Chapter Forty-Three – Raeka
We lay on the bed for a while, Colter and me.
It would be nice to be in each other’s arms, but that would only be so if we were, you know, at home and not wherever we are now.
As it is, with the situation pretty much as dire a situation can get, I can’t really relax.
After a while, I find myself pacing the length of the room, checking the walls for any weakness or cracks.
No windows, no fucking cracks; nothing. It’s like this room is an inner room inside someone’s house.
I angle my head back and stare up at the camera. I look around. There’s really no knickknacks, nothing I can use. I don’t even have any shoes on. Ugh.
“Hey,” I say to the camera, waving my arms to get the attention of whoever’s watching.
“Hello! Earth to kidnapper or kidnapper’s crew!
I have to pee.” I grind my jaw and fold my arms over my chest. “Now, I know you’re probably thinking this is some kind of trick, but it’s not.
I really do have to pee, and unless you want me squatting in the corner and pissing on your hardwood floor, I’d take me to a bathroom. ”
Do I really have to pee? No, it’s nowhere near emergency levels, but getting out of this room would give me a better clue as to where we are. Are we in a house? A basement? Maybe I’d be able to make a break for it—but no, I couldn’t leave Colter.
If I go to the bathroom, it has to be for recon specifically.
Colter still sits on the bed, watching me with a confused expression on his face. We’ve kept each other calm so far, but it’s obvious he doesn’t quite know what I’m doing.
I like to think I’m okay under pressure. Sure, I made some mistakes where those scent-dampening injections were concerned, but that was out of my own anxieties. This? This is totally different. This is a freaking kidnapping.
Shit. It’s a kidnapping . I really should be more upset, huh?
“You have ten seconds till I go in the corner, squat, and take a nice, long, hot piss—” Right as I say that last part, the door unlocks and swings open, and a scowling Bradford stands in the hall.
Looks like a normal hall from here.
“How on earth is a Whittenhall so uncivilized?” he asks me with a disgusted frown. “The Whittenhall bloodline goes back to the founding of this country. Weren’t you taught better than that?”
I place my hands on my hips and give him my best attitude. “Weren’t you taught that kidnapping is bad? I guess we both have some room for improvement.”
Bradford rolls his eyes at me, then snaps his fingers and gestures to the open door, saying, “Watch him. Make sure he doesn’t try to run while I take this one to the bathroom.” Though I can’t see them yet, he’s clearly not alone in the hallway.
Great. Definitely can’t make a run for it right now.
His black eyes land on me. “Come on, then.”
I duck my head as I follow Bradford out into the hall. Two other alphas, part of the team that kidnapped Colter and I from the house, stand on either side of the open doorway, looking like typical beef heads. I try not to be obvious as I study my surroundings while walking behind Bradford.
A normal-looking hallway, which tells me we’re in a house, not a basement.
It doesn’t have that basement-y smell of stale air.
It’s a wide hall, too, which means this house is not some tiny little thing; hallways like this only come in decent-sized houses, and I wonder if Bradford had us brought to his actual home.
I mean, how stupid is that? It’s like he didn’t even try to hide this whole thing from Pax.
Unless… no, there’s no way he doesn’t know about Pax.
“So, what made you decide to pull the trigger on this stupid plan now?” I ask, prying for details as we walk down the hall.
The alpha in front of me growls, and I resist my urge to act meet and subservient.
Fucking omega instincts. “Seeing you two at the dinner party made me hope that, finally, I could convince him to sell his company to me. Everyone can be pushed, you just have to find the right way to push them. For Gideon, that’s you and the beta. ”
He abruptly stops before an open door—a bathroom. Alas, a bathroom with no windows. His tall frame turns as he faces me, studying me anew, and I say, “So, what, you waited until Gideon went back into the office so we would be alone in the house?” I purposefully don’t say a word about Pax.
“That’s right. It wasn’t too hard to pay for eyes and ears at the office.
Took a few days to plan everything out. There’s never a time like the present to finally make your move.
” As he says that, he lifts his nose, and I hope to God he’s not losing himself in my scent.
The last thing I need is this guy losing his shit over me.
Before he can say anything else, I duck past him and hurry into the bathroom. I shut the door and glance all around as I slowly make my way to the toilet. I don’t see anything sharp. Nothing I can steal and use.
Fuck.
I’m forced to actually pee and wash my hands. After drying them, I sigh and open the bathroom door, finding Bradford there, waiting for me, his nose still upturned.
“I can’t believe I didn’t recognize it sooner,” he says, sounding bored, in spite of the fact that he has two kidnapped people in his house and a crew of goons ready to do his bidding. “You smell like the beta in there. You’re not just with Gideon, are you?”
The question is flung at me, loaded. Is that why he kept sniffing the air around me? He wasn’t smelling me for himself; he was noticing that I have more than one male scent mingling with mine.
Can he smell Pax? I wonder…
“And if I am with more than just Gideon, what’s it matter to you?” I shoot back.
“It doesn’t matter to me at all. I simply find it…
interesting. I shouldn’t be surprised, since Gideon and that nephew of his are basically housebound.
I can’t believe someone of your pedigree would agree to that, however.
Surely you could’ve had any pack you wanted?
Why accept an offer from a broken alpha and his equally broken nephew? ”
Hm. Nothing about another alpha’s smell on me. Granted, we didn’t sleep together last night, so that could be it—not that I’m complaining. If this guy doesn’t know about Pax, it gives Alabaster Security a leg up.
I do find it insulting that he called Gideon and Colter broken, and I frown up at him to show my displeasure. “They are not broken. The only one broken here that I see is you, bucko. I mean, kidnapping, just to buy a fucking company? Is it really that important? Don’t you have other things to do?”
“Like what? Losing myself in an omega? Becoming a family man and creating a pack of my own? Pack life is for the weak. Anyone can have a family. I want a legacy—a legacy that will outlive me countless times over. Now come on. Enough stalling. Back to the room with you.” He lifts a hand and points, telling me to walk in front of him.
Down the hall, I can see the alpha guards outside the room that’s basically just a pretty jail cell. I don’t say a single word, not until we reach the bedroom and Bradford dismisses the other alphas.
“You know,” I say, whirling on him. His hand is on the door; he’s ready to close it and lock us in here again. “Everything you just said… it makes me wonder.” Though the alpha doesn’t ask, doesn’t prod for more information, I can see it on his face.
It makes me wonder what?
“What’s the point of a legacy if you have no one to give it to?” My question makes him furrow his brow, but he says not a single word as he swings the door shut and locks it.
Hmm. That one… he’s different. I hate him for kidnapping us, but I’m a little curious about him all the same.
Whatever. It doesn’t matter. I know what’s going to happen: Pax and his team are going to come and save the day—I just hope Gideon holds out and doesn’t agree to sell before that.
I don’t want him to get rid of his family company just to save us from this asshole.
Gideon wants to turn Chase Jewels around, and I want to be there, by his side, watching it happen.
I return to the bed and meet Colter’s questioning eyes. “We’re going to be okay,” I whisper. “They’re going to come for us.” And then I lean in and kiss him, because why not? It isn’t like we have anything better to do.
That asshole out there might not realize it yet, but he will, someday. I thought I was fine and happy without a pack, too, and it took the right men to come along and prove me wrong. What Pax, Gideon, and Colter did no other group of men could.
A legacy means shit if you don’t have anyone to share it with, to give it to.