Chapter 47
FORTY-SEVEN
Playing: “Wish That You Were Here” by Florence + The Machine
I’m trying to keep my head on straight as we enter Alpha Xi.
The party is in full swing, and even though we want to be literally anywhere else right now, we can’t deny that Opal might have come here looking for us.
Our house was dark and empty, and her cell phone has gone unanswered for the past few hours.
I fear that if we don’t find her soon, Sam will rip someone’s head off, so I have to stay clearheaded and find my omega before that happens.
Thatcher is beyond confused. After he got out of his game, we pulled him aside and told him about our rescue mission. He’s just as determined to find Opal as we are, but we may have purposely left out a few details.
Neither of us knows if Opal is scent matched with Thatcher.
That uncertainty leaves us in a dangerous position on what to tell him, because I don’t want to get his hopes up again if it isn’t true.
I know how heartbroken he was to discover we weren’t scent matches.
No matter how good things have turned around for us, I can’t let that happen again.
Still, he’s helping us all the same. And when we find her, I hope he discovers that he has a scent match, but not before then.
The place is more crowded than usual because of our team winning the championship game. I can’t even muster up the energy to celebrate because all I can think about is the sadness I saw on Opal’s face. She really believed that Sam was rejecting her, and that breaks my heart down to its seams.
And if I’m feeling that way, I can’t imagine how Sam is feeling. He hates losing control, and I can practically feel him beating himself up over the mishap. I look over to see him looking down at his phone, his text chain with Opal still unanswered.
“I still don’t understand,” Thatcher says, scanning over the bodies assembled due to his height advantage. “Why are we looking for Opal? What happened?”
I can barely think with the loud music and conversation taking over the area. “We will tell you soon, I promise.”
As soon as I say it, there’s a commotion in the kitchen. Sam closes his eyes in frustration, willing someone else to arrive who can deal with it, but I squeeze his shoulder in support.
“Go, you two look on that side and take care of whatever happened. I’ll go this way.” I point toward the other side of the house.
Sam looks torn, like he really doesn’t want to deal with his frat brothers’ stupidity right now, but I just nudge him. “It doesn’t make you any less concerned for her. Go take care of it. I’ll meet up with you soon.”
After they leave, I venture to the other side of the fraternity.
The room where they normally handle meetings is packed, people dancing and grinding up against each other.
When I come upon where the radio sits, there are less people, but it’s still crowded.
An array of scents fills the space, and all I want more than anything is to smell her fruity, floral scent again.
It was the most unique and intoxicating aroma, and without it, I feel cold.
I search room after room, but there’s no sign of her. When I get back to the pathway, my shoulder bumps into someone, and I turn to see a brunette beta with a gleam in her eye.
“Sorry,” I mutter to her before turning to leave.
“It’s fine, Kit.”
My face turns back to her to see that she’s looking at me expectantly. With caution, I tilt my head in her direction. “Do I know you?”
She scoffs. “I’d hope so. I’ve only been your scent match’s best friend for most of her life.”
Something tickles at the back of my brain. “I’m sorry, I… still don’t know who you are.”
The mystery woman seems irritated by that, but she cools it with a weird smile. “I’m Cindy.”
The lightbulb finally goes off. “Oh, shit. Hi! It’s nice to meet you. We’re actually trying to find Opal right now. Have you heard from her?”
Her lips purse. “Oh, you didn’t know?”
My patience is wearing thin with this beta the longer our interaction goes on. I’m not sure what’s going on, but her tone doesn’t sound kind, and this doesn’t seem like the kind of person my omega would be close with. I cross my arms across my chest and wait for her to keep talking.
“Well, since your pack didn’t want her, she had to find someone else,” Cindy says nonchalantly. “So, she’s on a date—”
She relays the information to me and everything freezes around me. My ears begin to ring, the loud chatter around us starting to blur as that sentence seems to stick in my mind.
Since your pack didn’t want her.
“We do want her,” I interrupt and she flinches at my tone. “She is the best thing to ever happen to this pack.”
She gives a humorless laugh. “Could’ve fooled me. I seem to remember picking her up earlier outside of that dirty rink, crying.” My heart pinches. “She needs to find a pack before her heat comes. Did she tell you about her disorder?”
My head shakes violently, refusing to believe her in any way. Opal wouldn’t move on within hours, especially not when she’s still reeling from what she thinks is detrimental heartbreak. “I don’t believe you.”
“Fine, but I dropped her off at the restaurant about an hour ago. Some fancy French place downtown.” She shrugs. “I’d be surprised if she wasn’t already writing up a contract.”
Her blatant disregard for my feelings on the matter throws me off. “What the hell is wrong with you?”
Again, she gives me a bored expression. “Just don’t pretend like I didn’t warn you.”
She walks off and my blood runs cold. Opal told me about her dates, how she asked out any alpha she could to see if they were compatible for her heat cycles.
She may not move on when it comes to her feelings, but I know her hormones have been dysregulated for the past few weeks.
Maybe her heat is coming soon, and she feels like she doesn’t have any options.
Maybe she really does think there is no mending what is broken between us.
I march through the house, looking for my pack mates as my mind spirals through the possibilities. When I see them, they are both looking around the room outside of the kitchen, trying to find any sign of our omega that they can.
I run up to them frantically, my heart continuing to beat wildly in my chest. “Opal is on a date!”
Sam growls. “What?!”
Thatcher gets up, too, suddenly activated. “What do you mean she’s on a date? With who?”
“Some stranger! An alpha,” I spit out like it’s poison on my tongue.
Sam steps over to comfort me. “Kit, breathe. It’s going to be okay.”
“No, it’s not. She’s ours and she thinks we don’t want her. Why did I let her walk out of that damn arena?”
Sam doesn’t look distressed, but Thatcher’s eyes bug out of his head. “Kit—”
“No, Thatcher. I should have told her more often that this was going to work out. I should have forced you two to come to your senses sooner, but now she’s out there on a date with some dude because she thinks she’s a ticking time bomb and it’s all my fault—”
“Kit,” Sam’s bark abruptly stops my rant. He moves in front of me, his hands going to my shoulders to help me settle this mini-breakdown that I’m having in the middle of a crowded college party. “This is not your fault. We should have made things clearer to her, told her how we felt.”
“Who told you she was on a date?” Thatcher cuts in, his brow snagged like something doesn’t feel right.
“Her friend, Cindy,” I say, but the moment I say it, something feels wrong in my gut. “I… wow, I think her words really got to me.”
“What did she say?” Sam asks, his demeanor a scary calm that I’ve only ever seen on him.
I take in a few deep breaths. “She said that we didn’t want her, so she had to find someone else, before… you know.”
His jaw clenches with tension. “She knows about Opal’s condition?”
“Condition?” Thatcher asks, but I can only focus on one thing at a time, so I just nod in response.
“Opal has been pulling away from Cindy for a while now,” I tell them. “I’m not sure what’s going on, but we need to find her.”
“Did she say where the date was?”
I nod frantically. “She did! A French restaurant downtown.”
“étoile,” Thatcher says, and we both turn to blink at him. “What? I like French food.”
“Why the hell didn’t I know that?” I ask.
The alpha shrugs. “I thought you might think it’s weird.”
“Weird? Me?”
“Okay, we can argue about this later,” Sam says firmly to get us back on track.
“I’ll go get the car,” Thatcher offers, rushing out with Sam’s keys. I turn to look at my scent match, then, noticing the passive expression. It’s the same way he normally looks in a crisis, and he looks way calmer than he did when we first arrived at this party.
“You don’t think she agreed to this date, do you?” I ask him.
He doesn’t respond for a few moments, but he takes my hand in his. “My instincts are telling me something else is going on here.”
I give a firm nod. “Okay. Okay, good. I trust you, Sam.”
Even over the bass thumping through the house, I can hear his purr start in the center of his chest. His smile is small and soft as he squeezes my hand tighter. “Let’s go get our mate.”
Ironically, all of our friends are crowded around the beer pong tables, drinking and laughing. Well, except for Stacia and Rory, who still look concerned off to the side. We pass them in haste, and Kendall spots us and calls out, “Hey! Where are you guys rushing off to?”
In true dramatic fashion, I turn around and say, “To get our omega. She’s out on a date right now.”
Ciro gasps. “Your scent match is on a date with someone else?!”
Stacia smacks him on the shoulder. “Ciro!”
The rest of their packs turn to stare at him, eyes wide as they process what he just said.
“Scent match?! When the hell did that happen?” Dax exclaims.
“I knew something was up at that party—” Uriah chimes in.
When Ciro sees their flabbergasted expressions, he puts his hands up. “What? We just found out during the game, it’s not like we were keeping it a secret from you.”
“It’s still not something you just blurt out!” Stacia reprimands her beta.
“And you’re not going to repeat it, because Thatcher doesn’t know yet,” Sam says with a stern warning.
“He doesn’t know?” Everett asks.
“No, it’s… complicated,” I answer. “God, this is a mess.”
Rory interrupts, her hand going to my shoulder. “Back up. She’s on a date? Please don’t tell me Cindy set it up.”
I pause, my chest suddenly tight. “She’s the one who told me Opal was on a date, just a few minutes ago.”
The blue-haired omega nearly growls. “Oh, hell no. We’re all going. Let’s go get our freaking friend.”
The determination in her face sends something through me, some kind of feeling of care and loyalty that I haven’t felt from a friendship in a while. We turn to move outward, all on a mission to find our missing piece once and for all.