Chapter 38
38
DASH
After disappearing into thin air, Landon sent a text to the group chat letting us know he was on his way home with Briar.
That’s all the warning we got, and that was well over an hour ago.
Coming back to the dressing room after practice to find him and his stuff gone with no explanation was alarming, to say the least. Jasper scoured the arena from top to bottom in search of him before we got to the parking lot and realized the SUV was also nowhere to be seen.
One tense Uber ride later and I was pacing the kitchen, threatening to call the police.
Ronan quickly shut that idea down, reminding us that he hadn’t even been missing for an hour.
“Does he think that’s enough? Just that he’s on his way?” Jasper asks.
Ronan grips the counter until his knuckles are white.
“Did he take her somewhere?”
“Would it even matter now? It’s too late to try and get any warning. He could have at least left us a way of getting home instead of abandoning us completely.”
There are three open beer bottles on the counter, two full and the third empty.
I’m the only one of us who gulped every drop of one, needing it to soothe some of my anxiety.
“Am I the only one concerned about what they were doing together? This is out of character for him,” Ronan mutters.
I frown. “He wouldn’t hurt her.”
“I didn’t mean like that. Just that he’s been pretty fucking rude to her in the past.”
Jasper leans his forearms on the kitchen island and blows out a breath.
The stress lines in his face aren’t the most comforting.
“We need to have a pack meeting. How we’ve been recently . . . things can’t stay like this. We’ll collapse.”
“I agree,” I say.
Ronan taps his fingers to the countertop.
“What do you think a meeting will do? Are we going to host an intervention?”
“It’s worth a shot. I want us to be happy, Ro. All of us together. Not just those of us who are prepared to welcome Briar into the pack. We need to figure out a path forward together,” Jasper declares.
Ronan doesn’t seem convinced.
“Landon’s the only one with the issue. He needs to figure his shit out for the sake of all of us.”
“We’re pack. It’s our job to help him with that. And Briar needs us to as well. We can’t pretend that her heat isn’t coming any day now. If we don’t get things figured out before it hits . . .” Jasper’s words trail off, and a collective fog of dread hangs above us all.
I swallow, tasting the bitter beer that’s lingering in my throat while staring at Ronan.
“He’s right. We need to discuss things with Briar and figure out what she wants to do once that time comes. I’m assuming you and Jasper will be the ones involved.”
“Not you?” It comes from Jasper.
It feels wrong to say no, but there’s no way she’d want me there with her during her heat when I’ve been so adamant that she’s not my scent match.
“I don’t see that happening,” I say.
Ronan chuckles lowly, not a hunt of humour in the noise.
“Maybe if you stopped thinking so much about what Landon wants and focused on yourself, you wouldn’t be left out.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I ask roughly.
“You’re no better than Landon. This loyalty you feel to him has blinded you.”
“Just because I don’t feel the same way you do?—”
Ronan pushes against the edge of the island, eyes narrowed and gaze cold.
“Don’t. You sound like a fool when you say shit like that.”
I don’t have a reply.
His words sink in as I stand there, marinating in the frustration he has toward me.
When I pull my gaze away and to where Jasper watches us, I hate that I can see the same feelings written all over his face.
“Landon’s gone to battle on my behalf, and I owe him my loyalty,” I try and argue.
Jasper nods. “I know. Ronan and I do too. There’s a reason we chose him to be the leader of the pack. But at what point do we have to question if he would want us to lose our chance at our one-in-a-trillion omega because we’re too focused on keeping the pack together.”
“We deserve a chance with her. She’s my scent match and my mate,” Ronan snaps.
Jasper smiles faintly.
“As she’s mine.”
“She’s all of ours.”
Surprise flashes across my packmates’ faces, and I spin around, following the shift in their attention.
When I do, Landon stares back at me.
I can only gawk at the sight of his arm behind Briar, a hand seemingly resting on her back as they lean close.
The beautiful omega blinks up at Landon, a lip nestled beneath her teeth.
There’s a glow to them, a sign that something happened while they were gone.
Something that’s brought the colour back to Landon’s face and a warmth to the dark eyes that have been slowly dying the last few weeks.
Ronan, seeming to pick up on the same things I have, grunts, “What happened?”
“I should be the one asking you that,” Landon snips, his peaceful expression slipping.
“Living room. Now . We’re having a pack meeting.”
“That was our plan as well,” Jasper puts in.
Briar smiles at him, reluctantly stepping away from Landon.
She lingers near me on her way around the island to Ronan, and I breathe through my mouth to avoid inhaling her lemon scent.
Now isn’t the time to be trying to figure out if I’ve been a fool all this time.
The rejection that fills her eyes bites, but it’s better than taking attention from what Landon wants to talk about.
“Hi, Dash,” she says.
“Hey.”
“I like that colour on you.”
Jasper chuckles as I glance down at the peachy T-shirt I threw on after practice.
It’s got a lame quote on it that says, “Need Vitamin Sea?” with a cartoon starfish waving an arm.
I’m pretty sure it was a gag gift at Christmas a couple of years ago.
Still, the compliment makes my chest swell.
“Thank you.”
She slips past me, disappearing and leaving me with nobody to look at besides Landon.
His glower is intense, almost threatening.
I lift a brow in a silent question.
What?
Careful , his glare says.
It’s clear what happened between them changed more than any of us are prepared to learn.
I’m happy for him, but if he’s decided to accept Briar, where does that leave me?
I’m not only the only beta in the pack but the only one of us without a scent match.
The demons I’ve been ignoring from the moment I said yes to joining the Montgomery pack howl in triumph.
The deep-rooted doubts of not belonging somewhere I need to be eat at me no matter how many times I tell myself that I’m here for a reason.
“Come with me,” Landon says, the demand shot in my direction.
I push away from the island without looking to see which man Briar’s gone to first and trail behind him as we move between rooms. By the time we reach the living room, my chest is tighter than it has been in a long while.
“Do you want to tell me what’s going on?” he asks, taking a seat on the sectional.
The living room is wide and open with a skylight in the ceiling above us.
If it weren’t after sunset, I’d be able to feel the warmth from the sun on my face when I sit beside him.
“Do you?” I return.
Even his posture has loosened, his shoulders dropped and jaw relaxed.
“You’re the one staring into space like you’re waiting for a miracle to pop out in front of you.”
I lick my lips, shaking my head.
“Have you ever wondered why I was in our pack?”
“Are you being serious?”
“I am.”
“Fuck, Dash. You’re in our pack because we’re brothers. It was set out to be this way from the moment we were born.”
“If that were the case, I would have designated as an alpha.”
Landon spreads his legs before leaning over them, elbows digging into the meaty part of his thighs.
“Why does it matter what designation you are? Alpha, beta, fucking labradoodle, you’re pack. That’s never going to change.”
“I’d have recognized her, Lan,” I croak.
“Not if you didn’t want to.”
I drag a hand through my hair, meeting his stare.
“What do you mean?”
“Do you remember when we were in twelfth grade and the four of us were asked to go to Kale River’s house party?”
“He was a weasel.”
Landon chokes on a laugh.
“Yeah, he was. That’s not what I’m getting at, though.”
“What, then?”
“When we got to his place, you went to greet him and overheard him talking shit about my dad. He was running his mouth about his washed-up career and how I was wasting my time on the ice trying to be better than him.”
I remember every word that guy said and the fight that broke out afterward.
Landon continues, not giving me a chance to interrupt.
“You were never the guy to cause a scene. It was always you, the three of us, and the computer you spent two summers of savings to buy. But that night? You stormed over to Kale and bull tackled him in into his pool.”
“I never wanted to be friends with that guy, anyway,” I say.
“No, but if you hadn’t tackled him, you’d have gotten a chance at checking out his gaming room, and I know you wanted that bad at the time. It’s the only reason we went there in the first place.”
“A gaming room was never more important to me than you, Lan. Like you said, we’re pack. Even back then.”
“Exactly. Over and over again, you’ve given up things you’ve wanted because I’ve either had a negative interaction with someone or lost out on an opportunity that they opted out of offering me. Your loyalty is unshakable. Back then and right now.”
I shift on the couch.
“Is there a point to this walk through history?”
“Yeah, smartass. You’re too busy worrying about me and how I feel that you’re not thinking of yourself.”
“You’re the second person to say that to me now,” I say.
“And are you listening?”
“You want me to give her a chance when you’ve been doing the opposite for weeks.”
He nods, not hiding from the accusation.
“And I’m dealing with that now.”
“Why the change of heart?”
“That’s what I want to talk to all of you about.”
I lean back, relaxing slightly.
“I can accept that.”
“For what it’s worth, Dash, I’m sorry for getting between you and Briar.”
“Why should you apologize? I inserted you there all on my own.”
“So, you’re admitting it, then,” he says far too smugly.
I chuff a laugh. “Have you known this entire time what I’ve been doing?”
“For as long as you’ve been doing it. I couldn’t face it without owning my own shit first.”
“And you’re ready for that now,” I say, trying not to sound sceptical but failing.
“Yes. You could say that.”