Eight
Orion
The picture of her is seared into the forefront of my mind but I still hold it in front of me, refreshing the screen every few seconds so that it doesn’t disappear. I’d be an idiot to deny that she’s the single most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen in my life. But there’s something going on with her and I have a twisted feeling in my gut that I know exactly what it is. And it changes this entire road trip me, Kito and Adair are currently on.
“You good, bro?” Kito asks, his own face flushed. He heard every single word me and JJ shared and there’s no hiding that his dark jeans are tented, just the same as mine.
“I think it’s safe to say I know what’s going on with JJ,” I admit quietly, adjusting myself in my seat.
“You think she’s in heat,” Kito begins, eyes focused on the empty motorway in front of him. “Don’t you?”
I nod, biting down on my bottom lip until I taste copper. “This changes the whole trip.”
Silence spreads like a virus throughout the car and we sit there, dwelling on the decision we’ve made.
Finally, Kito speaks. “No, it doesn’t. She needs us and we’re going to be there. In whatever capacity she’ll have us. Whether that be taking care of her in her heat or delivering food parcels through the letterbox, we’re going to be there for her because she doesn’t have anyone else.”
He pauses, thumping his fist on the steering wheel. “That fucking boyfriend of hers.”
“Waste of fucking space,” I grumble, trying not to let the rage ruin the fact I’m only an hour away from seeing JJ in the flesh. “Let’s get Adair on the phone, we need to talk this through.”
Adair answers within a few rings, just as I’m downing my second Redbull.
“Hey, everything okay?” he asks in his light Highland accent, which is much more gentle than Kito’s and my Edinburgh accents. It’s similar to JJ’s in that respect, which only makes me think just how excited I am to hear her in person for the first time.
Kito and I move to speak at the same time, simultaneously saying, “JJ’s in heat.”
Everyone stays quiet, Adair breathing heavily on the other end of the phone.
“I don’t think I can do this,” Adair mutters, fear no doubt gripping him like a vice. “How do you know?”
“Aside from a very x-rated conversation she just had with Orion?” Kito quips with the sensitivity of a fucking mongoose. Adair doesn’t talk about his past often, but we’ve known him long enough that we got the whole story in fragments. We watched him fall apart and were there as he started to build himself back up again, but he still isn’t whole. I think a large part of his healing is down to JJ, but I just know that finding out that JJ is an omega in heat might be enough to send him right back to the dark place we all dug him out of years ago.
“Just call it an educated guess,” I reply, ignoring Kito. “Listen, Adair, this is going to be fine. You can do this, it’s JJ.”
“You know what happened last time,” he whispers and the emotion in his voice is enough to make my eyes sting.
We might not be a pack officially but we’re so close to one another that we feel everything the other is feeling deeply. Adair hasn’t even shared his past with JJ and we only know about it because we were around when it happened. The three of us had met at university years ago and had all lived in Edinburgh after graduating. Adair moved home after everything that happened, preferring the quiet and solitude the Highlands could offer. It left me and Kito unable to afford our flat at the time, so we’d both moved out of the city but remained only about an hour away from each other. Still, we were never ones for meeting up in person aside from the odd time something major was going on. Staying in touch through gaming was just easier for everyone involved. Less emotions. Less need to worry about real-life shit. It was an escape we all needed.
“Adair that was a one in a million…” I begin but worry that no matter what I say, Adair is going to turn his car around and race back to his place in the Highlands.
Kito clears his throat before he speaks, his tone gentle. “JJ isn’t Katya, Adair. This is different.”
I hear Adair swallow thickly over the speaker. “But she’s chronically ill. She has so many things going on health-wise. We have no idea how her body will cope with a heat. I mean Katya, she was perfectly healthy and…”
“I know, Adair,” Kito replies softly. “We know.”
“What if I fuck this up.” There are tears in Adair’s voice that break my heart into a million little pieces.
“Then we’ll be here to fix it,” I reply, knowing that no matter what we say we’ll never be able to convince Adair that he did nothing wrong the first time round. “You’re not on your own this time.”
“I sent you a pin on maps, how far away are you?” Adair asks suddenly, clearing his throat of tears. I pull out my phone and click on the location pin, calculating the distance from where we are now to there.
“About forty minutes,” I reply. “We’re just about to pull off the motorway.”
“Good,” Adair breathes. “I’m about thirty minutes out so I’ll wait for you there and then we can head over to hers together. It’s probably best if we go in one car, I don’t know what the parking situation is but I know she lives out in the woods.”
With Adair somewhat settled, that rippling feeling of excitement begins to flood my veins again. It spreads out to the tips of my fingers and warms my chest. The thought of seeing JJ in person is enough to drive me wild. Even if she wants us to stay away during her heat, we can make sure she’s taken care of. Make sure she has food and water, that she’s clean and comfortable. I just have to hope that three alphas turning up on her doorstep isn’t her idea of a nightmare.
***
Falwood is even smaller than I’d anticipated. Driving through the village at past midnight there isn’t a single person or car on the move. So far I haven’t seen a house with its lights on and the only sound is the water running under the bridge where we’re meeting Adair. Although he said he was thirty minutes out, he hasn’t arrived at the meeting place yet. Panic sets in as Kito and I hover at the bridge end, the cool night air making my skin prickle with goosebumps. In a dark hoody and jeans, I thought I was under dressed, but Kito looks even more out of place in his cropped band tee and cargo trousers.
“How is it so fucking cold?” he moans, rubbing his hands up and down his arms.
“Maybe because you’re wearing your ten-year-old nephew’s t-shirt you fucking idiot,” I reply with a grin, resulting in him throwing a fake punch at my gut. We fight for a few seconds in the middle of the quiet village, only stopping our immature actions when we see the flash of headlights in the distance.
“Is that his car?” Kito asks, stepping back and running his hands through his hair to tidy it up. “I can’t tell.”
“We haven’t seen another person for thirty minutes, it’s gotta be him.” I step away from the side of the bridge and shield my eyes from the headlights as the car comes to a standstill in front of ours.
The window rolls down and Adair sticks his hand out to wave. “Sorry, I had a thing…”
I know that what he wants to say is that he got close to JJ’s fishing village and turned the car around, probably multiple times before deciding to meet us.
“You’re here now, that’s all that matters,” Kito says, pulling the car door open and letting Adair step out. The minute he’s out of the car Kito wraps his arms around Adair’s shoulders. They’re about the same height, hovering at a respectable six feet five inches, the average height for an alpha these days. But Adair’s body language screams anything but alpha, he’s curled in on himself, wide shoulders slumped. He’s thinner than he was the last time I saw him, his white t-shirt clinging to his lithe muscle.
“Hey man,” I say as Kito releases him, making it my turn to capture him in a bear hug. “Proud of you for coming.” My hand lingers in his soft golden hair and I press a kiss to the top of his head before letting him go.
“Well, what do you say?” Kito bellows with a grin, clapping his hands together. “Shall we deliver three emotionally unstable alphas to what’s probably about to be an absolutely raging JJ?”
My eyes lock with Adair who smiles weakly. “Let’s do it.”