16. Hunter
Chapter sixteen
Hunter
Bethany walks into the kitchen alone. I watch as her eyes flit around the room until she spots me, and there her gaze stays. It’s nice to know that I’m the one she’s searching for.
“Take a seat.”
The wooden chair creaks a little as she gets herself settled. I grab the plate of food and walk around the island to the small table. Four chairs. We only needed three. Why are there four?
I’m glad.
I sit beside her and pick up the fork before she can reach for it.
“Let me, please?”
She inclines her head, but there’s a hesitation in her eyes, and I don’t blame her at all. The vulnerable side of this omega is showing. We made her be so strong. We made her survive on her own.
We don’t deserve her.
I twist a little coil of pasta on the end of the fork and carefully carry it to her lips. She opens her mouth obediently, but it’s the moment after her mouth closes that I wait for. Her eyes widen, she makes a moaning sound, and I know I’ve done good. I get another coil of pasta ready and wait for her to finish her mouthful.
“We worked an endless parade of different jobs in those early days. Factory work, bar work. Saint drove people around. We saved up everything we could, sleeping in a one room shithole of an apartment. And, eventually, we worked our way up. From there, we had enough to buy this shitty little place outright. And for two years, we struggled, and one night, it just exploded, and we got traction, and the more improvements we did, the more they came. And that’s how Dynasty was born.”
I keep feeding her while I’m talking.
“There, we kept saving until we could afford this place. We don't have a mortgage. We own it outright, we own the bar outright, too. That security was a dream we were working towards. We needed to have a home. We needed to have a way to support ourselves.”
“Do you think I’m a threat to that?” she asks with hurt in her voice.
I shake my head before she even finishes the sentence. “Not in the way you’re thinking. We didn’t dream of changing the world or becoming stars. Our dreams never got past safety and security. Our dreams were small, Bethany. We didn’t dream big. We did not even think that you could exist. But here you are, and if you do exist, and you’re here…then how long until our luck runs out?”
“Your logic is flawed,” she points out dispassionately.
“I’m aware of that. But it’s, like, we have our dreams, having you seems too much.”
She throws her head back and laughs. It’s a cold laugh, and I find myself watching her in captivated awe.
“If we’re going by your logic, then haven’t we all suffered enough, and perhaps this is the universe’s way of rewarding us?”
I open my mouth, but she takes the fork and shoves some pasta in my mouth before I can protest.
“Maybe this is fate. Who would have thought I’d be so desperate, so down on my luck, so close to throwing in the towel, that I’d walk into the bar owned by my scent matches, and then in a room full of people, still defying the odds, meet you.”
Her cheeks have turned pink, and her eyes glitter. Now, this is a side of her that I haven’t seen. Angry, fierce. She is incredible.
“But-”
“Maybe the universe gave you what you needed, but maybe it was trying to give me what I needed? Either way, I find this conversation mildly offensive and irritating.”
“Why?” I snap at her, annoyed that she’s dismissing my thoughts.
“Because you are presuming to know fate’s intentions, and you don’t know. You can spin your argument all day long, but I can match you with mine. The fact of the matter is I was here. You had me. It was going to work out. And then you all got scared, tucked tail, and ran,” Bethany growls and stands up.
I stand up, too. “You ran, too. You ran so far I couldn’t find you.”
I shut my eyes as the realisation of what I’ve said crashes into me. The silence is heavy and filled with the scent of passion fruit.
“Did you, by any chance, look for me, Hunter?” Bethany asks gently. I can feel her moving closer to me.
“Of course, I looked for you. I wanted to make sure you were safe. You weren’t supposed to leave! You were supposed to stay where I could protect you and feed you and-” I silence my mouth before I say anything else.
“You were supposed to love me,” she says quietly in response. I open my eyes and stare at her, captivated by the clearest blue. “Hunter, you were supposed to love me back.”
My words might have been said in a shout, but it’s her quiet response that thunders around the room, echoing in my mind.
My resolve shatters.
“I did. God help me, but I do. But love isn’t enough. Love isn’t trust, respect, honour, values. Love can be tricky and cruel, it can trap you, and I don’t want that for my pack, and I didn’t want it for you.”
“Love is worth fighting for if you know what it looks like. If you’d have seen what I’ve seen, you would fight. You would be brave.”
She’s got so much passion, so much fire in her. Standing toe-to-toe with me, unafraid.
I step back, giving myself room as my voice rips out of me. “That’s exactly it. I haven’t. All I know is telling someone you love them while you beat the shit out of them. Saying you love someone as you dump them somewhere. I love you are three words that have only brought disaster to us. Unlike Saint and Crow, who don’t know if they believe in it, I do. I just hate it.”
She steps back, a frown on her face that has me reaching for her. But she holds up her hand, stopping me.
“I just, I need to think.”
I let my arms fall to my sides. She’s barely eaten her food, but now she’s leaving, and I want to stop her. I’m terrified she will vanish again. She makes me weak; she makes me remember all the things that hurt me.
We don’t deserve her.
But I want her.
So, I don’t stop her when she vanishes; instead, I sit at the table and stare at the wood. Wondering what on Earth I’m supposed to do now?
How did this get so fucked up?
Bethany slams our bedroom door open after we’ve slept only a few hours. I’m still bleary-eyed as I try to wake up enough to understand what she’s saying.
“What?” Saint says. “Is something wrong? What’s going on? I’ll kill them. Just come here.”
Bethany’s voice stops, and I see her biting her bottom lip as Saint grips her wrist and tows her towards the bed.
“Just a few more minutes. Come snuggle, Omega.”
My eyes widen. Saint is clearly not quite awake yet.
“Get up, get dressed. You’re coming out with me today,” Bethany says in a high voice.
“Why?” Saint growls and nuzzles her stomach.
Fuck, I’m getting hard, and all I can smell is passion fruit.
“My parents would like to thank you for taking care of me.”
Say what now? I sit up and exchange a wide-eyed look with Crow. All thoughts of sex evaporate as pure terror takes over me. Her parents want to thank us? Is this an assassination?
“Is thank you a code word for murder?” Saint asks as he heads to the bathroom. I’m not so sure he was actually asleep now. I watch him with narrowed eyes. The omega is flustered and distracted.
I envy how calm he is. I wish I could be so unaffected.
I spot her expression and glance at Saint. He’s come back out and has got a towel wrapped around his waist, and all the rest of him is exposed. He looks divine.
As usual.
With some powerful control, Bethany turns her back on us and says over her shoulder. “You have half an hour.”
I scowl, but my insides are roiling. What if they hate us?
“They already hate us, and yes, you’re talking out loud again,” Saint snaps.
Crow scuttles off the bed and rushes for the walk-in robes. I go straight to the shower and get in, trying to calm myself, but it doesn’t work.
I spend far too long trying to figure out what to wear until Crow takes pity on me and shoves my favourite jeans and a nice shirt into my hands with a snarled, “Hurry up.”
Bethany is sitting in the driver’s seat of Crow’s huge SUV when we get downstairs. I slide into the back with Saint, while Crow argues with her about who is the driver. She wins. I’d like to think Crow is off his game, but I think he surrendered because he didn’t have the heart to argue with her.
She drives us twenty minutes, and then stops at a gate to a reserve.
“What is it?”
“This is the Moore Reservoir. And we are going for a walk. It’s one of my favourite places.”
Before I can ask anymore questions and get to the bottom of why here because it makes absolutely no sense whatsoever, her family rock up and pile out of the car, including a young woman with black hair and pale skin.
She looks us over, and then turns to Bethany with a huge smile. “Hey, cousin.”
Bethany hugs her tight and turns back to us. “This is my cousin, Auryn Raines. My Auntie Auggie. Uncle Charles, Uncle Sol, and my dad Wayne.” She turns back to her family with a brilliant smile. “This is Hunter, Crow, and Saint.”
They murmur hellos but look less welcoming than the omega we are getting to know.
I’m not sure why we’re here, but as we follow the Raines pack, it starts to become a little clearer.
I shake my head, chuckling. She is diabolical, and I don’t know if I should be terrified of her or applaud her resolve. She’s not giving up on us, and that makes everything wonderful. The happiness inside me has me smiling like an idiot.
She’s showing us what a pack looks like. She’s not giving up by any stretch, this is a diabolical plan, and I’m impressed despite myself.
I’m accosted by Auryn, who wraps her arm around mine, ignoring my snarls.
“It’s weird, isn’t it?”
“What?” I ask defensively.
“Seeing people who are so happy, who can trust so easily. My parents are not like this at all. Lia, Locke, and I were very unlucky when it came to which Raines were our parents, but no matter how much I idolise Aunt Auggie and Uncle Charles, Sol, and Wayne, I can’t see myself being that happy ever.”
“Why not?” I ask curiously.
“Why? Because my life is not like this. Because, to me, I don’t know how to be happy without also being guarded. When someone gives me a gift, I wonder what strings come with it. If someone does something nice, I wonder what the catch is. If they help me, I ask what it costs. Funny, isn't it, that we don’t know how ruined we are until we’re looking at the happiness we could have. The lens is broken.”
“She deserves better,” I say under my breath.
“Is that really your choice to make, though? Doesn’t she deserve to have what makes her happy, and if that’s you, who are you to take it away from her? I mean, no one’s going to care about her as much as her scent matches, so if even you don’t want her, what message does that send to a lonely omega?”
This beta turns her head, and I see Charles’ blue-green eyes that look so deep and pained in this small woman staring back at me.
“Do you need help?” I ask instinctively.
She laughs softly. “I hate to say it, but you aren’t big enough to save me from my monster.”
“Who is?”
Her expression gets wistful. “Fate.”
I’m baffled, but we continue walking in silence. Auggie is leaning against Sol as they walk, her hand in his back pocket, his in hers. They are talking with Saint and, by the looks of it, giving him something to think about.
I spot Crow walking with Charles and Wayne. He’s pale, and I wonder if I should rescue him, but then I spot Bethany twirling around in front of him. Her hair is loose, and she’s wearing a white dress that makes her look ethereal.
“You stare at my cousin like she’s your salvation,” Ryn murmurs.
“She’s…” I lose my words.
“Yeah, I hear that. So, what are you doing?” She glances at me. “Hold on, let me ask you this question. If you never saw her again, never heard another word from her, if she vanished off the face of the planet, would that make you happy?”
“Of course not?” I say, feeling ill at the thought.
“And thinking about her with another pack during her heat?”
I grit my teeth together as the image tortures me over and over. “No.”
“Okay, so would you prefer her living alone in a house, time passing? You see each other occasionally, but she lives alone, sad, depressed, willing herself to death because she can’t leave you, but you don’t want her. Would that be okay?”
“No,” I snarl. “You aren’t very nice, Auryn Raines.”
“I’m not. But I’m less blunt than Lia and Locke and ten times more rational than Raider or Kelly. And if those two find out you hurt their missing baby sister, someone better help you.”
I stop, and she lets go of my arm to turn and face me.
I can’t let her go. I can’t let anyone else have her. There’s nothing left for us but this one path. She’s ours. She’s staying. Our omega.
I seek her out unconsciously, finding her twirling ahead of us, and wheeze.
Ryn smiles. “And that’s what I’ve been waiting for.”
“How the fuck are we going to fix this? Crow and Saint…” I shake my head.
“I suggest you start groveling and court that omega the way she deserves to be courted. Luckily, Bethany doesn’t hold grudges the way some of us do. She’s always been more forgiving.”
I look up, catching sight of Bethany, her head tilted back, laughing with Auggie.
“Okay, Beta Raines. Help me, please.”
Ryn smiles and puts her hand back on my arm. “Now, the way to a woman’s heart is a mystery that I will happily help you with. The way to Bethany’s heart is simple…she just wants to be loved.”
I listen intently and take note of everything. Will it be enough?