Chapter 9
nine
Xenia
My head throbs as it drags me back to consciousness.
“Stay still!”
The words are fuzzy as I attempt to gather my bearings. Pushing up from the steering wheel, I notate my airbags haven’t gone off.
What happened?
“Stay still!” This time the words are a bark and they land like a slap against my face.
An alpha.
I listen to them while using my eyes to peruse what is happening.
The last I remember, I was thrown off a porch and then I was doing anything I could to desperately leave this farm.
My headlights are still on, and the sight in front of me causes a scream to catch in my throat.
“You’re okay. You’re okay.” I don’t recognize the voice, but it is soothing as it wraps around me. “There you go, I’m going to make my way to you. But you can’t move. You’ll take us both down.”
My hands shake as I finally understand my predicament.
The hill.
The one which had seemed so intimidating when I first arrived. On my way down, I slid across it with the help of the snow and right off the edge of the road. Now I hang precariously halfway off of it. A several hundred feet drop directly in front of me.
“I’m nearly there. I’m going to open your door, and I want you to jump into my arms. Can you do that?” The voice hums soothingly, it is closer now.
“My seatbelt.”
He pauses, but then I can see him as he approaches my window. He is all shadows as only the reflections of my headlights catch his form. And while it is objectively terrifying, the sight of him soothes just a small piece of my terror.
“Slowly move and ready yourself to undo it. And then on the count of three, I will open the door, and you will unclip it at the same time. You have to be quick though. Can you do that?” The words are level, as if he’s teaching me how to ride a bike and providing the necessary support.
Except I don’t know how to ride a bike. No one ever taught me.
I’m not sure why that’s the thought that decides to land. But it is.
Shakily, I move very slowly, until my hand hovers just over the latch to the seatbelt. In the crash, the mace has disappeared, but my bag is visible.
Inside contains the last of Tony’s items. Vinny had destroyed or taken most of his clothes, but these I had managed to keep.
What if my car falls? What if these are gone too?
A whimper creeps out from my lips.
“It will be fine. I will get you, I promise,” the alpha assuages.
He has mistakenly assumed what my worry is. What a normal person’s concern would be.
You’ll take us both down.
His words land firmly in my skull. I won’t put him in any more danger for my own connection to material items. Even if they were Tony’s.
“I’m ready,” I say as firmly as I can. But the words come out shaky through my chattering teeth.
It’s so cold.
“Good.” In the shadows I can see as his hand reaches out for the door. “One.”
I shift my feet the tiniest bit to ensure I will be ready.
“Two.”
My breath catches in my throat.
“Three.”
I unclip the seatbelt just as he whips the door open. The entire car creaks as I launch myself at the stranger.
And then I am in his arms, his scent engulfing me. There is one heart-stopping second that I think my car will be fine, but then there is a loud mechanical scream as it tips over. I watch as the headlights disappear below.
Burying my head into the stranger’s chest, I inhale him as my emotions overlap on top of each other.
His scent is somehow similar to the man’s I met earlier at the house. This one citrusy and floral. Nearly lavender.
Bergamot.
Identifying it somehow manages to calm my nerves.
“You’re freezing. We need to get you warmed up.” One of his arms is still wrapped tightly around me, squeezing me to him.
His words remind me that we are outside at night, in snow that is still steadily coming down. And I am most definitely not dressed for this weather.
Pulling free from his chest, I try to determine where we are, how we are safe. But it’s too dark in our vicinity. Instead, I find a singular headlight towards the bottom of the hill, but it doesn’t do much to illuminate up where we are now.
“We are just on the edge of the road, that’s my bike down there, but I can’t drive it up. The snow is still coming down. Wren should be here soon, he will help. But we need to make it up this hill. Can I carry you?”
I don’t know who Wren is, but I can only hope it’s not the man from before. The one who threw me out like garbage. Except this alpha’s scent is familiar. It was mixed with the others in the house.
This must be his pack mate.
It doesn’t matter, I don’t have much of a choice. “Yes,” I agree.
The alpha leads us away from the edge before lifting me into his arms, cradling me against his chest. The scratchy leather of his jacket brushes against my bare arms, but I welcome it as it is warmer than the outside air.
My teeth crack as I shiver in his arms.
A loud purr starts up deep in his chest as he walks us slowly and carefully up the hill. After a few minutes, I can hear an approaching vehicle from the top.
“That will be Wren with the truck. We’ll get you in there and warm you up. Do you have someone I should call for you? An alpha?”
The questions are prying, but I don’t mind them. “No. There’s no one.” The only person I would call is Serena. But I can’t have her come get me from here.
Not in the middle of a snowstorm in Florida.
I don’t know what to do. My phone and wallet were in my car.
Hopelessness and depression eat into my gut as I remember that Tony’s clothes were in there too.
And now they’re gone.
Another slap to his memory. To our bond.
A betrayal.
“It’s okay, we’ll help you.” The alpha squeezes me closer to him as we approach the truck.
Turning to it, the lights blind me and I am temporarily unable to see as he opens a door and maneuvers into the front with me in his lap.
But then my vision returns and my eyes land on the alpha still holding me.
On his sharp jaw, his short cropped inked hair, his endlessly dark eyes decorated with crows feet and staring intensely into me.
But then the other scent hits me. The grapefruit and sandalwood fill this truck to the point where I am nearly suffocating. Mixed with the bergamot, it is all I can do to hold onto my wits.
“Where is her car?” the other alpha asks. There is clear anger in his tone, and I can see as his fingers tighten around the wheel.
“It went off the edge. Wren, take us back to the house.”
The angry alpha, the one who threw me from their house, is Wren.
“Pierce, we can’t do that. We need to take her somewhere else,” Wren spits back, still parked at the top of the hill.
Pierce is the one who saved me from my car.
My anxiety filters out as the scents in the car turn harsh, biting. Wren’s is nearly burnt syrup as his evident fury radiates to me.
“I can make it home from here. It isn’t far.” The lie slips out.
I don’t want to be a hindrance. I don’t want to be reminded that Charles is dead. That another man I cared about is gone.
Who was he to them? A pack mate? Is that why their scents call to me too? Why they’re both matches? Just as he was.
Pierce tightens his hold on me, his bulky arms hardening under his jacket, and a deep growl vibrates between us. “Wren. Take her to our house.”
“She’s a Rossi!” Wren whips out, glaring pointedly at me. His icy eyes swirling in anger. “She was looking for Charles!”
A Rossi.
I kept Tony’s last name. Even though I knew the negative connotations that came with his family. Even though we were no longer married. No longer mated.
One last honor to the man who left this world too early.
But what does Charles have to do with any of this?
Pierce doesn’t release his hold on me, but he looks down questioningly. “No one can come get her. The roads are all closed or about to be. There aren’t any snow plows in this town, and they don’t expect the snow to let up for a few days. We can’t just leave her out here to freeze and die.”
“Luth—”
“He hasn’t come out of the back in over a month except for food.
He doesn’t get a say. You are going to take us to the fucking house before she freezes.
” Pierce pinches my chin in his fingers forcing me to stare into his eyes.
“And when we get there, you will explain yourself. Tell us why you are here. Who sent you. Understood?”
Gulping, I hum my agreement.
A wave of desire hits me out of nowhere.
I do my best to contain my reaction but it echoes louder and louder the longer he keeps his rough fingers on my chin.
I am incredibly grateful the scent-blockers appear to still be working, otherwise I might very well be perfuming in this small enclosed space.
Wren pauses a few more tense beats before releasing an exasperated sigh. “If this goes sideways, I’m going to kick your ass. And if you fuck with us, Omega, I will come after your pack. Don’t think I won’t take each and every one of them down.”
Except his threat is empty. I don’t have a pack. I am a lone omega who is being driven back to a house with two alphas I don’t know, in the middle of a snowstorm.
This time when I shiver in Pierce’s arms, it isn’t from the cold. Even still, he turns the heater up a few notches.
What have I gotten myself into?
The heater from the truck wraps me in its comfort. and it doesn’t take but a few seconds for the adrenaline to leave me, draining the last of my reserves. Exhaustion is a weighted blanket that is violently clawing me under.
I want to fight it, but I inherently know that Pierce is safe. That he won’t hurt me.
It takes less than thirty seconds for me to fall asleep in his arms.