Chapter 19 #3
Leaving the bag on the bed, I open the door to the bedroom and go out into the hall to use the restroom.
My nerves are starting to flare as I remember how much I don’t know about where we’re going.
I remind myself that Silas has done nothing to make me distrust him, and that maybe his pack came up before he did.
Washing my hands, I take several cleansing breaths before drying them. It’s like I’m giving myself a pep talk, and I chuckle at myself a bit.
“You’re being silly,” I whisper.
Opening the bathroom door, I find the bag has already been removed from the bedroom, and that Silas is waiting for me. He’s already wearing a coat and gloves, and has changed into a pair of boots.
“Ready?” he asks, his piercing gaze moving over me. “Coat, gloves, and hat. Here, put these on, please.”
I take them from him and pull on the coat, smiling as I button it up.
“In the pocket, you’ll find a button that’ll work the heating element,” he says. “Push it on if you’re cold, and again to turn it off.”
“That’s amazing,” I grin, fixing my gloves.
Taking the hat from me, he carefully puts it on so that my wig doesn’t move at all.
“They’re tools to keep the omega wrapped in them from freezing,” he says, taking my hand to walk down the aisle and off the plane. “We’re going to drive up to the house now, which is up the mountain. The house actually belongs to Lyle’s family. We all borrow it whenever we want.”
“That sounds nice,” I say, glad to be bundled up as the wind whips around us. There’s an SUV waiting for us as we leave the plane, and Silas hurries to open the door for me.
Coming around, he gets into the driver’s side.
“I’m sure you have a lot of questions,” he says. “I know not all of this makes sense, but I really want you to know that your happiness comes first. That’s all that matters to any of us.”
I want to ask him why, but that feels as if I’m trivializing the passion in his words as he puts the SUV into drive. Quickly buckling myself up, I press my lips together to hold my questions back.
I don’t know what’s up at the mountain house, or why this is so important to him, but I’m willing to wait.
The drive is beautiful, and I get lost in the snow flurries as they begin to fall. It starts to get heavier the higher we go, but Silas doesn’t appear worried as he drives. There’s a lot of traffic on the road until we turn off onto a side road, and then it’s quiet and deserted.
There are houses nestled into the mountain here and there, appearing as if they’re trying to hide from the snow. The thought makes me smile a little, but it drops as Silas turns down a long driveway.
“Almost there,” he promises.
“It looks like it’s really coming down,” I observe worriedly.
“You’re not really going to need to leave much,” he promises. “The house has everything, it’s already been filled with food and wood in case it’s snowed in.”
The way he says that makes me glance at him suspiciously, however he doesn’t explain.
“Silas, this is getting weird," I admit.
“I know,” he says, blowing out a breath. “There’s just no more time. I can’t ease you into this, Nina. Your mother is too volatile.”
Parking, he doesn’t give me a chance to ask what the fuck he’s talking about before he’s putting the vehicle into park and turning it off.
“Come on, let’s get out,” he says, opening the door wide and grabbing the bag from the back seat.
I want to tell him ‘no’. My heart is pounding, and my fingers are twitching as my body tells me something isn’t right. Except, he slams the door shut and comes around to open my door. Silas even unbuckles me and tugs me gently out of the car.
“I promise whatever is on the other side of that door is important to you,” he says, his hand pushing my door closed behind me.
The snow freezes any tears that may be threatening to fall because I don’t know what the fuck is happening right now. Swallowing hard, I gaze at him.
“You’re not making any sense,” I rasp.
“Sometimes, the best things in life don’t,” he promises, pulling me into motion.
The cold feels as if it’s freezing my sinuses and lungs as I pull in oxygen to keep myself from freaking out as I walk beside him. The house is two floors high with a wraparound porch, but I can’t seem to enjoy anything more than that before Silas is unlocking the door.
My heart is thumping in my chest, and everything tells me that my life is going to somehow change. Silas isn’t the type to wax poetic, which means this is something really fucking big.
The door swings open, and he squeezes my hand before walking inside with me. My anxiety has this odd alternative reality where he shoves me inside instead and locks me in. My imagination is very rude.
I’m safe, I’m safe, I’m safe.
I keep chanting that to myself as the door closes behind me and I flinch.
“Hey, we’re here,” Silas calls out. “The weather is getting pretty bad out, so I couldn’t let you know.”
Relaxing slightly, I expect to see his pack coming down the stairs. I can hear the footsteps, though they don’t say anything. Everything he says makes sense. I didn’t see another car in the driveway, but I wasn’t paying attention.
He also couldn’t have texted or called to announce that we were almost here because the snow really is beginning to come down.
When I instead see alphas with sandy brown hair, dirty blonde hair, and an alpha covered in tattoos, my mind stutters to a stop. I know one of these alphas, but there’s no reason why I’d believe he would be here today.
“What…” I whisper, shaking my head.
“I want you to listen to me,” Silas says and I look from him to them.
“Nina, breathe,” Ellis says. Swallowing hard, I decide that I’d rather him call me the nickname he’s insisted on calling me.
“I don’t understand,” I hiss, glaring at Silas.
“Fate and your mother took something from you,” the alpha says patiently, tugging off a glove as he drops my bag on the ground.
A growl fills the air, but Silas turns me around to continue to pull off my other glove.
“Hush,” he barks, though not to me. “They’re just gloves. You know I haven’t touched her in any other way.”
His fingers begin to nimbly unbutton my coat, his eyes glancing to the side from time to time.
“The reason the four packs that are courting you haven’t chosen is because you have one already,” he says.
“The alphas in this room are good men, and one of them is feral. You had nothing to do with that. In fact, there’s no way you could know it.
The point of this is for you to know you’re perfect. ”
The growl gets louder, and Silas rolls his eyes.
“Can you pull your coat off, please? He’s a bit on edge,” he says.
Doing as he asks, I glance to the side. The alpha who is growling is tall with wide shoulders and dark eyes that almost appear black from here.
There are sections of his hair that are darker than others, making me wonder if it lightens in the sun.
It’s an odd thing to think about, and I move my eyes to where his fists are clenched and his lip snarled.
“On edge” is an understatement. Silas hangs up my coat before giving me his full attention.
“I know this sounds crazy,” he tells me. “However, I know the hospital took memories from you as well. Everything you told me corroborates their story, even though it makes me want to rip your mother’s heart out of her chest.”
The growl died down a bit, making Silas smirk in amusement.
“I need you to take a leap of faith for me,” he says.
“You know Ellis, and there’s a reason we all invited him to everything possible.
It’s also why we don’t care if you kiss him, or if he constantly has his hand around your shoulders.
You’re his, you just don’t remember. I know you can’t get back the time you lost, but the only way to escape your mother is to connect with them now. ”
I can hear the truth of every word he says to me, even though it seems bizarre.
I read a book this week that was an Alice in Wonderland retelling, and I feel as if I just fell through the looking glass.
I force myself to stay in the present and not drift, curling my toes in my boots until they cramp, grounding me.
In for a penny, in for a pound. It looks like I am going to need to see this through.
“Okay,” I whisper.