Chapter 9 - Bryce #2
“Will you tell me about when you knew her?” Cassie’s voice turned to a mumble in what I knew was her usual pout.
“She doesn’t ever talk about her life before me.
Mommy only says my life started when I had you, but that can’t be true, can it?
Because Uncle Jackson, and my mommy’s mommy and daddy. And my daddy himself…”
“Yeah? Who’s that?”
Mason’s question made me freeze right as I finished Cassie’s grilled cheese. I pushed the knife into the toast to make the small triangles she liked, with more force than necessary, before I plated it up. Quickly, I interrupted them.
“Cassie, baby, how about you take that to our room? Maybe I can set you up with one of your videos.”
The thing about kids is that they are stubborn but easily distracted, so as soon as her eyes fell on the toasted, melted cheese, she lit up and scrambled off the couch. I glared at Mason as I followed her to the stairs. As Cassie raced up them, Mason’s eyes followed me.
“By the time I come back down, I’d like you gone,” I said, and then headed upstairs to see my daughter settled.
Once she was, I went back downstairs. Of course, he hadn’t left.
Of course, he still lounged on the sofa like he owned the whole place.
Although part of me probably thought he did.
Some idiotic, alpha rights to the whole damned town and—
“Bryce.”
His voice cut through my thoughts, and I realized I had stormed into the kitchen and began dropping things into the dishwasher harder than I needed to. I picked up the plated, burned sandwich, and went to toss it, but Mason’s hand was quick to grab it.
“You’re going to throw away good food?” He scoffed, looking back at me. He’s trying to insinuate you don’t ever leave your plate empty, that you eat leftovers, that you’re usually the goddamn fucking human wastebin that he once knew.
“Yes,” I said through gritted teeth. “It’s burned because you interrupted mine and my daughter’s snack.”
“It’s barely even brown, Bryce.” He didn’t move out of the kitchen doorway. “If you don’t eat it, then I will.”
“Fine!” I exclaimed, my nerves fraying. “Just—fine! Eat it. Toss it. Do whatever the hell you want with it. I’m done.
” I threw my hands up and shoved past him, but he caught my wrist as I passed by.
I growled, snatching my arm back. The noise came unbidden, and something flashed in Mason’s eyes at it, and the last thing I needed was to antagonize the alpha wolf he kept hidden away.
“I’ll make you a fresh one,” he said quietly, already moving into the kitchen.
“No! No, Mason, it’s fine. Sit down and eat.”
“You don’t want—”
I was growing quickly overwhelmed. I shook my head, clamping my mouth shut.
“Bryce, let me make it up to you—”
“I don’t want to eat in front of you,” I snapped. “Just—just sit down, please.”
“Okay.” The plate in hand, he backed up the short, few paces to the sofa. “Okay. I’m sitting, all right? I’m sorry for pushing.”
I followed him, annoyed. “The fact you don’t get that I wouldn’t be able to eat with you is just…
I’m sorry, but that’s just stupid. How could you think I’ll even be comfortable doing that with what you did to me?
What you let them do to me?” Before he could answer, I was talking again, irritated and worked up.
“And why were you outside my house? Are you spying on me? Are you spying on my daughter? And—and another thing, why would you even ask her about her father? That’s…
that’s just putting her in the middle of something she doesn’t have the answers to, and it’s unfair to confront her because you know she’s too young to oppose you or tell you to fu—”
“Bryce.”
“What?” I shouted.
“Breathe.”
“What?” I asked again, confused.
“Breathe.” With the most satisfied smirk on his face, Mason took a large bite of the grilled cheese, eating almost a whole half in one go.
I glared at him, hating that he didn’t have an ounce of self-consciousness to do that.
That nobody had ever made him feel bad enough that he wanted to hide his body, or what or how much he ate.
Nobody ever judged his eating speed or how large of a bite he took.
“You know, in some parts of shifter existence, a female member of the pack making the alpha food means that—”
“Don’t even go there,” I seethed.
He flinched back before nodding. “You’re right. And to answer one of your questions, because God knows, that girl is certainly your child, Bryce, I’ve been watching over you. Ever since you arrived, I’ve been making sure your house is kept safe. From the pa—from the demons. Djinn.”
“You have?” I frowned, the knowledge dousing my sparking anger almost immediately. Slumping down against the arm of the couch, I faced Mason. To look at him hurt, but to look away meant feeling weak, and I couldn’t stand that, either.
He nodded, chewing through another bite of grilled cheese. Some of the butter slickened his mouth, and a feral, stupid part of me wanted to taste it—taste him, the part of me that didn’t like how we’d spent seven years apart. The other part of me wanted to throw him out of the door.
As if he noticed the energy draining out of me, he leaned forward, setting his empty plate down on the wooden coffee table. “Bryce, talk to me. Don’t just yell at me or snap. Actually, talk to me.”
I let out a helpless laugh, feeling more and more exhausted by the second.
“What is there to say? We’ve had seven years of distance between us, and before that, you supported me being ousted from the pack.
Mason, if I were to speak to you, I wouldn’t even know where to begin, so I’ve long since learned to hold my tongue and not ask about you, or try to grab your number from Jackson, because I’m scared that the moment I start talking, I’ll…
” I’ll realize that being in love with you was never very deeply buried within my heart.
That I’ll easily remember how much I felt for you, and how little you felt in return.
“You’ll?” he prompted. His gaze seared into me, and beneath his attention, I forgot to breathe.
“Nothing,” I sighed. “Forget it.”
“There’s plenty to say,” he responded.
I fixed him with a hard look. “Then, by all means.”
Mason sighed, and I tried not to notice how his biceps flexed as he ran a hand through his hair before letting his hands relax at his sides.
“The last seven years have been… strange. Ever since I found out you left, everything’s felt off-kilter.
Seeing you the other day in that cottage, how pale your face was with fear, it struck me.
I should have always been there to protect you—”
“You could ha—”
“Let me finish, Bryce. I’m the alpha and know what I’m supposed to do, but I’m out of my depth right now. The djinn, the fires, you…” He let his gaze flick to me, where it had been fixed on the sofa.
“What do you mean by me?” I asked.
When he next spoke, it was with more softness than I had expected. It sent something through me, something that tasted like forgiveness, even if it was shrouded with my old bitterness. “I did everything right, and yet…”
Right. I didn’t know what part of ousting me from the pack, forcing me away, rejecting me, was right, but I only swallowed, listening to him.
“Bryce, I’m so sorry.” The words came, unexpected, as he reached for me before he balled his fist at the last moment and lowered it.
“I shouldn’t have done all that bullshit years ago.
I shouldn’t have let them do it, or joined in.
I—I was a coward, and I should have done better by you.
And these years between us… for me, they’ve been spent waking up every day with regret and the desire to track you down. ”
“It wouldn’t have been hard, really,” I told him, confused at his apology, at how genuine he had sounded. But I’d fallen for that genuineness before; I had trusted Mason and learned a hard lesson.
“I know,” he admitted. “I let myself think every day about finding you, only to convince myself that you’d slam the door in my face without ever hearing me out.
I’m a coward, still, because I can admit that sometimes it was easier to let myself think that there was an outcome where you forgave me than to know the truth.
That you never would, and I wouldn’t blame you. ”
“And now?” I pressed.
“Now, I just want to stop having us avoid one another. Now, I want you ba—”
His mouth snapped shut, not letting that confession slip free. But I let myself have it pass by; if he confessed to wanting me back, I didn’t know what I would say to that.
“I don’t trust you,” I whispered. “That’s why I’ve been avoiding you. I’m comforted by you protecting me, and I’m grateful, but I don’t think I can trust you again.”
“I get that.” Mason nodded. “But I want to do everything in my power to prove to you that I’ve changed. Starting with confiding in you about this whole djinn thing.”
At that, I felt relief—good, I thought, get the attention off us. Nerves had wormed beneath my skin, demanding attention, demanding that I hide, escape the love I’d felt for the alpha—the love that I was scared was still there and had never left.
“My pack is looking to me for answers, and I have no idea what it all means, what’s going on.
I can’t do anything but try to put out the fires the djinn start, and I have—I’ve got fucking Theo opposing me at every turn.
” A shudder went through me at the mention of Theo, the shifter who had caused me the most distress.
The most cruel, wicked one of them all. To know there was aggravation between Mason and Theo brought me some pleasure, at least. “I’m scared that I won’t be able to do enough, that I won’t be enough.
When I was younger, being alpha was a macho thing, being the most important guy in the room. Now… there’s more pressure than ever.”
“Have you spoken to June?” I asked, avoiding talking about Theo or Mason’s status as alpha. They weren’t subjects I couldn’t yet touch.
“Not yet. She told me she wants to talk to me about some things she’s discovered.”
“It’s about the town’s museum,” I told him.
“She’ll be able to tell you more, but she’s doing some research into the history of Honeycreek, and found out that the museum’s built right on an intercrossing of ley lines.
That’s why there’s such a big shifter presence, and why—” I cut myself off from voicing my speculation about my own, new abilities. “Why… things about be happening.”
Mason frowned, shifting. “My grandmother used to tell me about old legends about a whole world of magic beneath the museum. My dad always chased her words away, telling her not to fill my head with silly stories, so I grew up doing the same, discarding her old tales. But I don’t know.
I don’t know why the demons are so attracted to the town, or what is motivating them to keep attacking Honeycreek.
I guess I have to take every possibility into consideration. ”
“It’s worth looking into,” I pointed out. “June said she’ll keep me updated, but I’m sure she’ll pass on her information.”
“If you want to get involved, I wouldn’t say no.”
His words struck me, and I cringed, wondering if I could let myself be involved further. I needed to keep a safe distance, and mixing myself into this problem was the exact opposite of that.
“It’s up to you,” he said earnestly. “I have to get back to the station, but think about it, okay? Let me know if you want to help out.”
Before I could say anything else, he stood up, took his plate into the kitchen, and I was struck dumb when he ran the water to wash the dish. On his way out, he nodded at me. “Thanks for the sandwich.”
With that, he disappeared out the door with one last glance at the stairs.