Chapter 34
34
brIAR
“When are you coming to visit? We miss you, darling girl. You haven’t even called me often. This is the first time in nearly a month,” Mom says, pushing harder than the last five times she’s called asking me to come over.
“Your fathers have been even antsier than me.”
“I’m sorry. Tell them that I’ll come by soon, I promise. Life has been crazy.”
“Oh? And why is that? Do you have hot tea to spill?”
I recoil at her use of tea and spilling.
“Who taught you that saying?”
“I saw it online. Did I use it right?”
“You did, but maybe you shouldn’t say it. It sounds wrong coming from you.”
“I’m too old to be hip, Briar.”
“I didn’t say that.” Not exactly.
She huffs dramatically.
“Fine. I’ll keep the tea spilling to a minimum if you tell me what’s been keeping you so busy that you can’t come visit your parents.”
Sitting in the back lot of my apartment building, I shake my head at her subtle guilt-tripping.
My mom has always had a habit of laying it on extra thick, so this isn’t that surprising.
Back when I first moved out of the pack house, I would come visit every weekend.
Things have changed over the course of the last couple of years, and I don’t really have an explanation for that.
I love my mom and dads.
Life is just . . . hard sometimes.
Nothing is ever as simple as you’d hoped it would be.
I rub my lips together while butterflies fill my stomach.
“I’ve met my scent matches.”
“What? Briar Meadows! Excuse my mouth, but are you shitting me right now? When did this happen? Are you bringing them home with you when you come?”
It’s impossible not to laugh at her eagerness.
“Slow your horses, Mom.”
“You had a chance to tell me when my horses were slow, and you didn’t take it, so now you get my fast ones.”
“Oh, god. You’re killing me with these sayings.”
“Don’t try distracting me!”
“I’m not, you’re just being too antsy!”
She takes a very vocal few breaths.
“Okay, I’m better now.”
“You sure?”
“Yes, I’m sure. Out with it, Briar.”
“Fine, since you asked so nicely,” I tease, adjusting the heat I had blasting so I don’t sweat to death in here.
“There are four of them.”
Her squeal is so high-pitched it makes my ears ring.
“Four! Oh, sweetie. I knew you’d find them. It’s a Meadows specialty. Did you know that both your grandma and great-grandma had scent-matched packs?”
“Yes, Mom. You told me that all the time growing up.”
“Well, I’m saying it again. I remember when you used to stay up past your bedtime asking Rodger if he thought you’d find a pack like ours.”
“He told you about that?” I ask, cheeks hot.
“Of course he did. At first, he swore up and down that he’d never allow it, but I know he eased into the idea the older you got.”
Rodger is one of three alphas in my mom’s pack.
We’ve never known which of them was my biological father, and honestly, it’s never mattered to me.
They’re all my dads.
Growing up as their only child meant that I got too much attention, good and bad.
It was a lot easier to get approval for things I wanted but a lot harder to hide when I messed up.
“Well, I hope he’s eased into it enough because they’re not really the types to let anyone tell them whether or not they can be with someone,” I say.
“Is that so? They’re tough, then. That’s good. You need tough.”
“What does that mean?”
She hums. “Nothing bad, sweetie. Just that you can be a bit . . . shy at times. You don’t like causing waves, and that means that you can let others walk all over you. Having a pack who isn’t afraid to stand up on your behalf isn’t a bad thing. They say we find mates who fit with us perfectly.”
“You’re right. There have been a couple of those times already.”
I purposely leave out the most recent example of that from two nights ago when Sadie’s mates showed up at her place.
Without Ronan there with me, there’s no telling if things would have gone the way they did.
Knowing he was there to stand up for not only me but Sadie and Clover, too, was everything I didn’t know I needed.
I even saw him hanging around outside of my apartment building last night.
While he never said anything to me about it before or after, I recognized him and the bike he sat perched on.
The only explanation I have for his secret appearance is that he still felt uneasy after our time with Thorne.
If I find him there again tonight, I’ve already promised myself that I’ll go down and invite him inside.
I should have done that last night, but when he didn’t tell me he was there, I didn’t want to be clingy, thinking he was there to see me.
Now, it seems ridiculous to have thought that way.
“And? Did you say thank you, at least?” Mom asks.
“Before and after, since you’re so curious.”
“Oh, don’t give me that. I’m just excited for you. What are their names? How old are they? What do they do for work? Do they live in Rayton?”
“You’re asking too many questions at once again, Mom,” I chastise lightly.
My butt aches from sitting on it all day in an office chair and now here in the car.
Paperwork days are my least favourite, but they have to be done.
We haven’t had a patient give birth in a week now, and I’m starting to get antsy.
Sadie, while stressed and anxious to the max, was still not anywhere close to ready to pop the other night.
She begged Clover to check her cervix, but she didn’t show any signs of her labour coming soon despite her due date being only three days away.
All I could do to help was send all of my suggested ways to naturally induce labour and hope for the best.
At least Thorne and Sebastian haven’t attempted to pound their way into her place again.
I turn off my car and pop open the door before stepping out into the warm evening.
“Okay, first of all, tell me their names,” Mom begs.
“Ronan, Jasper, Dash, and Landon. They’re all the same age.”
“And that is? Don’t tell me they’re much older than you. Your dads will have a total fit if you’re mated with men more than ten years older than you.”
“They’re only two years older than me.”
“Twenty-seven isn’t bad. Do they have money?”
Shoving my door shut with my hip, I let out a loud, snorted laugh.
“Mom!”
“What? I just mean it would be nice if they were well enough off to be able to take care of you.”
“I don’t need anyone to take care of me.”
Mom clucks her tongue.
“Briar. Work with me here.”
“Alright. Yes, Mom. I think they’re well off.”
“Thank you. That wasn’t so hard, was it?”
“I’m walking up to my building right now. Keep teasing me and I’ll hang up on you before I get there,” I warn, locking the car doors.
“Since you brought it up—you need to move out of that place.”
“How many times are you going to tell me that?”
“As many as it takes! That place is very unsafe.”
“You haven’t been here in months. Maybe it’s better now.”
“Well, is it?” she counters.
I pause, opening up the heavy front door.
“No.”
“Exactly. Do me and your fathers a favour and move in with your pack instead. Surely, they have somewhere better for you to live. Safer .”
“You’ll be pleased to know that it’s very safe.”
My keys jingle as I pull them out of my purse and use my fob to open the inside door.
The lock clicks before I shove it forward and then pull it shut behind me.
The hallways are empty, and the de-scenter burns my nose after my first inhale.
There’s a tingle in the back of my mind as I head toward my apartment, but I ignore it, chalking it up to exhaustion after a long day.
“That’s a relief, at least. Will you be doing as I want and moving in with them, then?”
“You make it sound so easy. Did you forget what it was like when you first started dating the dads?”
“Now that you mention it, I remember a bucketload of courting gifts. Tell me that your scent matches have been spoiling you. That’s the best part of all this. Alphas are stubborn, arrogant creatures, and the courting phase makes it worth all the hassle they bring.”
The three steps down to my apartment appear in front of me as I swap my phone to my other hand and get ready to unlock the door.
“I got a delivery the other day with a custom jersey to match theirs,” I tell her before pushing my key toward the handle.
There was no point. I nudge the door with my toe and watch with a cement block filling my stomach as it floats open, the cheap wood floors inside appearing.
“A jersey? What kind? Did you suddenly start watching sports?”
“It’s a long . . . story . . .”
My entire body seizes up when I stare down at my broken door handle.
I gulp despite my dry throat and push the door open further.
Words are a foreign concept.
I blink a few times and rub at my face as if I’m imagining the colossal mess in front of me and it’ll magically go back to the clean state I left it in this morning.
“Briar? Hello? Are you still there? You can’t ignore me and hope I’ll just drop the subject.”
A minute passes with the state of my home not changing.
Fear strikes deep when I take a longer look around and realize how much damage has been done.
With fist-sized holes in the wall, my couch cushions slashed, and all of the food from inside my fridge dumped out, it looks like a wild animal tore through here.
I shouldn’t go any further inside.
Not on my own.
But this is my home.
My safe space. The looming danger of whoever did this still being here only makes me want to go inside more.
“I have to go, Mom,” I ramble, unable to hide the fear in my voice.
It’s wobbly and weak, and I know she can tell.
“What’s wrong? What happened?”
I hang up before her worry convinces me to ask her to come help me instead of who my instincts are demanding I call.
Still standing outside of my apartment, I fumble with shaking fingers to pull up the name of the person I know I need right now.
Every second the dial tone rings, my heart rate speeds up.
He sounds surprised when he answers.
“Briar?”
“Lan—Landon? I—” My words get swallowed in a frantic inhale.
“I need you.”
“Where are you?”
I grasp my throat.
My skin is ice-cold.
“My apartment.”
“I’ll be there in five minutes.”
“That’s not possible,” I whisper, sinking against the wall behind me.
“It is for me. What’s wrong? Are you safe?”
“I don’t know.”
A muffled curse comes before he says, “Can you get safe?”
I’m unprepared for the swell of emotion that hits me.
I suck in a sharp breath and pull the phone from my ear, holding it to my chest as I gasp in breaths.
It’s embarrassing, maybe even a bit pathetic at how deeply his concern affects me, but I can’t help it.
This man, this emotionally unavailable alpha who seems so sure that we’re not meant to be together, is worried enough about me to drop whatever he was doing and come to my rescue without even knowing what’s wrong.
Blinking away the burn in my eyes, I slowly bring my phone back to my ear.
“I think they’re gone.”
“Who?” he snaps, but there’s no bite to it.
“Whoever broke in,” I whisper.
He releases a rough exhale.
“Alright. I need you to go up to the second floor of the building and to apartment 203.”
“Why?”
“Ronan’s family lives there. If you tell them who you are, they’ll let you in, and I’ll come there as soon as I get to the building.”
“His family?” I echo, shock settling over every other emotion trampling over me.
“I didn’t know they lived here.”
How didn’t I know that?
Why didn’t he tell me?
God, I’ve totally messed this all up.
“You can take that up with him later. Just go, Haven. Now.”
“You’ll be here soon?”
“I’ll be there soon. As fast as I possibly can.”