Chapter 8
" T aryn, truth or dare?" I asked. She shifted in her chair, curling her legs under her. Her eyes were on her lap, toying with a string on her shirt instead of looking at me as she thought it over.
"Dare," she finally said after a few moments. Her lips tipped up into a smirk.
Oh, so she did have a playful side. Interesting.
She was watching me now as I leaned forward, staring at her intently. From here, her coconut, kiwi, and vanilla scents were even stronger, no longer ruined by her anger or frustration. I tried my best to breathe her in discreetly as I set the challenge.
"I dare you not to run," I said, raising one eyebrow. Every one of them, including Holt and Mathias, raised their eyebrows as well.
"Run?" she questioned. Those gorgeous blue eyes were wide behind the frames of her glasses. From the way she was watching me, she knew what I meant.
"Run from us. I still sense that ‘fight or flight’ mode on you. We don't deserve it, but I dare you to stay and hear us out, to give us a chance."
Taryn started to say something but stopped a couple times, mouth opening and closing.
"I could break her ankle. Then she couldn't run," Holt piped in and all of us turned towards him, mixed looks of horror on our faces. Of course, the bastard had a shit-eating grin on his face. "I told you I was funny."
"Well, that just killed the mood, and the game. Thank you, Holt." I sighed, rolling my eyes before looking at her. “He won’t hurt you, it was a terrible joke.”
“Ha, ha,” she deadpanned. At least she didn’t seem too upset.
"So, what now?" Mathias asked, looking from Holt to myself. What she couldn’t see was a desperate look, pleading for us to fix this.
"Movie?" I offered up.
"I don't think that there are any movies here? Or cable," Taryn admitted.
"I have it covered," Mathias said, popping up from his spot at the table.
"He’s the tech wizard," Holt explained. He was a lot more at ease than I expected.
"More of a junkie," I corrected.
"He’s more up to date with all that stuff than we are," Holt said with a shrug. His job on the ranch hardly called for technology, and I swear he acted like an old man.
Me? I could do social media and the basics, but anything fancier and I was lost.
Outside of online shopping, at least.
"What is it that you guys do now?" Taryn asked as we moved into the living room.
"I thought you didn't block us? " I teased.
"I didn't, but I don't stalk you, either," she retorted as she took a seat in the middle of the couch. “We weren’t exactly friends.”
I took the seat on the left and Holt took the right, not leaving much distance between us and Taryn.
"Is this too close?" I asked as I settled in my spot, hoping she didn’t want me to move. Not when her scent was so strong right here. My body craved to lean in, to run my nose over the column of her throat, but I barely managed to hold back.
"Huh? What?" she countered a little breathlessly.
"Are Holt and I too close?" I repeated, keeping any teasing from my voice. She was like a rabbit, ready to run. I wasn’t about to provoke her.
She made this cute little squeak but no real sound.
"Did we break her already?" Holt asked, sitting forward to look at me.
"We haven't even gotten to the fun stuff yet," I answered under my breath. She didn’t even seem to register it. The omega seemed to be focused on trying to breathe.
Holt ignored my words and spoke to Taryn, "I'm a rancher. Horses, cattle, hunting, fishing, that whole life. It's a working ranch. My workers are veterans and at-risk youth. Sometimes the job is a second chance or fresh start that they need to get their life in order. You can’t get up to too much trouble when you’re exhausted from hard work."
"That's very noble of you," Taryn told him. He should probably be offended by how shocked she sounded. Then again, our mate didn’t have the best opinion of us.
"I own and run a mechanic shop, not far from the ranch. We specialize in motorcycles but we can work on anything," I added in.
"Let me guess, at risk youth and veterans, too?" she asked, a playful smile on her lips.
"No to the youth, but veterans, yes. The local base is where we get most of our employees from," I explained.
We didn’t give her more as she soaked in that information, chewing on that plump bottom lip of hers as if she had no idea how sexy she was, how much we both wanted to devour her.
Finally, she let out a huff of air and crossed her arms.
"Okay, what happened to you guys? You were fuck boys in college and now you’re what? Model bosses? Did I fall down the stairs and dream this all up?" Taryn demanded. There was almost a pout to her voice now.
Fuck, we really screwed up back then.
"Har. Har,” I shot back, making her chuckle. Then I turned serious. This conversation was heavy but she deserved to hear it. “Actually, the three of us almost were in a car accident a few years back. It was a stormy night and we almost died. That's one reason that Mathias has a hard time with thunder. He was thrown from the car and almost drowned in the ditch. Holt and I were pinned in the car, broken and bloody, unsure if we’d make it. Situations like that change you. We realized if we died then, we’d be leaving nothing real behind. I couldn’t stomach that.”
“None of us could,” Holt added.
"So, almost dying changed you?” she summarized, frowning now. “I hate that happened to you all. It sounds terrifying.”
It looked like she wanted to say more but a clap of thunder hit and Mathias ran back into the room. He tried to straighten up as if he wasn't scared to save face in front of Taryn but you couldn’t simply wipe away genuine fear.
"I found it," he announced as he held up the streaming box. His voice broke and he cleared his throat, cheeks flaming.
"Is it storming bad again?" I asked as he fiddled to get the box connected to the TV on the mantle.
"The rain hasn't hit yet but it's headed this way," he said, with his face still behind the TV.
"Holt, let's see if we can rescue anything else from the SUV. If Mathias still has electronics in there, we may have forgotten something," I told him.
Neither of us wanted to get up, but Mathias needed that one-on-one time with her. He was more himself without an audience.
Holt didn't say anything until we were out on the porch.
"Dude, we were in prime spots next to her," he complained with a groan. “I could smell her.”
I just shook my head, "I know brother, but Mathias needs some of that attention. Especially with the storm coming in. I'm not cuddling with his ass tonight."
"Fine, but when we go back in and there’s only one spot next to her, it's mine," he huffed before we both headed towards the car.
"Deal," I said, trying to make my voice have some sadness in it.
Had he forgotten that I could just sit on the floor in front of her? That way there was room for all of us.
"Is there really something that you’re needing from the car?" he asked as we got closer to the wreckage.
"Nah, but we have big personalities. We don't want to overwhelm Taryn with them all at once," I reminded him. “She’s finally not trying to escape every five seconds.
"She's an omega, I'm sure she knows how alphas are," he said. “She wasn’t shying away.” He looked smug but I knew not to underestimate our mate. She didn’t trust us… at all.
Something I hoped we could change.
"Hey, if you want to be the asshole, go ahead. We’re trying to win her over, not have her run again," I said, not bothering to joke around this time. I couldn’t risk her.
"Do you ever get sick of being right? Or does your head just get bigger?" he asked, a slight smile on his lips as he glanced at me.
"Which head?" I asked innocently.
"Ugh, you are a sick fuck," he groaned as he dug around for something to rescue from the SUV. Going back empty handed would make it obvious what we were doing.
"You're just mad that you didn't stop and think about what you were asking me," I laughed, stepping out of range when he tried to smack me.
"Why are we still friends?" he complained.
"You’re just lucky, I guess," I answered as I joined him. Most of this was ruined, still dripping in water. "All this is soaked. How was Mathias's gismo fine?"
"He probably had it wrapped in a weatherproof pack," Holt said. “You know how he is about his stuff. It might have come in handy this time.”
"I vote he packs for all of us from now on," I said as I pulled out a soaked pair of briefs and held them up.
God, are these even mine?
Another loud crack of thunder and a bright flash of lightning had me dropping the boxers and backing away.
“Okay, I think we’re better off getting out of here,” Holt said, pulling me toward the door before I could protest.
This time I actually kept my mouth shut. The storms out here this time of year were apparently no joke.
“Hey, it’s okay,” Taryn’s voice was gentle as we walked in. I closed the door quietly behind us and smiled as I saw her reaching out for Mathias. He was frozen in place, every muscle coiled so tight that he looked like a statue.
As if she sensed us standing there, she looked back with panic on her face.
“He’s breathing too fast,” she said, giving his hand a squeeze but it didn’t seem to work.
Holt moved around, putting his hands on Mathias’s shoulders and leaning in. She didn’t let go as the alpha started talking, urging our beta gently to breathe. Reminding him that he was safe with us.
When another crack of thunder hit, he didn’t seem to notice. That was definitely not a good sign.
“Move for a second,” Taryn said, hooking her leg over his until she was straddling his lap. There was nothing sexual about the move, she was forcing him to focus only on her. “Mathias, you need to breathe. Now.”
She lifted his hand to her chest, laying it there and taking an exaggerated breath.
“Breathe with me. You’re not in a car, you’re in the lakehouse. We were going to watch a movie, do you think you can come back out of this for me? If you’re lucky there might be enough time to make popcorn on the stove. That’s one of the few things we had here still and if you like popcorn in the microwave… then you’re missing out.”
It was obvious that she was rambling, trying to center him in the present. He’d started to come back around after she climbed on him and was now hanging onto every word.
“What if I didn’t like popcorn?” he managed. His voice sounded strange and shaky still, but was much stronger than before.
“Then we’d have to rethink this. That’s a dealbreaker.”