Chapter Nine – Mason #2
“Come on. I’m asking you, no, begging you: please help me look for her. I won’t ever forgive myself if something happened to her out there.” His voice cracks at the end there, informing me he means every single word he says.
They might have had a falling out years ago, but a part of him still cares about her a lot. Or maybe seeing her as an adult stirred up some feelings inside him he’s not quite ready to face.
Don’t ask me why, but I prop myself up and stare at my brother from across the room.
I study his face, the way his expression tugs at his features, how his mouth is drawn into a tight line.
It’s not an expression I’m used to seeing on his face, ever.
In fact, I don’t think I’ve seen him so concerned before in my life.
Though it’s the last thing I want to do, I groan as I heave myself off my bed and mutter, “Fine. Let’s find her.”
Relief washes over him, but it’s short-lived due to the nature of his anxieties. “Thank you.” He spins around, and together we walk through the house. We slip on some shoes and thin jackets, and then we’re stepping outside through the house’s back door.
Both my brother and I lift our noses in the air, our intention to see if we can smell her in the breeze. If we could, it would make things so much easier. We’d have a direction.
But I don’t smell anything, and neither does my brother. He says, “I’ll go this way. You take that way.” He points east off the patio then west, and he doesn’t wait for my response before he goes off in search of her.
He’s worried. He’s a man on a mission. I can’t say I’ve ever seen him like this before.
Fuck. We need to find that omega.
I set off in the direction he said. I wouldn’t say there’s a pep in my step, but I do walk with an urgency I’m surprised I feel at all.
These mountains have more danger than you’d think: bears, wolves, sometimes even mountain lions.
And if it’s mating season for the elk? You don’t want to run into any of them, either.
For some bizarre reason, the thought of finding her injured and bleeding is not a good one. I might be mean and cruel sometimes, but I’m not someone who wishes harm upon others just because. I don’t particularly like the idea of stumbling across her like that.
I have to find her, for Asher.
I pick up my pace, walking with more of an urgent tick in my step.
Every few seconds I inhale deeply, hoping to catch her scent in the air.
I don’t know why I assumed I’d find her immediately; this isn’t the movies.
You don’t just stumble across someone in the forest out of the blue.
Searching a place like this takes time and old-fashioned hard work.
And I don’t even have my phone. My sense of direction is pretty good, but there’s always ample opportunity to get lost in these mountains. All the trees look the same. Everything blends in together. Honestly, I don’t know why Asher would let Jessica run off by herself, anyway.
What was he thinking?
I’ve never had to search for anyone in these woods before. It’s a new feeling, this concern, this anxiety. Asher’s worry over her must’ve rubbed off on me when I wasn’t paying attention.
I walk and I walk and I walk, and then I walk some more. I do a whole lot of walking, a whole lot of looking, and I don’t see her anywhere, nor do I smell her. It’s like she’s gone, vanished out of thin air. I hope my brother is having better luck in the direction he chose.
Remember when I said time was weird? Yeah, it’s still very much weird, because by the time I decide to turn around, it feels like an eternity has passed.
My plan is to go back to the house, charge my phone for a few minutes, then set out again in a different direction.
Maybe grab something from Jessica’s room so I have a better idea of her scent.
Not that I’m saying I can track her like a bloodhound, but… well, she can’t wear that scent-blocking cream all the time. Something in there has to smell like her.
I emerge from the wood line. My brother and I must’ve been on the same wavelength, because he comes out from his side of the woods just a few seconds after me, and when he sees I’m alone, his shoulders slump and he drags his hands over his face in pure regret.
He’s my brother. I love him, I do. I don’t like seeing him this upset.
We meet twenty or so feet in front of the patio’s steps, and I tell him, “Don’t worry. We’ll find her. Let me charge my phone for a few minutes, and then we can go out again—” I don’t even get the chance to finish that sentence when the wind whips around us, carrying a faint peppermint scent.
Jessica.
Both my brother’s head and mine turn to watch the omega in question stroll out of the house, holding a glass of water. She’s perfectly unharmed, not a scratch on her body anywhere. She wears one of my mom’s old jackets, along with her hiking shoes.
“Everything okay?” she asks.
Asher and I exchange a quick look before we head toward her. She stands at the top of the steps, and Asher stops halfway up, gazing up at her as the relief washes over him. “Where were you?”
She points behind her. “I was getting some water.” When Asher continues to stare at her, she awkwardly offers him her glass. “Want… some?” A few moments pass before she adds, “You look out of breath, like you were running.”
“I—”
I can tell my brother is at a loss for words. Clearly we weren’t as good at traversing this forest as we thought, or Jessica went in a completely different direction than we assumed. Either way, I step in and say, “We were looking for you.”
Her brows furrow. “Why? I said I was going for a walk.”
“Yeah, but that was two hours ago!” Asher exclaims, his frustration evident.
“Was it? Dang. I didn’t realize.” She drags her amber gaze between my brother and me, and thanks to the sun shining over our heads, I’m able to see the small flecks of gold in their depths.
I never knew she had such pretty eyes.
Not that I give a shit.
“We were worried,” I say, but the words are growled out.
My brother sets a hand on my arm, seeking to calm me down, “It’s fine. Everyone is fine. It’s no big deal.” He’s trying to downplay it, but I’m not going to waste my breath lying.
I shake his hand off and finish walking up the steps, angling my body so that I tower over Jessica and she has to crane her head back to hold my stare. Less than a foot between us, her peppermint scent is stronger now, but not as strong as it should be thanks to whatever she lathers on her body.
“Next time you want to go for a hike in the woods,” I hiss, “you take one of us with you so this doesn’t happen again.”
She doesn’t say anything. All she does is stare up at me with eyes that have no right being so pretty in the sunlight. She swallows, and because we’re so close, she can’t hide it from me, nor can she hide the way she puckers her lips slightly.
I take a tiny step toward her, closing what little distance remained between us as I whisper, “Is that understood, omega?” I don’t use my dominance on her, but I do still have an effect on her.
Though my brother is busy glaring at me, Jessica can only nod and whisper, “Yes, alpha.” And when she says that last word? Let’s just say I’ve never heard anyone say it quite like that before.
Asher coughs, and just like that, whatever spell is between us is broken. My brother drags me inside the house, and he’s only able to do so because I’m so confused at what just happened and how badly I want to hear her call me alpha again.
And Jessica? She doesn’t move a muscle, not even when Asher and I are inside the house. Her back is to us, and I can’t help but wonder if her mind is spinning as much as mine.
“What the heck was that?” my brother questions me. “That was totally uncalled for. What were you thinking? You can’t talk to her like that—”
I grind my jaw. He’s right, of course. She doesn’t belong to me. I have no right to tell her what to do, let alone call her omega like that, but you know what? She has no right, either. No right to look up at me with those eyes. No right to answer my ‘omega’ with her own soft ‘alpha’.
Everything is suddenly too much. Too much and not enough all at once. Nothing has ever set me off like this before; it’s a strange, odd sensation I don’t know how to deal with. I came here to be alone, not to want things I have no right to.
Before my brother can say anything else, I frown at him and tell him, “Fuck off.” And then I move around him and head through the house. I only relax once I’m safely inside my room, the door shut.
And even then, I’m not fully relaxed. I shouldn’t have gotten so worked up, shouldn’t have said what I said the way I said it, nor stood that close to her.
What was I thinking? What was I doing?
Fucking hell. I knew the moment I saw her here this was a bad idea.