Chapter Twenty – Colter #2
“You mean the blanket?” Gideon asks as he leans against the opposite side of the small island. “It wasn’t me.” He grabs his coffee and takes a long sip as the realization dawns on me.
If it wasn’t him, that must mean it was Pax.
I should feel something about that, shouldn’t I? After all, I don’t really know Pax. Heck, I should probably be more annoyed at what happened between him and Raeka downtown yesterday, but I’m not.
I haven’t really spoken to Pax that much, for obvious reasons, but he doesn’t strike me as the type of guy whose first instinct it is to take care of others. From what I understand he’s a lone wolf, and lone wolves are in it for nobody but themselves.
“When Raeka wakes up,” my uncle says, “I’m going to have a meeting with her and Pax—unless you’ve changed your mind and decided you want him gone?”
No. The choice should be hers. That’s something my uncle and I agree on when it comes to Pax.
If she feels comfortable around him, who am I to tell him to get the hell out of here?
Besides, it’s sort of nice to know there’s another alpha in the house who’ll look out for us, even if we are technically paying him.
The house feels safer. More secure. More… full. It’s not a bad thing.
It’s as if the alpha in question heard us talking about him, because he strolls into the kitchen at that exact moment, making a beeline for the coffee maker.
My uncle is old-fashioned when it comes to coffee; that, or he just drinks too damn much of it, especially when he’s on a deadline.
He doesn’t have one of those Keurig things.
He still has the same coffee maker he’s had since I started living with him, one that can make multiple cups of coffee at once and keep it warm all day.
Pax grabs a mug for himself and pours himself a cup, and when he turns around, he finds both me and Gideon watching him.
His green gaze flicks between us once, then twice, and then he takes a slow sip, not saying a single word.
Both he and my uncle apparently like their coffee black.
No sugar, no cream, nothing to make that bitter taste bearable.
I know, gross.
Tell him, I sign to my uncle, thank you.
“Colter wants to thank you for the blanket last night,” Gideon tells him, to which Pax only shrugs.
Can you give us the room? I ask my uncle. I know Gideon already spoke to Pax about what happened yesterday, but I think I want to talk to him about it, too, and I want to do it without my uncle playing interpreter.
Gideon nods once. With his coffee mug in hand, he leaves the kitchen, thereby leaving me alone with Pax for what might be the first time.
I set my fork down and go to unlock my tablet’s screen.
It’s already on the note app from last night, so all I have to do is delete everything I typed out to Raeka and then I’m clear to write something to Pax: My uncle told me what happened between you and Raeka yesterday.
I turn the tablet around so he can read the screen from where he stands.
After he reads it, he holds my stare with an intensity I’m not used to; I suppose my uncle really is a laid-back alpha.
Pax is definitely more stereotypical all around.
Bigger, more bulky, oozing a type of dominance I could never.
“Things got out of hand. It shouldn’t have progressed like that.
It won’t happen again.” He says pretty much the exact same thing Raeka did, and just like her, he sounds as if he genuinely believes he can stop himself from doing it again.
But with how relaxed and comfortable Raeka made me after last night, I can’t sit there and believe that. Not anymore. No, as much as I don’t want to admit my uncle was right, he was right in picking her. There’s something about her that makes me feel…
Good. She makes me feel good.
I’m not upset, I type out.
He reads it and tells me, “You should be.”
But I’m not.
“Listen, whether you’re upset or not, it doesn’t matter. I’m here to make sure she’s safe when she’s out in public. I’m not here to… take her away from you. What happened shouldn’t have happened. I’m better than that.”
Maybe it’s not too smart to egg on an alpha, but I find myself typing out, Who are you trying to convince: me or you?
He lets out a single chuckle. “Ballsy, for a beta. I like you, kid.” He walks around the island, gives me a pat on the back, and leaves the room. I don’t go after him; I let him have his exit, because I know that’s his way of running from this conversation.
He’s not ready to talk about it, which is fine.
He’s not going anywhere. Somehow, deep down, I know he’s not telling the full truth.
Maybe he’s lying to me, or maybe he’s just lying to himself.
This isn’t just a job to him. How could it be when Raeka is at the center of it?
If she makes me feel the way I do, I can only imagine how she makes a packless alpha feel.
And then there’s my uncle.
Why do I feel like Raeka is pulling us all in?
And, what’s more, why am I so okay with it?