30. Emerald
CHAPTER THIRTY
EMERALD
T alya always looked enchanted whenever she went outside as if doing so was a brand-new experience for her.
I drove the UTV slowly down the driveway, giving her as much time as she wanted to take in our surroundings on the way into town. The driveway was long, wide, and lined by trees which began a slow migration from a single line until they bled into the woods.
The island was inhabited by maybe thirty-thousand people total. They were spread between five towns with a whole lot living outside the towns, much like the plantation. It was a very large island with smaller, rocky islands surrounding it.
Even with that many people, we’d had the good sense to preserve as much of the island as possible, so there were a lot of places untouched by man. That didn’t mean we weren’t allowed to visit and explore them. We just couldn’t modify them with any permanent changes or structure.
Except for the lone bench here and there. It was a half-hearted attempt at making some of the spaces handicap accessible, but because it went against the mission to preserve the island as it was, there wasn’t a lot of effort put into making it accessible.
Fortunately, most people had off-road vehicles, making the majority of places accessible to almost everyone. Honestly, I was rather impressed that the natural places were left as unharmed as they were. People could be dicks with complete disregard for anyone but their own selfish wants and needs. Defacing the natural places on the island was a teenagers’ idea of a good time.
As I drove, I thought back to growing up here. Maybe we were just built a little differently. We didn’t necessarily appreciate the natural beauty we’d grown up with because we were always surrounded by it, but we did respect it. You could visit wherever you liked, explore, use it as a remote place to make out and hook up. But generally speaking, you left the world around you alone.
More places needed to be that way.
The trees broke, and we pulled out onto the primary road that led into town. There were little shops and convenience stores, vegetable stands, and the occasional honey truck along the road. They became more frequent the closer we came to the town.
From the house to the edge of town was only six minutes. Most of that was the driveway, something I always found amusing. Back in the day, it was all about the appearance of grandeur. And honestly? They’d nailed it. There was nothing like driving down the long tree-lined driveway and catching your first glimpse of the huge plantation house with its massive columns, five-tier fountain in front, and acres of expansive land sweeping outward behind and around it. The first time I saw it, it took my breath away.
Which was impressive since I lived on the island and had been by the driveway, catching distant glimpses, since I was a child. Still, there was nothing like getting close.
“This is such a cool place,” Talya said as we pulled up alongside the parking area just outside of town. We could drive in, but it wasn’t necessary. Today, we were just exploring. I wanted Talya to take in the beauty and get to know the people, and we could do that better on foot.
“It is,” I agreed. “There’s no place like it in the world.”
She looked at me with amusement as I parked. “How much of the world have you traveled?”
Grinning, I stepped out and came around to her side of the vehicle. I offered her my hand and helped her out. Not that it was necessary but I enjoyed that she allowed me to. “I’ve been a few places. There are relatively few people on the island, so we don’t have a lot of things like shopping malls, amusement parks, or museums bigger than a mom-and-pop store. As a kid, we used to take field trips to the mainland just to see these things.”
“Is there a college here?”
“Yes and no,” I said, leading her into the sleepy morning bustle of town on a Thursday. “There’s Red Fir College, which hosts a whole bunch of online programs, but they primarily provide training in the vocations that we need on the island. I’d say, unless you plan to go into one of the trades, you might start out with their general courses online and either move to a different online program or head to the mainland to finish your education.”
“Do you find that those that move to the mainland for college remain on the mainland, or do they return?”
“I think it’s about fifty-fifty. For some people, this is home. Everyone talks about island time. Being on an island, you kind of scoff about it, but after visiting the mainland where everyone is rushed and has a deadline for everything, there’s a lot of people that prefer island time. Others like the business, the crowds, the diversity of life and occupation. But I’d say for as many as we lose to mainland life, we gain those who’d visited and want to be here permanently.”
“I think the cabbie said it’s one of those places where everyone knows everyone,” Talya said as she peeked into a shop.
“Yep. Especially within the towns. Town to town, not quite as much, but we recognize the faces here. It’s a big island as far as islands go, but it’s not that big in the grand scheme of things. When you grow up here and your family has been here for ages before you, you tend to know everyone.”
“The town I grew up in was like that too. We?—”
“Emerald!”
I winced when I heard her voice. With a heavy sigh, I turned my attention to where I knew she’d be coming from.
Annie was the girl next door—literally. She’d grown up next door to me. When we were kids, we were friends, but about the time when we all started to hit puberty and my designation was all over the place, Annie decided that we weren’t going to be friends anymore. She was quite determined that we were going to be together.
Despite me telling her it wasn’t going to happen since her very first mention of it—probably when I was like fourteen!—she continued to act as if it were a sure thing. Her effort quadrupled when it became apparent that I was now seeing an alpha.
Alphas meant bites and bonds, after all.
She completely ignored Talya as she came toward me, her ponytail swinging behind her. To be fair, she could be rather oblivious when she was focused, so she probably didn’t see Talya at all.
“Hi—”
“Where have you been?” she interrupted as she stopped in front of me. “I haven’t seen you in ages!”
“Making sure our new packmates are comfortable,” I said, hopefully driving home the point I’d been trying to make for a decade or so. I released Talya’s hand and wrapped my arm around her. “This is my omega. This is Annie.”
I purposefully didn’t offer Talya’s name. Primarily because I couldn’t remember the name I was supposed to be using right now. Cheryl? Cheyenne? Shirley? I was pretty sure it started with the shh sound at any rate.
Finally, Annie took in Talya. Her eyes widened as she stared, completely still. I could practically see the gears moving in her head.
“Your omega?” she asked.
“Yes. She joined our pack a few weeks ago.”
“Oh,” Annie said. She blinked a few times, and fuck if this girl didn’t throw me for a loop when she grinned hugely. “That’s great. I can’t wait to be the best of friends!”
Talya glanced at me with an awkward smile.
Annie turned her attention back to me, and Talya relaxed a little. “I really wanted to show you and Ainsley the new bookstore. Are you guys coming to town soon?”
“Actually, I was just taking my omega there,” I said. “I’m sorry to disappoint you.” While I usually made an effort not to be rude, I tried to put enough emphasis in all the right places to indicate that this conversation was finished. As I spoke, I carefully moved Talya around Annie so we could continue down the street.
“Oh. O-okay. I’ll see you soon, then?” Annie stammered behind us.
I waved over my shoulder. “See you around, Annie.”
We were quiet as we moved further down the street. The crowds were getting thicker now, though it was still early. Even at the peak of business, it wasn’t an overly crowded place. It was always going to be a sleepy little town unless there was a party going on. The bookstore was right at the corner of the next block, so although I didn’t rush us, we didn’t resume the leisurely stroll we’d been taking.
Pushing the door open, I released a sigh. A bell over the door announced our arrival to the man at the counter. He used to own a pharmacy, but he’d sold it last year. He had a habit of creating businesses, making them successful, selling them, then starting over. Each business was very different from the last. My family thought it was his mission in life to make sure everyone had a successful, secure source of income.
A man I didn’t recognize was sitting in one of the chairs dispersed throughout the shop with a magazine in his hand. There were a couple small children giggling with their heads together. A woman, their mother I presumed, was close by with a stack of books.
I heard quiet voices from the back too.
Oh, and there were books! The bookshelves reached the ceiling, and honestly, it was rather impressive.
“Wow,” Talya said. “This is amazing.”
“Definitely. Let’s see what we can find.”
Dropping my arm from her waist, I took her hand again and we made our way deeper into the shop, passing the man with the magazine. Tourist, maybe? Or visiting from one of the other towns. We weren’t known for tourism, but our tourism industry was decent and consistent. We limited the number of tourists by controlling the number of vacation rentals on the island, including hotels, and there was only a single chintzy gift shop right at the port.
“Just so it’s out there, we’re not interested in Annie. Something she’s not keen to accept,” I said.
Talya gave me an amused look.
I rolled my eyes. “She’s been insistent that we’d make a pack together since we were kids. She’s been even more determined since I started seeing Ainsley, especially once she found out that he has a pack.”
“Ah. This is one of those betas-chasing-alpha things, huh?”
Chuckling, I shook my head. “I’m not an alpha, but yes. Same idea, I suppose.”
“I imagine that those you grew up with saw that you have alpha characteristics, so I think it’s closer to the truth than you’d like to admit.”
I kissed her temple, hiding my smile. She was right, which I’d already known. It was one of the reasons I’d always strived to be me, be beta, as much as I could, especially around alphas. I didn’t want to be a substitute for another designation. Not an alpha for betas nor an omega for alphas.
We shopped for a while, enjoying all the nooks and how endlessly the shop seemed to go on. There were people all over the place, constantly popping up from between racks. The number of times we’d startled each other was bordering on ridiculous, but Talya was smiling. That was what mattered. I also enjoyed introducing her to everyone so she could truly experience the community connection.
By the time we left, Talya ended up with a single book. I had a couple—one for Kasen and one for myself. Then we headed into the ice cream shop just down the road. We sat with a few of my classmates from high school while we ate our ice cream, watching people come in and out of the shop. There were quite a few faces I didn’t recognize today, but if there was anywhere visitors were going to stop, it was ice cream, so I wasn’t overly surprised.
We poked around one of the jewelry shops afterward, admiring all the shinies within the glass cases. By the time we were leaving the artisan shop filled with handmade wool items straight from the sheep and alpaca farm on the island, I had a sour feeling in my gut.
There was a man that I’d seen at every place we’d stopped. He was reading a magazine in the bookstore. He’d stopped in for ice cream while we were sitting with my friends. He walked into the jewelry shop just as we were leaving, and a minute after we arrived at the artisan shop, he stepped inside.
Feeling uneasy, I took the cashmere shirt from Talya’s hand and placed it on the rack. She didn’t question me as I quickly guided her outside and headed toward the UTV.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
I glanced over my shoulder in time to see the man step out of the shop. “There’s a chance I’m overreacting, but in case I’m not, we’re heading home.”
I didn’t have to share a bond with Talya to feel her fear spike. Chills broke out over her body, and her breath became labored.
“Take a breath, sweetheart. I won’t let anything happen to you.” It was a promise I wasn’t entirely sure I could keep, but fuck if I wouldn’t die trying.
We rounded the corner, and I tried to casually glance in the direction we’d come from to see if he was still there. He wasn’t. I scanned the crowd of faces as thoroughly as I could, but I didn’t feel the relief I thought I should.
Something felt wrong.
I hurried us along as I pulled out my phone and sent a quick one-word text to the whole pack at home. Just a single word that wouldn’t mean anything if you weren’t in the pack.
Whale.
Stuffing the phone in my pocket, I helped Talya into the UTV. Just as I was climbing in on the other side and starting the ignition, a car skidded to a stop behind us, blocking my path to back up. The passenger side door opened as I dropped us into gear, and a new stranger jumped out. He dove to the side of the UTV, yanking on the door and grabbing Talya’s arm to pull her out. She screamed.
“LET GO!” I barked.
To be clear, I can’t actually bark, not in the same way an alpha can. However, my voice can come very close, so close that there’s an instinctive pull inside todo as I say, then they stand there, frozen and confused. Because they know I’m a beta, so why did they just do as I said?
I pulled Talya back onto her seat and leaned across her, awkwardly shoving the man away and slamming her door shut. “Hang on,” I said, then I pulled forward over the grassy median and into the town square, moving a little recklessly in my attempt to flee quickly.