Chapter 4 - Mason
I shut off every thought in my head as I watched Bryce take her daughter aside, into the backyard.
This is the only home Cassie has known, she’d said, upon Jackson's insisting on moving fast. At least let us say goodbye to it. Her voice had been firm in a way I’d never known before, and the very attitude of it had me keeping my eye on Bryce as I quickly moved through her house, collecting anything salvageable.
I’d taken down bags that Bryce had packed in the last hour, and although I was eager to head back to Honeycreek, I had to admit that she had already adjusted to the thought of leaving her home. Perhaps part of her had always been ready to come home, but I’d stopped her without realizing.
No, I told myself, annoyed. Don’t be stupid. You never had that much sway over her.
So why did every time I moved away from the backyard to load up another bag make me feel the distance between us? How had I gone without it for all these years, only to now hate any inch between us. I shut out the need to seek her out, knowing I’d be getting in the car with her any moment.
“That should be all of it,” Jackson said, sighing. We stood out in front of the small cottage, looking up at the destruction on the outside. “You want to go get her?”
I flicked my gaze to my best friend. “Do you really think that’s a good idea?”
“Well, you stormed back here without waiting for the rest of us. That’s gotta count for something.”
I only glowered at him before sighing. “Just get your sister, Jacks.”
Jackson moved to the cottage again, but hesitated. “Be nice to her, Mase. Just… don’t be an asshole.”
“How about you focus on getting her in the car before another demon turns up?” I snapped, defensive.
The other guys had already headed back to Honeycreek, shifted, so I could reach out to feel how far away they were.
Not too far ahead of us, but far enough that they’d be scattered once we got back within the town’s boundaries with Bryce.
Good, I thought. The thought of my pack made her nervous, and as much as I wanted to see more of a spark from her and push her, I knew she’d need time to settle in.
My thoughts crowded my head, but I shoved them away.
For now, I needed to focus on getting Bryce and her daughter in the car.
God, I thought. She has a daughter. Since when? And where was the kid’s dad?
“Ready to go, Cass?” Jackson was saying, when I refocused myself.
The girl was skipping alongside him, her sadness and fear from before clearly replaced by the thought of an adventure.
It was amazing how new places could be so appealing to children, while Bryce walked on behind them, her brows pinched with worry.
I thought about going to ask. Offering even a simple Are you okay?
But then those green eyes lifted to mine, and every thought left my damn head. Bryce looked away quickly, her shoulders drawing in, her arms wrapping around her torso. What is that about?
“Who are you?” I looked down to find the little girl peering up at me.
She was missing one of her baby teeth in the front, just past her middle two teeth.
It was endearing, and I crouched down to her level.
I wasn’t a guy who had any paternal instincts, but there was something about her that made me want to give her a smile and make sure she was safe.
Maybe it was a misplaced desire to do that for Bryce, knowing I hadn’t.
“I’m Mason,” I told her. “I used to know—” I stopped, swallowing. “I’m a friend of your uncle’s.”
Yeah. It was safer to go the Jackson route to tell her the link.
“Oh, cool,” she said. “You’re really big. Like tall.”
“There’s a secret reason for that.” I gave her a casual grin before standing up. “All right, Cassie, you want to sit up front with your uncle Jackson or in the back with your mom?”
“Her name’s Cassandra,” Bryce snapped, approaching us. “Don’t get informal with my daughter. You’re a stranger to her. Make sure it remains that way. Cassie, you’re in the back with me.”
Together, the two of them climbed in, but as Cassie moved, I noticed her scent. It was strangely familiar, and I looked after her as she got settled. Jackson nudged me.
“Let’s get out of here,” he muttered, glancing back at the cottage again.
***
Nobody spoke during the drive home. As we passed through White Bay, a sandy coastal town, I couldn’t help but wonder what Bryce had been doing all these years. In the prickling silence of the drive, I almost asked her just to chase away the silence.
But I held my tongue. I couldn’t help my discomfort, and it seemed not even Jackson knew how to resolve the tension.
Out of the corner of my eye, I could see how Cassie gripped her mother’s hand tightly. Bryce had assured her before they’d only be gone for a few days, and I hadn’t protested how wrong that estimate was. She had nothing to return to and everything to come back to in Honeycreek.
Seven years…
God. I hadn’t seen Bryce since…
Since that night.
I’d barely let myself think about it ever since, and had let seven years pass while I buried Bryce’s name in everything I could. My pack, my town, and my career. I had filled my thoughts until her name had become a spot on the horizon.
And yet, despite all that trying, she was so close, in the backseat of the car.
Had always been close, with Honeycreek only a short drive away. How could I not have known? When Bryce had left town, I’d assumed she’d gone out of state, but no. She’d gone barely an hour away. I’d never asked, hadn’t wanted to, in my bid to forget her entirely.
But Jackson had known, and had never mentioned it. When he had claimed to visit his sister, packing a duffel bag for overnight stays, I hadn’t questioned it. I hadn’t wanted to be involved with any of Bryce’s business, and definitely not come between two siblings.
Why had he never mentioned how close Bryce’s home had been to us?
And then I stopped thinking.
Why would he have mentioned anything? It wasn’t like Jackson had known about anything
between Bryce and me—certainly not that night we’d spent together. I’d never told him, and I knew Bryce hadn’t, or Jackson would have come after me. But he clearly knew enough to tell me not to be an asshole. Had she watered down the whole thing?
Something wasn’t adding up.
Did Jackson know who Cassie’s father was and why he was absent? Why wasn’t he in that cottage, protecting the mother of his child and his daughter until his last breath? The thought angered me. Hell, if that had been my child, I wouldn’t have ever left her unprotected.
“So,” Jackson spoke up, breaking me out of my thoughts. “Honeycreek, huh, Cassie. It’s where your mom grew up, and where I’ve told you about. Are you excited?”
“Sure,” Cassie answered, her focus clearly on other things.
“What color do you want to paint your new room?” Jackson asked.
“I don’t know,” she muttered. “Mom says we’re only going to be with you for a few days.”
“Well, it might be longer,” Jackson countered. It’ll definitely be longer. “So you gotta make sure you’re surrounded by what you like.”
She only sighed and looked at her mom; the excitement from before flooded out of her. “I just wanted my dancing shoes.”
“I’ll buy you some new ones, baby,” Bryce said, and the softness in her voice towards her daughter dug something in me deeply.
I ached to hear that softness again, but the two of them fell back into silence.
I heard some quiet sniffles and realized Cassie was crying.
I glanced at Jackson, flashing him with a look to say Do something.
“You want to grab some frozen yogurt on the way home?” Jackson attempted again, and I was half tempted to clock him over the head for trying too hard.
“No, thank you,” Cassie said, her voice quiet and sad. “I was meant to eat my birthday cake with Mom.”
Birthday?
Damn, it was the girl’s birthday today?
“Well, Cassie was going to eat cake,” Bryce said quickly, her voice jumpy. “I was going to eat some fruit off the edges.”
“You don’t have to explain yourself to me,” Jackson laughed. “I’ve seen you pound triple cheeseburgers in, like, five minutes flat and—”
“Shut up.”
The snap came quickly, and even Cassie blinked at Bryce, who only flushed.
“Sorry,” she muttered. “Just… can we not talk about my eating habits, please?”
I felt attention on me, a warm prickle on the back of my neck. Something tugged at me, deep down, a vague memory of things I’d said, but I couldn’t quite remember. Still, residual guilt crawled through me. I straightened in my seat.
I was an alpha; I didn’t need to feel sorry for some omega who’d skipped town and refused to speak to me.
So why did everything in me shift every time I sensed Bryce’s own movements? Why did my heart beat faster every time she spoke? I propped my elbow on the window frame of the car, focusing on the approaching Honeycreek, noticeable by its tall pine trees that extended high into the sky.
I felt in tune with Bryce, even after all these years.
Yet there was another tug. The connection I felt to her daughter. Did she remind me of when Bryce and I were younger, or something? The innocence I’d lost by having to take over my father, maybe?
My eyes caught on Bryce again in the side mirror.
Her hair, as black as night, that had once been decorated with white petals for a date—a starry night, I’d once called her—was tucked behind one ear, exposing a sharp, pointed earring that hung down.
The shell of her ear was pierced as well, and I watched how she lifted her chin at the sight of me looking at her.
There was a new pride to her that I didn’t recall from years ago.
Her lips were fuller, her eyes brighter as though she’d found a spark in White Bay that Honeycreek had taken from her.
It had, I reminded myself. I had.
Something stirred in me at that pride, at the renewed sparkle in her eyes.
Bryce was beautiful, and I hadn’t ever told her enough, and I wouldn’t now. At least not yet. I could match her pride with my own stubbornness. I didn’t give in to anyone.
But something sparked in me—jealousy. Envy at the thought of the girl’s father.
Who had Bryce slept with after coming to White Bay?
Had he left her behind, pregnant? Was Cassie’s father still present in her life?
Surely she would have said before we left the cottage.
My thoughts still churned. If she had been left by Cassie’s father, pregnant, and going through that mostly alone, curled in me, and I tamped down my feelings about it.
I didn’t care.
I’d let go of Bryce, after all. I’d let her walk away without ever calling her to come back to my side.
I’d laughed with my pack, and I’d shunned her.
I had not treated her the way she deserved.
And as stubborn as I was to not apologize right now, I couldn’t help but wonder if that was the biggest mistake of my life.
But I was the alpha of the Honeycreek pack. I would never admit to that mistake, so I buried it deep within me.
“So,” Bryce spoke up. “The attacks. Am I at risk of it happening again? Will I be targeted?”
“I’ll let Jackson take this one, seeing as he knows so much—”
“I’m asking you.”
Her sharp answer was enough to grind me to a halt. Damn. Where had this side of her come from? She’d been meek and timid when I had last known her.
I cleared my throat. “We’re still investigating.”
“You’re firefighters here, aren’t you?” she questioned. “Surely you have some answers. Surely there’s a correlation, unusual activity you could monitor? I want to know if my daughter and I are safe.”
“You’ll be safe in Honeycreek,” was all I could tell her. “You’ll be safe with your brother.”
“And my home?”
I blanched. “All I know is that what attacked your home and has likely been the cause of the attacks are demons.” I hated how powerless her questions made me feel.
I hated not knowing the answers and not having control over handling the situation.
I hated how weak it made me feel that I had to take precautions, so I didn’t have my pack charging into unknown territory to fight off demons until we knew for sure what we were dealing with. I couldn’t risk their lives like that.
“Djinn,” Bryce said.
“What?” I asked, meeting her gaze in the side mirror.
“They’re not demons,” she told me. “They’re Djinn. A specific type called ifrits.”
Next to me, Jackson snorted.
“Right.”
I didn’t know what to think of that, and by the smug look on Bryce’s face, greeting me with a raised brow, she knew full well I didn’t know.
Once silence took over the car again, I didn’t interrupt it, and neither did Jackson. Even Bryce only rested her head against the seat behind her, holding onto her daughter’s hand. Outside, the ocean became forest, and before I knew it, we were passing the Welcome to Honeycreek sign.
I heard a shaky breath from behind me, and as much as I ached to reach out to Bryce, to ask if she was okay, I didn’t.
You don’t care about her, I told myself. Maybe once, maybe briefly. But that was seven years ago.
So I swallowed back that care, buried it beneath indifference—until we hit the grounds where my pack and I lived. It was a complex of duplexes all on the edge of the forest, deep within Honeycreek.
One by one, the pack emerged from the buildings, all of them brought out by some of the pack returning, or the sound of Jackson’s car. Dozens of eyes were immediately on us, and despite knowing I could have them all submitting to me in a second, I felt scrutinized, judged.
Jackson pulled up, and I was out of the car in seconds.
Theo immediately approached me. “What happened in White Bay?”
“Yeah, man, I have relatives in that town,” one of the other pack members, a former lone wolf, said.
“When’s it going to be time to take on these creatures?” Nate asked.
More eyes shone at the thought of a fight ahead—until the new scent in the air changed everything as Bryce got out of the car.
Everybody stilled, conversation and questions died, and I felt the tension in each of them, strung tightly.
Even my own body tensed as I stared down at my pack.
Seven years ago, I’d abandoned Bryce in front of them all, afraid of their judgment over who she was. A girl not suitable for an alpha like me. Now she stood before them, already having been at the mercy of their scrutiny—and now it would come again.