Chapter 27 - Ezra
The thoughts in my head were screaming at me. All at once, they fought to be at the forefront of my mind but only managed to create a roar of incessant noise. It was too loud. All of it was far too loud, and I hated it.
As the anger, sadness, and guilt ate away at me, I could hardly focus on anything else despite how desperately I tried to.
Sitting in the house alone brought with it a crushing emptiness that made me far too aware of everything I tried to throw away. Of how I brought it on myself, and only I was to blame for finding myself in that situation.
I no doubt caused some commotion when I ended up in town again, ignoring the concerned faces of my pack members. As much as I wanted to rely on them, and reassure them that everything was fine, I didn’t want to explain it all. I didn’t want to air everything out, even if I ran the risk of causing them enough concern to prompt them to come check on me.
In that moment, I just wanted to be alone.
Regardless of how pissed off I was with Sebastian for everything he said and for refusing to think any differently about me and Zoe just because she was his sister, I knew that I could’ve done more.
If I had kept my composure and didn’t let him get to me, I could’ve appealed more. I could’ve made a better case for me and Zoe and proved that the bond was substantial.
But I didn’t. Instead, I reverted to my cowardly self and gave up. By letting that happen, I hurt Zoe all over again.
Despite being serious about calling things off between us, I didn’t turn my back on that connection completely. I couldn’t bring myself to, regardless of how angry I was.
Even if I still hurt her, I wasn’t willing to cause that kind of irreparable agony—not in a heated moment like that.
I was driven by pain of my own, but I wasn’t willing to go that far yet.
I had no way of knowing if it was the bond getting in the way and twisting my thoughts in an attempt to preserve itself or if it was a genuine desire of my own, but either way, I wasn’t going to be that heartless.
At the very least, I needed to go to Zoe directly and make that decision together.
While I mostly just wanted to turn my back on the situation and hope it would all go away at some point, I still knew it wasn’t right. At the end of it all, I still cared.
When my phone rang from next to me on the couch, I couldn’t help but wonder if it was Zoe hoping to reach out or Sebastian looking to address what happened. A flicker of hope surged through me at the thought of it being the former.
But when I saw my mom’s number on the screen, I scoffed and let it ring. With each passing second, forced to listen to that grating ringtone, I grew more irritated and just wanted it to stop.
That anger came back in a wave, along with the urge to just smash the phone and be done with it.
After a moment, the ringing stopped, and I let go of a breath with relief.
Usually, Mom would call periodically, then put some time between the next one. But ever since that tumultuous meeting with them and Zoe, the calls had stopped, which made me pause.
Staring at the phone from where it rested on the couch cushion, my eyes narrowed slightly.
It was strange, and recalling Kody’s threat to make my dad pay for not following through with his promise, I couldn’t help the faint sinking feeling in my stomach.
Then, it started ringing again.
That only made my suspicions deepen, along with that dread.
Letting go of a breath, I grabbed the phone, accepted the call, and brought it up to my ear.
“Mom—”
“—Ezra?” The immediate panic in her voice cut through my previous indifference. “Ezra, honey, please—”
Brows furrowing, I subconsciously leaned forward in my place, focusing entirely on the call. “Mom, what’s going on?”
Her voice, tight with fear and pitched higher than usual, reached my ears again. The line sounded somewhat crackled and broken up. “We need your help, Ezra. Someone…I think we’re outside your territory…please—”
There was no ignoring the urgency in her voice or how her throat sounded constricted by panic.
“Mom, are you okay?” I asked quickly, afraid the line might drop at any given moment. “Are you there?”
“Yes, I’m…I’m here…please, just—”
Her voice cut off, making my brows tighten even further. Then, the call dropped, and I was left alone in the silent room again. By then, it was deafening as I looked down at the phone.
I swallowed hard as my heart pounded in my chest, feeling more like it was lodged in my throat.
Even as I sat there, I could hear her terrified voice in my head, replaying again and again. She sounded so scared. Genuinely, truly horrified.
Never once had I ever heard that kind of tone from her, and it only made that guilt within me worse.
Sitting there, I knew I wasn’t responsible for them or their choices. I knew that they caused me harm and trauma that I likely wouldn’t ever fully heal from, but something about her pleas and the desperation in her voice ate away at me.
Their expectations and demands of me scarred me from when I was a child, and I didn’t particularly love them all that much, but that subconscious familial connection was screaming at me to do something anyway.
Even if they didn’t treat me well, I couldn’t just ignore it. I wouldn’t forgive myself if I never tried to find out.
If it had anything to do with Kody Arron, then there was a high chance he had done something to my dad, which meant Mom would likely be on her own and terrified. Even if she had never been warm to me, the thought of something awful happening to her still didn’t sit right with me. It could be the last chance for me to make any kind of amends with the past.
Unable to forget her agonizing fear, I pushed myself up from the couch and hurried out the door.
Regardless of everything else, I had to at least try and help.
Recalling what she mentioned about being near my pack grounds, I figured it wouldn’t take long for me to track her down, so at the very least, I could try and figure out what was going on.
But the moment I reached the front driveway, I spotted Sebastian and the other guys hurrying down the street towards me. Immediately, my features tightened, and I went to keep going, fully prepared to ignore them.
I didn’t have a reason to ice them all out, but I wasn't feeling too receptive, given that they were with Sebastian.
After everything went down, I didn’t want to see any of them.
I could feel the concern immediately surrounding them as I turned away and tried to maintain my momentum.
“Ezra, wait!”
I bristled at the sound of Ezra’s voice, immediately aggravated all over again. Continuing down the street, I wanted to stay angry. I needed time to sort through it all before I could even begin to start talking about anything.
“I tried to see Zoe to apologize, but I can’t find her,” Sebastian called out to me, sounding earnest. When I immediately paused in my tracks, he continued, “I picked up on another alpha’s scent at the gym.”
Immediately, the realization dawned on me, and it was all I could do to keep myself upright.
An alpha’s scent. Kody Arron.
Had he gone against his word and decided to take his anger out on me after all?
I could’ve sworn he meant what he said about not seeing me as his enemy, but given how my dad had wronged him, it was likely that sentiment also extended to me. His pride had been wounded, and he’d want retribution.
With Zoe missing and my mom’s frantic call, I could only assume that meant Kody had them. It seemed he wanted to threaten me with all three of them at once.
Turning to face them, my anger shifted into concern. “You’re absolutely sure she wasn’t in your territory?”
“I’m sure,” Sebastian said, worry clear as day in his features. “I looked everywhere and was going to check here with you.”
“She’s not…” I murmured, feeling the weight of that reality all over again. “She’s not here either.”
A mutual sense of alarm and panic settled between the group of us, and Ethan looked more serious than he usually did as he took a step forward.
“I’ll be damned if anyone thinks they can take Little Rivera…” he muttered, features fixed with anger. “We have to find her.”
There was no arguing, and we were immediately on the same page.
Despite our fight, I had to put everything aside for Zoe. I had to forget about my pride and focus on what really mattered.
At the end of the day, they were my friends, and I knew they’d always have my back.
“I still have the alpha’s scent along with hers,” Sebastian said, gesturing to the side. “He’s heading East. If we track him down, we should be able to find Zoe.”
With all the information we had, I knew nothing could change my mind or steer me off course. We had no choice but to go together, to put our effort and strength together to get her back.
Anger and concern coursed through me as the weight of it all settled on my shoulders, and it took everything in my power not to lose my mind.
But despite it, Sebastian held my gaze with a hint of reassurance in his words. “We’ll find her, Ezra.”
There was a moment of silent understanding between us then. Regardless of our spat and the things said between us, we both knew it didn’t matter at that moment. Zoe was the one thing that mattered, and even if the two of us had our differences, one thing was for certain—neither of us was willing to be without her.
Nodding as I put everything aside and set my sights on getting Zoe back, I let Sebastian lead the way as he followed that scent.
Despite my senses being heightened by my alarm and the need to get Zoe back, my sense of smell was almost too strong and seemed to confuse them all. Given how my parents and Zoe had been around, the scent trail I picked up on contained mostly their scents.
Since Sebastian’s read on Kody’s scent was the most recent, it only made sense for him to guide us forward with me right on his heels.
Even if I wasn’t picking up on Kody’s, I found my focus was squarely on Zoe’s, and as we hurried on that trail, she was all I could think about.
The group of us hurried in the right direction, moving through the woods as quickly and efficiently as we could. On the way, I caught the scents and blurred movement of my pack running alongside us in their shifted forms. Nick was on my right as a silent bid of camaraderie and support as his grey fur rippled from the breeze before taking a slight detour through the trees.
I didn’t know I needed the reminder until that moment, but seeing my beta and having the guys with me told me everything I needed to know. It set into place that I wasn’t alone, and I never was.
I had my pack. My alpha status and territory. I had my friends. Beyond that, I had my mate, and I had to get her back.
Despite my problems and baggage, I had people around me who cared, and it gave me the push I needed to keep going, to focus on Zoe, and to tie up those loose ends later.
As we moved through the grounds, eventually reaching the borders of my territory, those scents grew stronger, and we closed in around the hotspot where they all seemed to come together.
Running in, I was fully prepared to see Kody there, ready for the confrontation that had been put off long enough. But as I broke through the trees and took everything in, I soon realized my assumption had been way off.
I found Zoe bound with tape over her mouth and dazed, as I expected, but standing behind her was Rory with his claws extended at the side of her neck. In front of them, my dad stood there, seeming perfectly fine. His eyes were narrowed with a combination of triumph and anger.
Seeing the hazy alarm in Zoe’s features made my blood boil.
Realizing that Kody wasn’t there at all, I knew at once that it was Dane Sebastian had smelled at the gym. Everything seemed to fit together piece by piece in my mind, and at once, that rage consumed me.