Chapter 2 #2
She studies me long enough for anxiety to set in as I shift the bag on my shoulder. “Want me to walk you to your car? Or we can report this harassment, if you’d rather. I’ll give a witness statement.”
“No need,” I say, sharper than I mean to. “I’m fine.”
“Suit yourself,” she says, as if she expected the answer. “If you change your mind, I’ll be around.”
Instead of giving me a warning or a lecture about how Omegas should be careful when walking around alone, she fishes a business card from her pocket and holds it out.
I hesitate a second time before I accept it. The card is nothing fancy, just basic card stock that could be produced at the local print shop. Block letters form three lines in the middle:
Emily Wilson
Superintendent at Wilson Construction
Followed by a phone number with a local area code.
“If you change your mind about filing a report, let me know.” She waits until I slip it into my bag, then with a tip of her head toward me, she hefts her crowbar and strides back to her truck, the engine resuming its growl.
Did she not realize I’m an Omega? Or did she not care? With the wind blowing in the wrong direction, I didn’t catch any pheromones from her, but her confidence screamed Alpha, and those guys were quick to back down as soon as she showed up.
I stand there for a while after she’s gone, the wind whipping hair into my mouth, hat warm and wet on my scalp. Then, I give myself a shake and get moving before I draw any more unwanted attention.
I make it down to the docks and find the right one based on the directions I received, where a water taxi bobs in the water, the name Misty Pines Resort stenciled onto the side in cursive.
The covered seating area is already packed with what appear to be construction workers, and my stomach twists with unease.
A Beta with a scally cap waves me closer. “You must be Leif Hollis. Was getting worried I’d have to come back for you.”
“Sorry, I was held up.” I clamber over the side and take a seat as far from everyone else as possible, close to the aft rail, where I can track everything coming and going. The metal bench is cold through my slacks, and I hug my satchel on my lap.
From my vantage point, I spot a familiar, battered truck parking at the head of the dock. Emily climbs out, a lunch pail in her hand, and strides down the dock with the same confidence she had approached those Alphas only moments ago.
She leaps over the side of the boat with practiced ease, and the others already there give her a good-natured ribbing for not being there earlier to help load materials. It’s clear they’re all familiar with each other, and if she spots me sitting away from everyone else, she doesn’t comment.
I slide my hat down, careful to keep the oil stain at the back. How embarrassing. If I’d known we would end up at the same place, I would have let her walk me down. Now I feel like an ass for being cold to her.
I focus on the open water, where sunlight cuts a path across the chop, too bright to look at. I imagine how life on the island will be, wonder how misbehaved my new charge will be, and hope I have time to explore the island on my breaks.
This is a new start, and I plan to take full advantage of it.
A few more passengers shuffle aboard, an elderly woman with a shopping tote, a Beta couple with matching windbreakers, and a man with what appears to be a hand-carved walking stick.
I begin to relax.
As the captain starts to untie the mooring, a shout comes from the dock as someone runs toward us, shoes slapping the planks.
A kid in his early-twenties, with sun-kissed brown hair, awkward as a crane on land.
He carries nothing but a faded backpack and a cardboard drink tray, one of the cups already bleeding coffee down his hand.
“Wait up!” he yells, voice half-panicked.
The captain grins and motions him aboard. “Thought you got lost, Jared!”
He launches himself onto the deck, slips, and rights himself with a kind of loose-jointed grace. “Sorry, Kyle. I wanted to bring you a coffee.” He studies the half-spilled cup, shoulders drooping. “Not much left to it, I’m afraid.”
“Aw, you.” The captain ruffles his hair. “Stow your bag up front and take a seat by the wheel, cousin. You can top off from the thermos I brought from home.”
Looking sheepish, he shuffles through the crowd, looking around as if to gain his bearings, and for a second, our eyes lock. Not in the way it happened with the men on the boardwalk. This is different. More curiosity than anything else, despite him being an Alpha.
But when he spots Emily in the crowd, his face goes beet red, his big feet tangle together, and I dodge out of the way as he goes sprawling, the rest of his coffee splashing onto the floor.
I hear his mortified groan as he picks himself up, and I catch Emily’s wince before she turns away, pretending she didn’t witness his epic crash and burn.
The captain shakes his head as he steps around his cousin. “Mop is in the supply closet. Clean it up so it has time to dry before we dock on the island.”
“Yes, sir.” Head hanging, Jared shuffles up to the front and vanishes into the restricted area.
The engine chugs to life, rumbling through the hull and up into my bones. I settle back onto my seat as we pull away from the dock, and I let the noise and salt and potential of a happy future scrub away what’s left of the morning’s humiliation.
Behind us, the town shrinks. Ahead, the island rises from the water, shrouded in pine trees and possibilities.
I just hope they let me stay, because I have nothing left waiting for me and no home to go back to.