41. Lohtus
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
LOHTUS
T he next few days felt like a glimpse into our future life together as a pack. One of my favorite moments was watching Kasen attempt to take care of Talya with the rest of us. It was so fucking adorable. I wasn’t sure he even realized he was doing it.
Talya noticed, though. She met my eyes after, kind of amazed and giddy all at the same time.
I didn’t leave a pack behind when I was removed from my previous life. Not in the traditional sense. I lived in an alpha house—a house where me and three of my closest friends lived together. We were all content creators, and we often created teasers and thirst traps together.
It wasn’t until I was forced to disappear without a word to them that I realized we were the beginnings of a pack. It wasn’t something we’d ever discussed. It was just something that was building between us because of how close we were and how much we cared about each other.
When I left, I knew I’d be hurt not to have them in my life anymore, but I was surprised by how brokenhearted I was. Sometimes, I even watched their social media accounts just to feel close to them again. Just to see them.
In the end, I ended up blocking their accounts so I wouldn’t be tempted to contact them. Especially after they started telling their followers that I’d gone missing and if anyone saw me, to contact them.
Even now, thinking about them made my chest hurt. Tears formed in the corners of my eyes, so as awful and maybe disrespectful as it was, I tried not to think about them.
I had lived through leaving my best friends and maybe-pack once, and I wasn’t going to do it again. Now I had a pack. A real pack. No, that wasn’t fair. An intentional pack. I would much rather live every single day fighting for our lives together than be torn apart. If this apparently half-assed protection meant that we weren’t going to be allowed to stay together, I’d forgo it entirely.
I laid beside Kasen and gently ran my hands through his curls as we slept. We were still in Talya’s nest since she hadn’t wanted to leave it yet. Colby said she’d never truly had a nest like this, one that was specifically a nest and not a stolen spot in a different room. He said she never complained about it, but now that she had one, she wanted to be in it often.
On Kasen’s other side was Colby, his body curled around our sweet beta. Watching him sleep with his face tucked into Kasen’s hair made my heart stutter. The moment he was able to bring Kasen into his arms again after Talya’s heat, he’d held our little beta so tightly.
Behind Colby was Blakely. Blake and I received the same tight hug that Kasen did.
It was strange. We’d known that half of our pack was in the nest with no more than a door separating us, but when Ainsley came out to invite us to breakfast, Kasen jumped up from his chair and ran into Ainsley’s arms.
Honestly, I was surprised by how much we’d missed them. They weren’t gone. I mean, they’d never even left this house, yet their absence was loud. I was so happy to be able to hug Talya again. To take her small frame and tuck her into my arms for just a moment. To kiss Colby again. To see our grumpy bear smile and know that he’d missed us too.
I understood why Kasen was afraid of losing this. The idea that we could be forced apart made me catch my breath at times. We weren’t going to let that happen. I didn’t care what they said or tried. We were a pack, and we weren’t going to be split apart.
Taking a breath, I laid down again. Ronan was behind me, and he placed his hand on my shoulder.
“You okay?” he asked, his deep voice quiet so it didn’t wake anyone else.
“Just thinking.”
I felt him nod. “It’s going to be okay.”
A grin spread across my face and I sighed, leaning into his touch a little more. “I know,” I murmured. “I think doubting that is second nature. Especially given the circumstances—both current and the ones that brought us together.”
“It feels unfair that we find happiness and it’s threatened just as soon as we have it,” he agreed.
Ronan alluding to being happy made me all the more determined not to let anything take that away. He deserved that happiness. We all did.
“I hate the idea of leaving the island,” I admitted. “But as long as we’re together, I think we could make a cardboard box home.”
He snorted. “Go to sleep, Lohtus. Everything will be fine.”
Once, I might have thought that fate or destiny had led me to the places I’d found myself in, like fortune had smiled down on me. I now knew the difference. It wasn’t luck or some predetermined path that brought me the things that mattered most in my life. It was a choice, and I needed to fight for the happiness I wanted.
Ronan was right. Everything was going to be fine.
I awoke to a loud-pitched beeping. It was so loud that I was disoriented for several seconds after I bolted upright. In fact, it wasn’t a beeping but a wail, so fucking loud I could feel it in my bones.
“What the fuck?” Ainsley muttered.
A second later, I felt the heat. Another second followed, and I breathed in a lungful of smoke. That was when I saw the flames outside the window.
I stood, hauling Kasen with me. “Fire,” I said. “Get out. Now.”
The nest room door was thrown open, and a wave of blistering heat gushed into the room. I coughed. Fear flooded my system as I reached for the nearest body.
A sopping wet towel was shoved at my chest, and I wrapped it around myself. Kasen was next to me, his wide eyes terrified. I wrapped his towel around him and pushed him toward the door.
The flames were climbing the staircase as the siren of the fire alarm filled my head. My blood throbbed with it. My lungs burned. Breathing was fucking hard.
I pulled Kasen down under the dark clouds of smoke, as close to the ground as we could get, and tried to find a path out. The wood floors were hot. There was broken glass and wood everywhere.
Behind me, Ronan said, “Go,” but I wasn’t sure who he was talking to.
The front door was blocked off by a wall of fire, so I turned and headed for the kitchen. At the very least, there was a wall of windows. Our feet might get torn up, but we’d get out.
Thankfully, the fire hadn’t made it to the kitchen yet, but the electricity was fried so I couldn’t open the windows. Ronan grabbed my arm and hauled me to the back door. In my panic to get out, I’d forgotten about the actual door.
We poured outside, jogging away from the house and into the field. The horses were wild, fear-filled. Kasen dropped to the ground as he gasped for breath.
I was momentarily distracted when Blakely stopped in front of me. There was a burn across his cheek and arm. Pulling my towel off, I carefully set it over his skin. “You okay?”
He nodded. “Kasen?”
“Fine,” he croaked between coughs.
I turned, taking attendance of my pack. Talya was clinging to Colby with Ronan wrapped around them both. Ainsley was on the ground like Kasen was, coughing and gagging. Emerald stood over him. We were fine. We’d made it out.
With a hand in Kasen’s hair and my arm around Blakely’s waist to keep him close, I watched our plantation home go up in flames. The fire was spreading quickly. I wasn’t sure if that was normal or not. It was made of wood, after all. We didn’t often get a lot of rain, but we were on an island. Did that mean it was super dry, or was there enough moisture in the air from the ocean?
It didn’t matter. From our spot in the field, we looked on in horror as the flames rapidly engulfed our house.
I couldn’t help but think the fire had started toward the front, close to the nest. That corner of the house was almost a shell already. Was it normal to be burning so quickly?
The sirens of a fire truck finally broke through the haze of fire. “We should go around the front,” I said. I gently squeezed Blakely’s waist before turning to pick Kasen up off the ground. He was still breathing heavily. He might need some oxygen to help clear his lungs of smoke. “The ambulance will be up there.”
With Kasen in my arms, I took another quick look at my pack. Colby had handed Talya to Ronan so he could help Blakely. I didn’t notice that he’d been limping when he stopped in front of me, but then, he’d been standing still. I wouldn’t have seen that.
We needed to get to the front.
The sirens grew louder. They’d turned down our driveway now. a UTV drove by, and I recognized one of our farm hands. I wasn’t sure he saw us, though.
We made a wide berth around the house and the intense heat. When we strayed too close, it felt like my skin was burning, so I steered us even further away. Kasen buried his face in my neck. “It’s okay,” I assured him.
He didn’t answer, but I could still feel his heart beating wildly with how tightly he clung to me. I could feel his hot breath on my neck.
The driveway was already filled with people. Police. Firemen who’d just managed to turn their hose on. An ambulance. Employees from the farm. Along with all the people I recognized, I spotted a few that I didn’t.
I led my pack to the ambulance. Blakely seemed to be the worst off, so with one hand under Kasen’s ass to hold him in place, I helped Colby guide him to the ambulance. The EMTs already had the back open and helped him to sit.
“Kasen needs help breathing,” I told one of them, setting him beside Blakely. I thought his name was William. I’d talked to him in town several times.
Then there was one of the policemen with someone I didn’t know. When I approached them, the stranger showed me his identification, indicating that he was a member of the government program protecting us.
“What happened?” Officer Brody asked.
“The house is on fire,” I deadpanned. “It’s the middle of the night.” I waved a hand around in irritation. “You tell me.”
“Easy, Lohtus,” Office Brody said, resting a hand on my arm. I took a breath and reminded myself that it wasn’t his fault. I knew that.
Glancing at the house, I couldn’t shake the feeling in my gut that this wasn’t accidental. “We woke up to the alarms. We were all in the nest, sleeping off the last of our omega’s heat.”
“You were all there?” the government dipshit asked.
I glared at him. “Yes. Where were you when the fire broke out?”
He pressed his lips together.
“Colby?”
I turned at Talya’s fear-filled voice, unsure what I was going to find. Did he collapse? Did he inhale too much smoke? How long had we been asleep before the fire alarm sounded?
But I didn’t see Colby at all. Talya was looking around with terror. “Colby!” she screamed, spinning where she stood. “Colby!” Ronan gripped her, preventing her from running.
He was just here! He’d helped me set Blakely on the back of the ambulance. I searched the faces surrounding us, looking for the familiar blond hair and blue eyes. My heart hammered in my chest as Talya became more and more hysterical.
Stepping away from the officer and idiot asking me stupid questions, I moved back to the center of my pack and cupped Talya’s face with both my hands, forcing her to look at me. “Take a breath, omega,” I insisted.
She tried, but the terror in her eyes wasn’t helping. “He’s not here, Lohtus.”
“He was just here,” I said. “He helped me set Blakely down.”
“But he’s not here now.”
Ronan’s hand covered her heart. “He’s right here. What do you feel?”
She closed her eyes and concentrated, but when her eyes opened, they were wild. Terror shined out of them like a beacon, and my gut dropped. “I don’t feel him,” she whispered.
Chills broke out over my body. “Are you sure?”
She nodded. “He’s not there,” she said shrilly. “It’s… It’s… dark. Heavy. I can’t feel him at all!”
Ronan sucked in a breath. I met his eyes, unsure how to interpret her words. What did that mean? He set Talya in my arms.
“Don’t let them split you up. Understand?”
I nodded. “Where are you going?”
He looked at the officer who seemed as confused as we were. The government agent who was talking into his phone. The EMTs who were tending to Kasen and Blakely while giving us a wary, sympathetic look. Maybe they thought we’d imagined him being here with us. Maybe he didn’t make it out of the house.
Ronan met my eyes again, and I knew. “I’m going to get our alpha. Do not leave this spot.”
“I won’t.”
“Don’t let them take?—”
I gripped Talya tighter and backed toward the rest of our pack who were huddled together at the ambulance. “I won’t,” I swore.
He turned and jogged off.
“Where is he going?” the government guy asked.
“To do the job that you aren’t,” I snapped, and he looked at me as if I’d slapped him.
“We should get Blakely to—” one of the EMTs began.
“No,” I barked, making the entire group of strangers and my pack stand up straight. “We’re standing right here until Ronan returns with Colby.” I looked at the government guy. “And then we’re going to need a lawyer because you’re all shit at your fucking job.”
It was my fear that made me talk. I took another step backward until my back brushed against someone. Ainsley’s arm wrapped around me and Talya. Emerald closed in on my other side, gripping Talya’s hand tightly as she sobbed, her whole body trembling.
I refused to think about the fact that she couldn’t feel Colby. She couldn’t reach their bond. I had no idea what that meant, but fuck was I absolutely fucking terrified.