22. Hannah
Hannah
T he guys ordered greek food, and I'm in heaven with a beef gyro, pita, and hummus. "Shit, that was good." Noah groans, rubbing his stomach.
The four of us are sitting around the dining table in the little breakfast nook in the kitchen, the food spread out in front of us. Enzo, Austin, Noah and I together around this table…it all seems so…domestic.
It's so easy to imagine what our family might look like one day, a few kids, maybe a dog…
"It was," Enzo agrees across the table, a little more dignified in his response to the food. "I wonder if they do something special with their tzatziki sauce, because that was heavenly."
"That was my first time eatin' Greek food," Austin admits, "they never had any Mediterranean restaurants or nothin' back home."
"We've been out here for thirteen years." Noah points an accusatory fork. "That's plenty of time to try new things, brother."
Austin sits a little straighter when Noah says "brother", and I wonder if he meant it in the foster brother sense, or the pack brother sense. But he shrugs. "Dunno why you never brought any home then."
Noah just rolls his eyes as Enzo shakes his head at their antics. "What's your favorite kind of food, Hannah?" Enzo asks, leaning forward, his dark eyes intent on me.
"Hmm…" I think about it, tearing off a piece of pita bread and dipping it in hummus, "probably Chinese. Nothing like a good cream-cheese wonton and house special chicken from Crazy Chopsticks."
"Crazy Chopsticks? I haven't heard of that one." Noah tilts his head.
"Oh, my Nana used to take me all the time. It's a little hole in the wall—"
"On third and main," Enzo finishes for me. "Lizzie used to like it there."
…Lizzie?
"I thought…" he gives a heavy sigh, "after not being forthright about Charlie, it would be best to get everything out in the open, Hannah. You already know I used to have a scent match. Or…I thought I did."
Oh, we're going there. Alright then.
"Yeah," I swallow dryly, my heart pounding in my chest. I'll finally know what happened. "Back when Cady first got together with her pack, Titus…well, he kind of told her what happened. That your scent match left, but they didn't know why."
"Right," he sighs again, and Austin and Noah lean in slightly, clearly not having heard this before, "well, after Titus' party, I got into contact with one of my old pack members, because I thought, if you were a true scent match for me, then you might be for them too.
" My stomach flips at the notion, the possibility of more scent matches.
Before I can think too hard on it though, he continues.
"But when I met up with Hank, he admitted that he found his scent match ten years ago. "
"Oh, shit." Noah's jaw nearly drops.
"Yeah," Enzo gives a little chuckle. "That's what I said. Then, he told me that the night Lizzie disappeared, he had found her going through his office, and when he caught her and accused her of not being up to any good, she left. He thought he cost us our mate, so he never told us."
"What was she doing in his office?" I ask, my brows furrowed. "Certainly you don't just leave if you're innocent, right?"
"He never found any missing money, so he doesn't know what she was doing, but we realized that what we feel for the matches we found later pale in comparison to what we felt for her. But what are the odds she'd have scent sympathy with four alphas who weren't destined to be pack?"
Noah frowns. "It could be nothing. Just a coincidence, but…"
"I’ve asked Noah to look into her,” he tells me while grabbing my hand, and I nod. “We’re not sure what’s going on but something doesn’t add up."
Noah grimaces. "Shit. Yeah, Titus already asked me to look into her, but with everything going on, it kind of fell to the wayside."
We finish eating in heavy silence, and I don't know how I feel about hearing the details of Enzo's ex.
Part of me wants to rip her fucking eyes out for daring to get near my alpha.
Another part of me just feels sad for the heartbreak Enzo had to endure, even though I'm glad that he's not bonded to her.
We stand to clear the table, and Enzo catches my arm. " Reinita , I hope hearing about her didn't upset you. I just thought you deserved the whole truth."
"Not at all," I shake my head, giving him a small smile. "Thank you for telling me. Speaking of news and updates, I met with a lawyer on Sunday about Nana's will. He says he thinks once they see the voicemails and texts I've saved, it'll be obvious that Nana really did leave me everything."
"I'm glad to hear it." Enzo gives me a dazzling smile, just as Noah clears his throat.
"Charlie's game is about to start soon…" Noah says cautiously, looking at all of us. "Princess, it's okay if you don't want to watch, but I feel like—"
"We can watch," I tell him. To be honest, I've kind of missed basketball. Before he died, my dad and I used to watch all the Meteors' games on TV, and later, I went to all of Charlie's games. It might be nice to be able to observe him without him seeing me.
Austin brings out some cookies he made earlier, and we all settle in front of the TV to watch the Starbrook City Meteors face off against the Playa Hills Mustangs.
It becomes clear rather quickly that my other alphas are not that into basketball.
As hard as I try to keep myself reigned in, I feel like I'm losing my mind at the end of the fourth quarter. The two teams are tied, and it feels like the referees have never watched a game of basketball in their lives.
"Come on! That guy is halfway to Canada with how far he just travelled!" I stand, shouting at the TV. Austin gives me an amused look over Noah's head. "Don't tell me you didn't see that."
He raises his hands defensively, "I don't know what I saw, darlin'."
Fuming, I turn back to the TV and sit down. "Fucking blind-ass refs." I mutter, leaning forward to grab a cookie.
"Yes, bad, bad refs," Noah soothes, running a hand down my arm.
"Fuck off," I grumble, and Enzo chokes on a cookie.
"Godsdamn. Princess is serious about basketball." Noah smirks.
"It's not that hard to see when someone runs without dribbling—that was not a foul!" My voice echoes off the walls as the referee calls a defensive foul on number forty-nine—Charlie. "He was not reaching! His arm has a natural slight bend to it!"
"He might have been reaching, preciosa," Enzo says gently, rubbing my back.
"Shit, sorry," I shake my head. "I haven't watched basketball in so long, it's like—"
Charlie taking possession of the ball rushing down the court snatches my attention again and I shoot to my feet, watching with bated breath. My skin is alight with the buzz of excitement that only comes when watching basketball.
There's four seconds left on the clock, and the two teams are currently tied.
The other team tries to go after him, but he's too fast. My heart pounds wildly in my chest as he launches himself forward into the air, swinging his hand with the ball back and up in a perfect arc—
And slam dunks, right as the buzzer sounds.
He wins the game, ninety-three to ninety one.
"Oh my gods!" I scream, jumping up and down and pointing to the screen "Did you see that???" My mind is blown. Back when we were together, Charlie had always tried to do a slam dunk, but he never quite got it. But he did it.
He did it.
It hits me then, that it's been twelve years . He's had that long to figure it out. Of course he knows how. But when I look back at my other alphas, they're looking at me with varying degrees of adoration and…hope.
Noah stands and wraps an arm around my shoulder. "I like it when you get all fired up, princess."
I shake my head. "My brother threatened to stop bringing me to games if I didn't learn how to reign it in."
"It's endearing how you defend your alphas." Enzo smiles, dropping a kiss on my head. "I need to head to bed, I teach a seven am class tomorrow."
"Gross." Noah wrinkles his nose.
"Goodnight, alpha." I reach onto my toes and press a kiss to Enzo's lips. He purrs against me.
"Goodnight, preciosa ."
I startle awake in an unfamiliar room. My mind races, trying to remember where I am. Cinnamon and clove surrounds me…Noah's room? Enzo went to bed, shortly followed by Austin. Noah and I went up to his room and we were talking…I must have fallen asleep.
"Noah?" My groggy voice calls out.
Nothing.
I feel around the bed, and am met by nothing but cold sheets.
Usually my omega and I are pretty in sync, but right now she's raging at me, telling me something is wrong. Why would he leave? He wouldn't. This alpha wants us.
Frowning, I fumble for my phone, blinking against the harsh light of the lit screen. It's one in the morning. Turning on my flashlight, I turn it towards the bed, and see that yep, it's empty.
He could just be in the bathroom. There's a niggling sensation deep in my gut that insists that he's not in the house.
But, because I'm not a crazy person, I quietly slide off the bed and check the attached bathroom.
"Noah?" No answer.
It's then I realize I'm not wearing my jeans, and I briefly wonder if I kicked them off or if Noah removed them for me.
I vaguely remember telling him that only psychopaths can sleep in jeans.
Frowning, I put them back on, and creep out into the hallway, lightly knocking on the door that Noah had pointed out as Austin's.
"Austin? Are you awake?"
There's some rustling behind the door, and a moment later, Austin cracks the door open, in a pair of boxers and a t-shirt. His hair is rumpled and his eyes are sleepy. "Hannah? Is everything okay?"
"I…I'm not sure." I admit, suddenly wondering if I'm overreacting.
I mean, he could just be downstairs. Maybe he didn't like sleeping in the same bed as me but didn't want to kick me out.
My omega bristles in offense at the thought her mate could dislike sleeping next to her.
"I woke up, and Noah was…well he's gone.
" And my omega is screaming at me that something is wrong.
"Have you texted him?" He asks on a yawn.
Shit. I probably should have done that. "Oh. No, I didn't think…"
Austin's sleepy expression snaps to realization. "Hold on."
He leaves the door open and goes back into his room, grabbing his phone. "We have a find our family app that lets us track each other…" His fingers swipe and tap on his screen, until they suddenly still. "Oh. Oh, no."
My heart drops into my stomach. "What do you mean, 'oh no'?"
"Um…he does this sometimes, but he's not in a good neighborhood…" He puts his phone to his ear, and I vaguely hear the phone ringing on the other side. "No answer."
"He does what sometimes?" I demand, every instinct roaring at me that I need to find my alpha. Now.
"I have a sneakin' suspicion, but I'm not a hundred percent sure. I do know that I need to go get him." Austin starts pulling on a pair of jeans.
"I'm going with you." I don't know why he left in the middle of the night, but something is telling me with every fiber of my being that he needs me.
"No," Austin says, almost sharply. "It's a bad neighborhood, darlin'. You're staying here."
"You can't make me stay here," I snap. "If you leave me behind, I'll just follow you in my car."
"I'm his brother, let me sort him out." Austin brushes me off, walking past me into the hallway.
"I'm his omega ," I hiss, grabbing his arm. He stops, looking down at my hand. It makes me realize this is the first time we've ever had physical contact.
"Fine." He relents, and I release his arm. "But you do exactly as I say, okay?"
"Fine," I echo, crossing my arms and following after him down the stairs. I grab a hoodie that's thrown over the side of the banister, lifting to my nose and smelling Noah. Slipping it on, I tiptoe behind Austin as we quietly leave the house.
Time to go track down my alpha.