Of course not, asshole. I'm going to try to reason with that Alpha because, obviously, neither of you was smart enough to get through to him." I pull my phone out of my pocket and glance at the time. I hope she's still home at nine in the morning on a Saturday.
"It's not lack of intelligence that caused the struggle to reason," Rafe drawls behind me. Glancing over my shoulder, I see his dark hair still sleep-mussed over his eyes, and he's only wearing a white tank and plaid pants.
"Did you just get out of bed?" I snark.
"Yep, and it's only because of you two hens in here clucking." He shoves past me on his way to the kitchen, shoulder-checking me. "Cyrus, going out full throttle will only continue to alienate them. You need to remember the goal is for all of us to live together eventually. It's going to be hard if we're all at each other's throats constantly. Be strategic."
I hear the steamer from the espresso machine sputter loudly as Rafe makes his morning latte. Shouting over the noise, Simon calls out, "We need a pack meeting and a plan."
"No! No fucking pack meeting. I'm doing this my way. I deferred to you two for months, and it's gotten us nothing." I finally manage to push Simon out of the way of the door and yank it open. "And besides, Slime , you told us the name of her LLC. I know everything I need to know about my girl now."
I slam the door behind me, ignoring my packmates' protests, as I get into my car and speed off to get my Omega.
"Open the door, Jordan," I shout, banging my fist on the wood again. "You're being childish."
"Ah, the final Stargazer Alpha. You must be Cyrus. Go away, Cyrus, or I'm going to call building security," a male voice replies. It must be Icarus.
What kind of a name is Icarus, anyway?
"I'm not going to let her get sick. What kind of Alpha are you that you would?" I snarl.
The door opens a crack, hindered by the security chain, and I catch a sliver of the Alpha's face. His dark green eye is hardened, and stubble grows on his face. He's got lines around his lips and eyes, and his dirty blonde hair has glints of silver in it. He's older than us, but I'm not sure by how much.
"I'm the sort of Alpha that doesn't lie to and abandon my Omega," he replies, venom dripping off his words.
"You don't know the whole story!"
"You lied to her about finding a scent matched Omega because you thought she was delusional and needed a push to accept she wasn't an Omega."
Fuck.
That kind of is the whole story.
"We thought we were doing what was best for her." I deflate a little, my anger at being denied access to my Omega giving way to guilt. "We didn't want to hold her back."
"You could have taken her on as your pack Beta." He steps back from the door, still not opening it but giving me a better view of the inside of the condo and him. He's fit but not massive, tall and well-dressed in a cashmere sweater and jeans despite the early hour. "You chose to break her."
Something about this Alpha makes it hard to stay rooted in my indignation.
"We worried if we took her on as our Beta and our Omega came along and demanded we get rid of her, it would hurt worse," I stress. "We thought a little pain then would be better than extreme pain later on."
"That's what happened to my sister," he says quietly. "Athena met a group of Alphas, and they all fell for each other. They met their Omega, and she wasn't into women and wouldn't let them keep my sister around."
"And it nearly broke her, right?" Maybe I can get through to this Alpha. Maybe he'll understand.
"It did. But she also knew from the beginning that she was a Beta and that it was a risk she was taking." His brow lowers as he glares at me. "Jordan knew she was yours, and you wouldn't believe her."
"You're a doctor, right? Would you have?" I say, throwing my hands up. "We were nineteen. There were no signs that she was going to present."
"I would have and I did believe her. She came to me for genetic testing to see if I could find out why she hadn't presented. And I knew she was an Omega. I couldn't figure out what was different and why she didn't present, but the Alpha in me knew the moment she walked into my office."
"Can I come inside, please? If we're going to talk, we may as well sit down. I don't think this is a conversation Jordan would want her neighbors to overhear." His face looks conflicted, and he looks over his shoulder like he's trying to get confirmation from someone. My heart jumps. "Is she in there?"
"No, she's not. I'm just trying to decide if she'd want your scent in the house." He pulls out his phone and shoots off a quick text message. The phone pings a few seconds later, and he stores it in his pocket. "We can go to the cafe."
"I'm glad she has you, Icarus, but you know she needs us too." I take a sip of my Americano as I evaluate the Alpha before me. I can feel exactly what the guys were talking about. There is a kinship there, a sense of familiarity.
The guys and I had been friends since we were children, so there was never that moment of clarity that we were meant to be together. We just always knew. But, spending time with Icarus, I can tell that we complement one another. I didn't realize our pack was missing someone, but it's clear now we were.
Simon has always been the heart, with empathy in spades.
I'm the muscle, the hothead, but I protect my pack fiercely.
Rafe is the soul, balancing the two of us, helping us see reason so we don't act irrationally.
But Icarus is the brains that we've been missing. He's logical and able to look at a situation from all angles. If Simon were in his position, he'd be doing nothing but coddling Jordan and deferring to whatever she says.
If it were me, I'd force a meeting, refusing to accept that she may be hurting too much to make a rational decision.
But no, Icarus is here meeting with me, hearing me out, but keeping me away from Jordan because he hasn't decided whether I'm safe.
"You're good for her," I say. It's not a question and nothing I've witnessed, but I can tell.
"I try to be. She's had a tough go of it, and I don't fully know what happened after you guys broke her world. All I know about is some time in inpatient psychiatric treatment."
My thoughts are like a sports car screeching to a stop. I thought that was an exaggeration she hurled at me. "Do you know why?"
"It's not my story to tell Cyrus, but I hate to break it to you – you're not blameless."
"She said something similar to me when I showed up at HUG." Icarus shakes his head as he sips from his mug of tea, eyes hard. Before he can say anything, I continue. "I know, I know, that was a shitty thing for me to do and a bad call. You don't have to tell me. She handed me my ass."
"At least you recognize it." He rests his elbows on the table and buries his face in his hands. "I don't want her to get sick, but I can't force her to see you when she's already increasing her therapy appointments since you guys showed up."
My heart starts to crack in my chest. "Is it really that bad?"
"Yeah, it's that fucking bad," he snaps. "Just… don't be so aggressive. Give her some time to warm up to you."
"Does she even have time to warm up with the potential for scent sickness? And how can she if she refuses to see us?"
I feel like we're going in circles. Maybe we could figure this out if Jordan just sat down with us and talked it out. Instead, it's just her running from us and hiding away.
But that's not a fair thought for me to have.
I've got to reorient the way I see all of this because she's doing what it takes to protect her mental health.
This isn't something she's doing to me. This is something she's doing for her.
Icarus holds his hand out to me expectantly. But I'm not sure what he's wanting. Certainly, he doesn't want to hold my hand, does he?
He raises an eyebrow at me before rolling his eyes. "Your phone, dumbass."
I catch a growl in my throat. I don't want to break whatever tenuous truce he and I have by rising to whatever bait he's throwing out there. When I give him my phone, he types into it quickly before tossing it back to me.
"I put in my number and hers. Please don't make me regret giving you her number, Cyrus. I'll tell her I did. But the moment you upset her, I'm changing the number, and we're cutting you off for good."
I gaze down at my phone like it holds the key to the universe. Which, maybe, it does. "Can I share it with the others?"
"Don't overwhelm her. That's the only guidance I'll give. This is your relationship to repair." He pushes to stand, smoothing his sweater over his stomach before pinning me with a knowing look. "I won't pretend you won't be in my life in some capacity. I'm not an idiot. I can feel that we're pack. But my loyalty is not to you. It's to the woman who wears my bite."